MJBizCon’s State Takeovers offer marijuana networking by region

The quest for success in the $32 billion U.S. marijuana industry is easier when someone more experienced offers advice about where to go and what to do.

But for fledgling and established brands alike, the search for reliable business partners can be more difficult than it seems.

Unless, that is, you know where to go right away – no VIP wristband or suspicious late-night invitations required.

Indeed, brand partners, investors and ancillary businesses interested in deal flow – particularly at the state level, where the action continues to happen – coalesce at the State Takeovers this week at MJBizCon.

All takeovers – which are free – are located at The Hub, MJBizCon’s new networking lounge at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Regional decision-makers

“We’ve got a bunch of people coming who make decisions – people who can give you an answer if they’re interested in doing a deal,” said Lenny Berry, the founder and CEO of the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit and host of the Ohio State Takeover.

A curated assembly of important figures, State Takeovers attract cannabis license holders looking to move their business licenses, real estate professionals with turnkey locations and buyers -including marijuana multistate operators as well as smaller operators – looking to expand.

“Most of the time, buyers are hard to get to. … They stay in hiding,” Berry said.

“With 30,000 people at MJBizCon, it’s hard to capture the 10 people you really want to find to enter the marketplace.”

Assembling the important and interested decision-makers in one place means State Takeovers are “definitely a valuable forum,” Berry added.

State Takeovers also are where operators can learn what works and what doesn’t in the siloed state markets that make up the industry.

That includes knowing whether pre-rolls are legal in Ohio (they aren’t) and whether hemp-derived THC products are still legal in North Carolina (they are).

Making connections

The biggest open secret in U.S. cannabis might still be Texas, where the medical marijuana program is incredibly limited but the hemp market is robust.

Last year, the Texas State Takeover drew people “from all over,” said Kim Flores, the Fort Worth-based founder and CEO of The Hemp Housewife.

“They wanted to see what Texas is building in cannabis and hemp,” she said.

“With the industry now surpassing $8 billion in revenue, the curiosity about Texas is well-deserved.”

In this way, a savvy investor can hang out at The Hub networking lounge for less than 90 minutes and encounter opportunities in three states.

The same goes for a brand looking to expand to other states with a white-labeling partner or a master cultivator seeking a new career opportunity.

Where marijuana is legal in the United States

Individual marijuana markets

Though marijuana is universally popular and increasingly legal coast to coast, state markets are still incredibly separate.

And while some national brands continue to penetrate new markets, too many others have encountered avoidable obstacles.

“Michigan is very different – and we don’t say that in the meaning of, ‘We are different-better,’ we’re different in how we arrived at this place,” said author and activist Rick Anstiss, host of the Great Lakes State Takeover.

According to Anstiss’ telling, popular products seen across the country, such as Nerd Rope, originated in Michigan’s medical cannabis market, which initially afforded a place to Al Witt, founder of Meds Cafe in the town of Gaylord.

That’s where Witt’s operation was raided in 2015, before he won a seat on the City Council and reopened Meds Cafe in the same location after Michigan launched adult-use sales.

Learning those stories means knowing the market – and it’s difficult to succeed without that local knowledge, which is abundant at the State Takeovers.

“These conversations can go from 0 to 60 in two seconds,” said Berry, the Ohio State Takeover host.

“There’s going to be a bunch of people there looking for talking time.”

But if you’re still more curious than you are looking to close a deal, “come and listen and learn from the people who do,” Berry added.

“They’ll help you put your stuff together.”

More information about State Takeovers is available here.