Industry Events and Associations

Above: Participants in Cannabis Industry Panel at 2018 SEE Conference, Washington, DC. From left: Gail Rand – ForwardGro, Doug Fischer – NACB, Paul Seaborn – Daniels College of Business, University of Denver, and John Kagia – New Frontier Data.

A variety of industry events, academic conferences and associations exist where those new to the marijuana/cannabis industry can get up to speed and get exposed to new ideas and opportunities. As with all other industries COVID-19 had significant impacts on cannabis industry events. Updated July 3, 2022.

My Involvement

June 2022 – I was a keynote speaker at CannaTech Expo 2022 held in Fort Lauderdale, FL as part of the larger ITExpo Conference.
October 2021 – I was a panelist in a webinar on Access to Safe Cannabis organized by the Cannabis Health Evaluation and Research Partnership (CHERP)
October 2021 – I was a panelist in a UVA Health event focused on Virginia’s legalization of cannabis.
June 2020 – I was the keynote speaker at the 420MSP Online Cannabis Conference.The conference provided technology service companies serving small-medium businesses an overview of opportunities in the cannabis industry. The event was originally scheduled to be held in person in Denver, Colorado but moved online due to COVID-19.
March 2019 – I was a panelist at two sessions of the 2019 Institute for Cannabis Research Conference in Pueblo, Colorado.
April 2018 – I was a featured speaker in a half-day conference on Cannabis Legalization hosted by Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
March 2018 – I was a panelist at the MBCA Opportunity Summit and also offered a pre-conference half-day Business of Marijuana 101 workshop with over 40 paid attendees from across the United States.
Feb 2018 – At the 2018 Sustainability, Ethics and Entrepreneurship Conference in Washington, DC I organized and moderated a panel discussion featuring three cannabis industry leaders – John Kagia of New Frontier Data, Doug Fischer of the National Association of Cannabis Businesses and Gail Rand, CFO and Patient Advocate for ForwardGro, a Maryland medical marijuana cultivation company.
September 2017 – I organized and led a half-day symposium on Marijuana Legalization at the Atlantic Schools of Business conference hosted at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
April 2017 – I gave a presentation on the marijuana industry to the Center for Work Education and Employment (CWEE), Colorado’s first 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that assists low-income single families in gaining the skills and education necessary to transition off of public assistance and gain long-term employment.
April 20, 2016 – I participated in a session at the DU Marijuana Summit hosted by the Sturm College of Law entitled “50 Shades of Green” and focused on the business impacts of marijuana. My presentation in the session highlighted the many counter-intuitive strategies being employed by industry participants and examined the forces that will determine whether the industry evolves in a manner similar to breweries/alcohol, tobacco or takes another path. A video of the “50 Shades of Green” session is available online and my slides and comments from this session are available upon request.
Oct 2015 – At the 2015 Strategic Management Society Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, I worked with Eva Yao of University of Colorado and Josh Keller of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to offer a one-day pre-conference workshop on the Marijuana Industry that included industry and academic panels, keynote speakers and a site-visit to two Denver-area businesses (Dixie Elixirs and Medicine Man). During the SMS conference program I chaired and moderated a showcase panel featuring Tripp Keber, CEO of Dixie Elixirs, Andrew Freedman, Marijuana Coordinator for the State of Colorado, Diane Carlson of social interest group SMART Colorado and Dr. Violina Rindova of the University of Texas-Austin.
Aug 2015 – At the Academy of Management 2015 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, BC my Daniels management colleague Aimee Hamilton and I co-organized a showcase symposium titled “High Hopes: Studying the Emergence of the Legitimate Marijuana Industry” focused on academic research related to the marijuana industry with participants from a variety of prominent business schools including the University of Minnesota, University of Virginia, University of Oregon, Pennsylvania State University and Case Western Reserve University.

I have also presented on cannabis-related topics at the Industry Studies Conference in Kansas City, Missouri and at the SEE Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Ongoing Industry Conferences and Events

Past/Defunct Industry Conferences and Events

  • MJBizConNext (New Orleans, LA) – Smaller show that took place mid-year until 2021
  • MJBizCon Intl (Toronto, ON) – International event held in August 2018. (Program PDF)
  • NCIA Cannabis Business Summit & Expo – Last held in Dec 2021 in San Francisco. July 2022 event was cancelled so that NCIA could reevaluate its future plans for the event.
  • NCIA Seed to Sale Show – Last held in Boston Feb 12-13, 2019 “Only national show focused solely on innovative best practices, science, and cutting edge technology surrounding the whole life cycle of the cannabis plant grown, processed, and sold in a regulated market.”
  • World Cannabis Congress (Saint John, NB) – Hosted in Canada in 2018 and 2019 in Saint John, New Brunswick. No events since 2019.
  • MCBA Opportunity Summit  – Organized by Minority Cannabis Business Association. Took place March 22-24, 2018 at the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business.
  • Marijuana Management Symposium  – Government-focused event hosted by City of Denver from 2015 to 2019 and not held since. May return in 2023.

Cannabis Industry Event Listings

National Cannabis Industry Associations/Organizations

For state associations refer to the state-by-state “Market Profiles” listed in the menu above.

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