NECANN NJ 2024: The Mid Atlantic is HERE

This is gonna be long so... First things first

With the 2024 necann NJ Convention in the books, I really can't say enough about the New Jersey cannabis community. To get to work with so many brilliant, determined, resilient, talented, and welcoming people is a gift, and an honor. If you don't already work with the amazing people & groups below, I urge you to reach out to them - you won't regret it!

Wow - New Jersey is expensive! Huge thanks to our major sponsors for helping us produce the convention, including: Presenting Sponsor Ozone/Simply Herb, MPXNJ, Nova Farms, HIGHOPES, The Clear Brands, PreRoll-Er, and Fler brands.

Also - can't say it enough: there's really nothing you can't do when you have the best team in the world. Knowing that John Marshall Angela Florida and Kris Hultgren are with me makes falling asleep every night very easy. Of course working with me every day ensures their places in heaven, so it's a good trade.

When I talk about the NJ cannabis community, it all starts here: Since we first reached out to our NJ convention partner 420NJEvents (the brainchild of Mudd Brothers Cannabis Co. owners Brendon Robinson & Stanley Okoro) they have been everything anyone could ask for in a partner, and more. The term "win-win relationship" is too often just a cynical buzzword in sales pitches. These guys live by it, and they don't rest until the job is done. Ever. I'm actually not sure they stop after it's done. The work they have put in to make this event accessible, relevant, and welcoming to everyone, but especially people of color, can not be overstated. Once again this year they delivered vital programming sessions for local entrepreneurs and future licensees, and connected us with over twenty SE businesses that we were able to donate exhibit space to. Along the way they are always there with the ideas, energy, bandwidth, and support when we need it most. The fact that they also host an amazing after-party almost feels like overkill - but seriously, these guys are the BEST.

A special thank-you to Alyza "Dr. Beast" Brevard-Rodriguez and Corey Jackson for bringing their Coffee & Cannabis Podcast to the exhibit floor. Typically it's the podcast producers who get the lion's share of benefit from this type of collaboration since it gets their show in front of thousands of new listeners. But Alyza & Corey's model is different - their focus is honest, actionable, educational content; to say it's compelling and valuable for us to have at our events is an understatement. The time, energy, and resources they put into their shows makes it hard to believe it's a part time gig while running The Other Side Dispensary full time. Hope to have them back every year!

In a long-overdue collaboration, we were so very happy to host our first Blunt Brunch, the fantastic women-centric network event series created by Parisa Mansouri-Rad and Adelia Carrillo. Note to self: reserve a larger room for this next year - it's gonna be HUGE!!!!

Ellie Siegel and her team at Longview Strategic once again produced a star-studded programming track along with a great post-event cocktail party with a who's who of local industry players. If you are looking for a way to expand your local network, start here!

We were also very grateful once again for the ongoing generous support from Scott Rudder and the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association as well our new partners at the New Jersey Cannabis Trade Association (NJCTA). We were also very excited to have multiple representatives from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission join our speaker panels, thanks so much!

The exhibit floor was energized by live interviews with Destinee Nicole & Rita Valenzuela from MITA along with the Bill Levers and the Beard Bros Pharms team, which added another level of knowledge sharing and relationship building to the event, thank you all for coming!

Of course no convention is complete without one of RW Navis's The Canna Pac soiree's and on the spot insights and interviews from Mark Collins and the Highly Capitalized Network, great to have you both as part of the event!

So... how was the convention?

In case you missed it, something pretty big happened in Atlantic City last week. I've been telling people for years that the New England Cannabis Convention is on a different level than the rest of the NECANN conventions, serving as the "Annual Meeting of the East Coast Cannabis Industry". But after this year's New Jersey Cannabis Convention, it's obvious that the Mid-Atlantic cannabis market has arrived, and that title might need to be adjusted!

Boston's immediate reaction to this suggestion illustrated below by Ricky Bobby:

There's no denying that the event reached a different level this year: The 45,000 square foot exhibit hall packed with over 4,000 cannabis industry professionals and community members, with a buzz of new business partnerships, deals, collaborations, knowledge-sharing and ideas that was constant, and LOUD. There were over 80 licensed retail outlets and brands among the nearly 200 exhibitors, and several hundred more in attendance, looking for new relationships. Four programming track ran non-stop throughout the convention, all focused on topics relevant to the local markets. And of course there were easily six "you really should go to this" ancillary events and after-parties every day. The enthusiasm and energy were tangible, and contagious. With the Boston convention in March & New Jersey in September I still expect lots of successful cross-over exhibitors & attendees between the events, but it feels like New Jersey earned the title of "Annual Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Cannabis Industry" in 2024!

On a personal note, watching the New Jersey convention grow into a positive, useful, resource and become an accepted part of the local cannabis industries and communities over the last six years has been an incredible experience for me. Prior to this, all of our events had been held in New England markets where we always had existing local partners and relationships to rely on and get support from, as well as a better understanding of the markets (and of course, brand recognition).

So it was a whole new world back in 2018 to be reaching out blind in a new market where we didn't know anybody, and they didn't know us. We spent 18 months getting to know people and building relationships before our first NJ convention in 2019 only to have all of that momentum wiped out by covid less than 6 months later. No event in 2020 was followed by being forced to host one at the Showboat Hotel (which was under full reconstruction at the time and despite what they told us, not really ready for an event) in 2021 since the ACCC was still closed.

The event was good for what it was, but is was an undeniable step backwards from the 2019 convention. Meanwhile, the NJ cannabis market itself was suffering from a seemingly endless series of delays in rolling out. That meant that after almost four years of time invested in the New Jersey market, we were still pretty much at square one heading into 2022. It's only with the the support of the people and groups I mentioned (and I'm sure there are some I've missed, sorry!) that we've gotten to the place we are now, and I couldn't be more grateful to all of them. Can't wait for the 2025 convention - details coming soon!!