Onward and Online

by George Jage

March 31, 2020

I generally consider myself a contrarian. You know, the type of person who goes left when everyone is going right? This is mostly because I have manifested most of my successes by operating in ‘blue ocean’ space — that which is not crowded or highly competitive. The highlights of this success include launching the first industry trade show for the global specialty tea market, and taking the lead of a small fledgling marijuana publication and trade show in 2014, helping turn it into the world’s largest cannabis event.

On some occasions, this contrarian strategy has left me walking off a cliff (damn, I should have followed the crowd!), like the time I launched that personal, bottled oxygen franchise in Las Vegas. It was way ahead of its time! Or when I imported 10 containers of patio furniture from China for DTC sales not realizing that no one who lives in a desert wants rattan furniture.

Ready, set…oh sh*t!

This year, after numerous discussions with a respected friend and former tradeshow executive, Patrick Rea, I decided to launch a new media and events business for the cannabis industry, a contrarian move for sure if you consider that the cannabis is still in its infancy, at least according to the federal government. Why zig this direction? Why now? Market need and market demand. I announced Jage Media and its MJ Unpacked event series last month in order to fulfill an unmet need in the cannabis market — state-focused summits designed exclusively for brand and retail executives.

Our thesis is based on the fact that no cannabis industry events, except for investor events like ArcView, qualify their audience through any other means than through the price of admission. The result? Large, pan-industry events that lead to a dilution of value to participants. Furthermore, the brand and retail subsegment of the cannabis industry was both underserved and critical to the industry’s collective success. Jage Media’s overarching goal is to provide a platform that facilitates solutions to macro-industry issues, provides actionable intelligence and drives commerce specifically and exclusively for cannabis brands and retailers.

We got off to a great start too! We executed a strategic partnership with BDS Analytics, the leading market intelligence and data analytics company in the industry. We closed our seed round in 60 days to provide us an 18-month runway to profitability, and we assembled an amazing board of advisors from some of the most respected companies in the industry — Tilray, Coda Signature, Wana Brands, Curaleaf, Native Roots, HERBL, Medicine Man and Incredibles. We had built our team and were ready to go to market on March 10th.

But then the world got smacked in its collective face by the Conoravirus. We all know what has happened to the global financial markets as a result. Even as a contrarian, I never thought I would ever launch an event company while standing at the precipice of a global pandemic.

Trade events are business therapy.

To be honest, perhaps thinking of myself as a contrarian was mostly wishful thinking. Fundamentally, we all strive for a sense of belonging and approval by our community. We all have an innate psychological need to be amongst our peers in order to validate our existence. In Maslow’s Hierarchy of our business selves, this need is rooted in our desire to achieve job satisfaction and career prestige; and ultimately, and hopefully, realize our full career potential.  

It is part of the reason why tradeshows and conferences are critically important. There is deep gratification in being in a room full of people who are just as passionate about an industry as you are, especially if you are lucky enough to be in the cannabis industry. Beyond travelling to events to feed our delicate egos, trade shows have historically been the most cost-effective investment for lead generation. Tradeshows are incredibly efficient in delivering a high volume of face-to-face meetings with key decision makers in a short period of time, all at a single location. Whether you are an owner or an employee, tradeshows and conferences are where the deals get done that pay your bills.

There is no avoiding our current reality of social distancing, sheltering in place, travel bans and bans on large gatherings. Our economy has practically come to a screeching halt and we have self-quarantined en masse. This is truly a tragic time in human history and our hearts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones whose lives have been lost, and those whose whole livelihoods have been negatively affected. And we extend our endless gratitude for the health care providers who are fighting this battle on the front lines. You are all heroes!

Today, more than ever, tradeshows and conferences are needed to drive commerce and to fuel our professional aspirations, but with all of the above in place, how do we get industry influencers and executives together? How can we facilitate the important objectives promised by MJ Unpacked? In the words of Plato (and in honor of Frank Zappa), necessity is the mother of invention.

Welcome to the age of the virtual event.

We don’t know how long we will be isolated or how deep the economic fallout from the Coronavirus will be. It may be weeks, more likely months and potentially much longer. The need for events will not diminish though. If anything, the demand for personal engagement will only increase. How we, as humans, engage has changed for now, possibly forever. Even when we emerge from this crisis, which we will, people will defer to events with a smaller more qualified audiences over large events with a broad unsegmented approach.

I came into the cannabis industry with over 20 years of experience developing, launching, and producing business conferences and tradeshows. I was producing events in the late 1990s when virtual events first became a “thing”— although at the time they were akin to playing Atari War where the tanks blew off the screen to the other side. I am a tradeshow nerd – in fact, I served a full six years on the board of the association for people that ran tradeshows. I have built some of my most cherished friendships at tradeshows and even met my wife at a tradeshow!

Virtual events are coming fast and frequently! Every business in every industry today is required to reinvent itself and event companies are no exception. In the past few weeks, we have seen all live events cancelled and rescheduled. We have also seen a surge in the number of online events being promoted. Sadly, my team and I have participated in a number of online events that were poorly executed, shut down, off-topic and lacked any meaningful audience participation. Moving quickly, without an attention to the details, is often the riskiest move you can make. 

Most of what we have seen to date would be categorized as a broadcast model with a few speaking to many. These are valuable for information dissemination, but offer little to no value for creating engagement or interaction amongst the audience. Participating in a virtual event feels outside our norm, but wait until my son’s Fortnite generation takes over the world! We are social people. We need to touch, see, smell, hear and feel. We need to engage. And so bringing a true event experience into a virtual space takes time, thought and care.

Ready, set…log in

With a full tank of gas and an A+ team, we are excited to now announce our new vision of MJ Unpacked, powered by BDS Analytics, as a 3D virtual summit. We will offer a best-in-class solution that provides a 3D experience in a highly interactive virtual exhibit hall, complete with exceptional content, peer-to-peer networking, roundtable discussions — and a highly qualified audience of retail and brand executives. Our mission and our promise remain unchanged — to reveal state-specific actionable intelligence, best practices, and trends exclusively for cannabis brand and retail executives.

To manage our digital attention spans, each event will transpire over a three-day period with live programming for a few hours each day and on-demand playback if an attendee gets pulled away to check their kid’s homework, gets pulled into a work meeting, or just remembered where they hid their stash.

Our first event looks closely at the Colorado Market and will take place May 12th to the 14th. Qualified brand and retail executives from outside the state of Colorado are also welcome to join, build their network, and engage with the leading Colorado retailers and brands. At the start of the summit, BDS Analytics will take a deep dive into the market data, revealing insights and information never shared before. On day two, we will host a retail panel featuring large MSOs, in-state chains, and independent retailers focusing on challenges and opportunities. Other sessions will include customer acquisition, real valuation trends, and case studies using real data, real problems, and real businesses. A full schedule of programming can be found on mjunpacked.com.

Brands will have a unique opportunity to showcase their products in customized virtual booths featuring video and other rich media content, plus lead generation, live chat, and video conferencing capabilities. A limited number of ancillary products, services and technology companies will have the same opportunity in the Supplier Showcase’s virtual exhibit hall. 

Attendees to the first MJ Unpacked event should expect an engaging and experiential scene filled with exceptional programming, in-event networking, topic-driven roundtables, a social networking lounge, and in-event gamification, where attendees can win a VR headset and other prizes.

MJ Unpacked online will deliver a second event for California June 2nd to the 4th, followed by events planned in Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts and Illinois. MJ Unpacked will resume its live events as soon it is safe for the public health. 

We are not event organizers; we are community builders.

My passion for events has always been in the event’s ability to have an exponential impact on the community it serves. The principles of delivering an exceptional event do not change when you move the event from face-to-face to IP address-to-IP address. The ultimate success of any event lies in the organizer’s ability to provide a real return on investment, a real return on objectives, and a real return on experience. Each of these returns is a function of the relevance of the audience to each other. The best events build a community with commonality in their purpose, problems and passions. The most important principle, one that has served me well over the past 30 years is that our success is solely a function of creating our customers’ success first.

And so here we sit, at the precipice of a new age and a new opportunity — but with the continued commitment to serve. Indeed, as the cannabis industry, like so many others, works to understand the impacts of Coronavirus on the cannabis industry, we will gather and convene, and come together as a community. And in many ways, the value of what we at Jage Media and MJ Unpacked provide, is being realized at this trying time. We look forward to the days ahead and to bringing retailers and brands the forum they need, at a time when they need it most.

For more on MJ Unpacked’s 3D Virtual Summit, visit: https://www.mjunpacked.com

#cannabisbusiness #cannabiseducation #cannabisindustry #tradeshows #conferences #mjunpacked #jagemedia

#cannabisbusiness #cannabiseducation #cannabisindustry #tradeshows #conferences