Yeah, yeah, pivot. Got it.

I know I said monthly in the 1st newsletter meaning this one is 2 weeks early, but I'm confidant I'll even things out by being late on other ones in the near future.

First-things first

Last issue's contest question was: "What is your best guess at the cost to provide 50 bottled waters, 50 soft drinks, and 100 servings of coffee to your staff or guests for one day at a convention center in a high-end city? The person who guesses closest (without going over) to the total on our last bill will receive a $25 apple or google play gift card."

The actual cost for that at our most recent event was $1,224 meaning the winning entry was by Cheryl Moore who guessed $1,200.?In addition to awarding Cheryl the $25 gift card,?I’m reporting her to the FBI because it feels like she might have hacked our QuickBooks account.?(In all seriousness Cheryl, DM me here with your preference (google play or apple store), and the address to mail it to.

The 360 pivot

One marketing tradition in the events industry that I've always found funny: if you are the biggest event in a market, that's the only thing that matters. "Everyone/everything you need is here! The industry has spoken- why go anywhere else?" You preach 'biggest is best' like it was gospel... until you enter another market and there's a bigger competitor there. Then the pitch becomes "Some shows are too big - it's confusing, hard to navigate! Too many non-customers, inefficient! Everyone knows that quality beats quantity!" Then once you become biggest, you switch back to the "biggest is best" routine.

Selling whatever position you currently hold is an all-too common lazy sales tactic (regardless of the industry), and it's a game with no long-term strategy. It's maybe fine for B2C sales because consumers aren't paying as much attention - if you are really old like me you remember that breakfast cereals used to actually brag about the fact that they had the most sugar.

But in B2B sales, if you keep changing the definition of what's best, how long can it be before customers stop asking your opinion or listening to what you say? Isn't it better not to try to find the answer to that question?

The "present whatever you have right now as the best" mentality is summed up in the clip below by Advertising Executive Denis Bagley (played by Richard Grant, the English Christopher Walken) in my all-time favorite sales movie, "How to Get Ahead in Advertising".

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Having watched so many companies in the event industry perform the "bigger is better" / "smaller is better" marketing flip-flop was perfect foreshadowing to the most audacious "360 pivot" ever: salespeople going from from "live events are best", to "virtual events are best", then back to "live events are best", all in less than 18 months!

Now to be fair, even in hindsight it's totally understandable that all of us in the live event space explored virtual event options when covid broke out- how could we not? The fascinating thing was watching how completely some players pivoted to the virtual event space, immediately and completely ridiculing every aspect of their own live event models.

Many players saw being "The leader in the virtual cannabis event space" as the new goalpost and came out talking hard trash about the product they had been selling right up until the pandemic began - declaring live events to be outdated wastes of time, money, and resources. Then when virtual events predictably tanked and we came out of covid, they abandoned their "game-changing platforms", deleted their online recorded sessions of "industry experts discuss the new normal - virtual events", and broke out the "WELCOME BACK TO LIVE EVENTS, WE MISSED YOU!!!" campaigns. I like imagining the playbook:

Up until March 2020: Virtual events? Are you joking? Everyone knows the best way to drive new business and connect with customers is by connecting in person at our events. Face-to-face relationships are vital to long-term success. You expect to compete using online chats & zoom calls? No chance - you need to come to our live event!

Most of 2020: Live events? Are you joking? With our new virtual event platform, why would anyone ever consider live events again? Are you going to spend tens of thousand of dollars on booth displays, shipping, flights, hotels, and huge amounts of staff bandwidth just to have conversations with people when you can get the exact same thing from your desk? Live events are a thing of the past, Boomer!

By September 2021: Repeat March 2020 script.

PS - I'm not saying that there's no future for virtual events, or that I know if/when they might become a serious competitor to live events. I really have no idea. I'm just repeating what I said to every person who pitched me a six-figure virtual event platform over the last two years: the technology behind virtual events that was pitched as "game-changing" during covid already existed prior to covid. If it was an effective replacement for live events, it already would have been in use. As it turns out it, wasn't even an effective option when live events were impossible, so it's still maybe a ways off?

ANYWAY, MY POINT WAS

Pivoting is fine. But if you declare the Super Bowl winner is your new favorite team every year, pretty soon no one is going to want to listen to you talk about football.

Sorry for the sports analogy. So lazy.

Left-over grumblings from the return to live-events junk drawer

At the risk of being a self-pitying screed, I do think it's important to note that there are many 'behind the scenes' challenges convention companies are going through post-covid. Here are a few:

Yes, we know those dates aren't ideal- it's possible that event scheduling will be back normal for 2023, but in 2022 there were still a LOT of "take it or leave it" scenarios regarding date availability for events. So if you see a cannabis industry B2B event scheduled in January, February, July, August, or December, keep in mind it most likely wasn't by choice.

Enhanced cleaning & sanitizing at venues - most venue websites have new content touting the additional health & safety measures they've added as they reopened, which is obviously a good thing. What they don't mention (while congratulating themselves for investing in your safety) is that they passed 100% of the cost on to show organizers .

Speaking of safety - while metal detectors have been around at some venue entrances for a long time, there has been a surge in new installations the last couple years. All things being equal I certainly have no objection to metal detectors as an extra safety measure. But as with the enhanced cleaning, trumpeting that you are making the venue safer for attendees while passing 100% of the new cost onto the show organizers ($25k or more for a weekend at larger venues in this case) isn't that cool.

Thanks for remembering- an extra special shout out to all those venues who remembered to pencil in that "annual rental rate increase" in both 2020 and 2021, despite the fact that you were closed!

REMORSE BREAK

I should add that I do know covid hit venues just as hard as show organizers - like us they were 100% shut down, and closed for much longer than any other business type. So it needs to be said that live event venues owned by individuals or small business have my sympathy and understanding - we have relationships with a couple of these smaller businesses and they have been great in regards to working with us.

What's REALLY Bothering me

I really only have one grievance to air and for those who know me, it's not going to be a surprise. It's for everyone who said "do me a favor and put me on the guest list" or "can you comp me an extra ticket" to a convention coming out of covid, knowing full well the person you were asking had been out of business for two years:

In all seriousness, I know that guest lists and comp passes have been around forever. I also know that pretty much every event owner uses free tickets as currency/barter for many things, making a guest list necessary. But even before covid I never understood the ethos behind people not just being comfortable asking for free admission to an event someone worked their ass off for 6 months to produce (and are relying on to support their family), but actually acting offended if the request is refused.

Am I crazy here? I mean, raise your hand if you reached out to someone who owns a restaurant in the first week after they reopened post-covid and asked them if they could comp you a couple meals (if your hand is now raised, feel free to bash your face into your keyboard a couple times). To be clear - It's sooooooooo not about the money. It's the principle. To me, the 2-year covid shutdown made it a pretty simple question: If you aren't going to support a show organizer now, when ARE you going to support them? Kinda feels like never, you know?

To reiterate, there are tons of valid reasons to request free tickets to an event, and I'm not going to excommunicate someone for asking me. But I do think it would be cool if the shutdown helped reset a couple norms: (1) moving forward, make being a friend or supporter of a show producer a reason NOT to ask them for a free ticket. (2) If you are asking someone for free tickets, offer something of similar value you in return (pro tip: a "shout out" to your 743 Instagram followers is not an equitable trade for $500 in tickets).

FINALLY - the three questions

1) FOR THE MONEY: What was the first cannabis industry convention you attended? A random winner will be picked from those who answer, the prize is a 2nd print copy of Star Wars #1 by Marvel Comics in 1978.

2) We've been playing around with the idea of a new logo. Our current one was created in 2014 when it was still considered pretty cutting-edge on the east coast to use a cannabis leaf as part of a registered business logo. I actually still like it, but maybe it's a bit trite now? So let me know what you think:

A)???Keep the original logo

B)???Go with a new logo (this is a draft, not final)

C)???Create a bunch of free publicity by making Dunkin Donuts come after us for using this:

3) Who will I see at these upcoming shows (not including necann events because I better see you all at those)?

LIFT Conference in Toronto, May 12-15

MJ Unpacked in New York May 18-20