NCIA Director of Communications Bethany Moore checks in with what’s going on across the country with the National Cannabis Industry Association’s membership, board, allies, and staff. Join us every other Thursday on LinkedIN for NCIA Today Live.
NCIA Director of Communications Bethany Moore checks in with what’s going on across the country with the National Cannabis Industry Association’s membership, board, allies, and staff. Join us every other Thursday here on Facebook for NCIA Today Live.
It’s the final episode of NCIA Today for the year 2022! NCIA Director of Communications Bethany Moore checks in with what’s going on across the country with the National Cannabis Industry Association’s membership, board, allies, and staff. Join us every other Thursday on Facebook for NCIA Today Live.
It’s been a year of big change for NCIA. As we come to the end of 2022, we want to take a moment to send a message to our members and supporters about these changes, and most importantly, get excited for what’s next for the future of NCIA events.
The events industry has faced unforeseen challenges these last couple of years, and NCIA was not isolated from these issues. Outside of needing to postpone our large tradeshows until late 2021, we also had to postpone a whole calendar of approximately 40+ events nationwide which was our primary way of connecting our community and meeting with our members face to face. Our team overcame these challenges by building our expansive digital presence and online events program to continue to provide education and exposure opportunities to our members, however this did still require a significant pivot in organizational strategy.
Due to the residual hardships brought by the pandemic, we learned earlier this year that the Cannabis Business Summit & Expo was not going to be able to be produced on the scale or quality that we or our members had come to expect throughout the years. So, in tandem with our previous tradeshow co-producers, we made the difficult decision to dissolve our existing partnership and accepted an offer from them to acquire our tradeshow portfolio. For those who have been attending our tradeshows since 2014, we can’t thank you enough for your participation in those events and making them so impactful for the industry. There are too many good memories to revisit, and hope you take a moment to remember some of your personal highlights throughout the years as we look forward to coming together for new events in 2023.
For now, we will be taking a hiatus from the tradeshow space. This will allow our team to refocus our efforts into other impactful networking and educational opportunities. We’re excited to get back to our roots and focus our efforts on intentional and innovative gatherings that connect Main Street cannabis businesses with each other and with NCIA’s advocacy efforts.
We’ve listened to the feedback from our members, and know that in-person networking remains essential to building your business and growing your network. In these uncertain economic times, every dollar spent and any time away from your business impacts your bottom line. As the leading cannabis trade association representing small-business owners, we’re committed to making the investment to meet our members where they are, and to continue facilitating experiences where our members can make key connections with fellow business owners. Moving into 2023, we’re reinvigorating our events program starting with our regional Industry Social and Cannabis Caucus event series, leading into the cannabis industry’s biggest policy and advocacy event of the year: NCIA’s 11th Annual Cannabis Industry Lobby Days.
We invite you to move forward with us as we enter a new chapter in our history. Without further ado, we are excited to announce the lineup of events for the first half of 2023!
Register Now:
01/25/23 – Missouri Industry Social – St. Louis, MO
01/31/23 – Northern California Industry Social – San Francisco, CA
02/07/23 – Southern California Industry Social – Los Angeles ,CA
02/15/23 – Colorado Cannabis Caucus – Denver, CO
03/08/23 – Washington Industry Social – Seattle, WA
03/30/23 – Massachusetts Industry Social – Boston, MA
04/12/23 – Florida Industry Social – Miami, FL
04/19/23 – Oregon Industry Social – Portland, OR
04/25/23 – New York Industry Social – New York, NY
05/04/23 – Illinois Industry Social – Chicago, IL
05/09/23 – Michigan Industry Social – Detroit, MI
05/16/23 – 05/18/23 – 11th Annual Cannabis Industry Lobby Days – Washington, DC
As always, NCIA members receive complimentary access to all of these events based on membership level. Looking to have an expanded presence at each event? Consider upgrading your membership today in order to include your entire team or prospective clients.
Huge thanks to the initial sponsors of these events which have made a significant investment in NCIA’s community building efforts moving into 2023! Learn more about each of these pioneering businesses helping drive our mission forward and reach out to schedule a meeting with their team surrounding the upcoming events.
Has your company had trouble breaking through the noise on a crowded expo floor this past year? Is your brand looking for quality B2B connections with market leaders? Want to play a larger role and align your business with NCIA’s community building and educational efforts?
Consider one of our affordable sponsorship packages, starting for as low as $500, which will allow you to reach thousands of leading cannabis businesses while supporting NCIA’s advocacy work on behalf of small cannabis businesses. Contact our team at sponsorship@thecannabisindustry.org to learn more.
We can’t thank our community enough for the continued support of NCIA and our events. We look forward to seeing you, in person, next year!
As the industry grows, it’s increasingly important for you to harness only the most efficient opportunities to expand your business’ reach. NCIA’s new Industry Socials were designed to meet the demand for more meaningful, quality networking opportunities in new cities and emerging markets nationwide. Touring the East Coast in April, Industry Socials are the premier opportunity for cannabis professionals to harness NCIA’s extensive national network by creating meaningful connections with each other in a fun, relaxed cocktail-hour setting.
One of the many benefits of NCIA membership is complimentary access to all 35 of our regional networking events, including the new Industry Socials. Even better, depending on your membership level, you can grant up to five of your colleagues complimentary access as well.
If you’re an NCIA member and you aren’t taking the opportunity to attend these events, it’s money left on the table.
If you’re not yet an NCIA member, you can take 25% off your registration by registering between March 12-19 or join NCIA today and get complimentary registration!
Across the board, experts agree that people with the most connections are the most successful. In our industry, connections can help you stay current on the latest industry trends, gain insights into market forecasts, find solutions to shared challenges, and stay motivated.
As the largest industry trade association, representing nearly 2,000 business-members, NCIA serves as the networking nexus for the industry. We know that 70 percent of the individuals who attend NCIA events have executive level decision-making authority and 30 percent have heavy decision-making influence. This means that the caliber of the meaningful connections you will make have the potential to benefit your business in very real ways, and quickly. You never know what you might learn from other professionals in your area: find out new solutions to shared challenges, learn about deals that haven’t been publicized, get the latest tips, trends and techniques and build your shared-knowledge community.
This April, NCIA is thrilled to be cultivating community in Portland, ME, Jersey City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Miami. After all, we know that your business and our industry are only as strong as the connections we make.
In fact, all event revenues support the work NCIA is doing to lobby on behalf of your business on Capitol Hill and to build public support for the cannabis industry. This makes NCIA events uniquely positioned as delivering both B2B connectivity and political influence at the same time.
Lastly, but certainly not least, at Industry Socials you can expect hors d’oeuvres, live local music, classic games like giant Jenga, Connect Four, and drinks at a cash bar all in a relaxed, cocktail-hour setting.
Join us to cultivate community in your city – registration for the East Coast Tour is now open! Non-members take 25% off between March 12 – 19. (Discount automatically applied).
At the end of 2018, NCIA’s events team looked ahead at how to make our line-up of 2019 events even better and respond to an increasingly popular demand for more networking opportunities. As a team we dreamed up how to make a B2B networking series that was not only delivered maximum ROI, but was super fun and fit the cannabis industry culture.
Ultimately, we devised what might be the magic elixir of networking events. Artsy venues, delicious drinks and food, live local music, old-school Nintendo, giant Jenga and Connect Four. We even threw in a raffle-wheel contest to win limited edition NCIA merchandise. The result? NCIA’s January Industry Socials were a total hit. Although there are many, here are the top five reasons why NCIA’s Industry Socials were a huge success.
Throughout January, Industry Socials kicked off with a West Coast Tour in Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, Las Vegas, NV, Salt Lake City, UT and Phoenix, AZ. We were excited (and a bit nervous) about the turn-out for the Utah Industry Social in Salt Lake City, since the exciting passage of Utah’s Proposition 2 happened only a few months before the event. As NCIA’s Aaron Smith remarked “we’re excited to bring our world-class industry events to new markets like Utah, and later this year in Missouri, North Dakota, and Texas!”
Overall, January’s Industry Socials turned out about 500 impressive cannabis industry professionals and advocates, representing 250 current NCIA member companies! Even better? We saw more than 75 attendees in the brand new Utah market!
The post-event survey results are in and they are stellar! The majority of survey respondents reported that they would highly recommend the event series to a friend or colleague.
More than 50% of survey respondents said they made between 11-20 new contacts at the event and that at least three of these contacts were potential sales deals.
When asked what the biggest return on investment of the event was attendees stated:
Kyle Rooney from Have A Heart, Sustaining Members with adult-use dispensaries in four states, says that “attending NCIA’s new Industry Socials is a chance to network in a more personal and low-key environment. National conferences are great, but these events provide a platform to talk to people in the regions that you want to connect with.”
RizePoint, who became members of NCIA just a week before the event in Salt Lake City, attended with several team members. Ed McGarr, RizePoint’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing says, “We began working with cannabis companies last year to advise on food safety, quality control and management for adult-use and medical cannabis edible products. NCIA’s Industry Socials provide a forum for us to connect with the industry and learn from them, as well as gain new business contacts. The event was priceless relative to networking and establishing ourselves further in the cannabis industry. It was refreshing that NCIA helped to establish the networking opportunities in a new, emerging market like Utah.”
Introducing a retro arcade station including Super Mario and PAC-MAN at our Industry Socials was the brilliant idea of our events team. Now that we know how fun it was, we’re seriously considering having it as an NCIA event standard.
But seriously, we now know that a cash bar is not the only way of lubricating conversation and community building. Adding fun games like Nintendo, giant Jenga and Connect Four is another way cannabis industry professionals can “connect” in an authentic, fun, and meaningful way. If more networking happened while playing a competitive game of PAC-MAN, the business world would be a much better place.
Additionally, at every event we had talented local DJ sets and interactive activities like a raffle-wheel and Polls Everywhere with cannabis industry trivia. As a value-added complimentary activity at our Nevada Industry Social, attendees had the opportunity to participate in two private tours of the world’s only immersive cannabis museum, Cannabition!
From helping us spread the word, to investing in NCIA’s Industry Socials, none of these amazing events could have happened without the help of our sponsors and partners.
We’re grateful to Silver Sponsors: Emerge Law Group, Aspen Technology Group, Bronze Sponsors: Cannabis Radio, Cannasure Insurance Services, Lilu Financials and Host Sponsor: The Commune PDX.
Lastly, a huge thank you to our promotional partners: Growers Network, Cannabis Collaborative Conference, Utah Patients Coalition, Epilepsy Association of Utah, Marijuana Policy Project and TRUCE Utah.
To kick off 2019 with a successful inaugural event series sets the stage for an incredible year of NCIA events. We are looking forward to hosting the next tour of Industry Socials in new cities and markets again in April and August.
But, you don’t have to wait until April to attend more NCIA events. NCIA’s March Cannabis Caucus series is kicking off soon, followed by the most impactful cannabis industry advocacy event of the year – NCIA’s 9th Annual Cannabis Industry Lobby Days.
Lastly, thank you to our nearly 2,000 member-businesses and to all event attendees for supporting NCIA’s mission. NCIA’s event revenues support the work we are doing to lobby at the federal level on your behalf on Capitol Hill and to build public support for the cannabis industry.
If you were at the January Industry Socials, be sure to check out our Facebook album and tag yourself!
by Jeremy DePasquale, NCIA Membership Director
This Thanksgiving holiday, we wish to simply say THANK YOU for being a part of the next great American industry, and for taking this journey with us as we all create a responsible, legitimate cannabis industry together.
As the NCIA staff begins to wrap up the year 2018 and look ahead into 2019, not only is there so much to be thankful for in this year alone, but also in the last eight years since NCIA’s founding in 2010. Our membership has grown to over 1,700 member companies strong, and we’ve seen the industry evolve and mature at an impressive pace during this time.
NCIA’s executive director and co-founder Aaron Smith is “…deeply grateful for the hundreds of responsible cannabis businesses that have invested in the vital work needed to advance our industry through their membership with NCIA. Our members have made it possible to gain real traction and support in Congress over the last year and those who donated to our PAC have helped us elect an even better Congress going into 2019.”
The NCIA staff, now a vibrant team of twenty passionate and driven individuals, are focused on providing the best service and support to our ever-growing membership in the form of helpful member benefits, opportunities to get involved, and valuable networking opportunities for you and your business.
This year and every year I’m thankful for you, our members. I’m constantly amazed and inspired by your passion to continue making our industry the gold standard. NCIA is as strong as it is because of the support and engagement of our members, and we are working on new and exciting ways to keep you engaged. Here’s to 2019!
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