From a chance to gauge social consumption interest to Boylston Street banter, here’s what’s fueling our convention fire
The annual World Cup of New England weed is an extremely busy time for the Talking Joints Memo crew. We’ll be all over the Hynes Convention Center and wherever else NECANN action touches, mingling with old friends while making new connections.
But with the biggest spectacle to date in store, there’s no real point in us publishing posts like we used to about how you can attend the convention as an all-knowing insider (though we’ll have party roundups and other tipsheets soon). At this point, with several dozen afterparties and every other bar in Back Bay rented out for cannabis events, it’s all about the individual experience.
In other words, to each their own. Do you. We will certainly be doing our thing, from our interactive booth to a series of workshops and panels. We recommend staying glued (and subscribed) to TJM and following us and all NECANN accounts on social media in doing your Boston strategizing, but there are also some attractions that you can’t find on a schedule. Here are five that we are looking forward to.
–One-upmanship on the trade show floor. At this point, it doesn’t seem like NECANN runs the risk of selling out like SXSW. There is plenty of dough in the industry, to be certain, but it’s also relatively grounded due to economic realities and the persistence of grassroots forces and stakeholders spanning social equity applicants to medical card holders. All of which is basically to say that while there are all sorts of impressive displays every year, we’ve yet to see overly outlandish installations, though some are getting close, and that is cool with us as long as they have sweet giveaway sunglasses.
–A chance to read the room about social consumption. It’s no secret that the industry is in a painful spot. While there are frequent milestones in sales and notable wins, many businesses have also folded, with countless companies of all sizes on the ropes. All things considered, the size of the industry’s appetite for social consumption is unclear, but between panels like the one we’re organizing on the topic and chatter among those in the building, there’s never been a better opportunity to gauge the mood.
–Anti-repeal camaraderie. We won’t stress it too much, it’s nice to be this positive for a brief moment, but two days among cannabis friends should serve to pump much-needed fuel through the whole green community, from the grassroots to the c-suites. We’ve already seen stakeholders who aren’t necessarily always on the same side of things team up for the cause, and NECANN is one of the few physical spaces where those ever-so-important social bonds cut through policy differences over tier size and market share.
–A forum for workers to bond. We look forward to collaborating with the team from Canna Gems at our booth this year (be sure to visit). Since they specialize in training and coordinating budtenders, we expect to see a lot of interactions between industry employees, and look forward to their input on everything from workplace safety to products. One thing that we heard from many workers last year was how much they relish the chance to build with people from other companies, whether in the spirit of labor activism or simply to burn a few and bullshit out on Boylston Street.
–The Talking Joints Memo session track. Did we mention that we planned a lineup of six panels and workshops? If we keep mentioning it, that is because it is a spectacular slate, one that we designed to be different from the usual speakers. No shade on any of the people giving presentations that they pitched, but we curated these sessions the other way around. Our team started with the topics—from hemp to wholesale—then drew up engaging ways to address them with help from active and accomplished industry friends, many of whom are not the same faces you see speaking at every Massachusetts weed event.
