Emerging sector
Creating a business
environment for marijuana
John Keenan on the burgeoning hemp sector and its fast sprouting events scene
Make sure everything
else in your organisation
is rock solid - then
your show will be
unstoppable.” These words might
strike most exhibition organisers as
uncontroversial or even obvious. But
when Cassandra Farrington, CEO at
Marijuana Business Daily delivered
them at the end of a keynote speech
to delegates at Exhibition and
Convention Executives Forum (ECEF)
in Washington, it was clear that
she had learned to take nothing for
granted. Introducing Farrington to
the audience, ECEF facilitator Sam
Lippman said: “You can stay ahead
of a tidal wave and ride it or you
can get crushed by it. Not only did
she ride the tidal wave, she did it so
successfully that her competitors
were left behind.”
Farrington is a former Citigroup
Vice-President who had quit her
high-flying role to carve out a new
career as a B2B media professional.
Eight years ago she had launched two
sites, along with her silent partner,
targeting niche audience segments.
Then she became aware of the
proliferation of medical cannabis
dispensaries in her base in Boulder,
Colorado.
She said: “My business partner and
I come from a business to business
background. We are not events
people, we are media people. I live
in Denver and saw it emerging. We
don’t know the plant, but we do know
business intelligence. We have a
background in producing actionable
business intelligence. We’ve launched
into all kinds of markets we don’t
know. Why should this one be any
different?”
w w w.exhibitionworld.co.uk
She was way ahead of the trend.
At the time, 16 states in the US had
medical cannabis programmes and
not one of them offered the plant for
adult recreational use. Two years
later, Colorado became the first state
to legalise recreational cannabis,
followed by Washington State and
Oregon. But the federal government
was also taking notice and lawmakers
were not necessarily pleased with
what they saw.
Farrington said: “One of the things
we saw was federal government
threatening asset forfeiture against
landlords who were leasing their
properties to marijuana businesses.
So, a lot of businesses were having
to shut down. At the same time, we
absolutely felt an industry cohesion
emerging. We were able to hold a
mirror up to the industry and show
it was a professional and interesting
business space. We were hearing
from our people that they need a
Above:
Cutting
cannabis
plants
Above:
Cassandra
Farrington,
CEO at
Marijuana
Business
Daily
place to get together that was not
a cannabis festival. They wanted a
business environment - let the people
out in Denver meet people out in
Portland, Maine and people in Los
Angeles.”
Under the Obama administration,
federal agencies introduced the
Cole Memo, a policy that protected
marijuana-legal states from federal
scrutiny. The policy favoured
marijuana-related businesses. The
memo helped federal prosecutors
to avoid taking action, particularly
in states where marijuana is legal.
Currently, recreational marijuana
is legal in 10 states and Washington,
D.C. Additionally, 14 states have
decriminalised marijuana, and
around 33 states now allow medicinal
marijuana use.
As Farrington told the Washington
audience, marijuana legalisation
is one of the few issues on which
President Trump hasn’t expressed
Issue 5 2019
49