Exhibition World Issue 5 — 2019 | Page 49

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