When Azuca CEO Kim Rael sat down next to Wana Brands then-CEO Nancy Whiteman at an MJBizCon networking luncheon in 2018, she knew the name but not the face.
Back then, Colorado-based Wana was evaluating fast-acting solutions as it prepared to launch its Wana Quick gummy line – just as Azuca was perfecting rapid-release technology.
Rael and Whiteman discovered their business needs aligned – Azuca needed an edibles partner and Wana was looking for a way to ensure the rapid onset of its new gummy line.
After that encounter, Whiteman introduced Rael to the Wana innovation team. The team, then led by Mike Hennesey, determined that New Mexico-based Azuca’s technology was the best solution.
The upshot? Instead of competitors, Rael and Whiteman became collaborators. Azuca has been Wana’s formulation partner since Wana Quick launched in 2020.
“When you go to [MJBizCon], it’s lovely to hang out with your team,” Rael said.
“But go sit down next to someone you don’t know and break out of your shell.”
What do MJBizCon attendees get out of the cannabis conference?
MJBizCon is where the entire cannabis industry lands in one place. That means relationships deepen face to face and deals that shape the next year can get done.
The Wana deal was among Azuca’s earliest partnerships. It’s not the only one the company cultivated at MJBizCon.
Rael met Flower Union Brands co-founder and President Jon Spadafora at the conference in 2022. That encounter resulted in Azuca creating Whole Plant ACTiVATOR, which uses cannabis flower as the active ingredient rather than distillate or rosin.
Azuca’s patented culinary ingredient turns whole cannabis flower into a fast-acting, water-friendly format for edibles, such as Flower Union’s gummies that contain visible flecks of bud and taste like flower.
“We’re always looking to meet new brands that want to do something innovative with their ingestible line,” Rael said.
Chance encounters at MJBizCon sometimes lead to partnerships. Other times, they lead to employment opportunities.
About 15 years ago, Joe Bancheri was struggling with a broken radiation machine that was affecting sales at his pre-roll automation company.
As the show floor at the Rio buzzed a few steps away, two strangers asked to share his lunch table. They worked for Las Vegas-based XRpure, an X-ray equipment supplier that makes products that don’t degrade cannabinoids or affect water content.
“That’s how I got my job,” said Bancheri, now the company’s national sales manager.
“The conference changed my life.”
Why do cannabis industry veterans return to MJBizCon year after year?
Cannabis industry veterans still block out days for MJBizCon, and not for the parties. Instead, they’re looking for the chance conversations that turn into careers, the deals that started over lunch and the partnerships that may take years to pay off.
For leaders who’ve built businesses across every hype cycle, price collapse and regulatory swing the industry has thrown at them, MJBizCon is a business development engine that compounds over time.
Jamie Pearson, president of Montana-based global cannabis consulting firm New Holland Group, attended her first MJBizCon at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in 2016.
That year, four states legalized adult-use cannabis. Another four passed medical marijuana laws.
She wanted to meet as many of the players in the fledgling industry as possible and saw MJBizCon as an opportunity to do that in one place.
“You have to kiss a lot of frogs in this business, and all the frogs were in the same spot,” said Pearson, who was working with edibles manufacturer Bhang Inc. at the time.
“It was easier to hit everybody at once.”
For that reason, Pearson continued attending MJBizCon. By 2021, now the Bhang CEO, she entered a licensing deal with actor Jim Belushi’s company to create co-branded cannabis-infused chocolates.
Sold under the Belushi’s Farm and Blues Brothers brands, the partnership launched during MJBizCon with the Blues Brothers playing a two-hour show in the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Pearson, an MJBizCon advisory board member, still plans her year around Vegas.
“This year, I’m holding court on the show floor,” she said.
“I’m not getting a suite. We’re trying to figure out ways to get people to come onto the floor.”
Harrison Bard, CEO of Renton, Washington-based packaging and manufacturing company Custom Cones USA, has been walking the show floor since 2019 – back when his booth sat at the back of the convention center.
Today, that booth has grown from a modest 10-by-20-foot area to 10-by-60, and the reason is simple: he gets exposure to hundreds of the right people in the industry.
“We have easily over 300 to 400 leads,” Bard said. “Not all are the biggest leads, but they’re real businesses and the real decision-makers at those companies.
“It’s very rare for any other trade show to match that output in terms of qualified leads.”
Bard met officials from major Chicago-based marijuana multistate operator Green Thumb Industries at the show. After connecting a few times, the company picked up and distributed his Daysavers line across its retail outlets.
Last year, Bard met Trulieve Cannabis Corp.’s main accessory buyer on the show floor.
“Afterwards, he helped us send samples to all the regional buyers,” he said. “I am hoping to see them again this year and that the in-person, face-to-face convo helps push through to next steps and get DaySavers, Smoke Temple and Fill-a Blunts accessories into all their stores.”
Ready to make your next connection at MJBizCon?
Join the cannabis industry in Las Vegas, Dec. 1–4, for four days of education, networking and business opportunities.
Margaret Jackson can be reached at [email protected].