MJBizCon 2025 Las Vegas

As someone who has lived in San Diego for most of her adult life, I am no stranger to Las Vegas. In my twenties, I took the quick trip to Las Vegas easily and would go out all night and party on the strip. But as someone who no longer drinks alcohol, doesn't gamble (other than the industries I work in), and isn't really a fan of loud, crowded places, it's not where I choose to spend my time.

When I used to go to Vegas, I always said, 'You can stay two nights in Vegas, or you might die.' And I stuck to that, I always only went for two nights, and as you can tell, I didn't die. So this long lead-in is really just to say that a work week (4 nights) in Vegas is not something that I look forward to. On the other hand, it's a week where I get to connect with a lot of people who fuel my passion, and I'm able to accomplish a lot of business.

I want to be honest always, and I thought it was important to share that I had a harder time than I thought I would starting to write this post and just processing the week, generally. Mostly, I think that was due to exhaustion and recovering from all the extra energy I used. Part of me also thinks I was worried that I wouldn't feel it was the success I wanted it to be. I put a lot of prep work into trying to make the most of every opportunity, and things did not go to plan. It's Vegas, they never do, and I knew that going into it. But I'm a planner and like to follow through, and so I think that part is hard for me.

Lastly, there's a lot of negative chatter online about things that people didn't like since the conference (really, it started before the conference). Though I'm clearly all about giving my opinion on events and conferences, I think I just wanted a little space to separate from that conversation. All I really want to say about it overall, other than my feelings on the location I already shared, is that MJBizCon is important for cannabis, and I think the industry would suffer without it.

Now to the actual week. I drove up Monday morning and started off visiting Dope CFO's house, where my friend, Kristi Kem, organized yoga taught by my other friend, Maddie Schwartz. Already seeing friends and connecting in cool ways, off to a great start! The little details Kristi and Maddie brought to the experience made it incredibly special, and I loved our rose (or emerald or violet) colored glasses yoga practice. Originally, I planned to meet up with some people for dinner, but I decided to just grab something and get settled in my hotel room so I could start Tuesday off fresh.

Tuesday started with the Marketing Forum, and it was stacked with great speakers and interesting panels. After their panels, Laurie Parfitt and Annie Davis sat with Sandra Bergman and me, and we had a lovely lunch with Sarah Zelman before I headed out to check out other things going on around outside the conference.

I walked over to the golf course next to the convention center, where they held the Las Vegas Classic. My friend Tee, from Tee's Teas, was there along with Kenya Alexander, serving up infused tea along with some other infused beverages. From there, I headed to NuWu to check out the Media Day that the Beard Bros were hosting, where I ran into some more friends, including Chelsea Mulligan and Dina Miller. It was nice to get there and just chill and smoke a bit in the fresh air before heading back to the strip to check out the first Luna's List event.

On my walk through the Cosmo lobby, one of my favorite things from MJBiz week happened. I ran into Rachel Wright and Mike Goral heading out from the Chandelier bar. Rachel and I had planned to meet up earlier at the golf course, but she had moved on to the Cosmo, and so we missed each other. And Mike and I had met virtually but not yet in person. We got to say a quick 'Hello' and then hurry off on our respective ways. I'm pretty sure if you walk back and forth through the Cosmo, you can find most people you want to talk to. But back to my next event!

Luna's List was part of a partnership between Kelly Riddle from CannaJo!nt and Ishqa Hillman from Canna Boss Babes. They hosted a variety of events in a Cosmo suite that were unique and attracted a great crowd. I saw some people I wanted to talk to, including Jamie Pearson, and got to hug Luna and see my friend Safi Kadoura from San Diego, who founded the OG Kush Babes.

Next, Sandra and I went back to my room at the Vdara to get ready and head to Blunt Brunch. Blunt Brunch Nationals is always a fun party, and this year's theme was Pearled up and Powerful! I got to see more friends and a few women I had been missing, like Aubrey Amatelli, Cecelia Tsai, and Isabella Dechard. Lots of fun pics were taken before Sandra, and I rushed over to PufCreativ's party, Light Up.

I was bummed I didn't have more time at Light Up, but I did get to finally meet John Shute, which was lovely, and had a couple of interesting conversations with people I met. From there, Rachel and I went back to the Cosmo for a Women in Weed happy hour hosted by Sarah Falvo, Laurie Parfitt, Angela Pih, and Whitney Conroy. There, I got to finally see Lisa Battista, who organized a group of women to plan for MJBiz week together. And what a great Cosmo balcony pic we took! That was it for Tuesday, but what a long Tuesday it was. And honestly, looking back at the week, I wonder, did I do too much? Should I have spent more time in places or taken downtime to pace myself for the week? This was a different kind of Tuesday than I've had before, and it was a lot. But I saw so many friendly faces :-)

On Wednesday, the official start of the MJBiz conference, I ran around much less compared to Tuesday, while still attending several well-curated events. My morning started off with the Flowhub, AIQ, Happy Cabbage brunch at the Wynn where I saw my friend, Joe Khoury, and got to meet Nick Afonsky in person for the first time. I also had a good chat with some of Joe's new colleagues at Greenspace and Temeka Group and with Flowhub's new CTO, Christopher Micali.

One of the most special events I attended in Vegas was back in the CannaJo!nt/Canna Boss Babes suite and was hosted by Sara Payan, Pulse Signal Agency, and Cannabis Media Council. Colleen King and Wendy Zeng created a culinary and sensory experience to help educate us and enhance our experience. In addition, Joyce Cenali served up botanically enhanced dabs with the Zenco filled with foods and herbs complementing the hash from Sonoma Hills Farm. My favorite was the cherry cheesecake with cherries and pound cake as flavor enhancers. I also got to see a new friend, Manndie Tingler, and also June Blankin, who is always such a joy.

Next up was my always-favorite, Surfside Ladies Happy Hour. There, I ran into Cassie Tomaselli, Steph Woods, and Lisa Williams. Usually, I'm at the event until they open the suite up to the guys who have congregated in a neighboring suite, but Steph and I ended up picking up some food and taking it back to her suite to sit and eat in quiet where we could talk and catch up. It's really what we needed in that moment, and I missed out on another event I was considering attending, but I'm glad we did it. Also, there are so many food options in Vegas, but it's hard to actually get a proper meal during the week. A lot of the parties have food, but not really a meal, and usually not really a good place to sit and eat, so it's a lot of snacking on the go.

From there, I went to the Grasslands party, and on the way, had another of my favorite run-ins. Walking through the Cosmo with Steph, we ran into Rick Bashkoff with a group of people. I met Rick when he was still at Lucid Green, and he's one of my favorite people to chat with about cannabis software and data. Then I went over to Grasslands and, as advertised, they always get the best crowd. I saw a bunch of people I wouldn't have probably run into otherwise, and was interviewed by Ashlee Austin from Headquarters. I didn't stay out very late because I wanted to ensure I was well rested for the last full day, which included my panel.

Thursday morning, I had planned to go to the Bagel Bash thrown by the Jews in Weed at Planet 13, but when I woke up, I just couldn't make the trek over there. Fortunately, my good friend, Sarah Falvo, was throwing a party next door in the Cosmo for Vertosa and the High Spirits podcast. There was a beautiful deck where I had a nice chat with AnnaRae Grabstein and also saw Annie Davis again. They had a ton of different infused drinks to try, and I finally got to try the Ayrloom honeycrisp, which is as good as advertised. I also ran into Chris Violas from Blaze and asked him a question about an upcoming change in California. Good news, they are on top of it!

Sandra and I left the Cosmo and went way off the strip for the PufCreativ Sound Bath, which my close partners at Verdant Strategies were sponsoring. It was a lovely, relaxed environment with acai bowls, tea service, aerial yoga, and breath work, followed by a sound bath. What was planned to be a relaxing pre-panel retreat ended up being a little more stressful than I would have liked. Since we didn't know the timing for the sound bath, we ended up cutting it pretty close with the Vegas traffic getting over to the green room on time. But it all worked out, and it was still a lovely event that I think is needed during the chaos. My only suggestion is to send a schedule so people know ahead of time what to expect. There are already so many things out of our control in Vegas, and as Brene Brown says, 'Clear is kind.'

First of all, I have to give credit where credit is due. I applied to speak at MJBiz, and my pitch was not accepted. But my good friend and colleague, Sandra Bergman, put together a well-crafted pitch that the organizers were excited about, and she wanted someone to speak specifically about software on the panel. I was thrilled that she offered that spot to me, and I was excited to join her, Johari Rahim, and Nick Afonsky on a panel moderated by Emilie Lewis.

The panel went really well. It was at the end of the last full day and up against some other amazing content, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but we ended up with a great audience. It was reassuring to have such a pro like Emilie moderating us; the conversation flowed really easily, and the time was over before we knew it. Much appreciation to everyone who came out and those who asked questions. And a big thanks to my favorite stage mom, Cassie, for taking the pics while we were speaking. Cassie has been an incredible supporter, and I'm learning so much from her through her new program, The Green Room. I may not have gotten my pitch accepted this year, but watch out because I'm raising my game for next year.

Now I'm going to return to a topic I brought up earlier. Though the acai bowl was delicious, that was pretty much all I ate all day, and after our panel, I was starving. I ended up finding a burger place in the Fontainebleau (since you can take the Vegas Loop there for free from the convention center). And guess what they had on their menu? A Smoke Show burger! And of course, since I've been wearing Smoke Show clothes the whole week, and they are my favorite, I ordered it, and it was so good! That was pretty much it for Thursday. I was going to go the Emjay's after party, but it started really late, and I just had a chill night instead.

Having an easy Thursday night ended up working out because I needed to accomplish quite a bit on the show floor on Friday. I had only been on the floor for a bit after my panel and needed to talk to several people. I accomplished what I needed to on Friday, speaking with several Point of Sale providers and also visiting my friends at Verdant, Smoke Show, My Bud Vase, and The Chronic. It was great to see Scheri Mathaya, Stephanie Jeffries, Jennifer Makris, Marianne Cursetjee, Lucia Cifonelli, JM Balbuena, and Orlando Padilla. I also ran into Jimmy Young and some the Pro Cannabis Media crew.

To cap it all off, I got to check out the presentation of the new grant program, Seeds of Change from Latinas in Cannabis. Susie Plascencia, the founder, along with six sponsors, presented checks each for $500 to the recipients of the grants. It was an inspiring way to end the week. Women supporting women and their businesses, and some of the most inspiring women I know were there in attendance and giving and receiving grants. I left Vegas with my body exhausted, but my heart full.

And now that I've had time to process, I have to acknowledge the amount of effort and energy I put towards this important week. It's never going to be perfect, but I'm proud of what I accomplished and how much I put myself out there.

Oh, and the rodeo was in town again...WTF