Earlier this year, David Hua, the co-founder and CEO of Meadow, a San Francisco-based software platform for cannabis businesses, realized he needed a break. Not just him, not just his company \u2014 but the entire California cannabis industry, all (or most) $7 billion of it.<\/p>\n
As the world knows, retail sales of recreational cannabis started on Jan. 1. What followed next is common knowledge to the workers and entrepreneurs who make up the industry, but maybe not their customers: infighting, backbiting, consolidation, contraction and uncertainty, fueled by rising regulatory costs and real questions about whether or not vital steps along the supply chain will get a license.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not hyperbole to say that, barely hidden behind the slick branding and constant talk in the media about billions of dollars, lurks real existential dread. And nobody but other industry people \u2014 more accurately, the small-and-medium players wondering how they\u2019ll be able to compete against behemoths with enough runway to land a SpaceX craft \u2014 really get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at a dinner party the other night, and everyone was like, \u2018Legalization\u2019s great, huh?\u2019\u201d Hua said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Man, if you only knew.\u2019 A year ago, people were more optimistic and hopeful and excited. From what we\u2019re seeing now, people are just tired. They\u2019re trying to figure out if they have the energy or not to continue. We went from an industry projected to have a multiplying effect to a year where we\u2019re going to be flat, or even down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe went from a robust medical market to something that looks like it\u2019s on its deathbed,\u201d Hua said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Hence the idea behind Meadowlands, a combination weekend retreat and \u201cgathering\u201d for the people responsible for the largest and oldest marijuana marketplace in the world, held in the cannabis industry\u2019s geographic center: the redwood forests in Mendocino County.<\/p>\n
If not an antidote, Hua believes California\u2019s marijuana producers, sellers and facilitators need at least a respite \u2014 a chance to breathe, pause, relax and recharge.<\/p>\n
From the description<\/a>,\u00a0Meadowlands<\/a>\u00a0sounds like a combination of a destination conference and a weekend at\u00a0Esalen<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 if Esalen offered cannabis-friendly archery practice in between morning yoga, a mercifully brief lineup of speakers, and a night-hike, all capped off with sharing \u201ca joint around the campfire with your next lead.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this way, the conference becomes the centerpiece, the main event, instead of the ordeal to suffer through before the fun (and the real business) can begin. This \u201cweekend retreat,\u201d this \u201cgathering\u201d for the California cannabis industry, has the advantage of setting \u2014 Camp Navarro, a reputed festival and wedding destination in the Mendocino County redwoods \u2014 as well as curation.<\/p>\n
Check out the speaker schedule<\/a>. It\u2019s short! And concentrated. On one day, you get California\u2019s cannabis czar, as well as the chief regulators of San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles all in one place. There\u2019s one keynote, one discussion, one regulatory update. Then an informal afternoon of \u201cfireside chats\u201d before a happy hour, a dinner and then a night-hike.<\/p>\n
This is all on Saturday, which is to say it is your reward for showing up on Friday when there\u2019s a\u2026\u00a0concert from a band that organized the first-ever all-women show at The Fillmore?!<\/a>\u00a0Woke! Then, on Sunday, the last day, aside from a wake-and-bake brunch \u2014 nothing! Nothing at all! Get on with your life.<\/p>\n
And look! No commerce, of anything \u2014\u00a0at all. \u201cThere are no vendors, and nothing is for sale,\u201d the organizers say, firmly. Meaning, you must bring enough for yourself, and enough to share, if that\u2019s your bag.<\/p>\n
If this sounds like a shameless plug, it is not. We are full of shame, for the other lesser conferences, where attendees will sit placidly through panel discussions, images of Meadowlands dancing in their heads.<\/p>\n
Meadowlands is Friday, June 15, through the morning of Sunday, June 17. Inclusive tickets for all three days start at $520, with upgrades available for those of us who insist on \u201cglamping\u201d rather than spending two nights in a perfectly serviceable tent or RV.<\/p>\n
TELL US<\/strong>,\u00a0have you ever attended a cannabis networking event?<\/p>\n
The post Instead of a Business Conference, What About Cannabis Camp?<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\nRead More: Instead of a Business Conference, What About Cannabis Camp?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this year, David Hua, the co-founder and CEO of Meadow, a San Francisco-based software platform for cannabis businesses, realized he needed a break. Not just him, not just his company \u2014 but the entire California cannabis industry, all (or most) $7 billion of it. As the world knows, retailContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,4495,1281,99,4496,754,3297,4497],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26723,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26722\/revisions\/26723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}