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The second annual Lemonhaze Invitational is more than just a golf outing; it\u2019s a chance for influential cannabis executives to build relationships in the industry during an informal and fun setting that can\u2019t be duplicated at the MJBizCon in Las Vegas in days afterward.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s event was again hosted at Cascata Golf Club<\/a> in Boulder City just outside Las Vegas by Lemonhaze, the Southern Nevada-based B2B cannabis convention and events company<\/a> headed by CEO Brian Yauger. It hosts high-end boutique events and regional golf outings across the country targeting segments of the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n The Vegas tournament is by invitation only for executives of major nationals in the cannabis industry and C-suite and other top executives for privately-owned companies valued at more than $40 million. It\u2019s branded as the largest collection of the most powerful decision makers in adult-use cannabis in one place at one time and all on the golf course and mixers associated with it. There were some 70 invitees that attended and tee times allocated as well to about 40 sponsors, with food and drinks served throughout the day. Limousine buses transported them 25 miles from the famous Las Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate networking event,\u201d says Yauger, a former college football assistant coach. \u201cThis is a chance for all of these people of the most powerful companies in the country to get together and spend time together. The sponsors want to get their product and wares in front of the decision makers at all these multi-million-dollar companies.\u201d<\/p>\n Companies have the same investor challenges, customer challenges and media challenges. And there are sometimes licensing deals that come out of these get-togethers, he says.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s event generated a lot of excitement among the participants.<\/p>\n David Rula, COO of GoldLeaf Print & Packaging, said this is his second consecutive year participating in the Lemonhaze Invitational tournament. He called it smart timing by being held at the same time at MJBizCon<\/a> and credited Yauger and his staff for doing a great job of organizing leaders in the cannabis space.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s filled with owners, presidents, CEOs, CMOs, COOs\u2014nothing but C-suite people,\u201d Rula said. \u201cIt\u2019s a peer-to-peer group of management teams to have good discussions and see the trends in the industry and just talk about how we can push the cannabis space forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Rula, who\u2019s from Mississippi and Alabama, said it\u2019s like duck hunting to him. It\u2019s one of the best ways to get to know people by spending four hours with them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unlike a conference environment where it\u2019s madness like a horde of bees running around,\u201d Rula says. \u201cYou don\u2019t get to know anybody, but the Lemonhaze events enable you to get to know somebody and build more of a longer lasting relationship. It\u2019s good food, good entertainment and good company.\u201d<\/p>\n Phil Hon, vice president of Southern California-based ROVE<\/a>, said the tournament helps with relationship building and their expansion into new states.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re currently in seven states, and Lemonhaze has these tournaments in other states and we get to meet the industry folks there,\u201d Hon said. \u201cCannabis is a small network, and when you have something like this with upper management in these tournaments, it makes things easier.\u201d<\/p>\n ROVE President Paul Jacobson said a lot of other events are too intense about cannabis or too much of a party atmosphere, and that makes it difficult to have a normal conversation.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the Lemonhaze events, the focus is on golf so when you\u2019re out on the course, you spend an extended amount of time with people you might not normally have the opportunity to spend time with,\u201d Jacobson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a different and advantageous atmosphere to have meaningful discussions with people.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Holston, finance director for Cookies<\/a>, said the tournament allows his company to come in contact with brands and suppliers. He said it\u2019s nice to talk to people within the industry to see what business conditions they are experiencing and make comparisons.<\/p>\n Charmaine Chua, senior vice president sales\/field marketing for Stiiizy<\/a>, said she loves how the Lemonhaze Invitational allows her to meet with her customers, talk and enjoy the day.<\/p>\n \u201cI also like to see all the new companies coming up with new services and technologies that my company could benefit from,\u201d Chua said.<\/p>\n Karen Torres, chief product officer at MedMen, said she was excited to play with Chua, a brand partner of her company for product sales in their stores.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to show up and represent the cannabis industry as a solid industry and real industry in business,\u201d Torres said. \u201cEvents like this allow us to all get together and be thought leaders and create partnerships and a stronger foundation for this industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Legendary NFL running back Ricky Williams<\/a>, who launched his own cannabis brand Highsman, said while a lot of people know who he is, he doesn\u2019t know a lot of people. The golf outing helps with that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to make contact and find quality potential partners,\u201d Williams says. \u201cLast year, we were on the bus here and across from the CEO of TILT, and we ended up doing a deal in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The conversation got started here.\u201d<\/p>\n Tom Schneider, chief marketing officer for RevBrands, said networking is invaluable, and Yauger brings in top executives that they meet and do deals with.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty valuable for us,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n Erin Gore, founder of Garden Society<\/a>, said the golf outing is important networking since they\u2019re expanding into new markets. They\u2019re meeting with MSO and brand partners and others who they don\u2019t get to spend a lot of face-to-face time with, she added.<\/p>\n Jeff Dayton, vice president of strategy for TRP Co., said the Lemonhaze Invitational offers a chance to talk with thought leaders in the cannabis space. This was his first year at the event.<\/p>\n \u201cI think face-to-face interaction is key to doing business,\u201d Dayton said. \u201cI believe COVID made people realize there are stop gaps and ways to communicate virtually, but there\u2019s no replacement for in-person interaction, shaking someone\u2019s hand, looking in someone\u2019s eyes and knowing more about the person you are doing business with. Events such as this allow those relationships to start, be nurtured and flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n David Murray, CEO of Redbud Roots, says seeing what other people are doing in the industry is important and the event helps with that. It\u2019s a growing industry and people are \u201ctrying to be sponges and students of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Lemonhaze has held more than 30 various types of events in 2022 and expects to grow that number in 2023 to more than 70, Yauger said. For a company that launched in Seattle in 2015 and initially known for its Budtender parties, there will be more of a focus east of the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio and Pennsylvania,\u201d Yauger says. \u201cIn the next two to three years, you\u2019ll start to see more happening in Mississippi, Alabama and North Carolina. I\u2019m really excited about those markets.\u201d<\/p>\n Penny Cook, Lemonhaze COO, said the value of their events is \u201cincredibly high\u201d as the market is new and developing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe bring industry growth with us,\u201d Cook says. \u201cThat\u2019s what we are here for. Our events are all about connecting the right people in the industry. We curate who\u2019s going to be here so the people meeting each other are of high value. We see an exorbitant amount of deals that come out of our executive events, and we see brands present at our Budtender events have higher sales. There\u2019s a clear ROI for every one of our sponsors that do Lemonhaze events because they\u2019re connecting with people in high numbers\u2014their target audience that they wouldn\u2019t be able to connect on their own, let alone for the spend that they have to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n Normally, in the events industry, people worry about how many tickets they can sell, but Yauger says their model isn\u2019t selling tickets but sponsors wanting to pay a premium to be in the room.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother huge value point that we have is we\u2019re hyper local,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat\u2019s going on in the cannabis industry in Massachusetts<\/a> right now is really different from what\u2019s going on in Southern California. Because we have the right audiences in each one of these localities, these national companies are able to come in and get feedback directly from the people on the ground in those markets to address that and spend their sales and marketing dollars in a more targeted way.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Top Cannabis CEOs, Other Leaders Network in Las Vegas<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The second annual Lemonhaze Invitational is more than just a golf outing; it\u2019s a chance for influential cannabis executives to build relationships in the industry during an informal and fun setting that can\u2019t be duplicated at the MJBizCon in Las Vegas in days afterward. This year\u2019s event was again hostedContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":58732,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[363,50,1903,1266,69,16662,15958,16663,2372,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58731"}],"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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58733,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58731\/revisions\/58733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Lemonhaze-View.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Top Cannabis CEOs, Other Leaders Network in Las Vegas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"