The cannabis community loves to party, network, and host amazing events. These gatherings are an opportunity to make new friends, learn about new products, and even find jobs or business partnerships. When focusing on cannabis, you can bet that an event will have an extremely high concentration of fascinating people. From the sketchy to the attractive and helpful, here are five common characters you’ll find in almost any industry event setting.
The Man of Mystery
Good luck figuring out why certain people are in attendance at all. There will always be a range of plain to extravagant when it comes to expo booth design, but there are times you’ll gaze upon a booth with complete mystification. There’s a guy standing in the booth that has no sign, banner, or logo. You walk up to see what he’s all about, and he simply says, “Sign up for my collective and you’ll get a free gram.” Cool, free gram of which strain? “We’re not sure.” Are you a grower or a dispensary? “I really can’t say.” Huh. Do you have a website? “Nope.” Oh. OK. Moving on to the booths that actually seem legit….
The Suit
At an open-consumption event, they’d likely be stunned to death by what goes on, but the Suits love to hang around the cannabis business conferences like sharks stalking an injured sea lion. They stay in their booth and keep to themselves, unless you’re well-dressed, and are usually in the business of insurance or venture capital that, for some reason, your business doesn’t qualify for. Some of their favorite conversation topics include how much money they’re going to make off of all these “stoners,” how great of an opportunity this industry is even though they’d “never touch that stuff,” and where they’re going to go get blasted drunk after the cannabis conference ends.
The Booth Babe
Many male stoners fantasize about meeting their perfect bong-ripping babe. Make all your dreams come true by attending your local cannabis cup. While the skimpy dress code is offensive to some, tons of vendors still hire attractive young females to wear revealing uniforms to promote and staff their expo booths. No judgment here—as long as she’s friendly, professional, passionate, and knows the basics of cannabis science when talking about the products at hand, I’m cool with scantily clad, cannabis-loving ladies.
The Heady Helper
This guy seriously looks like he knows what he’s doing. He’s got dreads and a beard, a slew of gorgeous handcrafted hemp jewelry and pendants on, and he’s dressed in colorful robes or a custom vest and pants set and a top hat like he just got off the bus from Burning Man. Odds are he’s got some great connections with one or more of the companies that are exhibiting there and helping them hand out samples. And it’s a good thing, too, because he really appears to need the extra income. Offer him a pass of your next joint and see what crazy stories (and samples) he has to share.
The Media
Cannabis events bring out all kinds of journalists, from independent weed bloggers to startup media companies specifically covering the industry. You may also be approached by members of the mainstream media, usually local news reporters assigned to figure out exactly what’s going on behind the doors of cannabis events. Getting featured in photo albums and video recaps from the event can be lucrative marketing opportunity if you have a business, or if you’re an upcoming influencer in the 420 movement. Be tasteful and make friends with the camera crew before demanding a shoot for you or your booth.
Who’s your favorite cannabis community character?
