This blog is an excerpt from MJ Platform’s Comprehensive Guide to Off-SIte Cannabis Events. There is a link to the full e-book at the end of this post.
Events are one of the most impactful in-person marketing opportunities available and are incredibly important to communities. For food trucks, small businesses, even large corporations, doing in-person events gives you the opportunity to make a meaningful connection to people face-to-face which builds immense brand affinity. Unfortunately for cannabis, it’s currently very tricky to be able to pull off an in-person event outside of your licensed brick and mortar location- but not impossible. If you’re looking to get an off-site event for your cannabis operation on the calendar, we’re here to help you see success.
Identify Events that Allow Cannabis Vendors
Whether or not you’re selling medicated product, whether or not the event is 21+, whether or not a million other factors, some event operators may just not be comfortable with a cannabis (or cannabis adjacent) presence on site. It’s an unfortunate aspect of operating in what is still considered a taboo environment. For those of us in the industry, so much of the taboo and novelty has escaped our minds but for non-cannabis operators, we can still seen in a tainted light.
Before planning on a large scale, allocating budget, and especially before ordering merch or promoting, connect with the event lead and get hard written confirmation that your presence will be appropriate. This is not the time to ask for forgiveness after the fact- be direct with the exact kind of presence you want to have at this event. Some may allow you but will not allow sales of any kind or consumption. Some may allow sales of non-medicated merch, some may say go for it and let you do whatever you want. These regulations will also vary based on your locality’s specific regulations with cannabis as well.
Get permission first and define exactly what is allowed, then we can move on to the next phase.
Permits and Papers, Please
The road to the fun stuff is paved with not-fun stuff- primarily paperwork. But it’s a long way to the top if you want to rock n’ roll as they say- so let’s get started!
Connect with the event coordinator of your event, and they should have any necessary paperwork and information needed to put on the event internally. They will also be able to advise on what other external licenses or permits you’ll need. Your locality’s government website will be able to advise on what permits you’ll need to apply for as well as restrictions and regulations to what you can and can’t do. In San Francisco, for example, there are certain events that allow the sale of medicated items at off-site events. Their government website has lots of resources for on-site sales, which include eligibility for Cannabis Business Temporary Event permits and even a checklist for applying for your permit with resources. Not every area will have the robust support that San Francisco has, so be sure to double-check with your local government on what is allowed.
Outside of permits, you’ll often also have to include some form of insurance (or proof of insurance) which you can work out with your regular business insurance broker.
We also suggest that any permits and paperwork you submit on behalf of your operation are reviewed by legal before being submitted. It can be expensive especially if your legal council is contracted or not in-house, but it is worth it to avoid either having to redo paperwork that has areas overlooked or misstated or even worse, becoming disqualified from working an event due to incomplete or incorrect paperwork.
Stay Organized
After the paperwork is out in the world and you’re confident in your abilities to be present at the event, it’s crunch time! Internally in your company’s drive, keep soft copies of every permit that’s submitted and preferably, keep this in a specific folder accessible to your internal legal and operations team.
If you as the primary organizer is unavailable but someone is requesting a copy of the permit, your team needs to be able to act quickly and professionally. Don’t be precious about hanging onto paperwork and permits- keep it easy to find for everyone. Event audits DO happen and you need to be prepared.
Outside of the internal organization, it’s also time to add the event to agendas internally to make sure the event has the appropriate legwork behind it. Events sneak up on you, and it’s a good idea to get internal committees moving as soon as possible- so get the appropriate parties involved and aware. This can be incorporated into regular interdepartmental meetings and then once the team is set up a specific set of regular meetings can start to roll out. We suggest weekly meetings and special Slack or Discord groups to keep all conversations and progress tracked.
Start Spreading the News
Once permits are out and the event is locked, it’s time to get the word out. While you can control a lot of your own audience’s awareness of the event, you also can get in on co-branded messaging with the event itself. While marketing efforts in your area may require specific callouts or legalities or license callouts, you should absolutely identify areas where you can piggyback off existing marketing. Stay in contact with the event coordinators and see where you can get in on social campaigns, emails, print media, radio commercials, anywhere they may be advertising the event. Some campaigns may require some legwork on your end like creating graphics or delivering copy, but for the most part as long as you are also cross-posting or doing work to also promote the event, the coordinators will be happy to help.
In terms of what you can control, be sure to have the event called out on social and even the date and tag for the event in your Instagram bio. In store, post signage, have flyers (if allowed in your area) in your waiting area, and put flyers in your exit bags. Make it difficult for your customers to miss the event messaging.
For extra credit, see if the event coordinators can hook you up with some spare passes for you to use as a promotional tool and giveaway to your customer base. It can be a social media giveaway or a raffle in-store for anyone who visits in the weeks leading up to the event. This works not only for driving engagement both online and in-person, but also allows you to reward your audience.
Spend Some Money
If cashflow is an issue within your organization, we get it- cannabis banking is not in a good place for you to be planning last minute big spend.
Work with your accounting team as early as possible in the project planning so there’s no surprises and all deadlines can be met on everyone’s end. If you are selling or giving anything away at your booth, you need to start thinking about that about two to three months in advance. For are any swag or non-medicated items to be ordered, those may take longer than any medicated items so be weary of timelines and print times. Ideally, if you already have merch like shirts or hoodies or hats, doing an extra-large order in addition to your regular restock order should suffice. If you are creating new merch (I.e., a co-branded shirt or something new to debut at your event), you need to pad your timeline a bit in case there are printing errors or issues.
If you are able to snag an on-site sales permit for medicated product, you’ll also need to work with your purchasing manager to order enough product in advance to support the event. Let your sales reps know that you’ll be looking for products to bring to this event and perhaps you’ll be able to negotiate a larger wholesale discount or score some extra penny products to use as promos. You can also as for non-medicated swag like lighters, dab tools, shirts, hats, and pins to give out at your booth. Check out our ’Building the Menu’ piece later on in this e-book for more on best ways to approach this.
When you’re planning for an event that’s months in advance, it can feel like it’s a million years away but time’s arrow will inevitably march on. We hope that you can be as prepared as possible for whatever you’re planning for. This e-book is filled with resources to help you secure the largest net of awareness and get you set up for success.
For more materials on how to optimize a successful off-site cannabis event, get access to our events e-book by clicking here.
