If you’re curious about cannabis or interested in the industry, an event happening in Westport may be for you. It’s called CannaCurious? Marketing, Regulations and Social Equity and helps answer questions for everyone from budding entrepreneurs to people interested in learning more for their own personal use.
The American Marketing Association, Southern CT Chapter is hosting the event. Erika Alonso is the event moderator and also the co-founder and chief marketing officer of a technology company called Witi. She said it will offer something for everyone.
“The evening promises to cover the gamut from the fundamentals that people are having questions about and confused by, to understanding the role of advertising and compliance, and why you see signs that say things they do where, and how to [have] a better understanding of the regulatory roadmap, both here at home in Connecticut and at a national level," Alonso said.
The evening begins with a networking happy hour, followed by a question and answer session with a panel of experts.
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Some of the people involved are Michelle Seagull, Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner; Sheri Orlowitz, Council for Federal Cannabis Regulations Founder, Jacqueline Bennett, an advisory board member of Last Prisoner Project; and many marketing experts.
“We're going to provide an open that establishes the fundamentals, gets us all speaking the same language, probably providing a lot of like glossary terms. Why is all this happening? Why don't we know more? And what are the trends? What's the reality? Doing a little stigma-busting to make people more comfortable, because that's just yet another hurdle that the industry faces," Alonso said.
Beyond the fundamentals, the event will go over best practices for advertising a cannabis business, including addressing challenges entrepreneurs may face due to compliance and restricted media channels.
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Cannabis regulations in Connecticut and nationally will also be covered. The event will also discuss the role of social equity and how it is inextricably tied to moving the industry forward.
“Connecticut is being held up as a benchmark on how we're handling the social equity piece of the cannabis industry, in addition to how we've handled the medical piece,” said Tammy Ward, American Marketing Association Event co-chair.
“This is very nascent industry, but understanding what is there, what to be on the lookout for, you know, consumer beware. Questions like that are important for us right now, as is an understanding of responsible consumption,” Alonso said.
Tickets are available for Thursday’s event. Organizers said there’s a buy one get one free deal happening until 11:30 p.m. Wednesday night.
If you cannot attend in person, you can live stream the event.
