In September, about 60 companies participated in Marijuana Venture’s first cannabis industry networking event east of the Mississippi
Interchange debuted in Massachusetts in September to overwhelming praise from attendees.
The inaugural event welcomed buyers and salespeople from about 60 companies, including growers, processors, retailers, delivery businesses and a variety of ancillary service providers. Participants sat down together for two days of scheduled, face-to-face meetings on September 2-3 at the AC Hotel in Worcester.
Interchange events are designed to be smaller and more intimate than the big conferences that feature numerous speakers and are often open to the public. Interchange is strictly business only, designed to facilitate sales between wholesale cannabis vendors and retail buyers.
Marijuana Venture launched the Interchange series in Washington in June 2016 and has now hosted more than 30 industry events across the country.
What is Interchange?
Best described as “speed networking for the cannabis industry,” Interchange is a private, two-day business-to-business event in which state-licensed producers and processors meet with dozens of verified retail buyers to connect with new clients, open new accounts, promote new products and manage existing relationships in a business-only environment. The unique event is designed to save cannabis buyers and sellers both time and money by keeping the focus on business.
Interchange events feature the top cannabis retailers, producers, processors and ancillary businesses participating in two days of scheduled, uninterrupted sales meetings.
Why Massachusetts?
When Marijuana Venture decided to expand the Interchange event series into a new market, the staff looked at several variables including annual sales, number of licensed operators and the overall health of the market.
Massachusetts brought in $1.6 billion in sales during 2024. The state has a large number of non-vertical retailers and vendors, and while there are still many vertical businesses in the state many of them expressed interest in selling to other retailers and carrying other brands.
Although the state is not as geographically large as Washington, Oregon or Michigan, which does play a role for producers who have to travel long distances for just a handful of meetings, it is the most diverse and mature market East of the Mississippi.
What’s Next?
The first Interchange event in Massachusetts went extremely well, but it still has a lot of room for refinement. Marijuana Venture staff is busy working to structure its next Massachusetts Interchange event to cater to what would work best for the state operators. The Interchange event series has consistently grown in every market it has debuted in and that trend will likely continue with Massachusetts.