Working in the City of Denver’s Office of Marijuana Policy, Dan Rowland recently planned the Mile High City’s first-ever Marijuana Management Symposium, held Nov. 5-6 at the Colorado Convention Center and described as the “first cannabis event of its kind organized by a government agency.”
Following the passage of Amendment 64 to the state constitution in 2012, Colorado officials are now tasked with regulating a legal marijuana industry, making a symposium on the subject a given.
Far from just a gathering of pot enthusiasts, this 330-attendee symposium was tailored to Colorado regulators and others who handle the “legal” side of legalized cannabis. Think politicians and city administrators from municipalities curious about Denver’s successes (read: tax revenue) and challenges; fire departments that have to deal with codes regarding indoor “grow” operations; departments of health; government attorneys; law enforcement; and even some attendees on the retail side and delegates from other U.S. states and international locales.
“In my work as a communications director, I’ve planned a lot of press events and product rollouts,” says Rowland, who took the lead planner role, from booking the facility, caterers, speakers and coordinating the presentations to managing the room block. “This is my first marijuana conference, but it wasn’t a whole lot different than other events I’ve been a part of.”
Challenges included how to identify who potential attendees would be and how to market a first-time event with a minimal marketing budget, as well as how to communicate that this was a regulator-to-regulator event, and not a retail/consumer expo.
“It was a challenge to explain what this was and who it was for, because those types of events happen all of the time, even right there in the convention center, so this was certainly unique,” Rowland says of the task of clarifying that it was different from a consumer/retail-focused show.”
Buoyed by the symposium’s success, Rowland says the city is entertaining the idea of holding another one next year, although there are no concrete plans at present.
But given the tax revenue pouring into city coffers following legalization, the number of municipalities that decide to follow Denver’s lead may indeed make the symposium a going concern.
“Different cities can opt in or out,” Rowland explains of how the recreational marijuana law works in Colorado, and of the interest of other communities in Denver’s experience. “But in Denver we opted in—way in.”
