I just couldn’t sleep the night before the flight. Every 10 minutes I would think of one last thing I forgot to pack for the trade show. The moon was heading into a full eclipse, the energy was intense, and by 5am, I had probably slept no more than 2 hours. But it was time to go, and after a strong espresso my dedicated behind the scenes manager, otherwise known as ‘bro’, came and picked me up and brought me to the airport.
On the plane from Atlanta to Denver, I sat next to a buyer from Greensboro, NC, headed to the show to stock his head shop back home. We talked about the show, the legality and covered every aspect of the industry in three straight hours. In Denver I jumped in a shuttle headed downtown, and within 10 seconds noticed that Marijuana was permeating from every outlet. The conversation a row back was between two gentleman. One very friendly and outspoken man who had been in the industry in one way or another for 30 years, while the other was coming out with a new LED lighting system. The middle aged lady beside them was a buyer from Wisconsin. The billboards advertised legal weed and 420 events, while the talk radio blared a conversation about, you guessed it, weed! Before I got out of the shuttle, one of the passengers reminded me to visit weedmaps.com to find a local dispensary.
Arrived at my guest house on East 19th Ave and was greeted by a nice older lady and her 6 chickens, who seemed to have taken shelter in the living room. My room was next door, so the first night I didn’t really get much sleep with all of the pecking going on. The second night I came home from the show and my nice host was sitting on the couch with them pooping on her and the furniture. I was safely closed into my bedroom while her very dynamic conversation with her chicks continued, for about an hour.
On the third day, as I was leaving in the morning, I noticed that the gardener had shown up to build them a decent home outside in the tiny backyard. As the chickens moved out, the busy host welcomed a handful of 20 year olds who forgot to wash up, much to the dismay of our host. And so goes the stories inside an Air b n b. I made strong coffees each morning and spent all day at the show.
The Big Industry Show was a hoot. I would say 60% of the booths were dedicated to glassware, from mini one hitters to large bongs. Vape companies dominated the big spaces, while one giant only sold soil. The big fish lined up across from the little fish, but it worked. Pro 420 had the best neighbors, Pimp n’ Ballz, Pine Street Woods, and Cowboy Glass, and behind them, a whole corner dedicated to southern California’s finest street and gallery artists.
We were definitely an attraction to buyers as we were the only scissor company at the show. There were about four other booths dedicated to trimming, but all offered machines and electric hand held devices to chop your buds up. Everyone agrees that in reality growers will need both methods to grow, harvest and manicure their marijuana. I really enjoyed the dialogue with the customers and general public and learned a lot about their needs and opinions. Overall, I almost sold out of scissors, had a ton of promising connections with growers and trim scene managers, and passed out a ton of stickers and business cards to potential customers. A few big fish visited, and a ton of friendly smaller ones too.
The lovely Alex Robinson came and worked the booth with me. A native Chicagoan now residing in Denver, she was able to photograph all of the beautiful images and funky scenes from the Big Show, as well as help me sell the scissors. She did a fantastic job and charmed everyone who showed up to check out our products. All the images you see of the show are shot by Alex.
I’m not 20 anymore, and after each day I found my way back to the chicken coop, tired and ready to get horizontal. By Saturday, the show was long gone, as the Cannabis Cup moved into the spaces around the Pavilion and in to the surrounding conference halls. I took a quiet shuttle to the airport, and the last scene out of Denver for me was a large warehouse on the side of the highway with a banner reading ‘ Recreational Marijuana Now For Sale’ with a line of customers outside, waiting for it to open. It was 9am in the morning!
At the airport I made my way to check-in, and out of the corner of my eye saw Arjan, the founder of the Green House Seed Company and main man of Strain Hunters, a fun weed adventure show on youtube. I quickly ran up to them and did one last pitch, gave them a card, showed them the scissors, and talked about Morocco and India, places they had visited in their show. That was a great buzz to see and meet those guys and a great way to end a perfect week of introducing my scissors to the Marijuana Industry and its players.
We can’t wait for the next show!
