Cannabiz Boot Camp Medical Marijuana Seminar That Hit Cleveland

Hello again OhioCannabis.com readers. It’s great to be writing to all of you again and I hope to hear more from my readers as the days go by.

With all that lovey dovey stuff out of the way, we can talk business or rather “CannaBiz Bootcamp”. Over the weekend, I was able to get my bootcamp on with the Cannabiz Boot Camp Seminar that hit Cleveland, Ohio on October 1st & also in Columbus on Sunday October 2nd. The event was held at the Sheraton Hotel which was conveniently close to the Cleveland Hopkins airport. Training consisted of an “Industry Overview” presentation at a “theater style” audience of interested entrepreneurs and attendees. The presentation room was very intimate compared to most events I’ve attended and I really enjoyed the amount of individual attention guests were given during the training.

In the back of the room, educational learning materials were on display for students which included books like, “Cannabis Pharmacy: The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana” and “The Little Black Book of Marijuana”.  Another table located in the back of the room displayed Cannabiz BootCamp Apparel.

I arrived at the Sheraton a bit early with my OhioCannabis.com founder John & my partner Amanda, where we were able to catch a few words with CannaBizBootCamp Founder, Kathy Mason. Kathy is a fiery Canna Veteran that comes out of Nevada. Planning on a visit to Nevada in the near future to see Deep Roots Harvest with Weed Be Better, I was pretty interested in hearing her take on the industry model out there. She stated how Nevada’s model, in her opinion, is set up completely wrong and Ohio should look to the structure of the Colorado model if it want’s to make it’s mark in the industry without all the hang-ups that other states are facing from “not well thought out legislation”.

After we parted ways with Kathy, we went back downstairs where guests were arriving and checking in at a registration table outside the event. The seminar began promptly at 9:28 am and went through 11:30am.

Since it was such an intimate venue, there was an brief opportunity for guests to go around the room, state their first name, and give a little bit of why they were there. Two things seemed to be the motivation for almost all attendees coming to the bootcamp. These two things were that they wanted to obtain general knowledge to begin their career in the cannabis industry and to get information for a loved one that was currently suffering from some ailment that they thought cannabis could help.

The speaker, then began her introduction of what got her involved in the cannabis industry and a little bit about her background. She grew up in Missouri, two blocks from Ferguson, and has lived in “Monsanto country” as she calls it, ever since. After being inspired to get involved in the industry after seeing the impact cannabis had on the life of a sick family member, Tracey linked up with the Cannabiz team at a conference out in Oakland, California. After a lot of independent education and training, she was hired on as an educator and now tours the country speaking about the benefits of cannabis and hemp and giving event attendees a brief bootcamp run down on the history of cannabis, laws and regulations at a federal and state level, and career opportunities that are available.

Once everyone got acquainted with her as an educator, Tracey got down to bootcamp business and gave us the introductory facts about the industry. This included an explanation of reefer madness, an insight into the endocannabinoid system, and some mind boggling statistics about the plant, like its worth per acre compared to corn. There were several graphs and charts included that were sourced from Marijuana Business Daily.com.

After a brief break option, Tracey began her second part of the presentation which covered the hemp plant, state and federal regulations, and a rundown of cannabis non-profit groups like Women Grow and Norml. We were lucky enough to have a Ohio Central Norml Chapter representative in the crowd named Brandon Bashak, who agreed to be interviewed by the OhioCannnabis.com team. Brandon stated, “Potential cannaBiz owners in Ohio should start thinking about how we are going to give back to the community. We have to remember, that cannabis business owners in Ohio will be under intense scrutiny from Law Enforcement, the Media, and Lawmakers, so we have to remember to always conduct ourselves in a responsible, compassionate manner to reflect the beauty of the nature of our business. I like to look at what Steve DeAngelo has done with his Harborside Health Clinic in Oakland. After visiting, I was in awe of how much a medical cannabis dispensary can really provide to a community. All registered patient/members of Harborside may attend any of the free classes and programs sponsored but not limited to Reiki, Acupuncture, Hypnotherapy, Chiropractic, Grow Classes, Herbalist Consultations, Yoga, Naturopathy, Substance abuse treatment… the list goes on and on. That is what I call comprehensive holistic treatment. Now some more ideas that I would like to be seen put into practice are, sponsored organic community food/botanical gardens, organized volunteer teams for trash pickup feeding people, and adult league sports teams(if bars can do it, why not cannabis collectives). There are so many different ways we can reach out and improve our community the list is endless. It all starts with treating each other compassionately, and doing what we love.”

When asked what he would like to tell Ohioans to do to continue supporting the cause he said, “I encourage Ohioans to get out to as many Cannabis related events as possible so that we can continue to network with others that all have a common interest. It is important that everyone looking to participate in this up and coming industry learn and love and grow with each other, so that we can all be on the same page. I cannot stress enough how important it is to stay educated in an industry that changes legality multiple times per day throughout the nation. The more we know the better off we all are to be able to help one another. Whether it be rallying together to get a petition signed to grant more patients safer access, or to come together to help someone afflicted with illness, it takes a community. I am proud to have such a great family, that is the cannabis community. Please support your local NORML chapter.”

Tracey concluded her presentation by giving a deeper look into the opportunities available along with her “Jacket Flipper Philosophy”. As Retail, Cultivation, Ancillary, and Manufacturing businesses will touch every part of the Ohio economy, we will see a great growth in jobs as well as an economic boost for everyone. This is where the “Jacket Flipping” will come into play, as interested individuals who are already doing things like IT and Culinary, will pivot their skill set over into a new and emerging market. Almost everyone has experience in doing something, and they now have the opportunity to transfer that experience into helping the cannabis and hemp industry grow and prosper along with the means of their state.

This was a very well thought out basic overview of the industry and I would recommend their course for anyone looking to get a brief summary of what this plant and the industry behind it entails.

The only suggestions I would have for the BootCamp’s next training, would be to work on marketing the event a little bit more prior to coming. If I wasn’t an industry insider, I don’t think I would have heard about this event prior. I would also suggest following through with contests and promotions that are already included in your presentation. These will benefit you in the long run more than you might think. Overall though, I think they had great content and a great speaker and look forward to seeing them again. I would give this event a 3.75 Leaf Rating on the 5 Leaf Scale.

They WILL be coming back to Ohio, specifically Cleveland & Columbus again soon – so stay tuned to OhioCannabis.com for up coming events.  If you’d like to get more information on the CannaBiz Bootcamp, feel free to visit their website at cannabizbootcamp.com

We also recorded a lot of video and will be posting them up in the next few days once we edit everything, so stay tuned for that!

Tia Marie Trees