How to Maximize Cannabis Event and Trade Show Marketing in 2026

Cannabis events in 2026 range from massive international trade shows like MJBizCon—where booth space alone can cost $50,000 and attendees number in the tens of thousands—to intimate local networking meetups at a brewery with twenty people from your state's cannabis industry. The strategy that works at one will completely fail at the other. Most cannabis companies waste significant money on events because they treat them all the same: show up with a booth, hand out business cards, hope for the best. But a grower trying to land local dispensary accounts has no business spending $40,000 on MJBizCon, and a national brand looking for investor meetings or press coverage is wasting time at a small regional expo. Understanding which events matter for your specific business and how to maximize each type is the difference between ROI and throwing money away.

At The Hood Collective, we help cannabis businesses develop event marketing strategies that match their actual goals. Whether you need professional booth design and materials for a national trade show, targeted pre-event outreach campaigns, or simply guidance on which events are worth attending in the first place, we understand that event marketing in cannabis requires different approaches for different types of events. Your booth presence, your marketing materials, and your follow-up strategy should all reflect the specific opportunity each event presents—and we help you make those decisions strategically.

MJBizCon and National Cannabis Events: High-Cost, High-Stakes Brand Visibility

Let's start with the reality of what attending MJBizCon actually costs. Booth space alone runs $10,000 to $50,000+ depending on size and location. Add in booth design and build-out, shipping materials, staff travel and hotels, promotional materials, samples, and swag—and you're easily looking at $75,000 to $150,000+ for a meaningful presence. Small booth in a bad location with minimal staff? You might scrape by for $30,000 total, but you'll also be virtually invisible on a massive show floor with hundreds of exhibitors competing for attention. This is not an event you attend casually or on a whim.

So why do cannabis companies invest this kind of money in MJBizCon? Because it's where the deals that actually move the industry happen. National retail partnerships get formed. Investors meet companies they're considering funding. Press coverage from major cannabis and mainstream business publications happens on the show floor. Multi-state operators looking for new brands to carry attend specifically to meet potential partners. If your goal is national expansion, serious fundraising, or getting your brand in front of decision-makers from across the country and internationally, MJBizCon and similar national events are where that happens. You're not there to make a few local sales—you're there to move your business to the next level.

But here's who shouldn't be spending money on MJBizCon: small local growers serving a single state, single-location dispensaries, regional brands with no plans for expansion, and ancillary service businesses targeting only local clients. If you're a craft cannabis grower in Oregon trying to get into a few more Portland dispensaries, MJBizCon is a waste of your money. Your buyers aren't there looking for you, and the ROI doesn't justify the investment. Similarly, if you're a compliance consultant working only with Washington state businesses, you don't need to spend $100,000 to network with people you'll never work with. Know your lane and pick events accordingly.

Booth design at national events isn't optional—it's essential. A cheap pop-up banner and a folding table signal that you're not a serious player, regardless of how good your product actually is. On a show floor where booths cost tens of thousands of dollars and major brands are building elaborate displays with video walls, product showcases, and professional lighting, looking cheap means getting ignored. Your booth is your brand's physical representation at the most important industry event of the year. Professional booth design, high-quality graphics, well-lit product displays, and thoughtful layout aren't about vanity—they're about credibility. Buyers, investors, and press decide in seconds whether your booth is worth stopping at, and if you look like you don't belong, they'll keep walking.

Pre-event outreach is where most companies fail even before the event starts. If you're waiting until you arrive at MJBizCon to start scheduling meetings, you've already lost. Serious players book their calendars months in advance. Identify who you need to meet—specific buyers from specific MSOs, particular investors, journalists covering your product category—and reach out weeks or months before the event. Email campaigns announcing what you're launching at the show, LinkedIn messages to schedule booth visits, personalized outreach to key targets. The goal is to have your calendar packed with confirmed meetings before you ever step on the plane. Walking the floor hoping to bump into the right people is not a strategy.

Speaking opportunities and panel appearances at MJBizCon elevate your credibility and visibility exponentially beyond just having a booth. Getting a speaking slot means you're positioned as an industry thought leader, and it drives traffic to your booth because attendees who heard you speak will seek you out. How do you get speaking opportunities? Apply early when the call for speakers goes out, pitch specific topics that address current industry challenges, leverage any existing relationships with event organizers, and demonstrate expertise through content you've already published. If you've been creating educational content, publishing industry insights, or have unique data to share, lead with that in your pitch. Speaking slots are competitive, but they're worth pursuing aggressively.

Measuring ROI for national events means defining success before you go. "Brand awareness" is not a measurable goal. How many qualified meetings did you book? How many of those converted to follow-up conversations, proposals sent, or deals closed in the 90 days following the event? How much press coverage did you generate, and what was the reach? How many new retail accounts or distribution partnerships resulted? Track every lead, every conversation, every business card, and follow up systematically post-event. If you spent $100,000 on MJBizCon, you should be able to point to concrete business outcomes that justified that investment. If you can't, you either went to the wrong event or executed poorly.

State and Regional Cannabis Expos: Direct Sales and Local Relationship Building

State and regional cannabis expos operate at a completely different scale and serve a fundamentally different purpose than national events. Booth costs at events like CannaCon Midwest, NECANN regional shows, or Lucky Leaf Expo events typically run $2,000 to $10,000, making them accessible to smaller brands, local growers, and single-location dispensaries that can't justify MJBizCon's six-figure investment. The barrier to entry is low enough that attending multiple state events throughout the year is feasible, and for most cannabis businesses operating in a single state or region, these events deliver far better ROI than national shows.

The critical difference is who's walking the floor. At events like Flower Expo Michigan in Allegan, NECANN New Jersey in Atlantic City, or the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit in Cleveland, your actual customers are there. Dispensary buyers from the stores you're trying to get into. Consumers who shop at local dispensaries and might become loyal to your brand. Local distributors who can get your product on shelves across the state. Press from regional cannabis publications. These aren't abstract networking opportunities—these are people who can buy from you immediately or within weeks. A grower in Michigan doesn't need to meet an MSO executive from California; they need to meet the buyer from the dispensary chain with fifteen locations across Michigan. That buyer is at Flower Expo Michigan, not MJBizCon.

State events are where immediate sales and local partnerships happen. You can hand a dispensary buyer samples of your flower at CannaCon Midwest in St. Paul or Lansing, have them try it on the spot, exchange contact information, and follow up the next week to close an account. You can meet a local packaging company, a testing lab, or a compliance consultant you'll actually work with. The timescale from event to business relationship is compressed because everyone operates in the same market with the same regulations and the same customers. There's no "we'll keep you in mind if we expand to your state someday"—it's "let's get your product on our shelves next month."

This is exactly why state events are better for growers and smaller brands. If you're cultivating in Connecticut and selling to Connecticut dispensaries, you don't need national exposure—you need relationships with Connecticut buyers. XpoCanna's Connecticut Cannabis Expo in Plantsville gives you concentrated access to your target market without the noise and expense of competing with hundreds of national brands. Your booth doesn't need to be as elaborate because you're not competing against the same level of production. A professional setup with good product displays, clear branding, and knowledgeable staff is enough to stand out because the bar is lower and the focus is on local connection, not massive spectacle.

Connecting with dispensary buyers in your distribution area is the primary reason to attend state events as a grower or brand. These buyers attend specifically to discover new products they can carry, meet suppliers they've been ordering from online, and build relationships with local producers. Come prepared with samples, current pricing, availability information, and the ability to discuss logistics immediately. Have your wholesale catalog ready, know your minimum order quantities, and be able to answer questions about delivery schedules and payment terms on the spot. State events are transactional in a way national events aren't—buyers are making purchasing decisions, not just collecting information.

Building local industry relationships that actually matter happens at state events because you're dealing with the same people repeatedly. The buyer you meet at Lucky Leaf Expo in Kentucky will see you at other regional events and state cannabis association meetings throughout the year. You're building relationships within a community, not collecting business cards from people you'll never see again. These repeated interactions create trust and familiarity that lead to business. The grower who shows up consistently at state and regional events becomes a known entity, and that recognition translates directly into accounts and partnerships. Local relationships compound over time in ways that one-off national event appearances simply don't.

Local Cannabis Networking Events and Meetups: Grassroots Relationship Building

Beyond trade shows and expos, some of the most valuable cannabis networking happens at small, low-key events that cost little or nothing to attend. State cannabis trade associations host regular member meetings—monthly or quarterly gatherings where local cannabis business owners, operators, and service providers get together to discuss industry issues, regulatory changes, and business challenges. Local cannabis business groups, chambers of commerce cannabis committees, and informal networking meetups at breweries or coworking spaces create opportunities for face-to-face relationship building that expensive trade show booths simply can't replicate.

The ROI on these events is disproportionately high relative to the investment. Most local networking events are free for members or have minimal costs—$20-$50 admission, maybe a drink minimum. Yet the relationship value is enormous because you're meeting people in casual, low-pressure environments where genuine conversations happen. There's no booth to hide behind, no sales pitch expected, just cannabis professionals talking shop and building connections. These are the events where a grower meets the dispensary buyer over beers and ends up with a purchase order two weeks later, or where an ancillary service provider explains their offering in a way that actually resonates because there's time for real conversation.

Finding local cannabis networking events requires some digging. Start with your state's cannabis trade associations—most host regular member events and networking mixers. Check Eventbrite and similar platforms for "cannabis networking" in your city. Join local cannabis business Facebook groups and Slack channels where people post about meetups. Chambers of commerce in cannabis-legal states often have cannabis industry committees that host events. LinkedIn groups focused on your state's cannabis industry will advertise gatherings. Cannabis coworking spaces and industry-friendly venues often host regular happy hours or educational sessions. Once you find one event and start attending, you'll hear about others through word of mouth.

These local events matter because they give you direct face time with the people who actually make decisions in your market. Dispensary buyers attend to meet potential suppliers in relaxed settings. Cannabis regulators sometimes show up to answer questions and hear industry concerns. Investors scouting local opportunities network at these events. Potential business partners—whether that's a grower looking for a packaging designer or a brand seeking distribution—make connections that turn into collaborations. The conversations that happen at a 30-person cannabis networking happy hour are fundamentally different from the transactional interactions at a trade show booth. There's time to build rapport, to actually get to know people, and to establish trust before any business is discussed.

Local events build trust that trade show booths can't because relationships develop over time through repeated, informal interactions. When you see the same people month after month at industry association meetings, when you have real conversations about shared challenges, when you help someone with advice or an introduction without expecting anything in return—that's when trust gets built. Trust leads to business in cannabis more than in most industries because the stakes are high, regulations are complex, and everyone's been burned by vendors or partners who didn't deliver. The grower who shows up consistently at local events, participates in industry discussions, and proves themselves reliable becomes someone people want to do business with. That reputation doesn't come from a trade show booth—it comes from being an active, helpful member of your local cannabis community.

Cannabis-Specific vs. General Business Events: Where Does Cannabis Fit?

Not every valuable event for your cannabis business has "cannabis" in the title. While cannabis-specific trade shows and networking events are essential, general business and industry events often provide opportunities that cannabis-only gatherings can't—particularly for ancillary businesses, brands looking for non-cannabis industry partnerships, and companies seeking to professionalize their operations beyond what the cannabis bubble offers.

Investment conferences are a prime example. If you're seeking serious funding, cannabis-specific investor events attract cannabis-focused funds, but general venture capital and private equity conferences expose you to investors who have capital to deploy and are increasingly open to cannabis deals as legalization expands. Events like TechCrunch Disrupt, various angel investor summits, or regional venture capital conferences include investors who may not specifically seek out cannabis companies but are willing to evaluate strong businesses regardless of industry. The key is knowing how to position your cannabis company in these spaces—lead with your business fundamentals, growth metrics, and market opportunity rather than leading with "we're a cannabis company." Cannabis is what you do, not your entire identity as a business.

Packaging expos, supply chain conferences, and manufacturing trade shows are often more valuable for cannabis brands than cannabis trade shows when it comes to solving operational challenges. Events like Pack Expo, where packaging manufacturers and designers showcase innovations, give cannabis brands access to cutting-edge packaging solutions, sustainable materials, and design trends that cannabis-specific vendors may not offer. Similarly, supply chain and logistics conferences help cannabis companies professionalize their operations by learning from industries that have solved problems cannabis is just now encountering. The learning curve is steeper because you're not surrounded by cannabis-specific expertise, but the insights and vendor relationships you develop often surpass what you'd find at cannabis events.

Technology events and conferences provide cannabis businesses with access to solutions that weren't built specifically for cannabis but solve real problems. Whether it's CRM platforms, inventory management systems, data analytics tools, or marketing automation software—much of what cannabis businesses need exists in the broader tech ecosystem, not just in cannabis-specific software. Attending SaaS conferences, retail technology expos, or industry-specific tech events (agricultural technology for growers, retail tech for dispensaries) exposes you to tools and innovations that cannabis-only events won't cover. The challenge is evaluating which general tech solutions can adapt to cannabis compliance requirements and which can't.

Positioning your cannabis business in non-cannabis spaces requires understanding your audience and leading with what matters to them. At a packaging expo, you're not "a cannabis brand"—you're a CPG company with specific packaging needs, compliance requirements, and design goals. At an investment conference, you're a high-growth company in an emerging legal market with strong fundamentals and a path to profitability. At a technology conference, you're a retailer or manufacturer looking for operational efficiencies. The cannabis part of your business is relevant context, but it's not your identity in these spaces. This shift in positioning often feels uncomfortable for cannabis entrepreneurs who are used to cannabis-centric environments, but it's essential for accessing resources, partnerships, and opportunities that exist outside the cannabis industry bubble.

Cannabis Event Strategy: Matching Your Goals to the Right Events

The biggest mistake cannabis companies make with events is treating them all the same. Your strategy for MJBizCon should look nothing like your strategy for a local cannabis business meetup, and your pre-event preparation for a state expo should be different from how you approach a packaging conference. Matching your goals to the right events—and then executing the appropriate strategy for each—is what separates companies that get ROI from events and companies that waste money.

For national events like MJBizCon, your pre-event work starts months in advance. You're scheduling meetings with specific targets, coordinating press opportunities, finalizing booth design and materials, training staff on messaging, and creating promotional campaigns to drive traffic to your booth. During the event, your focus is on executing those scheduled meetings, capturing leads systematically, and maximizing visibility. Post-event, you're following up within 24-48 hours with personalized outreach to every qualified lead, sending proposals to interested buyers, and measuring specific outcomes against the significant investment you made.

For state and regional expos, pre-event preparation is shorter but still essential. You're reaching out to local dispensary buyers you want to meet, confirming product samples and pricing materials, and ensuring your booth setup is professional even if it's not elaborate. During the event, you're focused on direct sales conversations, building local relationships, and collecting contact information from qualified prospects in your distribution area. Post-event follow-up happens faster—you're calling or emailing within days to convert conversations into orders because your prospects are local and the sales cycle is shorter.

For local networking events, there's minimal pre-event preparation beyond confirming attendance and maybe reviewing who else is attending if there's a list. During the event, you're having genuine conversations, offering help and advice freely, and building rapport without a sales agenda. Post-event follow-up is personal—connecting on LinkedIn, following up on specific conversations, and continuing relationships that started at the event. The goal isn't immediate sales; it's becoming a trusted member of your local cannabis community over time.

Resource allocation should match the opportunity and your business stage. If you're a national brand seeking investment or major retail partnerships, spending $100,000+ on MJBizCon makes sense. If you're a local grower, that same $100,000 should be spread across multiple state expos, local events, and direct outreach to dispensaries in your area. Save money on local networking events where showing up matters more than having materials. Spend money on professional booth design for events where your booth is your brand's primary representation. Invest in high-quality samples and leave-behinds for trade shows where buyers are making decisions. Skip expensive swag that gets thrown away and focus resources on things that actually convert—product samples, professional sell sheets, and follow-up systems.

The Hood Collective helps cannabis businesses develop event strategies that match their goals and create the materials that make events successful. Professional booth graphics and displays for trade shows. Branded sell sheets and product catalogs that buyers actually keep. Pre-event email campaigns that drive booth traffic. Post-event follow-up materials that convert conversations into business. We understand that a national event requires different materials than a state expo, and that your event presence should reinforce your brand identity while serving the specific purpose of each event. Your event marketing should be strategic, not just showing up and hoping for the best.

List of Cannabis Events 2026 (Dates and Events Subject to Change)

Before investing in any cannabis event, confirm dates and details directly with organizers. Below is a list of major cannabis events happening in 2026 with verified links.

National/International Cannabis Events

MJBizCon 2026

Dates: December 1-4, 2026Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NVBest For: National brands, MSOs, companies seeking investment, major ancillary businessesWebsite: mjbizconference.com

Hall of Flowers

Dates: March 18-19, 2026 (Ventura) and September 10, 2026 (Santa Rosa)Location: Ventura County Fairgrounds, CA / Santa Rosa, CABest For: Premium flower brands, California-focused brands, craft cultivatorsWebsite: hallofflowers.com

State and Regional Cannabis Expos

NECANN BostonDates: April 24-25, 2026Location: Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MABest For: New England market operators, brands seeking Northeast distributionWebsite: necann.com/boston

NECANN VermontDates: May 8-9, 2026Location: Doubletree Hilton Expo, Burlington, VTBest For: Vermont operators, New England brandsWebsite: necann.com/vermont

NECANN PennsylvaniaDates: April 17-18, 2026Location: Philadelphia Convention Center, Philadelphia, PABest For: Pennsylvania operators, Mid-Atlantic brandsWebsite: necann.com/pennsylvania

NECANN New JerseyDates: September 18-19, 2026Location: Atlantic City Convention Center, Atlantic City, NJBest For: New Jersey and Tri-State operators, brands seeking Mid-Atlantic distributionWebsite: necann.com/new-jersey-convention

CannaCon Midwest St. PaulDates: June 26-27, 2026Location: St. Paul, MNBest For: Midwest operators, equipment manufacturers, technology providersWebsite: cannacon.org/midwest/midwest-st-paul-2026

CannaCon Midwest St. LouisDates: August 28-29, 2026Location: St. Louis, MOBest For: Midwest operators, equipment manufacturers, technology providersWebsite: cannacon.org/midwest/midwest-st-louis-2026

Note: Event dates, locations, and details are subject to change. Always verify directly with event organizers before making travel and booth commitments.

Maximize Your Cannabis Event ROI with The Hood Collective

Cannabis events in 2026 offer opportunities ranging from six-figure investments at MJBizCon to free local networking meetups—and your success depends on choosing the right events for your business goals and executing strategically. A national brand seeking investors needs a completely different approach than a local grower building dispensary relationships, and most cannabis companies waste money by treating every event the same way.

At The Hood Collective, we help cannabis businesses develop event strategies that match their goals and create the professional materials that make events successful. From booth design and graphics for major trade shows to branded sell sheets and product catalogs that buyers actually keep, we understand that your event presence should reinforce your brand identity while serving the specific purpose of each event. Professional presentation isn't optional at cannabis events—it's the difference between being taken seriously and being ignored.

The right event strategy, executed professionally, turns expensive booth space into actual business relationships and revenue.

Planning to attend cannabis events in 2026? Contact The Hood Collective to discuss how professional event materials, booth design, and strategic planning can help you maximize ROI and stand out from the competition.