Editors’ Note: This is the transcript version of the podcast. Please note that due to time and audio constraints, transcription may not be perfect. We encourage you to listen to the podcast, embedded below if you need any clarification. We hope you enjoy!
The Benzinga capital conference is the premier gathering of cannabis investors, entrepreneurs, and operators. If you haven’t been, it’s different from other conferences. The event occurs in an intimate setting where all the industry’s biggest movers and shakers cross paths. Benzinga is rumored to be the origin of many of the cannabis industry’s mergers & acquisitions.
This week on The Dime, we host Elliot Lane, the VP of Events & Head of Benzinga Cannabis, to discuss:
- Understanding how panels and topics get selected
- Growth and potential of the psychedelics track
- Will we see cannabis products at networking events?
- Headlines & expectations for upcoming events
The next Benzinga Captial Conference is April 11-12 2023 in Miami Florida
About Benzinga:
CONNECT WITH THE BIGGEST NAMES IN CANNABIS. Meet the biggest cannabis industry players and make deals that will push the industry forward. Featuring live company presentations, insider panels, and unmatched access to networking, the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference is where cannabis executives and entrepreneurs meet. Join us live in Miami at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. There’s no better place to connect with the people driving the global cannabis industry forward. Enjoy all the food, libations & come back with millions of dollars in deals.
#bzcannabis #CannabisInsider #cannabis
Benzinga Links
https://twitter.com/ElliotLane10
https://www.instagram.com/benzinga/
https://twitter.com/BzCannabis
https://www.benzinga.com/events/cannabis-conference/
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[00:00:00]Bryan Fields: What’s up guys? Welcome back to another episode of The Dime. I’m Brian Fields and with me as always his killing, Finny. And this week we’ve got a very special guest, Elliot Lane, VP of events and head of Bez Cannabis. Elliot, thanks for taking the time. How you
[00:00:13]Elliot Lane: doing today? I am having a blast already.
[00:00:16] Thanks for having me, guys. Really appreciate your time and letting me crash the party. You guys have some awesome guests, so it’s honestly just an honor to be a part of it. We’re excited
[00:00:24]Bryan Fields: to have you here, Kellen, how are you?
[00:00:26]Kellan Finney: Doing really well. Really excited to talk to Elliot and learn about Ben Zynga as much as we can and, uh, you know, just hanging out.
[00:00:32] How are you, Brian?
[00:00:33]Bryan Fields: I’m doing excited. I’m excited to talk to another East Coaster in Elliot. For the record, your location please.
[00:00:38]Elliot Lane: Lack of access complete with me in North Carolina. . I am in northeast part of Raleigh where they, they like Delta eight here, so, we’ll, we’ll just put that on the back burner in your mind.
[00:00:50] And, uh, you know, in 20 years I can buy some cannabis ,
[00:00:53]Bryan Fields: hopefully, hopefully 20 years. A lot has changed in the cannabis market. So, Elliot, far listeners are unruly about you. Can you give it a [00:01:00] little background about.
[00:01:01]Elliot Lane: Yeah, so I have been working at Benzinga for about four and a half years. Uh, in that time I started as just a regular sales guy.
[00:01:09] Um, you know, we were averaging probably about 2 million readers on our site back then. You know, a lot changed over Covid. Uh, to be quite frank with you, a lot of people used their stimulus money. To invest they and, you know, to look at how to grow it. And they came to our site to do that. And Covid was a bit of an indirect boon, uh, in, in our growth.
[00:01:32] The meme stock phase was a huge benefit to us. The crypto boom was a huge benefit to us and our readership. Uh, and we ended up, I think, Topping out at about 25 million readers, uh, in mid, uh, in I think in May, 2020. Um, so we exploded. Uh, at the start of Covid. We’ve obviously come back down to about, around about like 12 to 14 million, uh, average monthly readers.
[00:01:57] Um, so that’s a little bit about the backbone of [00:02:00] Beninger. Prior to that, , I was a professional actor, um, uh, on the musical theater, uh, circuit, uh, if you will, on the East Coast. So that was a lot of fun. Um, but you know, when you do contract work, it’s obviously quite unpredictable. So eventually I ended up working for Benzy.
[00:02:17] Really enjoyed talking to cannabis companies. Really enjoyed learning about new markets. I loved to learn things and I knew literally nothing about the economy, about stock markets, about, uh, cannabis, about psychedelics, about crypto. None of it before I started at Benzinga. So it was all trial by fire and, uh, one that was excited to take over.
[00:02:37] So I grew in Benga and ended up taking over the events vertical. And now as of this year, I’m the head of, uh, really all B2B activations within cannabis and psychedelics
[00:02:46]Bryan Fields: for. I love it. So what year was it that you first got started in cannabis for
[00:02:50]Elliot Lane: Benzinga? October 1st.
[00:02:52]Bryan Fields: 2018. 2018. So what type of education kind of hits you when you have to get started head first into an industry [00:03:00] you’ve never experienced before, where you’ve gotta talk to some of the bigger companies and learn the space fast?
[00:03:03] How, how do you do
[00:03:04]Elliot Lane: that? Well, first of all, you don’t know who’s big and who’s not , right? So I, one of my first calls with was with Truly, and I was. This is the same person as, you know, that consultant I just talked to. Like, to me, like there is no difference. Like I had to learn, you know, really what vendors do in the space versus plant touching companies versus payments companies, versus what an E R P is.
[00:03:28] Uh, you know, you have to learn all these different slogans and it takes a while. Uh, but really what you do is you learn what you do first and what value you provide, uh, , and then how you fit into the space and everything just kind of trickles down from. ,
[00:03:42]Bryan Fields: I think that’s really well said. And Benga as a whole isn’t just cannabis, right?
[00:03:46] Let’s let, we should start from a macro standpoint of Benzinga and then we can narrow down specifically on the focus of what it does for cannabis.
[00:03:51]Elliot Lane: Yeah, good point. Um, Benzinga, we cover all markets. You know, as I mentioned, we cover crypto and, you know, stock education. We have a data platform called [00:04:00] Benzinga Pro.
[00:04:00] If you invest in the stock market, uh, we provide a trading technology, basically suite of APIs where you can subscribe to that monthly. Get really, really quick and up-to-date alerts, uh, through these APIs you can obviously choose your own watch lists. I have about 20 different industry focused watch lists that I have on my pro account, but it’s very, very quick.
[00:04:23] So that’s kind of the, the more cu consumer, customer, retail, investor facing side of it. Uh, but our, our news covers everything. Uh, we cover Elon Musk. Very regularly, uh, , you know, to our detriment and his probably, uh, we cover President Biden, you know, and you know, we, we’ll cover a lot on, uh, the report that came out this morning.
[00:04:43] Uh, you can probably go on Bening and see that on the homepage. Uh, we’ll, you know, cannabis and FinTech are really the two pillars, uh, of, you know, market wise. Uh, if you wanna look at specific markets of what we covered. But when you think about how Benga became competitive, it was our willingness to cover markets [00:05:00] that are larger.
[00:05:01] Peers wouldn’t or didn’t care to yet. So you think about insider, you think about Bloomberg, Reuters, uh, Yahoo, finance. We are much larger into the space because of our willingness to cover it at a very high level and a very deep level. And, and that happened in Canvas, happened FinTech, it’s happening in psychedelics.
[00:05:21] Uh, and, and we are. I think the leader in financial coverage for the cannabis space, and that of course, you know, affects how much people have trust in you for the other industries as well. Why do
[00:05:32]Bryan Fields: you think that some
[00:05:33]Kellan Finney: of the bigger entities just chose not to even dive into cannabis at all?
[00:05:38]Elliot Lane: Didn’t. Well, I mean, I think it’s a mix that they didn’t need to
[00:05:41] Um, you know, when you’re at a young company, right? You, you have to figure out ways to compete. You have to do things that are a little bit taboo, uh, or unique or fun or creative, right? You can’t just be another Bloomberg because you’re not gonna beat Bloomberg at Bloomberg’s game. No, but you know, so Jason, if you have any sense.
[00:05:59][00:06:00] Our company, Jason Rasnick, is our c e o. He is as scrappy of a human being as he can get. And I use that word, uh, intentionally cuz it’s his favorite word, um, to use. But it, he started out of his parents’ basement. Our first customer, this is long before me, was TD Ameritrade, uh, to use our news and I think he called them like nine different times as different.
[00:06:24] To get in front of them. So he like called them as a woman one time. He, he called them as like different people until they finally listened to him and they’re like, okay, final, let’s take a meeting. Um, so I mean, that’s the type of personality that Jason brought to us. And it’s doing things differently.
[00:06:39] It’s doing things on a more, um, consumer and customer friendly level where anybody that emails us, I can guarantee you 99.9% we’re gonna. , I think there’s like a
[00:06:53]Bryan Fields: relentlessness. When you operate in cannabis, you have to be scrappy, and I think that’s story by Jason kind of sums up perfectly that even [00:07:00] though people forget sometimes that Benga is big, but they still have to play these different challenges because the the massive entities, they’re fighting Bloomberg, Ru Reuters, Yahoo, finance, all of those other entities don’t necessarily have to challenge ’em because they stick to their own domain.
[00:07:12] I think people kind of forget that even though Benga is. Their competing tasks are still in the same restrictions that cannabis face, that the other industry operates face as well.
[00:07:22]Elliot Lane: Absolutely. I mean, we, you know, advertising our cannabis event is a massive challenge, , right? Like, we, we can’t do it in the same channels as like a, an electric vehicle event, uh, or an auto event or, or anything of that nature.
[00:07:34] So we do face those challenges. I think, you know, saying Benzing is large, we don’t operate under that assumption. You know, we, we very much feel like a startup still, you know, and, and we obviously have a corporate structure that we have to work as because that’s what you have to do to mature and, and get larger and become a competitor.
[00:07:53] But, you know, we don’t assume we are there yet. And I think that’s why we continue to grow [00:08:00] is because we continue to innovate and we continue to work with people that push us to.
[00:08:04]Bryan Fields: So speaking on the conference, I’m excited to kind of dive into that. When setting up a location, are there other restrictions that surprise people or surprised yourself when you’re trying to book, quote unquote, a cannabis conference at one of
[00:08:16]Elliot Lane: these hotels?
[00:08:18] Yeah. Well, it helps also with who we are, right? We’re not a consumer event, you know, so it it, it does, and I think events in the cannabis space are all lumped into this term cannabis events, right? I mean, it seems obvious, but it must be said. We’re a very different event from a CannaCon. We’re very different event from a hall of.
[00:08:40] We’re, we’re not the same really at all. With the same with, with the one possible caveat of maybe we want a crossover with the operators. Right. You know, so I mean that, that is probably as similar as we get, but we work with a lot of these events as well. MJ Biz is one of our largest partners. . Um, you know, we work with [00:09:00] Lyft, we work with, uh, Arcview on a regular basis.
[00:09:02] We work with all of our, our peers and competitors in ways that people that would probably surprise people. Um, you know, we want to be partners to the cannabis space at large, but when putting on an event, to get back to your question, um, you know, it, it’s, it’s more about the networking, uh, and, and what, what the value we can provide with the amount of business cards and connections you make there.
[00:09:23] That’s what we are worried about. So that’s why we. Do everything we can to avoid holding it in a convention center. We want people to be at the hotel, to stay at the hotel. We want it to be literally 48, 72, however long hours it is of just nonstop networking from breakfast. You go down, you, you’re standing by, uh, the c e o of a tier three M mso, uh, or you know, next to you is the, the managing partner of, of cannabis for.
[00:09:53] Right. You know, so I mean these, that’s the networking that I get excited for is creating that really [00:10:00] intimate way of having a large event in a space that is, is not, uh, that, that is not overly large . I, I don’t know, sorry. I used large too many times there. It bother me. But you’re, you’re basically confining it to a space.
[00:10:16] Um, but you still have 3000 high level executives that you can network. Does
[00:10:21]Kellan Finney: the like state location factor in significantly in terms of like if, uh, they have a medical market or adult use market?
[00:10:29]Elliot Lane: We don’t, yeah, we won’t operate an event. I, I would say in a market that it doesn’t make sense. Like they’re not go, you know, as much as I push for it, they’re not gonna come to, to North Carolina.
[00:10:37] Happy event. .
[00:10:38]Bryan Fields: Come on, Jason. Say Raleigh .
[00:10:41]Elliot Lane: Yeah, I mean, if you guys wanna get together in Raleigh, we can do a little mini, uh, satellite event. I’m happy to host. Um, but with that being said, like Miami, it, it’s, it’s a little bit about where will people travel it, it’s a little bit about, you know, where is our audience?
[00:10:58] You know, and when you think of [00:11:00] the value we’re trying to provide at Benzinga, you know, is access to capital, access to partnerships that could allot in, in m and a deals. Uh, it could be debt capital, uh, it could be a brand meets an M s O at, at our event. And, you know, they’re all of a sudden in the air footprint.
[00:11:18] You know, those are the kinds of, of business deals that we want done at, at our event, and it happens at every event, and I think that’s really cool. But when you think about our audience, . We started it by investor presentations and having, uh, hundreds of investors show up. So I would say, Probably about 25 to 30% of our audience are institutional and accredited investors.
[00:11:40] And granted a lot of them are the original ones and the OGs that you all could probably list yourselves. Uh, but those are very important. I, I think to have there you should never take for granted the experience of, of those who have invested in cannabis, cuz they. Uh, I, I think some of the most valuable [00:12:00] opinions you can have about where we can take this next.
[00:12:02] But that being said, we’ll still have like a network of family offices. We’ll have, uh, people who, you know, recently retired and they wanna put some of their wealth into cannabis companies. I mean, it’s a vast array of investors. So when we think about where they are, it’s generally on the east coast. And that’s why we don’t really do California events.
[00:12:19] It’s really nothing to do with the California market. I would be thrilled to go to San Diego or, or Los Angeles. I mean, my God, if anybody wants to sponsor a trip for me there, I’ll be there in a heartbeat. But investors, at least the. The vast majority of them from the ones we hear from, I’ll qualify it that way, are on the East Coast.
[00:12:38] So we look at Miami as our flagship event. And then, uh, right now we’re, we’re pretty much sitting in Chicago for our fall event. So we’ll do two a year. Eventually it may end up as one, which would be Miami. Uh, but for now it’s the two events. A as we, we highlight multiple markets throughout the, throughout the US and the East.
[00:12:57]Bryan Fields: I wanna go back to what you said prior about the size of the event, because [00:13:00] you’re right, like it is large, but it feels so tiny and, and small. And I, I never really understood how that felt until the first time I attended the event in Chicago last time. And Kellen was like, how’s it like, and I was like, it is like networking on steroids.
[00:13:13] People are all in this small hall, and I’m being pulled and pushed and trying to grab this person. , I, I don’t know what to do. Like, I’m almost overwhelmed because I can’t be in all these places at once, and I, I hadn’t felt that small, small, like community feeling in a while, especially some of these other tennis men that are so large, right?
[00:13:30] Like at MJ biz, it is the two, two floors, the huge halls you’re walking for, for days it feels like you’re never gonna run into people, but here it feels like it’s so easily done. You can find the people you’re looking for. The, the, the type of people there are, it’s everyone you want to talk to, all the people you’re interested in, in learning about the type of companies that you might not have had enough exposure to.
[00:13:49] The, the, the questions you wanna ask them and learn about and get a direct response on are all there. And I give your team a ton of props for actually having an event where people show up at, because yeah, I think it’s probably harder said
[00:13:59]Elliot Lane: than [00:14:00] done. Well, that’s, that’s been the ultimate goal is. You know, we, we do, of course, we want people to party.
[00:14:05] We want people to have fun. We people to have an experience, right? Events are experiences at, at the end of the day, if you don’t put on an experience that people remember, they’re not gonna come back . I’m like, why would they, but I, if you know, if you’re on Miami Beach, right? You’re, you’re at the Fountain Blue, you have a cabana meeting with Emily Pia or, or Boris Jordan, right?
[00:14:27] I mean, that’s an experience that you, I mean, name me another event that, that does that on the. There really isn’t one. And that’s something that we pride ourselves in and I think, you know, not to, to disregard, you know, the, the value of who we are is the content, right? Is, is the education. And, you know, different events have different value props and, and I think it’s important to understand if I’m buying a ticket to an event, what is their audience?
[00:14:57] Like, what am I going there for? Uh, [00:15:00] and, and going prepared because if I go to, to MJ biz, I’m probably gonna have a different approach to that event than I will going to a biz event. Even though you have pretty much, uh, a lot of the same service providers and vendors are there, uh, a lot of the same MSOs are represented, albeit the C-Suites are probably not on the floor unless they’re speaking at MJ biz.
[00:15:21] But you know, it’s something where it’s still a very different e event approach, I think. Um, so I mean, with us it’s all it, it’s the content and I think that’s our value. The education is our value, uh, and we really take that to heart and make sure that the companies. That are leading the industry, both from a corporate standpoint, a social equity standpoint, a financial standpoint, a vendor standpoint.
[00:15:46] Those are the ones we have on stage. And then of course, we wanna challenge our brands to be represented as well. So we create room for them. Uh, and, and it’s a balance, right? You have to have people that draw tickets to the event that, that draw. Um, You know, [00:16:00] other members of the cannabis space of the event, but you also wanna be a partner to the industry at large.
[00:16:04] Mm-hmm. and, and create space, uh, for, for the next upcoming wave, uh, of leaders in this industry. So when
[00:16:12]Bryan Fields: you guys
[00:16:12]Kellan Finney: are producing that content, is it like a collaborative effort between like the speakers that you’re gonna have on, or is it kind of like, Hey, we’d love for you to speak on this topic. How does that kind of get formed?
[00:16:24]Elliot Lane: We are very controlling . Uh, we, we are a bad. Uh, date, uh, I’ll say, but in that sense, a lot of people, of course, you know, they speak at a lot of events, you know, they speak at a lot of smaller events and or even, you know, peer events to us and they get to, to build a panel. W we’re very different. You know, we, we, we listen to our audience.
[00:16:47] We’re very, you know, finger on the pulse, you know, for better or worse. And, you know, we. will Place every speaker on that agenda. And, you know, there are sometimes when you can fault us for, you know, [00:17:00] not having a diverse voice on that panel or not having a, a female voice on that panel. But, uh, if you look at the evolution of our agendas, we’re actively remedying that.
[00:17:12] Um, you know, and it’s something that we want to make sure the content flows. We want to make sure it makes sense. We want to make sure there are actual discussions on stage and not just preachy. Um, You know, agreements, like, yeah, you’re right. Yeah. You know, let, but we want to make sure, we want, we want people to actually like butt heads a little bit, you know, so that there’s actual education happening.
[00:17:34] Um, so we want to make sure that we are very, very in control of the content and where it goes and what people are listening to. I think that’s an under underappreciated
[00:17:42]Bryan Fields: aspect of the type of details to go into it, because it would be way easier just to select the speakers, you know, want to talk to each other, let ’em all go.
[00:17:49] But you. The information then would be kind of like the same, and it’s not like that. So how, how does that work? Is there a role playing that goes involved? Is that like a deeper understanding of personalities and interests and kind of [00:18:00] knowing the individuals that are gonna be presented? How do you do that
[00:18:03]Elliot Lane: mixture together?
[00:18:04] So there, this is where my wonderful colleague and co-host Javier Hase comes in , right? So we, we know all the major players. , um, in, in major players being your, your MSOs, the people who drive large revenues in this space, uh, they’re generally always there, but understanding who is making waves, uh, what topics are people looking for?
[00:18:28] People want to talk about cost cutting right now, right? You know, how is that going to be a theme at our April event? I mean, you gotta come and find out, but , right? right. But. You know, it’s, that’s the type of education we’re gonna have is, is brand discussions, right? We’re, we’re actively hunting down large, large brand representation that’s not cannabis centric.
[00:18:51] To come and talk about possible cannabis retail, um, synergies. Once cannabis is legal, right? So we are, we’re looking to [00:19:00] innovate our content every single event, and, and we’re looking to make sure that, um, we’re, you know, we’re touching on content that wants to be touched on, if that makes sense. Is there
[00:19:11]Bryan Fields: potential opportunity for expansion outside of the cannabis industry, hypothetically, if alcohol or big tobacco are interested in kind of being a part of these conversations to get more of a nuanced talk of what the future could look like from
[00:19:23]Elliot Lane: multiple.
[00:19:24] Absolutely. I mean, we, we have already been in discussion, uh, with them, uh, to participate in these dis in, in these conversations and, um, some positive talks, some not positive talks, right? Some people want to be a part of it. Others want to keep it arms length until. , everything is is legal in 50,000 years.
[00:19:44] Right. , I mean, is what it seems, right? Yeah. Right. But y you know, as, as for our events, I mean, we, we host events in multiple industries, so we’re always talking to people outside of cannabis. And if, you know, a lot of our vendors will participate in our crypto event, you know, [00:20:00] we have alternative investment sources as well.
[00:20:02] You know, like crowdfunding, uh, you know, if you’re a private company or a crowdfunding, you’re considering crowdfunding that that’s something that we. Host a ton of content and actually virtual events in, so, I mean, there’s always crossover there. How much crossover has
[00:20:16]Bryan Fields: there been from
[00:20:16]Kellan Finney: the psychedelic space with the cannabis space?
[00:20:18] Are you guys gonna just segment those off and kind of run a, a, an o, your own psychedelic track and keep ’em separate? Or are you guys gonna kind of let them still, uh, overlap, if you
[00:20:29]Bryan Fields: will?
[00:20:30]Elliot Lane: Psychedelics for us is not, you know, wanna say this without dissing the psychedelic space. Um, Psychedelics doesn’t have a big enough audience yet.
[00:20:43] It’s not that we want to combine the industries and you know, you could look at Wonderland and completely disagree with me, right? Like there is an audience for events. Absolutely. But we are a, a side, we are a sector of a psychedelics event. Right. And, and [00:21:00] how much money is flowing in that space right now?
[00:21:02] I mean, you had 2 billion and then it just. You know, for r and d and so, I mean, we will have hundreds of people come to our psychedelics track, but have a standalone event for that. Uh, it just hasn’t seemed like the right time for us yet. Uh, but we will have a full day of psychedelics content in Miami on April 13th.
[00:21:22] A good deal, uh, of the cannabis audience will stay for that day, but you’re looking at you. I spoke to a good partner of mine that’s a lender. Uh, and you know, he’s interested in lending to both spaces. Obviously he’s active in cannabis, but is exploring psychedelics. Um, same with law firms, recruitment firms, you know, accounting firms.
[00:21:41] Those vendors are all wanting to work in both spaces. But when you have investors, it’s more about education. , it’s more about, is this something I wanna dive into? I mean, it’s more biotech, right? It’s not, you know, it’s not hospitality unless you’re getting into a resort or clinic feel, in which case, okay, maybe that is something I wanna to [00:22:00] look at.
[00:22:00] But you know, we’ll, we’ll have investment opportunities there. But again, this is such an early side of psychedelics and where it will end up being, it’s highly focused on the education and content. Why do
[00:22:12]Bryan Fields: you think
[00:22:13]Kellan Finney: that psychedelics and cannabis kind have just been
[00:22:16]Bryan Fields: paired?
[00:22:18]Elliot Lane: like that. I think it’s people willing, I think , I think it’s people with an open mind.
[00:22:23] Honestly, I, I think it’s people that are already working in one emerging market that see, yeah, it’s risky af but you know, if I go into this other market, man, that’s actually maybe a little bit less risk. It’s more biotech, right? But like, if you’re investing in Pfizer or you know, a phase two, um, you know, clinical trial.
[00:22:45] like that, they’re, they don’t have a drug out yet that is just as risk. as investing in cannabis, right? I mean, that could go either way. You know, and, and every you’re, you’re holding on every press release that biotech releases, you know, [00:23:00] saying, oh, the data’s good. Oh, I’m gonna buy 10 more shares or a hundred more shares.
[00:23:03] Oh, the data’s bad crap. And then the, you know, that’s all they have to go on. And, and psychedelics has been that way for a while. But now you’re getting different sites, right? You’re getting clinics, you’re, you’re starting to get more wider acceptance to, uh, the, the ketamine. Um, you know, you’re, you’re getting.
[00:23:18] Resorts right in, in Latin America. Um, you know, so there it’s becoming more interesting and maybe a little bit more connected to cannabis, um, a little bit, but it’s, it’s taking a medical pathway and it’s unlikely that it will ever be recreational, at least from a lot of people we speak with. So connecting those two hip to hip, I think is a mistake.
[00:23:41] Um, at least in the sense of content. However, the people who want to learn about. Tend to be very similar. I
[00:23:51]Bryan Fields: think it’s smart having it be the final day cuz you can get a sense of people staying and understand if it continues to grow. Maybe it’s worth having a, a [00:24:00] separate track at a separate time and giving your team some got really good data insights onto the growth of the industry, specifically from the educational side and if that’s a good fit for Benzinga in the future.
[00:24:09] So slightly switching gears, one of the, the areas that I’ve heard about Benzinga conference is that I’m not raising capital. There’s no reason for me to. What would you say to that?
[00:24:19]Elliot Lane: Oh, um, so I, I would go back to who Bening is at, at, at our heart, right? And also, you know, I, I would look at your goals, right?
[00:24:28] Yeah. I mean, if you are looking for visibility, Or thought leadership. If you’re looking for brand recognition, I, if you’re looking for, uh, partners, you know, to, to help you audit your finances, you know, if you’re looking for, uh, equipment manufacturers, or some sort of, you know, hydroponics firm, um, , you know, if you’re looking for debt, um, if you’re, I mean, the list goes on.
[00:24:54] If you’re looking for media outside of Benzinga, you know, screw benzinga, you know, they’re too big. [00:25:00] Right. But like, we’ll have really cool podcasts there, like the dime, right? , you know, but like, I, I mean, there are so many reasons to attend events for. . I would, I would, our umbrella is b2b and it’s partnerships, networking.
[00:25:15] And, and yes, it is capital flow, but if you think that coming to an event is how you get capital, you’re skipping a hundred steps. Mm-hmm. , right? I, I mean, we, we offer a ton of networking. You can get media, you can meet people like Brian, you can meet people like Boris Jordan. You can meet, uh, people. like Ankur the, the CEO of C3 Industries, an up and coming, um, MSO that’s private in Michigan and in Oregon.
[00:25:44] In Missouri, right. You can meet a ton of these. Cool, um, kind of expansive retail operations, uh, or wholesale distribution. I mean, we’re gonna have leaf trade there. They’ve already committed. We’ll have Cronos group, uh, one of the largest LPs. So, I mean, if [00:26:00] you’re looking at international, uh, opportunities and we’re gonna have a German panel on an American panel, I, I’m, I hope that’s enough reasons to at least consider coming because you have to understand the event and what it is.
[00:26:16] And Benga, while we cover financial opportunities, not everybody there leaves with. That’s unrealistic and it’s not the case. But people do leave with contacts, people do leave with partnerships. Um, I know one major m and a deal that absolutely started at our conference. Um, and I’m not gonna say here cuz I will get in trouble with Jason
[00:26:41] That’s right. But, uh, so believe me or don’t believe me, but deals happen, capital flows. You know, products move to different shelves at our events even, you know? But it is a place where we are of the highest quality audience, and I will stick by that and go to the grave. It has nothing to do [00:27:00] with our competitors, but I do not know of a higher quality audience in cannabis events.
[00:27:04] I, I
[00:27:05]Bryan Fields: agree with you, and I think some of the conversations that we saw when we were there, Kell and I were speculating, but it’s fun to play that game of understanding like, Hey, those two guys are talking. Maybe there’s a potential partnership in the future. And then as you follow. The steps, you’re like probably has something to do with it, but in our mind we’re like, we saw it, we saw the origin of the initial conversation, go from there.
[00:27:24] So I wanna stay with some of the media that happens there. Obviously Mike Tyson has made tons of headlines with Benga. At first I thought maybe he was on the take and he was part of the marketing efforts. But then after a while, I think he’s just a big fan of Ben Zinga and it gets excited when he is coming there.
[00:27:38] is that part of the team? What’s the deal with Mike and always making headlines
[00:27:41]Elliot Lane: with Benga? Um, I’ll tell you this, I, you know, we’re, we, we love Chad Bronstein. We love Filo. Um, I, I love his entrepreneurialism. Uh, and obviously he has a direct, uh, connect for us with Mike Tyson and Rick Flair. And of course, there’s a lot of media [00:28:00] that people get from coming to our conferences.
[00:28:01] We are, you know, if you ask a PR agency who has the highest impression count, uh, for content coming out of, uh, you know, PR pitches, it, it’s. us by far. Right? So, I mean, these people come to us for brand visibility as well. Um, it’s not just us getting Mike Tyson and Woohoo, but you know, we, we want a diverse.
[00:28:25] Perspective, and yeah, Mike has a questionable record, but I mean, people want to hear from him. People want to understand what’s next. Why does he care so much about cannabis? What is up with those, you know, bitten ear gummies, dude, is that really the best brand to marketing play? I mean, have your opinions about it, but you’re probably going to come and listen.
[00:28:44] Right. Um, but that being said, it’s not all about that. It’s not all about, um, you know, just getting the, the quick and snappy headlines. We, you know, want Al Harrington there who supports, you know, local Michigan businesses. We want Calvin [00:29:00] Johnson, uh, there. And then I’m speci specifically. Speaking about celebrities, right.
[00:29:04] You know, but we want, like, you know, we’re, we’re constantly having conversations with people like Rosario Dawson, uh, you know, with with differing personalities. We, of course, you know, open invitation. Martha Stewart, if you’re listening to this podcast, uh, I know, uh, you know, it’s possible. Right? She’s a big fan of the dime.
[00:29:21] I’m saying. She should. She should be. She should be. You know, but like, be real Tommy Chung. Um, we want all. It’s not that, you know, we’re we’re carving time on our stage specifically for Mike Tyson because of one reason or. We want every perspective, um, that people want to hear from. And, and that is what Mike Tyson fits into.
[00:29:46] Uh, and he comes via connect out of somebody that I have a lot of respect for in Chad Bronstein and what he’s built at Filo over the course of like two and a half years. I mean, it’s incredible. Pretty
[00:29:56]Bryan Fields: wild. We, we just released our episode with Chad and, and we’re big fans of what they’re [00:30:00] building also.
[00:30:00] And the reason I ask is because we saw the headlines with the plane. We saw him smoking on Sage, which I still put top. Best thing I’ve ever seen at a conference in my entire life. I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life. Was there blowback
[00:30:12]Elliot Lane: from, from that? I cannot, um, claim that that was something we planned, nor um, it, it wasn’t planned at all.
[00:30:21] But I cannot claim that we wanted that to happen . I can imagine. Um, but that being said, there wasn’t really a lot of blowback. Um, you know, I think, I think it, you. If it was anybody else, it wouldn’t be in your question. The cannabis industry would be like loving it. Right? Right. Um, you know, but it obvi, you know, bars, stool sports shared Rick Flair and Mike Tyson at our event, smoking a Joint together.
[00:30:44] Yeah, it looked awesome. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was awesome. Ab yet they didn’t give us credit, but whatever. Bitterness, bitterness saved for leather for later. But that being said, like, I mean, Mike Tyson is, is awesome. He’s cool. He, you know, he. . [00:31:00] A lot of people hate ’em too though. You know, it’s something that we as conference organizers have to take into account at least.
[00:31:07] Um, but it doesn’t mean that just because people are disliked doesn’t mean we’ll take them off our stage. Now. It does mean that, you know, we want to make sure that everybody’s represented. , everybody’s voices are heard, uh, and everybody has, you know, somebody there that they want to hear from. And we’re making sure we give the voice to the right people.
[00:31:27] Um, but as we grow, you know, these people are part of that story. . I think that’s really
[00:31:31]Bryan Fields: important. And one of the areas that I think is, is even more wilder is some of the quotes that Poor Shorten has made specifically about Big Tobacco. I was in this, the, the audience that day when he made the comment about how he thinks the cannabis centers should become big tobacco, and I think people were surprised to hear that, but I appreciated the honesty in his opinion.
[00:31:47] Right. I recognized that he, he’s saying something that Michael against the grain, but that’s his opinion. That’s how he sees things. And whether you like P or not, I think that’s an informative stance from someone. a, a big part of the industry going forward. So I guess from your [00:32:00] standpoint, how quickly does your team recognize that a quote like that goes viral?
[00:32:04]Elliot Lane: Pretty quickly. Uh, we also get a call from the PR agencies pretty quickly too. . Um, but I will say, I think for us it was actually the beverage comment. Yeah, sure. And MJ biz was the tobacco one, but, uh, the, sorry, I mean the beverage. No, it’s fine. I mean, we’re the same event. It’s fine. Come on, man. We’re all the same.
[00:32:23] Both, both
[00:32:23]Bryan Fields: times. I’ve been shocked. Every time he speaks I’m just like, oh
[00:32:26]Elliot Lane: my, I, you know, but like somebody that big, I mean, Yeah, that’s pr, right? Yeah.
[00:32:32]Bryan Fields: Yeah. 100%. It’s like, I didn’t even know he had a beverage company
[00:32:35]Elliot Lane: prior to that statement. Yeah, like it’s, it’s fully pr, you know, it’s, and you know, it makes it really hard on his PR team, but , yeah, I love it.
[00:32:47] I mean, he’s more than welcome to continue doing that all time. Like, I
[00:32:51]Bryan Fields: love it. Also, I think it’s pretty incredible because you get, you get something different and you get a piece of personality where it’s not like a scripted response, he’s saying, so, [00:33:00] that his PRT may or may not be happy with. It might have to do some damage control after, but at least you’re getting a true, a true stance on something for a reason or not.
[00:33:06] And I’m pretty sure his, his
[00:33:08]Elliot Lane: standpoints are pretty . Well, and your tweets throughout the event are a great example. Brian, you know, you, you posted that and I, you know, the retention on that tweet, if I remember correctly, was ridiculous.
[00:33:17]Bryan Fields: It was insane. And, and just kind of spiral that of control if we’re gonna be completely honest, because I was just like, oh my.
[00:33:24]Elliot Lane: I mean, you caught it. You you posted it, man. You may have broken the news. Well, we’ll say, we’ll say it was right here on the dime. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but, but if
[00:33:31]Bryan Fields: we’re just gonna be honest, like, I, I think it’s important that people hear those type of things because I was fortunate enough to be invited by your team down there, and hearing something like that is a staggering thing because mm-hmm.
[00:33:40] it goes against the grain. But it’s the type of information that I think is, is a little more contrarian, but also extremely valuable for people to hear as they recognize that the industry is wider and, and more challenging than they.
[00:33:52]Elliot Lane: Right. Yeah. It, it’s, it’s incredibly challenging and I mean, it, it brings up, you know, the fact that people just [00:34:00] innately dislike Boris for one reason or another.
[00:34:03] And it’s the same with Kim Rivers, you know, it’s the same with Charlie Bto. It’s probably the same with George Ar ar Arcos. Although I, I don’t really see the Hate Torres him, to be honest. Um, same with Ben Koler. Um, but it’s, it’s just this innate, um, Dislike. For, for that side of the industry. And I don’t think that has much to do with what he said.
[00:34:28] I think you could have posted that, you know, he picked his wedge walking off the stage and it would’ve been a similar response.
[00:34:34]Bryan Fields: People will lose it. Yeah. This year maybe I’ll do, uh, uh, another quote, but this’ll be something like that. We’ll see if you not the same sort of objection. , what about,
[00:34:42]Elliot Lane: what about the construction?
[00:34:43] Tag him please. Absolutely. There’s no
[00:34:45]Bryan Fields: doubt about that. I’m gonna have to edit that part out, so don’t know. It’s coming. , what about the, the post-event networking? I know we chatted about the fact that there was no cannabis products, and obviously I understand there’s, there’s limitations because you’re [00:35:00] not doing it at a benzinga based, uh, hotel you’re doing at a public place, and you can’t just be consuming products, whatever you want without a consumption license.
[00:35:07] So are there hopes in the future to have more partnerships where we can. event and have a consumption networking event like in a similarity.
[00:35:15]Elliot Lane: Is that a thought in the future? It is. Um, yes, would be the answer to your question. Uh, priority wise, I don’t know where it sits on the list, if I’m gonna be quite transparent with you.
[00:35:26] Um, you know, while I do think that anybody that is a c e o of a company and doesn’t use their own product, I, I have questions about, yeah. I, I mean, if we’re, if we’re real. Like, it’s why I, I, you know, when I started my podcast at Ben Zinga, I always ask like, what, what did you do before Benzinga? Or I’m sorry, before, what’d you do before you worked with me?
[00:35:47] What did you do before you worked for this company and led this company? And how has that played into your experience? And everybody has a different path, right? So I don’t. . I don’t f you know, fault legacy operators as CEOs. I don’t fault investment bankers [00:36:00] as CEOs, but what I do think you should understand is the quality of your own product and be real with yourself about it.
[00:36:07] and, I mean, nobody’s real public facing. It’s all, it’s all super high quality and better than everybody else’s, but you know it. For me, consumption has its place in this industry and industry events. That is what I’ll say, but it is not the focus of our event. No, and you should not , I mean, if you’re intoxicated while talking to this audience, we, we should probably chat cuz it’s probably not a, a, a wise move for you.
[00:36:38] But, you know, and, and it might, this might get me blow back or heat or fire, but like, you know, this is, these are people who can make you success. These are people who can take your business to a new level. You can take somebody else’s business to a new level at this event. And that’s the focus. And, and these after party networking, [00:37:00] it’s still networking, you know, it, it’s, it’s meant to be fun.
[00:37:03] It’s meant to everybody, you know, have loose, you know, be loose together, you know, and, and have an experience. But it, it’s still part of the event, right? So we cannot. . Um, you know, while, while, yes, it is taboo and I respect the fact that we have a bar at the event, right. That that is something that we do have.
[00:37:22] And, you know, I don’t, you know, there, there should be an opportunity for you to consume cannabis and not drink alcohol. Cuz that is a big thing for a lot of people. Um, you know, I think one person very outward about it is Brosy mad. Yeah. You know, she stopped drinking and she smokes. Right? So, With that.
[00:37:40] Like, you know, I think there we should have venues where we allow cannabis consumption. Um, but that being said, it’s something where A, we have to find the right venue. Uh, b it has to be big enough. Yeah. And in consumption lounges like, yeah, you can have a consumption lounge license, but how many people can you hold?
[00:37:58] And hotels don’t [00:38:00] have that license. We can’t just whip out a joint and endorse that at a hotel. We’ll, we’ll get, we’ll get shut down in a heartbeat by the fire marshal. So, I mean, it, it’s a difficult balance and it’s one that I respect if people want to be upset about, but it’s, I don’t foresee it being something that we can fix in the near future in the cities that we’ve chosen to have events in.
[00:38:24] And I don’t think it needs
[00:38:25]Bryan Fields: to be
[00:38:25]Kellan Finney: fixed. I mean, if you think of like, you’re in Miami. It’s gonna be nice weather. Someone can just go outside right into a normal smoking section and make it even more de-stigmatized, right?
[00:38:34]Bryan Fields: Mm-hmm. .
[00:38:35]Elliot Lane: Yeah, I mean, I’m, I can’t endorse that, but like, I, I totally
[00:38:41]Bryan Fields: I think it’s important to clarify, right? It’s not like your team is choosing not to, it’s just not a path that’s currently available. Given in the future time, maybe that’s a consideration. And I think sometimes people just assume because it’s cannabis and spina, you know, they can do whatever they want, but turns out.
[00:38:56] Your team also has to follow the rules and challenges yet can [00:39:00] cannabis
[00:39:00]Elliot Lane: has stigmas? And listen, if you guys want a nightmare job, try working with hotel vendors. like I, I can’t tell you how frustrating they are. Like, and how unresponsive they are. , like, at large, because the fountain blue doesn’t need to be responsive.
[00:39:18] It’s the fountain blue. Right, right. You know, that’s where the rat pack stayed. They’re like, presidency stayed. Do you know who we are? And you’re like, I do that. Exactly. Yeah. It’s like, I, I, I wanna know, can I do this? Like, I wanna know like, yeah, that’s available. But you know, in, in Miami, like there’s no opportunity for.
[00:39:33] um, consumption lounge right now in Chicago? I would imagine there is, but maybe it’s more of a private networking event. But then again, you know, we, we still have, we still wanna have that after hours reception, that after hours party. Um, you know, and it, it’s either alcohol or, or nothing for a lot of venues that we can find.
[00:39:56] how
[00:39:56]Bryan Fields: does your team tell after the event that a certain topic, a [00:40:00] certain speaker, resonated really well with the audience to know, to double down in those areas in the future?
[00:40:07]Elliot Lane: Um, , there’s different ways, right? Um, he is social, uh, I mean social retention, right? I, I mean, love him or hate them. It’s the fourth time I’ve said that on this podcast. But people want to hear from tier one MSOs. People want to criticize. . People wanna, people want to be with them and partner with them, but people want to hear from them either way.
[00:40:28] It, it’s the same way with politicians, it’s the same way with lobbyists. It’s the, it’s the same with celebrities when it comes to, to everybody else. It, it’s obviously way more dependent on the topic. Um, but you know, we, you know, that’s where our news desk comes into play. You know, we have our finger on the pulse in terms of what’s happening in the industry, like very few others.
[00:40:50] Uh, and it’s where. You know, any earned content, it really, and we, we see the page views, we see the clicks, you know, we see what people are looking [00:41:00] at. Uh, and that obviously is a huge, uh, advantage.
[00:41:04]Bryan Fields: What is a factor statistic that would surprise the industry about setting up a, a, a conference
[00:41:09]Elliot Lane: or an event Hmm.
[00:41:14] That would surprise the industry? Surprise or shock?
[00:41:20] That’s a good question. That would shock the industry. Well,
[00:41:30] Benzinga is a,
[00:41:36] benzinga is severely understaffed. , uh, well, well that’s more of a personal note, but, uh, again, you’d think we’re, we’re as big as everybody else, but we’re a team of like 10, 10 to 12 people. Wow. That put these events. .
[00:41:51]Bryan Fields: That’s incredible. That is,
[00:41:53]Elliot Lane: that is so it, yeah. So I mean, well, we obviously could grow, um, but you know, we’re [00:42:00] affected by everything as everybody else is.
[00:42:03] We actually were acquired in October of 2021. Um, you know, so everything we do is, is very, uh, intentional, um, and very measure. . So all that is, you know, in terms of what would shock people about Benzinga is it’s, it, it’s a very close-knit, tight team that has figured out a process with the help of others, such as our, um, acquirers at Beringer Capital.
[00:42:30] Um, you know, but outside of that, putting on an event, you almost have to get really good at. . I don’t know how to say lying, but, uh, you know, negotiations with vendors are, it’s a game. You know? It’s a game and you always have to play o o on the edge, I will say. And that’s not gonna shock anybody. That’s a, that’s not as good of a good one.
[00:42:57] But, um, it, it’s, [00:43:00] it’s, it’s all under promise, overdeliver, you know, when you talk to companies, but when you’re talking to vendors, it’s, oh no, we’re only gonna have 800. , right? And then 2000 show up and you’re like, well, it’s fine. Right? , you know, but regardless, you know, I don’t think they’re listening to this podcast, but it’s, um, it, it’s, it’s a tough balance, you know, to, to walk between putting on an event and obviously running a business.
[00:43:27] And I think that is what people don’t want to hear from me right now, but I will say is events are a business. and events cost a lot of money. Yeah. And people want to participate at a free level consistently. And I respect that. I respect the knowledge that people bring, uh, and the, the presence, you know, that they affect people’s presences that they bring.
[00:43:51] But if we’re not spending at least a million dollars on this event, you’re not gonna have a good time. And, you know, we have to make. [00:44:00] Right. Or we can’t do this in Chicago or ever again. So, you know, with that being said, I think people have this, you know, this kind of thought where this is cannabis, they should be offering this for free.
[00:44:12] You know, they should be doing this for free, but that’s not reality. , you know, and we live in a capitalistic society. We have to pay for things. Uh, and you know, running a business in events is a, is a high cost business. So that is, I guess one thing that, you know, a lot of people will kind of scoff at me at , you know, and probably not want to hear.
[00:44:37] Um, but. It’s, it’s, it’s the reality unfortunately, and we, we do have social equity initiatives. We do have ways for people to attend for free and people to have access for free. Uh, and we want to continue to have stage time for free. And of course, you know, not have people, you know, pay for everything at our events, right?
[00:44:55] Um, you know, but everybody wants it for free [00:45:00] in this industry. Literally everybody. And it’s just not it. A lot of people are disappointed. in my response, unfortunately. So it it is what it is. It’s honest, and I, and I appreciate
[00:45:15]Bryan Fields: you for being transparent about that because you’re right. I’m sure a lot of people are hearing that or wondering why they can’t get an exception.
[00:45:20] And, um, it’s just, it’s just the reality of it. And the transparency is probably the best part about it is because people can at least hear that and understand that it is what it is. It’s not personal, it’s business and decisions
[00:45:30]Elliot Lane: have to be. Yeah, it really isn’t personal. Like if I could give you all stage time and still come away with margin, believe me, uh, I’d be happy to, but I’ll ask.
[00:45:42] My c e o would not be happy with me .
[00:45:46]Bryan Fields: 20 years from now, we’ll look back and say, that was barbaric. I can’t believe we did that in the cannabis industry. What is.
[00:45:53]Elliot Lane: Yeah, I mean, you’re talking just about literally everything in this industry. So , , I don’t think that’s [00:46:00] event centric.
[00:46:00]Bryan Fields: No, no. When you started your journey in the cannabis space, what did you get?
[00:46:04] Right. And most importantly, what did you get
[00:46:06] wrong?
[00:46:12]Elliot Lane: I think, um, cannabis is, is people who wanted something new. You know, they, they wanted a new journey. And for me, It’s all about relationships, it’s all about building, um, value for people, you know? And I just got off something that basically was like, you gotta pay me for value. Right? But if you don’t offer something in return and you don’t support people in return, then it’s not a partnership.
[00:46:39] Right? And, and that’s the beauty of what beninger is, is we can offer visibility and earned media. We can offer, um, you know, awareness. . And that’s something that I love doing for my partners. And I wish I had done it sooner. Uh, you know, I think it would’ve been good sooner. But something that I realized early on was I can offer a lot of [00:47:00] value to people, uh, with, with the power of Benga behind me and the power of our cannabis brand.
[00:47:06] Uh, and that’s something that I feel has actually helped me succeed in growing my network. And Ben Zinger’s network in cannabis is, Taking, um, what we do on an earned level and basically saying, I got you. Let me give you some visibility. Let me give you some awareness on this press release. Uh, and that’s something that, you know, if you reach out to me, like I’m more than happy to do.
[00:47:29] Is, is help people out, get visibility, get awareness, you know, do, do an interview with me on the podcast, like we do it twice a week. Uh, it’s, it’s a ton of time, but it’s so much fun. Uh, and that’s something that, you know, like if I can give you earned media, I will. I absolutely will. So that’s something that I’m proud of, like that I think we’re a good partner, uh, to this space.
[00:47:51] When it comes to visibility, uh, one thing that I wished I had done sooner, Was , [00:48:00] I get more involved and, and be more of a partner to this industry. Earlier, granted, I was still learning, right? I didn’t really know what that meant. Uh, when I first, you know, during the first year, maybe even two years that I was at Benzinga, um, which I probably shouldn’t have admitted that, but you know, it’s for me.
[00:48:21] You can’t be in this industry and understand what people want to talk about, hear about what people need from you unless you are actively participating, and that’s something I didn’t do soon enough. When we do
[00:48:35]Bryan Fields: predictions, we ask all of our guests, if you could sum up your experience in a main takeaway or lesson, learn to pass onto the next generation, what
[00:48:41]Elliot Lane: would it be?
[00:48:48] Not, you should never , never trust Washington, DC Um, a lot of people should hear that. . Uh, here’s, uh, uh, diversify, uh, you know, we’ll [00:49:00] take it back to the financial side. Um, and this isn’t necessarily right for the next generation of Benzing, and this is for everybody that looks at cannabis as, uh, an opportunity protect.
[00:49:13] don’t, don’t give everything to this industry. You know, a lot of people have, and I am not discrediting them for. I’m not disrespecting them for that. I, you know, a lot of people built this industry off their blood, sweat and tears, and that should be respected. Um, but when it comes to putting your money into this space, it’s highly volatile.
[00:49:33] Uh, and protect yourself, um, whether you’re starting a business or you know, investing in one. So that would be my thought. You should always diversify. But there’s a lot of people, you know, that I’m sure Brian, you see on Twitter, Kelly, you see uc on Twitter. They, they, it’s all in MSOs. Right. And, and it just doesn’t, it, it’s, it doesn’t, it doesn’t make sense.
[00:49:59] Well [00:50:00] said. All right. Prediction
[00:50:00]Bryan Fields: time, the April event is coming. Elliot, what topics or main takeaways do you predict will be the focus or the main idea for the conference?
[00:50:09]Elliot Lane: Hmm. We’re gonna have a few different tracks. So finance, operations and brands are all gonna be touched on in finance. You’re gonna have a lot of people saying the same stuff, right, that they’ve been saying for a while, but it needs to be heard.
[00:50:28] But I think this year, you know, weather or not, it’s happening. By the time we get to the conference, you’re gonna have people talking about receivership. You’re gonna have people talking about bankruptcy and seizing assets, but you’re also gonna be talking about the same thing of. is the only thing that is flowing right now.
[00:50:47] But, you know, so I, I think that’s a part of pretty much every conversation. But when, when looking at maybe what the operators are talking about, it’ll be cost cutting. So it’s really about balance sheets, about how people are being [00:51:00] flexible with their balance sheets, about how much cash flow they, they have.
[00:51:04] Uh, I feel like that and how they build a cashflow positive business is gonna be the through line of this. and how to do it successfully is how we’re gonna, is with the content we’re gonna try and have for those operators when it comes to operations. I mean, we’ll have cool, uh, topics like the hell is crypto gonna be in in payments for this industry?
[00:51:24] Is that still a thing? Right. Um, you know, we’ll have, you know, interesting, uh, conversations with people like Metric and headset, right? What, you know, data analytics and ai, right? We want innovations to be a centric part of this. And then brands. You know, there’s been predictions. This is the year four brands.
[00:51:44] This is the prediction, the, the prediction where, um, you know, vertically integrated companies are seen as a little bit less valuable and, and brands are seen as a little bit more, I don’t see that from a capital flow perspective, but from a [00:52:00] scalable business perspective, that is possible. So, you know, if this is the year for brands, you know, how do we get.
[00:52:08] And, and how do brands participate in this industry at a more successful level, in a more on par level as the, as the vertically integrated operators going. You wanna take a
[00:52:19]Bryan Fields: swing? Uh,
[00:52:21]Kellan Finney: what do I think is going to be the main topic or takeaway from Benca in April? Um, I’m gonna go with a wild card here, honestly, , um, my wild card is, I think that, The conversation is gonna be how did, how come New York took so long to go wreck and still not be a functional, uh, market, right?
[00:52:44] Like they learned from California and all these other states that were, uh, that did it before them and then they still. Took all that time and there’s still gonna be a dumpster fire .
[00:52:56]Bryan Fields: Whoa.
[00:52:56]Elliot Lane: That’s the west coast in him talking. Wow. Isn’t Brian? Wow. [00:53:00]
[00:53:00]Kellan Finney: I told you I was gonna take a wild card swing, but I think that it’s gonna dominate a lot of the conversations because New York is gonna be an epicenter for brands globally, right?
[00:53:10] Uh, it’s just how New York City is, and Manhattan, that whole vibe
[00:53:13]Bryan Fields: and so, They’re gonna see all of these
[00:53:16]Kellan Finney: finance individuals are gonna see like, oh wow, like New York was supposed to be this great industry. Right? And they still are gonna fumble the ball, in my opinion. And I think that’s gonna be a huge topic in the conversa in from a financial perspective, right.
[00:53:31] what do you think? Brian? You’re gonna off
[00:53:32]Bryan Fields: my first prediction. First off, . Neither Kellen nor I have seen any of the agenda for Benga. Second. That feels like just a personal shot is what you just took, right? , like I, it’s like that has nothing to do with Benga.
[00:53:43]Elliot Lane: You’re like, no, we’re, we’re really
[00:53:44]Bryan Fields: locking down.
[00:53:45] This is New York, Kate. And second, it’s not a dumpster fire. Right? It’s fair to call it different. And it’s fair to say that they’re doing things a little slower. Let’s reserve that type of judgment for let’s say six months from now. Then you can kind of say the mean things you’d like to say, and I’ll likely [00:54:00] agree, but until then I’ll reserve my judgment.
[00:54:02] Um, in my opinion, I, I’m gonna kind of piggyback off what Ellie has said. I think a lot of what you’ll hear is operational efficiencies, and I think that’s gonna mean a lot of different things to different people. But from my thought process, what that means is that companies, instead of spending the money to grow at all costs will start refining their operations, start adding in opportunities to really lock down those margins and understand how to make those margins.
[00:54:24] And I think one of the areas, in my opinion, that kind of got overlooked or in the earlier days or in the last couple years is it’s just growth at all costs. And it, whatever the margin is after we produce the products is really what we wanna do. And I think we have to really start locking in these numbers to have some sort of consistency.
[00:54:38] Because when you have really locked in, , you understand how to make better decisions. And when you do that, you can let go and jets send, you know, bad assets, but also you can double down on the areas that are really working. And I think in my opinion, operational efficiencies will be a common, common theme.
[00:54:54] And it’s just a matter of what it means to certain people. And I’m hoping that it means a lot of sensors. [00:55:00]
[00:55:01]Elliot Lane: good content, right? Brian?
[00:55:02]Bryan Fields: I mean, I’m excited, Elliot. So for our listeners, they wanna get in touch, they want to attend. Where can they.
[00:55:09]Elliot Lane: All right, so, uh, uh, a few plugs, if you don’t mind. What, uh, bz bz cannabis.com.
[00:55:16] That’s our event website. You can check out our past agendas, um, you know, see who we’ve had there before. I think you’ll see a really strong lineup. , um, you, you can check out what we’re doing so far in this one. The agenda for this one should be up in, in the next couple weeks. Uh, so keep an eye on that.
[00:55:32] But we do have cool companies, like, as I said, Kronos Group. Um, we’re gonna have cool up and comers like, uh, the CEOs of grn. Um, you know, so it’s, it’s a wide array of executives and participants in this industry. Um, bening.com/cannabis for all of our cannabis news. Um, and then just hit Bening, a cannabis.
[00:55:52] It’s our podcast and we’d love to have you there. And then ideally we get Brian and Kellen there, uh, to, you know, chat more about the dime and you’re all’s [00:56:00] perspective of the industry. But, uh, that is, you know, where we talk to industry executives. So really those three places are all you need to remember for us, uh, and.
[00:56:10] We, we’d love to hear from everybody. So Elliot Lane, e l l i o t l a n e, beninger.com. Always open for emails, always open to connect. Uh, and you know, hopefully we can be a benefit to everybody from mom and pop shop in Oregon to, um, multi nation. C, b, d play, I mean, anywhere in between. It doesn’t matter to us.
[00:56:30] We want to work with you, uh, if, you know, if it makes sense and if we can. Um, but you know, we are not just some giant corporate shill, , you know, we, we care about the industry at large and we want to give voice to everybody we can. Awesome.
[00:56:46]Bryan Fields: We’ll link those up in the show notes. Thanks for taking the time.
[00:56:48] This was a lot.
[00:56:49]Elliot Lane: This was a blast. Thank you guys for giving us, you, giving me the time and the visibility on Ben Zinga and you know, hopefully we can have more of these conversations going forward. I’m looking forward to
[00:56:57]Bryan Fields: it. Thanks, Elliot.
