Case Study:

CA State Fair Cannabis Awards and Exhibit

Objective:

Cal Expo desired to develop a California Cannabis Industry strategy and position for the CA State Fair through the creation of a Cannabis Competition and Exhibit. Public safety, reinforcing cannabis industry standards, uplifting the legal market, recognizing the best farmers and products in California, educating the mainstream public, and celebrating the social and agricultural history of cannabis in California were all key considerations. The California State Fair is a 17-day event that attracts approximately 700,000 attendees.

Approach:

Throughout 2018 I served as a subject matter expert advisor for the California Exposition and State Fair team. I participated in several stakeholder meetings and conducted Cal Expo site visits to gather information, assess the venue, and ideate multi-year strategies to meet the goals and desires of the CA State Fair.

I engaged a team of specialized industry experts to socialize the vision and garner feedback including event expert James Leitz of Compass & Hatchet, an event production company, Alec Dixon the co-founder of SC Labs, Genine Coleman the executive director of Origins Council, Johnny Casali of Huckleberry Hill Farms, Kevin Jodrey of Wonderland Nursery and Cookies Research and Development Facility, and others.

In March 2020, Cal Expo officially contracted the services of Emerald Country LLC (EC). Emerald Country LLC, an entity solely owned by Brian Applegarth, secured the rights to create, market, manage, and execute the cannabis, hemp, and CBD competitions and exhibits at the CA State Fair.

I created the first draft of the awards divisions and categories of the CA State Fair cannabis program and ideated/drafted the multi-station cannabis exhibit experience including a federally compliant hemp CBD slushie bar featuring award-winning terpene profiles.

Implementation

Emerald Country LLC teamed up with Compass & Hatchet, an event production company owned by James Leitz, to bring the vision to life. As Leitz assumed event production and implementation lead, a reconfiguring of the contracted entity shifted from Emerald Country LLC to Cultivar Brands / Cultivar Events.

From here forward, I led partnership development and supported PR, sponsorship sales and marketing efforts, speakers and talent, content and storytelling strategy. Key partnerships facilitated included SC Labs, Cannigma, Origins Council, and over 50 expert industry speakers and participants to activate the exhibit and contribute content including California Norml, Americans for Safe Access, Oaksterdam, Ganjier and others.

An important moment happened in spring 2020 when some of the CA State Fair board started getting cold feet due to pushback about the cannabis awards happening.  The California cannabis community rallied together to present arguments to the CA State Fair Board in favor of continuing forward on April 29th 2022.  Alec from SC Labs, Cameron Hattan from Fiddlers Green, and myself rolled up our sleeves and assembled a list of expert speakers and industry leaders that included Dr. Ethan Russo, Dr. Bonnie Goldstein, Amanda Reiman, Dustin from Embarc and others. It was a cultural moment – a piece of history in this CA State Fair story that represents the community and advocacy and coming together around the plant and the truth.  We lined up against the opposition to debate and make our case in front of the CA State Fair Board of Directors…and won.

After delays due to the covid-19 pandemic, the flagship CA State Fair Cannabis Awards and Exhibit successfully happened in 2022. It was a historic milestone. Subsequently, 2023 was another successful year of the California State Fair Cannabis Awards and Exhibit. In 2023, we strategically moved exhibit locations to accommodate an outdoor marketplace and consumption space growth in future years.

Once we integrated retail and consumption, we intended to scale the cannabis exhibit, retail, and consumption model to several California fairs and festivals throughout the state while celebrating and marketing the winners at every stop.

Results & Outcome

Successfully co-created the first state-agency sanctioned cannabis awards program and exhibit at the CA State Fair, tailored for mainstream media and fairgoers. 

Significant earned media. The flagship year yielded 21.7 million dollars of media value and 673 million total audience reached.

In 2022 21.7 million dollars of media valuewe won two (2) International Association of Fairs and Expos (IAFE) Awards. We placed 2nd in the New Division of Competition category, and 21.7 million dollars of media valuein the Agricultural Special Contest category. 

Over the course of 17 days, we sold over 10,000 CBD slushys.

In 2023 we won a 1st Place IAFE Award for best Agricultural Exhibit.

2024 was a historic year, as cannabis retail and consumption was added to the program by Embarc and the awards extended beyond flower into other consumer products by Budist. It was a significant milestone of realizing the vision and the multi-year growth strategy.