Industry Events
Blunt Brunch Las Vegas Delivers All The Feels
More than 300 women gathered at Las Vegas Blunt Brunch to form honest and empowering conversations.
The 2022 Las Vegas Blunt Brunch brought together more than 220 women working in cannabis who all showed up to celebrate and encourage one another as they navigate the ever-evolving industry. Taking place on Nov. 15 at IPEC Las Vegas, the sold-out event featured speakers, an awards ceremony, live entertainment and small-group breakout sessions.
Following brunch, the event opened up to another 100+ guests at the social mixer for Blunt Brunch’s largest event to date.
“We definitely stepped it up a notch in our production value from the venue to the entertainment to the activations our sponsors curated,” says Adelia Carrillo, CMO/Co-Founder of EventHi and Co-Founder of Blunt Brunch.
The social mixer was set up in the IPEC lobby and featured fun brand activations, podcast recordings and “speed dating.”
“I had a lot of fun at my first ever speed networking at the Blunt Brunch mixer,” says Maggie Tam-Clark, a media sales executive for Cannabis Now, LA Weekly, and The Village Voice. “It was a diverse group from the cannabis industry. I got to meet the co-founder of a data operations business, a mom-and-pop CBD brand company, and a marijuana-inspired jewelry artist.”
Meanwhile, The Behind The Leaf podcast with Alex and Cassie interviewed some of the women of Blunt Brunch for a special episode released on Nov. 27.
Girl Power and Boss Babe themes were felt from every corner—especially when Jenzi and her fellow dance troupe rallied guests to all join in on learning a choreographed dance. In roughly ten minutes, most attendees were dancing in unison. In Jenzi’s words, “This might just go viral.”
The ladies were all smiles while pumping each other up (and dancing!) as they prepared to step into their boss babe heels for the week ahead at the annual MJBiz Conference.
Carrillo and fellow Blunt Brunch co-founder Parisa Mansouri-Rad, who is also president of Fourtwenty Collections, are building a tribe—a sisterhood—of women who can lean on each other, ask questions and ultimately create more opportunities for female cannabis entrepreneurs.
“Blunt Brunch evolved organically through a simple act of bringing women together over brunch,” Carrillo says. “In turn, it led to Blunt Brunch, an event series to empower women executives and entrepreneurs in cannabis, through blunt conversations, collaboration and community. Our goal is to provide a safe space for women to speak candidly with each other over brunch, to offer advice, to learn from each other and to be there for each other when times are tough.”
Notable speakers included Marvina Thomas, the Honorary Mentorship Speaker, who is CEO and founder of Fourtwenty Collections, as well as Tyneeha Rivers of Curaleaf, the main event sponsor.
While the event provided a space for female entrepreneurs to connect, it also served as a productive segway into MJBizCon, boosting women up and perhaps giving them an extra dose of confidence as they head into the male-dominated MJBizCon event.
Mansouri-Rad says this was an intentional move.
“With the sea of men you’ll find at MJBiz, it was imperative that we set the tone of empowering this group of outnumbered individuals,” she said. “We not only allowed women to be inspired by our guest speakers and our topic of blunt conversation, but we also allowed women to meet and connect and continue to work those new connections throughout the week.”
Blunt Brunch socials currently take place in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Phoenix, San Diego and Tucson. A vital component of the Blunt Brunch community, socials enable women from all career states in the cannabis industry to connect with one another in a fun and safe space. Carrillo emphasized that the guests’ energy, kindness and positive outlook helped make Blunt Brunch Las Vegas so successful this year.
“They were receptive to what we created, and it truly shined throughout the event,” she said. “We can’t wait to do it again next year, this time opening the brunch up to 400 women.”
Stay up to date on all Blunt Brunch networking events at bluntbrunch.com.