Day 1: Tuesday, Nov. 9
8:30am – Registration
9:15am – Welcome Address
9:30am – The Science of Product Selection and Store Layout (Merchandising), Loretta Soffe +
Loretta Soffe, former Exec. VP Nordstrom.
Loretta was responsible for the Women’s Department’s 2.5B annual sales. She will discuss the art and science of merchandising as well as: The best ways to display and lay out products. Creating a “treasure hunt” in your store. Arranging products in a manner that entices customers to buy more. Creating visually attractive “eye candy” displays. High margin impulse items at checkout. See Loretta's bio.
10:15am – 15-minute Break
10:30am – Increasing Margins and Profits with Smart Buying, Tess Wilkins +
Tess will discuss the importance of good vendor relations, co-marketing, product rotation, and key subjects related to the buying process.
- How to negotiate with vendors.
- Creating a win-win that leaves both parties happy.
- Addressing marketing support.
- Cost-averaging across a multitude of related products from one vendor.
- Direct vs distributor relationships.
11:30pm – Don’t Get Sued! The Importance of HR Training, Neil Juneja +
Attorney Neil Juneja will talk about the importance of HR and the ways retail owners can protect themselves from issues related to ineffective HR training or a hostile workplace environment. See Neil's bio.
12:15pm – Exhibit Hall Lunch
2:00pm – Protecting Your Business from Product Liability, Premises Liability, and Other Legal Risks, Ryan Espegard +
Ryan Espegard, Partner, Gordon Thomas Honeywell, LLP
Attorney Ryan Espegard will discuss how retail stores can protect themselves from lawsuits related to defective or dangerous products, and how to minimize the risk of other liabilities. See Ryan's bio.
2:45pm – Community Sponsor
3:15pm – Break
3:30pm – Control Inventory Like the Pros Do! , Dick Outcalt and Pat Johnson +
Control Inventory Like the Pros Do!
Pat Johnson and Dick Outcalt, CannabisRetailBiz.com, are experts on the why’s and how’s of controlling inventory and cash flow. “Control your inventory or close the doors”
Their lively and fun session will show:
- How the pros use inventory turns to control buying.
- The essential 4TH part of the basic 4-part formula for open-to-buys.
- How out-of-control inventory can sink a store and dry up its cash flow.
- See the Weekly Inventory Planner (WIP) in action.
4:30pm – Community Sponsor
4:45pm – Closing Remarks
5:00 - 6:30pm – Exhibit Hall Reception
Day 2: Wednesday, Nov. 10
9:00am – Registration
9:15am – Welcome Address
9:30am – Should You Be Implementing A Loyalty Program?, West Paschal +
Loyalty has been one of the first technologies to really infiltrate the cannabis industry. With many retailers implementing loyalty technologies early on we have continually seen improvements over the years. It feels like we're still in the early days learning how to keep customers excited about our store experience. Join us as we look to the future with loyalty programs that better mimic airlines and your favorite coffee company.
- Learn how to overcome customer participation resistance by building enough loyalty value.
- Discover why an effective loyalty program is much better than daily discounts (a bad tactic creating bad customer habits).
- Why your cybersecurity needs to be top notch to protect your customer list for individual privacy reasons and securing your customer list (away from competitors and bad actors).
10:15am – Community Session
10:30am – Exhibit Hall Break
11:00am – Utilizing Analytics for Better Decision Making, Henry Finkelstein +
The founder of Cannabis Big Data joins us to share his knowledge and experience with using analytics to enhance your business. See Henry's bio.
11:45am – Customer Experience Technology: The Secret to Dispensary Patron Loyalty, Dan King, Jim Roddy, Duane Roebuck +
Increase your sales by enhancing -- instead of ignoring -- the dispensary customer experience at the end of your supply chain. In this session, Dave Albert from point of sale technology solution provider Retail Control Systems, Duane Roebuck from tech distributor BlueStar, and Top 100 Retail Influencer Jim Roddy from the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA) will share the latest cannabis customer experience research and suggest actions you can apply to your business tomorrow.
12:45pm – Exhibit Hall Lunch and Raffle
1:45pm – Motivated and Educated Budtenders SELL MORE!!!, Ryan Porter +
Ryan Porter will present his thoughts on how owners and managers of Cannabis retailers can utilize on-line training programs to continually update and improve the customer experience through on-going budtender training.
Cannabis retail is successful because of great employees. Turnover is very costly in this industry, and we see very high turnover rates. Top retailers are learning that training is core, and that they need to invest in training teams and training professionals within their team, as well as invest in their team. Therefore, as businesses transition to investing in their team, it's important to keep those costs reasonable. This is ONE AREA where we see training technology and software greatly helping amazing retailers. As retailers get to more and more stores, the employee training problem gets larger. Imagine as you reach five stores, you often have 150 plus employees you need to train, and that number will only get larger. Therefore, having great training practices from training professionals, and using software to support manage and oversee training is critical to the future of a great cannabis retail business.
The session concludes with a conversation about industry certifications for employees to demonstrate their knowledge and validate their skill set.
2:30pm – Community Session
2:45pm – Break
3:00pm – E-Commerce 2021: Trends & Tips to Grow Your Business, Sarah Kabakoff
Surprise! If you didn’t think people would buy cannabis online in 2020, you will be surprised to discover that 2020 was the year everything changed for dispensary shopping. As consumers sought safe and convenient online ordering solutions in record numbers, e-commerce accelerated across all industries -- but few were impacted as dramatically as cannabis.
But even before 2020, many cannabis dispensaries were struggling to manage long lines, and losing customers as a result. We're now seeing digitally-savvy dispensaries rise to the occasion, providing exceptional online shopping experiences -- sometimes better than a customer experience with in-store associates -- and thriving as a result. Customers who know exactly what they want are now able to utilize order ahead technologies to "skip the line", getting in and out of the dispensary efficiently. In this session, you'll learn tips and tricks to increase sales and customer happiness by maximizing your e-commerce experience -- all backed by data.
3:45pm – Increase Foot Traffic & Boost Online Sales with These Advanced, Compliant PPC Advertising Strategies, Guillermo Bravo +
During this session, you’ll learn how PPC campaigns can be used as part of a dispensary advertising strategy to find new customers, all while staying compliant with your state’s advertising regulations. Plus we have three key takeaways that you can implement in your business without paying a dime to anyone.
If you think dispensaries can’t do PPC advertising, it’s time to think again. As one of the most popular ways to reach consumers online, PPC advertising is a digital marketing go-to for all industries. However, most dispensaries have ignored this lucrative outlet, opting for more traditional forms of advertising like billboards. With the ability to target particular demographics and behaviors and track effectiveness, PPC advertising needs to be a part of your marketing strategy. Join a leading industry professional as he shares how to run a compliant PPC campaign and the advanced strategies that will help you get more people to your website and menu. See speaker bio.
4:30pm – Closing Remarks