We Planted the Seeds in Duluth. Now the Roots Need to Grow.

What Cannabis & Community taught us about events, media and the next chapter of Canna Connect.

There is a strange moment that happens after an event.

For weeks, everything points toward one date.

Schedules get built. Vendors get coordinated. Speakers get prepared. Graphics get made. Tickets get sold. Tables move. Signs go up.

Then people arrive.

A few hours later, they leave.

On October 15, we spent the day at Clyde Iron Works for Cannabis & Community: A Cultivation Celebration.

By the time Spencer Ploessl and I sat down for the final conversation we recorded that day, most of the work was behind us.

That gave us a chance to finally ask a different question.

What did we actually learn?

Duluth Did What We Hoped It Would Do

One of the first things we talked about was the way cannabis showed up in Duluth.

Not just the number of people in the building.

The way people carried themselves.

Growers, operators, brands, sponsors, vendors, production crews and community members spent the day learning from each other and building relationships.

It was professional without feeling corporate.

As Spencer put it, Canna Connect is probably more “hoodies and swag” than suits and ties.

That feels right.

The goal has always been to create rooms where Minnesota cannabis can actually talk to itself.

Duluth did that.

The Lessons Usually Show Up on Event Day

There is only so much you can learn from a planning document.

We spent months preparing for Duluth, but there were still things we could only discover once people started walking through the doors.

Wayfinding mattered.

Entrances mattered.

Name cards mattered.

Raffle tickets mattered.

The small tasks we had pushed to the side suddenly became very real when the clock started moving.

That led to one of the more useful lessons from our conversation.

Problems rarely disappear because you ignore them.

Usually they are just waiting for a more inconvenient time to demand your attention.

How Do We Go From an Eight to a Nine?

We have done a lot of new things this year.

Lucky Leaf.

Brainerd.

Duluth.

Every event has been different, and each one has made the next one better.

Spencer described our current execution as an eight out of ten.

That is not an insult.

It is actually a pretty good description of a growing organization.

Most things work.

A few things do not.

The question becomes how we document what we learned so the next event starts from an eight instead of starting over at zero.

Oddly enough, one of the answers is spreadsheets.

Our earliest event planning sheets might have contained one or two tabs.

Duluth had tabs for attendees, sponsors, vendors, food, budgets, podcasts, signage and the run of show.

It is not glamorous.

But it is infrastructure.

The more we document, the less we have to reinvent.

Stephen Probably Should Not Be Folding Hoodies

There was also one very specific lesson.

I probably should not spend two hours folding hoodies immediately before one of our events.

Someone still has to fold them.

Someone has to stuff the bags.

Someone has to print the last name tag.

But as Canna Connect grows, we have to become more intentional about where everyone's time is best spent.

That is part of growing too.

Not doing less work.

Doing the right work.

Events Are Only Half the Opportunity

The biggest part of our conversation came later.

Throughout the day, photographers and video crews were documenting what was happening around Clyde Iron Works.

We recorded conversations.

We captured speakers.

We photographed the room.

And Spencer asked a question that I have continued thinking about:

How do we blur the line between our events and our media?

That may be one of the most important questions for Canna Connect heading into 2027.

We have proven that we can create rooms.

Now we need to become better at carrying the conversations from those rooms to people who could not be there.

The Canna Connect Show.

The Cannaverse.

Our website.

Short-form video.

Community stories.

Educational content.

Those pieces should not live separately from our events.

They should extend them.

Lucky Leaf. Brainerd. Duluth.

Three events.

Three very different environments.

And three opportunities to learn what this community responds to.

We are already hearing the next question from partners:

What is next?

That is the question we are working on now.

What does it look like when brands participate beyond a booth?

How can partners become part of the educational content?

How can community conversations continue after everyone goes home?

How can Canna Connect help document an industry that is changing almost every week?

We do not have every answer yet.

But we have more of the roadmap than we had a year ago.

The Roots Are Growing

Toward the end of the conversation, Spencer used an analogy that captured where we are better than anything else we said that day.

We planted seeds.

The roots are growing.

Now they need water and nutrients.

That is what the next stage feels like.

Canna Connect does not need to become something completely different.

We need to take care of what is already growing.

Better events.

Better media.

Better systems.

Deeper partnerships.

More opportunities for Minnesota cannabis to connect.

Duluth was another step.

Now we keep going.

Watch the full conversation with Stephen Eigenmann and Spencer Ploessl on The Canna Connect Show.