Extroverting

Tag: LA

  • For Veterans Especially: relief, relaxation & recreation @ home

    For Veterans Especially: relief, relaxation & recreation @ home

    The hassle-free at-home entertainment, activities, and deliveries from WKCR, The Getty, the LA Public Library, Drafthouse LA and others shared here and here are available to everyone. These next options are made available specifically for Veterans and their families.

    The Veterans Yoga Project

    The Veterans Yoga Project makes classes available online. Every weekday, VYP features live classes for all skill levels. Interactions with others — even virtually — create connections and make the message stick.

    UCLA/VA Veteran Family Wellness Center

    The Veteran Family Wellness Center offers individual, couple, and family programming, events and workshops through their TeleWellness platform.

    Veterans Cannabis Coalition

    Veterans Cannabis Coalition promotes Equal Access without Stigma. They showcase the impact of cannabis on veterans, current research, and legislative affairs, and they provide education about what’s available, what’s been effective, and what hasn’t been effective for other Veterans.

    Structure & Ritual

    Keeping track of your time spent is especially key when the structure of your days isn’t being imposed by a commute or regular office hours. As we shared here, structure and even simple ritual are straightforward ways to manage emotions and stress.

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  • more relief, relaxation & recreation @ home

    Here are more TV and movie choices, kids activities, and local businesses making Special Deliveries throughout LA.

    It’s close quarters. Everyone’s home. Cabin Fever is preferable to other things going around, but it gets even more real as the days pass. Your family, kids, and pets need you to be your best self. Opportunities for relief, relaxation, and recreation at home are essential. We’re sharing our finds with family, friends, and neighbors here and however we can with focus on free and low-cost, no-hassle options.

    For Adults

    Alamo Drafthouse in DTLA is having a virtual screening of “ROAR“ next week. “ROAR” looks at least as dark as the current fascination with Tiger King. It’s less clear if the screening will be gratis or the $10 it says on Vimeo at the moment.

    “It’s like Walt Disney went insane and shot a snuff version of Swiss Family Robinson.”

    HitFix

    For Kids

    Keeping kids entertained and entertaining themselves is key to their well-being. Drafthouse LA also offers a collection of Old School kids Activity Pages “To help you help them provide you with some peace and quiet, we’ve got you some fresh material – some of our favorite print-at-home activity books provided by our studio pals.”

    More hassle-free kids stuff from the LA Public Library, PBS and others is in previous posts like this one.

    Structure & Ritual

    Keeping track of your time spent is especially key when the structure of your days isn’t being imposed by a commute or regular office hours. Jotting down simple notes is a fine way to start if you don’t already keep a journal or diary. Plenty of gratis apps are available if you prefer that to pen and paper.

    Rituals also keep us calm. Scott Berinato writes “Rituals, it turns out, are a powerful human mechanism for managing extreme emotions and stress, and we should be leaning on them now.” Reading a book, having lunch, or watching a show together with a snack prepared in The Special Bowl lowers heart rates and makes everyone involved feel better.

    Mike Norton of Harvard Business School notes “When you repeat rituals, they do seem to gain in strength, but even rituals performed a single time can be effective … What seems to matter is that you name it as a ritual, and that you actually do the ritual and don’t just think about doing it.

    More Music, Movies, Relief, and Relaxation

  • relief, relaxation & recreation @ home

    It’s close quarters. The kids are home. We’ve got few options or incentives to get out of the house, so opportunities for relief, relaxation, and recreation at home are essential. We’re sharing our finds with family, friends, and neighbors here and however we can with focus on free and low-cost, no-hassle options.

    Cabin Fever is preferable to other things going around, but it has real consequences. Preventative Precautions are 100% in-order. Your family, kids, and pets need you to be your best self. Take care of yourself and everyone around you — especially as we’re not accustomed to having those around us around us so much and so closely.

    For Kids

    Keeping kids entertained and entertaining themselves is key to their well-being. Free shows, games, and even education to sneak in there include Mr. Rogers, Arthur, and a treasure trove from the Los Angeles Public Library

    For Adults

    Finding and creating pockets of sanity in the barrage of New Realities is key to making the best of things. More new music, TV, and movie choices, games to play on your own or with others, and local businesses who are open and delivering in neighborhoods throughout LA are included as your free and low-cost, hassle-free options

    More Music, Movies, Relief, and Relaxation

  • CannaGather LA – May 7, 2019

    CannaGather LA – May 7, 2019

    Santa Monica Woman’s Club

    Getting out there, meeting people in person, making and pursuing connections continue to be recurring themes. The progressions from attendee, to speaker, to sponsor are clear indications these efforts are worthwhile.

    Sponsors get branding and a minute to promote themselves from the stage; most also have a booth and are consistent presences at CGLA and other events — those second and third in-person encounters go long ways to deepening the discussions. Well-worth worth investigating.

    Sponsors

    Three Wells
    Gregg Apirian threewells Co-Founder & CEO
    • Targeting segments in the 50+ demos
    • Partnering with brands, dispensaries, medical experts, consumers
    WebJoint
    • POS / retail management software / front office / backoffice
    • Have been sponsors at every CannaGather and other LA meetup since October
    • CaliforniaCannasaurs — Running a voting /  awards program to be held in DTLA  
    • Follow up w QP re persona development
    • To pitch to Chris CEO about expanding their “Brands DTC” to Consumer DT Brands messaging and activations
    CannaClub UCLA
    • Student organization
    • Started at UCLA; Now on 6 campuses
    • Working to get work, exposure, experience for their members 
    • Ping Adam and GWolverine on that
    GrowStudios
    • There again with a busy booth, a few shoutouts from the stage and Rico
    • Danielle M and Morgan are Good People
    • Morgan – Jeff and I met her at a meetup in Culver — we played table tennis) – She was at Hall of Flowers last week — shoots photos and videos of the events for GrowStudios
    APOP Media
    • Digital signage in retail locations
    • reaching brand prospects at point-of-purchase
    • also reaching budtenders and owner/operators
    • the pods run in 15-minute loops, so retail staff gets to know the brands VERY well
    • video and image creative opportunities; brand stories, content production, messaging distribution 
    • a few other players are in the space for this valuable retail real estate, distribution, editorial calendars, campaign management  
    • Spoke with Kirk at April’s CannaGather — need to follow-up
    FLOURISH
    • Talent Agency in the industry
    • I’d met John @ Flourish in March
    • They weren’t a sponsor then — looks like they’ve grown / decided sponsorship was worthwhile
    • Worth following up with as they seem to be getting into providing work for clients in addition to talent & staffing.
    James Henry
    • Oakland-based — came down to sponsor
    • know Rico and Virgil 
    • have vapes and streetwear 
    True Terpenes
    Cova
    • POS / retail management software / Support & Compliance  
    • nice collaterals, booth, video, team — good idea of where they stand 
    • they’re up against incumbents  
    • John Syroka – is a follow-up 

    Speakers

    Rico tarver
    • Runs CannaGather LA / emcees events
    • Proud of the diversity and inclusion represented
    • “For every dollar earned, think about the $$, lives, and freedom lost”
    • Danielle M @ GrowStudios has been helping him w CGLA’s marketing site, email outreach
    Virgil Grant
    • California Cannabis
    • “Originator of the Social Equity movement in SoCal” and beyond
    • Rico and Virgil met at Women Grow
    • “You’ve got to meet people face-to-face” — and in non-obvious circumstances 
    Paul Rosen
    Paul Rosen of Breakwater Venture Capital
    • Just relocated to LA from Toronto  
    • Breakwater Venture Capital
    • Pantry — just-launched Wellness brand.
      • CBD and low-dose THC
      • Notes a gap he sees in edibles: “When I’m looking for a wellness product, I don’t want to buy candy.”
    • He notes some investors have FoMo   
    • Al Harrington (Didn’t show, but Rosen picked up the slack)

    Connections & Chats

    Dr. Michele Ross

    Cannabis and caregiver training for medical pros

    • Has course materials online
    • Knows Laura A, Of course
    • Clients in Canada, S. America, focusing more on US
    • Needs more brand positioning, product development, prospect targeting
    • We first meeting Feb 25 @ BluntTalks

    Michelle’s platform is live in Canada and Brazil. They’re working to get more paid subs in the US. Interesting offering: Subs get semi-monthly one:one consults with health coaches and ongoing access to a library of info created by medical professionals. Condition-specific reading materials and ‘certifications.’

    John from lab in Denver

    • Relocating to LA in June
    • Boss has multiple labs in CO
    • John’s reconnoitering, working the regs, scoping spots
    • 3rd testing lab I’ve spoken with at length
    • most labs are the Pass / Fail guys “in the way” of getting product onto shelves
    • many brands, retailers, distributors shop for rubber-stamp Yessers
    • labs need to offer services and and position their differentiators
      • remediation and consulting
      • site inspections
      • packing consulting and production
      • (a meaningful % of Fails are remediated with packaging / labeling updates)
  • Blunt Talks – Feb 26, 2019

    Blunt Talks – Feb 26, 2019

    Host: Expert Dojo – Santa Monica
    (Co-Working space; They run investment funds and an accelerator)

    There were 100 people there — many ready to network. The floor was high-quality. It was well-run. Open bar, tacos. WebJoint was a sponsor. Grow Studios was shooting video and doing AV.

    The trend of the sharks smelling blood in the water continues. Many of these outfits are selling capes they don’t have. Danielle noted this explicitly re Grow Studios — noting lack of design, and end-to-end product dev capes, and Fit & FInish all around — they’re hustling and selling themselves on things they lack. 

    SPEAKERS

    Vendors: 

    • CC Testing Labs
    • Vet CBD
    • Lit.Club 
    • Blue Kachina  
    • Nugg 
    • Cannabis Catered Events 

    CC Testing Labs

    http://cctestinglabs.com/
    Michael Carrier, CEO, explicitly asked for help “getting the word out” about their lab. “We’ve done friends and family. We’ve got multiple clients and more from word-of-mouth. We need Next Steps.” We got into positioning scenarios, touting their collaboration with product clients, and moving their stories from beyond ‘we’re the stern parents who tell you your product can go out to market’ and into remediation and consulting services.

    Michael responded well to my suggestions that clients will respond to product differentiation via clean results from non-required testing.

    Lit Club

    http://lit.club
    Pre-rolls, CBD Vape pens 
    Avens O’Brien – Administrative Director 

    Lit Club does a lot of things right. They had a solid booth, good aesthetics. Lovely products, Great presentation –

    Started with a pre-roll – “Flavor-forward” — No strain. great packaging. glass tube. great screw top. Avens flicked the pre-roll out of the tube: the doob comes out enough to smell; “locks-in” to the opening of the glass tube.

    In December, released a bunch of CBD vape pens. Super nice & high-quality. matte plastic. Ceramic mouthpiece.  Their products are not yet widely available in dispensaries. They will respond well to QP’s approach to design, packaging, branding, experience.

    Essential Extracts

    Nick Tanem of Essential Extracts

    EssentialExtracts.ca

    Avid networker. Grew up in SoCal, moved to CO to start extraction business. Starting another in Richmond. Back in SoCal for his Next Moves

    Expert Dojo 

    Brian MacMahon – Founder 

    Dojo is a co-working space. Brian invests in & incubates a portion of his clients. Launching a new cannabis investment fund in March. 

    Cannabis Catered Events 

    Rudy Sta Ana – Founder 

    They were slinging gratis tacos throughout the event. Tasty, and the kitchen crew were friendly and good. 

    Dr. Michele Ross

    Dr. Michele Ross – Neuroscientist 
    https://drmicheleross.com/

    Michelle’s platform is live in Canada and Brazil. They’re working to get more paid subs in the US. Interesting offering: Subs get semi-monthly one:one consults with health coaches and ongoing access to a library of info created by medical professionals. Condition-specific reading materials and ‘certifications.’

    Blue Kachina Organics 

    https://getnugg.com/blue-kachina

    Venice dispensary 

  • CannaGather LA KickOff – Feb 5, 2019

    CannaGather LA KickOff – Feb 5, 2019

    https://cannagather.com/la/kickoff

    Feb 5, 2019

    There were 200 people there — many ready to network. The floor was higher quality than “Cannabis Means Business” at Jacob Javits in NY 8 months ago. It was well-run: Emcee, 3 guest speakers, 6 vendor booths, paid sponsors (ARCView), food, and a paid bar.

    Conversations

    Integrated Farms

    Pre-rolls and high-end flower. Branding and packaging

    https://integratedfarmsco.com/

    They used their products as their collateral / discussion points. They didn’t have a table. David Dannon and Bob from iF didn’t have a booth. They worked the show with two branded cigar boxes of their products. Pre-roll is in glass tube, wax-sealed (~Makers Mark). Flower is in a box a la Canndescent.

    Packaging design is all done in-house. They’re exceedingly proud of their work; appreciate that their need to scale requires help. They’re in 45 shops and growing. They get the House of Brands approach — pre-rolls with strain names for OGs / “cannaseurs”; flower with destination-based packaging (again, a la Canndescent). SD based

    Nuvata.co

    Single-use, disposable vape pens

    Most interesting point made was they’re targeting “Seniors” with their easy, discrete, effective products.

    They’ve spent money on product development, packaging, and marketing. They’re not yet in-market. Their public site is currently empty. Their brochure is decent but dense. Their reps in attendance were young and strongly felt they’d succeed in the marketplace entirely on product merits — they can use more

    The products are colorful, quality plastic. Outcome- and Flavor-based positioning — “Full Mind” to “Full Body” — vs strain names. They cover wellness, terpenes, and the science behind it.  

    WebJoint.com

    PoS / retail management software, B2B relationships with dispensaries and distributors, B2C relationships with delivery services. “We allow Brands to connect directly with consumers.”

    They had a complete booth, solid signage, 4 people there working the crowd, multiple collateral pieces and swag.

    https://www.webjoint.com/

    Grow Studios

    “Full-Service Agency”

    These guys are hustling. They had 5 people at their booth, a large video display, and plenty of materials. a crowd of dozens surrounded their booth. GrowStudios.co

    They’re scaling, hiring, and seeking investment. Looks like they aspire to compete w PRØHBTD — brand studio, custom content, native ads.