Event Recap: MJBizCon 2026
I just wrapped my 8th MJBizCon, and somehow this one felt more meaningful than any year before it. Maybe it’s the moment our industry is in, maybe it was the conversations I found myself in, or maybe it was simply being surrounded by thousands of people who still show up when things are tough. Whatever the reason, this year reminded me why MJBizCon remains the beating heart of our industry.
From the minute I landed in Vegas on Monday to the final goodbyes on Friday, the week was a whirlwind of connection, curiosity, and community. After four full days of walking the expo floor, speaking on panels, hosting events, meeting founders, and moving between mixers, I left feeling energized, grounded, and grateful in a way I didn’t expect.
A Small but Mighty Team Behind a Massive Week
Before anything else, I want to recognize the people who make this entire experience possible.
The MJBiz team — Emilie Lewis, Brittany Wudrick, Ashley Secondini, Samantha Villegas, and Harrison Radie — is a small but mighty group working tirelessly year-round to bring the industry together. What they pull off each December is remarkable: an expo floor that hums with life, stages filled with real operators, offsite gatherings, after-hours mixers, and countless moments of serendipitous connection.
There is nothing like MJBizCon. This team deserves to be celebrated for holding the center of an industry that still needs places to gather. For all of us navigating challenging times, it felt good, even healing, to be in community. To see familiar faces. To remember why we keep on truckin’.
On the Expo Floor
Walking the expo floor, it was palpable how much ingenuity remains in this industry. Everywhere across the floor, companies were rethinking efficiency, quality, and consumer experience:
- On-site rapid testing and lab automation that shorten the path from harvest to shelf.
- Next-generation horticulture lighting and environmental systems built for operators trying to grow smarter with fewer resources.
- Retail technologies helping dispensaries navigate margin pressure while improving consumer guidance.
- A noticeable push toward genetics as brands look for new ways to stand out, with breeders sharing seeds, insights, and learnings that help operators refine and future-proof their cultivation programs.
Even in a constrained market, people are still building. Still innovating. Still pushing forward. Progress rarely looks like one big breakthrough. It’s hundreds of small improvements that move an industry forward.
Panels & Conversations
One of the things I appreciated most this year was the tone of the educational programming. The conversations felt real — not overly rosy, not doomsday either — but grounded in practical wisdom.
Across sessions, a few themes kept coming up:
- Excellence in fundamentals still determines who survives and who thrives. No shortcuts.
- Policy remains in flux, but operators are preparing for a world where federal shifts — whenever they come — will reshape access to capital, insurance, taxes, and market stability.
- Regional nuance matters more than ever. What works in New York doesn’t necessarily work in Colorado or Missouri.
But the most meaningful part was hallway conversations — those unplanned, candid exchanges that happen between sessions. That’s where the real learning lives.
After Hours: Where Community Comes Alive
Some of the most memorable moments of MJBizCon week always happen off the convention floor. Across Las Vegas, events, mixers, private gatherings, and media meet-ups created spaces where people could connect more candidly, share what they’re building, and reflect on the year.
A few highlights stood out:
- Media Day at NuWu: Hosted by Beard Bros Media with participation from High Times, GreenState, Fat Nugs Magazine, Planted with Sara Payan, Cannabis and Tech Today, The Cannigma, and others. It brought creators, publishers, and operators together before the week formally kicked off and set a collaborative tone for the days ahead.
- Brand showcases and tastings: From rooftop events to exclusive previews and product-led experiences, these gatherings created real opportunities for discovery and conversation across markets.
- Founder and investor dinners: Smaller, more intimate settings where people spoke openly about the realities of the year, the challenges they’re navigating, and the opportunities they still see on the horizon.
- The Vault Party and other large-format mixers: High-energy rooms filled with operators, retailers, and creatives, offering a different kind of connectivity than the expo floor — more fluid, more social, and often where the most unexpected introductions happened.
- The Poseidon VC/CEO Mixer: Moderated by Patrick Rhea, where Gretchen Gailey offered her perspective that rescheduling to Schedule III could come as early as Q1 2026. Whether that timeline holds or not, hearing it from someone with deep policy experience sparked a noticeable shift in the room and served as a reminder that federal movement remains possible.
Across all these gatherings, what stood out most was the honesty in the conversations. People were comparing notes, reconnecting, solving problems together, and making sense of a difficult year. These offsite moments showed how much the industry values spaces where people can speak freely, build relationships, and imagine what comes next.
The MJBowl Awards Show: A Milestone Moment
One of the highlights of my week — and one of the most meaningful things we’ve produced at Budist — was hosting the MJBowl Awards Show in the Grow Hub in the North Expo Hall.
We celebrated the top-performing cannabis products across California and New York, honoring the MVPs, All-Stars, and the coveted MJBowl Trophy winners. The turnout, the energy, and the support from the community were incredible. If you missed it, you can read the full list of winners on our blog here: [Link to MJBowl Winners Recap].
This truly was a community effort and I’m deeply grateful to the partners who helped make the 2025 MJBowl possible:
Retail & Distribution Partners
- Nabis
- Gotham
- The Artist Tree
- NorCal Holistics
We are also incredibly grateful to our device and accessories sponsors, whose products powered the judging process and helped us create a consistent, professional sensory experience:
- PAX Flow vaporizer
- Chill Bong
- Active Singular battery
- Dr. Dabber Switch2
- Flower Mill grinder
- ROCA papers
- Pop-Vac jars
- HempZoo (apparel partner)
Each of these companies played a crucial role in standardizing the way our judges evaluated products — and in elevating the competition to something the whole industry can be proud of.
Standing on stage, seeing the winners come up, and feeling the genuine pride in the room was a moment I won’t forget. It was a reminder that even in challenging times, excellence deserves to be recognized — and that our industry is full of people who pour their heart and craft into what they do.
What This Gathering Meant
It would be easy to view this year only through the lens of challenges. But that’s not the real story. The story is that people showed up. They carved out time, spent their own money, brought their teams, worked the floor, spoke on panels, took meetings, and continued pushing this space forward.
MJBizCon remains the one place where all corners of the industry come together: legacy operators, newcomers, brand founders, cultivators, executives, buyers, investors, creatives, and community leaders. At a moment when our industry is more fragmented than ever, this gathering matters.
It gives us a chance to connect.
To align.
To recharge.
To imagine what’s possible.
And to remember why we’re all in this.