PODCAST Ep. 2 - The Golden Age of The Cannabis Brand + Cannabis As a CPG Industry w/ George Jage

Today I’m joined on the show by George Jage, Co-Founder and CEO of Jage Media, Inc. 

He’s been in the industry since 2014 and is well known and universally respected but is now producing an exciting cannabis trade show called MJUnpacked coming up later this month in New York City. 

George is an award-winning event producer and media executive with nearly 3 decades of experience.  He was a founding partner and lead executive for the Off-Price Show (’93-’01) and World Tea Media (’02-’14). 

George entered the cannabis industry in 2014 as President of MJBizDaily and was the lead architect of MJBizCon from 2014 through 2017, scaling the event from 20 table tops to over 100,000 net sq ft of exhibits at the Las Vegas Convention Center.  George went on to serve as CEO of Dope Media and lead the sale of company assets to High Times Holding Corp in 2018.  

In 2018, George launched an exclusive microcap event to help drive investment into the growing number of publicly traded cannabis companies.  In his latest media play, George launched Jage Media in partnership with his wife, Kim Jage, to meet the needs of the market and provide focused events to the CPG brands and retailers driving the industry forward.

0:00 - Intro 2:10 - Early Trade Show Days + Shift into cannabis 4:28 - Growing MJBizCon + Selling Dope Magazine to High Times 7:05 - Evolution of cannabis industry 8:50 - The Golden Age of the Cannabis Brand 10:42 - Lessons learned from starting World Tea Expo 15:00 - MJUnpacked + Cannabis as CPG industry 26:17 - Trade shows as a great equalizer for legacy operators + underrepresented voices 32:36 - Raising kids as a cannabis industry professional 34:59 - Importance of investing in advocacy 38:45 - Advice for independent operators and small businesses 45:00 - MJUnpacked in NYC + Next Show in Detroit

Get your tickets to MJUnpacked at: https://mjunpacked.com/