Cultivating An Industry: A Virtual Cannabis Career Fair

Interested in joining the cannabis industry?

​

COVID-19 has made job hunting & networking much harder for employers & employees alike.

At our upcoming FREE virtual job fair, you will be able to network one-on-one with companies actively hiring, access a list of open position with participating companies, and hear directly from industry insiders on how they established their careers within the cannabis industry.

The agenda is as follows:

4PM - Our live panel on how to build a career within the cannabis industry kicks off.
5PM - We will move over to our networking portion hosted on Discord, where you can chat one-on-one with companies actively hiring.

Participating companies include:

Berkshire Roots
Garden Remedies
Trulieve
INSA
Resinate
Good Chemistry
Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council
Cannabis Center of Excellence, INC
Minorities For Medical Marijuana
ELEVATE Northeast

Panelists include:

Derrell Black - Chapter President of Massachusetts for the nonprofit organization Minorities for Medical Marijuana (M4MM), Assistant General Manager of Pure Oasis, and Advisory Board Member of Cannabis Center of Excellence (CCOE)

Michael Esposito - Scientist at MCR Labs

Katherine Steinberg - National Program Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility at Curaleaf

Beth Waterfall - Cofounder and Executive Director of ELEVATE Northeast, President of Beth Waterfall Creative

Register for this free event here.

Cannabis Employers Roundtable

With an enduring pandemic and Massachusetts adult-use cannabis sales reaching $1 billion last month, it's time to turn the focus onto the people growing, processing, and selling the goods that keep us happy and healthy during these unpredictable times.

Cannabis business leaders, licensees, managers, and employers in general are invited to join us on Friday, November 20 at 1:00 p.m. ET for a unique Cannabis Employers Roundtable event designed to connect peers and inform future trainings offered to the workforce by the Cannabis Education Center at Holyoke Community College. 

The highlights of this interactive and timely event are the multiple break-outs (cultivation, culinary, retail, medical, processing, and entrepreneurship) for attendees to virtually mingle with their peers and contribute to roundtable discussions about employee training and engagement. All attendees will receive a post-event report with findings from the breakouts. 

​

Roundtable facilitators include:

​

• Gene Ray, Laboratory Manager, Garden Remedies

• Tim Shaw, Chief Operating Officer, MariMed, Inc.

• Cara Crabb-Burnham, Director of Education, ELEVATE Northeast

• TaShonda Vincent Lee, Director of Community Outreach, ELEVATE Northeast

• Dr. Marion McNabb, President, Cannabis Center of Excellence, Inc.

• Beth Waterfall, Executive Director, ELEVATE Northeast

Event Schedule

​

• 1 – 1:20 p.m.: Welcome and overview 

• 1:20 – 1:30 p.m.: TWO (Training & Workforce Options)

• 1:30 – 2:15 p.m.: Breakout room discussions on current workforce challenges, business outlook, and what training needs your organization has now/foresees for the year ahead. 

•  2:15 – 2:30 p.m.: Report and wrap up

Don't miss this interactive and timely event led by industry leaders who understand the challenges employers in the cannabis industry are facing today and as they plan for expansion or growth into 2021.

Cannabis Core Curriculum

Enrollment is open for the new Cannabis Core Curriculum program developed by Holyoke Community College in partnership with ELEVATE Northeast Events and Education, Inc.

​

Offered through the college’s Cannabis Education Center, each day is divided into two interactive sessions that include presentations from cannabis industry experts followed by a question and answer period. Students who complete the core training will then be eligible to register for spring 2021 classes in one of four cannabis industry career tracks: cultivation assistant, extraction technician, patient services associate, and culinary assistant.

ELEVATE NE Community Conversation: GET OUT THE VOTE!

For the next installment of ELEVATE Northeast's Community Conversation Series of events, we're tackling one of the more important topics of the season: VOTING!

​

Please join us at 6:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 22 for Our Lives, Our Vote: The Importance Of Municipal, State, and National Elections. The goals of this virtual panel discussion are to: 

• Educate the community-at-large of the importance of civic engagement for municipal, state, and national elections

• Provide insightful yet comprehensive education on the election process and engagement needs

• Discuss the potential outcomes and consequences on non-voter participation/civic engagement

Event speakers:

• Cheryl Crawford, Executive Director at MassVOTE

• Jonathan Cohn, Chair of the Issues & Elections Committee at Progressive Mass

• Tito Jackson, Former Boston District 7 City Councilor

• TaShonda Vincent-Lee, Director of Community Outreach at ELEVATE Northeast (moderator)

​

Standing In the Gap: The Re-Entry Conversation

For the second year, ELEVATE director of education Cara Crabb-Burnham has led the development of Boston Cannabis Week's educational programming. We're grateful for this ongoing collaboration, and especially excited for this year's culminating session, Standing In the Gap: The Re-Entry Conversation.

This panel was developed in partnership with National Expungement Week and will be moderated by ELEVATE's director of community outreach, TaShonda Vincent-Lee. Additional thought leaders for this timely discussion include:

​

• Calvin Feliciano, SEIU

• Susan Le, UTEC (United Teen Equality Center), Program Manager of Teens Leading the Way

• Davo Jefferson, Service Delivery Manager for SOAR Boston (formerly known as
  the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Street Worker Program)

• Bethany Serota, Project Opportunity

​

Click here to view the full BCW 2020 educational programming lineup.

​

Marketing Cannabis Businesses in 2020: So Now What?!?!

Chances are your marketing budget and strategy have changed in 2020. Don't miss this timely talk with experienced marketing executives for ideas on how your business can best adjust its marketing in the second half of one zany year. 

Massachusetts Cannabis Delivery: Licensing, Roadblocks and Public Commentary

Featuring a panel of speakers who are actively involved in the licensing process, this event is designed to be an inclusive discussion about the MA delivery licensing process, including hurdles and costs, so that attendees can make informed decisions about their own business ambitions and, importantly, submit informed testimony and public comments to the CCC to help shape the industry. It is also a platform to highlight some local businesses and their leaders who are doing the hard work to get this industry off the ground and create new jobs in our communities.

Business Continuity Planning During COVID-19 - Part 3

In Part 3 of ELEVATE's Business Continuity Planning series, Paula Collins, MBA, EA, JD will close out the series with a discussion about the difficult decisions many cannabis entrepreneurs are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic: whether to wind down or scale back the business to keep the business going.

Cannabis in CRE: Licensing, Financing, and Security

ELEVATE is proud to support the New England Real Estate Journal's Cannabis in Commercial Real Estate virtual summit series! Don't miss the June 24 session, moderated by ELEVATE executive director Beth Waterfall. Arrive early for networking, too!

Business Continuity Planning During COVID-19 - Part 2

Beyond the SBA: Get Funding, Revamp, Rebrand and Retool!

Part 2 of ELEVATE's Business Continuity Planning series with Paula Collins, MBA, EA, JD will touch on funding (watch important SBA video here) and some of the ways cannabis businesses can take the time now to reassess their brand and other business functions.