MJBizCon Tips: Turn Market Intel into Better Meetings

Making the most of MJBizCon starts before you arrive and continues after you leave. The same goes for any industry conference or trade show: preparation, informed conversations, and thoughtful follow-up help make your time there count.

Here are seven practical tips to find the right people, prepare for better meetings, and keep opportunities moving after the show.

1. Build Your Target List Before You Build Your Schedule

Begin with two groups: the clients you want to reconnect with and the prospects that fit your ideal customer profile. Both deserve attention. An existing client may have new locations or needs you haven’t discussed. A prospect may be a strong fit but missing the right contact in your CRM.

Define what makes an account worth prioritizing. A cultivation supplier might focus on licensed cultivators in its service territory. A software provider might prioritize operators with multiple locations. Banking, insurance, and professional services teams may need to understand an operator’s licensed activities and ownership structure. Consumer packaged goods teams may be looking for retail buyers in specific markets.

Use those criteria to build a focused list. Then reach out to confirm who is attending and whether a meeting makes sense. Being a relevant cannabis business doesn’t automatically mean someone will be in Vegas.

2. Use Alerts to Find a Relevant Reason to Reconnect

Bring your existing client or prospect list into Emerald Intel so you can monitor the companies you want to meet. Start by matching the companies on your list to Emerald Intel records and adding their Emerald IDs—the unique identifiers used to associate companies with the right records. A compatible AI agent connected to Emerald Intel can help with this matching process.

Once you’ve reviewed the matches, use the bulk-add option in Lists and Alerts to import your file and map the Emerald ID column. You can then review the associated companies, licenses, and contacts and set daily, weekly, or monthly alerts.

A change in an account’s footprint or license information can provide a useful starting point for a conversation. Review what changed and consider whether it connects to something your team can help with. Keep those alerts running after the show to support future outreach, too.

3. Find the Decision-Makers Behind the Company Name

A company on your target list is a starting point. Next, identify the people whose responsibilities align with your offering. That may mean owners or executives, but it could also mean someone responsible for purchasing, operations, or a specific business function.

Start in Emerald Intel by exporting the contact records associated with your target companies. Upload that file to an AI tool such as Claude, then ask it to narrow the list by role and available contact information. For example, you could request only owners and executives with email addresses, or contacts whose titles relate to purchasing or operations. Be specific about the roles you need so the result supports your outreach goals.

You can also research contacts through Emerald Intel’s Model Context Protocol (MCP), which connects its cannabis market intelligence to compatible AI agents such as Claude and ChatGPT. With Emerald Intel connected, try a request like this:

Using Emerald Intel, identify contacts at the companies in this file whose roles relate to purchasing our product. Include each contact’s title and available email or phone number. Flag uncertain company matches and missing contact details.

4. Give the Right People a Reason to Meet

Build a short pre-show outreach sequence with a clear goal: arranging a meeting. A four- or five-step sequence gives you multiple opportunities to connect as people finalize their plans.

Give the recipient a reason to make time. Connect what you know about the company to an issue your business helps address, and make the next step clear. That could be a brief conversation at your booth, a scheduled meeting, or an invitation to an event you’re hosting.

If you use AI to draft the sequence, provide examples of emails you’ve written so it has a reference for your voice. Review the result for accuracy and relevance before sending. A company name dropped into a generic invitation is still a generic invitation.

5. Bring Useful Company Intel to the Show Floor

Once a meeting is scheduled, prepare a short account brief. Focus on the details that will help you ask better questions: what the company does, where it operates, its license types, its ownership relationships, and the relevant people in the organization.

With Emerald Intel connected to a compatible AI agent, ask for a concise summary of those details. Keep the brief accessible on your phone or tablet so you can review it between meetings without opening your laptop.

Create a concise meeting brief for [company] in [state] using Emerald Intel. Include its business activities, locations, license types and status, ownership relationships, and relevant decision-makers. Suggest three questions related to [our offering]. Separate verified facts from suggested talking points.

The same approach can help with an unexpected introduction. Use the company name and location to narrow the match, then review a quick summary before the next conversation. If you add web research, ask the agent to distinguish those sources from Emerald Intel data.

Use the brief to guide your questions. A company with several locations may have centralized purchasing, local purchasing, or a mix of both. Knowing its footprint gives you a better question to ask; the conversation tells you how the business actually buys.

6. Capture Notes While the Details Are Fresh

After several days of meetings, booth visits, and networking events, names and conversations start to blur. Your memory has a lot competing for space.

Build a simple habit: dictate a voice note after each meeting. Capture who you met, their company and role, what they need, what you promised, and the next step. Written notes work too. The useful part is recording the details while you still remember them.

Give each next step an owner and a date. A request for a proposal needs different follow-up from a contact who is exploring options for next year. Keeping that distinction in your CRM helps your team prioritize when everyone returns.

Where your AI agent supports the relevant CRM connection and permissions, it can help organize those notes and prepare updates or tasks. You can also use it to create a structured summary for your team to review and enter.

7. Enrich New Contacts and Follow Up with Context

The person you meet may be able to explain a need without owning the buying decision. A store manager, for example, may describe an operational problem while purchasing is handled elsewhere in the organization.

After the show, match new contacts to their companies and review the related locations, ownership information, and decision-makers. Use that research to understand who else should be involved. Confirm responsibilities rather than assuming a contact’s title tells the whole story.

Then follow up on the conversation you actually had. Reference the issue discussed, deliver the information you promised, and propose a specific next step. When appropriate, ask the person you met to introduce the colleague who handles that area.

Refresh contact information before launching outreach, too. People change roles and email addresses, and an old export can leave you working from outdated information. For a broader follow-up framework, see Emerald Intel’s guide to converting leads into customers after cannabis industry events.

Make the Preparation Carry Through

Treat each event as a connected process: identify the accounts that matter, reach the relevant people, prepare for the discussion, and carry what you learn into follow-up.

That approach works whether you’re exhibiting, hosting an event, or walking the floor. It also gives your team a repeatable process for the next cannabis trade show on the calendar.

Want help putting these workflows into practice before MJBizCon? Connect with the Emerald Intel team to explore how company, license, ownership, and contact intelligence can support your event plan. And if you're heading to Vegas December 1-4, 2026, stop by our booth to see Emerald Intel in action!