2nd Annual THC Exposé At The Los Angeles Convention Center
| By THC Exposé | Published April 21, 2010 |
| Date: |
April 23-25, 2010 |
| Time: | TBA |
| Address: | Los Angeles Convention Center get directions |
3-Day Cannabis And Pop Culture-Related Tradeshow Will Be Open To The Public
Featuring THC and hemp products, food, fashion, guest speakers, music, live DJs, a special hemp museum exhibit, and 20 Hours of THC-defined movies: All for $10.00!
Admission will be $10.00 at the door, and patrons must be 18 years or over to attend. Advance tickets may be purchased online through http://www.thcexpose.com until three days before each respective day of the show. There is a facility fee of $2.50 per ticket and a service fee of $2.13 per ticket for this service, in addition to the ticket price. Tickets may be picked up at Will Call for no further cost, or various shipping options are available, with details posted on the website.
The Convention Center parking lot charges $12.00, with no in/out privileges. Parking and traffic information is available on radio station 1630 AM.
The Los Angeles Convention Center is conveniently located at the intersection of the Santa Monica Freeway (10) and the Harbor Freeway (110). For more directions and information visit http://www.lacclink.com/directions/directions.aspx.
Security for this year’s THC Exposé will be provided by Pro Staff. Additional event details and information can be located on the THC Exposé website.
Brian Roberts, owner and creator of THC Exposé (formerly known simply as “THC Expo”), garnered national attention in 2009 by producing the show’s acclaimed predecessor on June 13-14 of that year, at the same venue. That initial event was a massive hit, attended by over 30,000 people from all over the world and with over 200 vendors. The upcoming April 2010 THC Exposé will expand Roberts’ vision as well as his event. The Los Angeles-based promoter has secured 150,000 square feet of space for the weekend experience.
“Initially, it was an Expo,” Roberts explains, “like a World Fair. But in the last year it has become more of an Exposé, since we need to expose the truth about THC. So it is now THC Exposé, not as just a World Fair but more as an economic powerhouse. This industry has been hidden for seventy years, and once it is opened up, it could parallel the entertainment industry.
“Last year we had 30,000 people in attendance, and now we’ve invested $80,000 towards this year. Last year we were a 100% consumer show,” he delineates. “We were open Saturday and Sunday to the public. It was generally to sell product and introduce the public to all these new companies and brands.
“In 2009 we had glass artists on the one hand, and mass production glass companies on the other; Hemp companies, from clothing to fabrics; the Hemp Museum; and Hemp displayed in the nutritional arena from food to soap, to cosmetics made out of Hemp. We had advocacy groups for the legalization of marijuana, as well as doctors and lawyers. It will be even bigger, even better for 2010.
“The only criticism I received about last year, by email and from my interactions, was that it was too crowded. So for this year, we expanded an extra 50,000 square feet for elbow room. That was the first thing earmarked for 2010 planning. We’re also anticipating more foot traffic.”
For his 2nd Annual THC Exposé, Roberts has added an extra day on the Friday, utilizing half of that day as a business-to-business model (from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), in order to promote the industry as an economic power-house. “Companies can conduct business-to-business sales, and then we’ll open it to the public later in the day.” The public will be admitted on Friday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., then on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. “We’re trying to encourage more business-to business, to show the industry tradeshow aspect as well. Because of competing tradeshows in similar industries now, we’re trying to develop the all-in-one tradeshow and consumer show, an event where you have all these international businesses plus all the retail stores coming together, primed to do business for the public.
“It’s everyone from the head shop people to the grow industry to the clothing industry and boutiques. It also crosses over to the action sports market, because some skate and surf shops will carry some of the Hemp clothing. Record labels and the music world are also involved. Food vendors have also approached us,” he states, “as well as companies making edible goods.”
“This year we have an increase in vaporizer companies. Ten years ago, a show would be all pipes and rolling papers. Glass was not really around. It was plastic tubes and water pipes. Then the glass industry evolved into these high end tubes. Glass art. Instead of a $40 item, it became a $200 one, and now it’s a $500 item.”
For the THC Exposé Roberts has shaped in 2010, there has been a 90% return rate for vendors andv booth renters who participated last year. Just about all of them have signed on again and upgraded their booths to bigger spaces.
As of press time, a partial list of vendors and booth operators for THC Exposé 2010 includes:
-Dosatron
-Burger Soil Mixtures
-Thermorock
-Omni Enviro
-Watersystems
-Advanced Nutrients
-DNA
-Greenhouse Seed Co
-BC Northern Lights
-Keirton Manufacturing
-Trim Pro
-Humboldt Nutrients
-Discount Hydro
-Greencoast Hydroponics
-BG Hydro
-Cali Connection
-Cannabis Planet
-Graffix
-Earthwise Packaging
-Pineapple Kush
-Homegron
-Dutch Specialty Products
-Jabberwok
-Pure Glass
-PIV Enterprises Inc
-Bella THC
-420 Cannabis Card Corp
-NUG Magazine
-High Times
-Healing Yourself
-Bowldawg's
-Daydreamz
-Nature's Wonder
-420 Soft
-Premium Organic
-Treatments
-Go N Green
-Vaporgenie
-NotForPot.com
-Pothead Diaries Clothing
-Red Eye UK Ltd
-Plasma Pipes
-Medicann
-Sensi Seed Company
(and many more)
Promoter Brian Roberts has also established unique physical ticketing for THC Exposé. “For 2010, I’m having custom-designed tickets printed. In 2009, people who came in wore a generic wristband. This year’s 2010 ticket is bar coded and designed by the Kush Boys Studios, who designed a clothing line for Cheech & Chong. The actual ticket is hard card stock, embossed with a bar coded system for security,” Roberts continues. “The admission ticket has two purposes: the sense of legitimacy that you are going to the greatest show on earth, and it also serves as a collector’s item. We have no alignment with Ticketmaster,” reveals Roberts. “We are not a corporate style company. We are an individual company owned by one and we employ many who are individuals as well. We don’t dislike corporations, but we are not a corporation.”
The 2nd Annual THC Exposé will acknowledge Jack Herer, the best-known activist in the marijuana culture. Herer wrote and toured for over twenty years promoting hemp. I met Jack and read his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, which was a life altering experience. It wasn’t a traditional book that you would read chapter by chapter. Instead it was a book comprised of photo-copied newspaper clippings, a book I could pick up and put down at will, something a stoner could read in easy bites.” Numerous speakers and educators are confirmed to appear at THC Exposé, including Reggae music archivist Roger Steffens; Dan and Aaron, owners of Amsterdam-based seed and clothing company DNA Genetics; Dr. Richard Mantell, who provides medical cannabis evaluation services in Orange and Riverside counties; and Orange County mother Judy Mendoza, who heads the organization and website, M-Squared (M2) (http://www.msquaredinc.info).
The producers will shortly be announcing the line-ups of other medical and legal experts who will be discussing in-depth issues on panels devoted to their respective specialties, interests and passions over the course of the three-day event. Bob Marley/Reggae historian, author and KCRW veteran Roger Steffens will host several multi-media presentations on Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and other reggae ganja promoters during the weekend. He will also have a booth where attendees can purchase his awardwinning books and rare back issues of The Beat magazine. Steffens has presented his shows at the Smithsonian, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and in the Australian outback, more than 400 times since 1984, the same year he became the founding chairman of the Reggae Grammy Committee.
Other speakers and events lined up for THC Exposé include a discussion on the Cannabis Cup from High Times magazine’s Senior Editor, Dan Skye. Author Lonn Friend will be signing his book Life on Planet Rock, as will Michael Grecco, signing Naked Ambition (with a very special guest from the book). Also at THC Exposé will be the first NASCAR entry ever to have a cannabis-related logo on the hood, sponsored by the TV show, Cannabis Planet. The art designers from the Lollapalooza Tour will be there as well, creating a mythical, entertaining, theatrical VIP Island/World called Stonyland. Magazines that will be attending include High Times, Culture, Skunk, Nug, Vision, Treating Yourself, Patients Guide Los Angeles and, of course, THC Exposé.
“Judy Mendoza is also slated to speak at the convention,” Roberts explains. “She is a mother who has a child with special needs. She has taken him off pharmaceutical drugs and has started him on medicinal marijuana. TV reporter Ann Varney from 20/20 will be following Mendoza with her cameras at THC Exposé, as part of a segment she has been filming on the activistmom and her story.”
Roberts is coordinating DJs who will spin 10-15 minute sets onstage. Individual exhibitors will submit DJ’s to promote their companies’ wares. The producer has also scheduled a special slate of movies and film documentaries for THC Exposé. “This year I decided to integrate a movie theater into the convention and screen twenty hours of Hemp and THC themed films. Titles include American Drug War and Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes. THC Exposé will house a 100-seat movie theater at no extra charge to attendees. Scenes for the movie Hemp Can Save the Planet will be filmed during the convention. More details can be found at http://hempcansavetheplanet.blogspot.com/
“I added the film component because I felt the need to differentiate us from all the other tradeshows trying to sneak up on us,” enthuses Roberts. “Each year I pull a rabbit out of my hat. I always knew there was a stoner audience who supported movies with cannabis references. Fast Times at Ridgemont High to Pineapple Express. Good documentaries about the industry as well, and bad ones, too. I want to pick a few of the good ones. I get to show the ones I’ve selected over twenty years of viewing. ‘Take a peak, these are some of my favorites.’ I discovered a lot of these films from going to tradeshows for years - ‘Have you seen this?’ ‘Have you heard of this?’ There is an underground cinema cult around these movies. When I first started a head shop in 1994, I got a movie, Gorilla Growing, and I was amazed how they grew things in the forest, the natural way. There’s an underground culture of how to grow.”
The 2010 THC Exposé at The Los Angeles Convention Center will also launch an event program that will evolve into a quarterly periodical, THC Exposé. The new magazine, which will debut at the show, is edited and assembled by Rob Hill, former editor of FHM, Giant and Hollywood Life. “The main focus is not aimed at young-minded cannabis smokers so much as the more affluent and educated readers, who don’t want to wear a cannabis leaf on their shirt or jacket,” reinforces publisher Brian Roberts. “It goes for the lifestyle of the person over age 30 who likes to read,” he concludes. “No buds on the cover!” As he prepares for the second annual THC Exposé, Roberts also reflects on the growth and discovery of a new world that constantly garners media attention and has become a daily forum of fun and education. “Last year, the attendees loved it, but there was nothing for them to love except it was the first time they could see all the aspects of the experience, and this previously hidden world. Now, since we have some competition for the same growing market, we’ve redefined the show to make it more aesthetically pleasing for the eye.
“Your eye likes to see art; your ear likes to hear music. You like to go to a movie theater to be entertained and educated. We’re bringing in all those perspectives. I assumed, when I went into this venture, that we could rival the car shows in this town for traffic and product awareness. It’s the biggest boom industry in the United States. “I also come out of an art world, where graphics and logo play a part in the presentation. That’s especially prevalent in the cannabis industry. The relationship between cannabis and art exerts an influence. At this tradeshow there will be 10,000 square feet inside for artists, jewelry makers, the funky art scene. That’s how we’re tweaking the show and not making it just a cannabis show: it will also feature art, music, movies.
“I’m not a marijuana advocate,” Roberts proclaims. “Like the THC Exposé, I’m about pop culture, music, food, and fashion, all blended into the presentation of Hemp and THC. Through the clothing industry’s efforts with marketing and branding, people became aware of certain items. As you build your brand, you take that approach to what I am doing. The show does say Cannabis and Hemp are part of our culture in music, art, television, clothing. The industry is huge. The glass industry is blowing up as well. Look at all the artists that are doing it. It’s not just a smoking thing or venue, it’s an artistic place. Tradeshows are also a great economic stimulus for a city. We support the local hotels and restaurants. I’m based in downtown L.A., so I’m a local!”
Roberts has also designated a wing of the Convention Center space to The Hemp Museum, which houses The Richard Davis Collection. Artifacts will be on display, along with selected archive and newsprint items. Roberts has been providing a platform to showcase Davis’s historical memorabilia. The THC Exposé serves as sponsor now, through the non-profit World Cannabis Foundation, by donating space at the Convention Center for this exhibit. “It shows the history and the legacy,” says Roberts. “It’s this aspect that brings a living education to the average person who doesn’t understand anything to do with Hemp. They don’t understand the commodity of it, that it’s used to make T-shirts, jeans, protein, used as rope. Hemp is used for 25,000 listed items, going back to 1937. It’s perfectly legal, according to the United States Dept. of Justice, to manufacture and sell products containing up to 0.3% of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the main chemical ingredient in the Cannabis plant. Hemp is the only crop that is legal for Americans to import yet illegal to grow, which is why we spend millions of dollars every year to import what we need for production of these goods.”
Brian Roberts, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree from U.C. Santa Barbara, has watched
the politics around THC and Hemp for decades, including the recent increase in medical marijuana dispensaries. He began his THC product-driven journey from the logo and clothing world. “Due to prohibition, a kind of nostalgic tradition was created, the T-shirt with the leaf on it. When I left college I only had $1,500.00 in my pocket and could only make T-shirts about an industry that is closed-minded and illegal. There seemed to be so many kids who enjoyed it, and the media has always covered it, so I made T-shirts that played on that coverage. “Now this world is no longer hidden. It’s all a ‘plus-plus.’ Nothing to do with anything negative. The recent coverage demonstrates that people in the mainstream will talk about it and will dialogue. There are enough people in the world who have tried it and endorsed it.
“We are a brand new industry, as to the legitimacy aspect of it. Everyone has done this for the past ten or fifteen years, but until recently they conducted it in an underground way. I came up through the clothing and apparel world, but the clothing industry during the past fifteen years has taken a serious hit, like the music business. Retail chains and mass marketing have taken over the cool independent clothing lines. “There’s a definite need for this event. We’re talking about a multi-billion dollar industry with no tradeshow of its own. You can’t think of another industry that doesn’t have a tradeshow of its own. The movie industry has the Oscars, where they pat themselves on the back. “I went to tradeshows for fifteen years, selling clothes and patches,” Brian Roberts remembers. “I’d sit around for four days, looking for two per cent of the customers. I was always fishing in the wrong pond until I created this pond. Now there’s one big pond for all of us to keep fishing in, with thousands of fish. And it’s all centered around how we were influenced as kids and what we love. You can be an independent record store and find something to link up with at the THC Exposé. It’s all here.”
For more information about Brian Roberts, Rob Hill, and the THC Exposé show, please visit
the website at http://www.thcexpose.com. A biography of Brian Roberts is available upon
request.
To learn more about the THC Exposé magazine and event program, please visit the website at
or contact THC Exposé for details.
To advertise or participate, call or fax THC Exposé at the numbers shown:
Ph: (213) 926-5545 – Fax: (213) 493-4439
For credentials and press passes to attend the show (Media Only), please send an email to
cody@thcexpose.com.
