O.Pen Vape presented the event, and it was open for anyone ages 21 and older. Jobs included photojournalism, marketing, sales, tour guides, bud tenders and growers, and the line to get inside of the 1058 Delaware Street site was three blocks long, and it had to be cut off around 6 p.m.
Approximately 1,200 people attended, according to O.Pen Vape co-owner Tim Cullen, with some waiting as long as three hours.
Cullen and his team thought of the idea to host the job fair in the Mile High City."When we go through a hiring process, we usually put an ad out on Craigslist, then collect resumes, and call in interviews, and it's a slow process," he says. But then, Todd Mitchem, chief revenue director at O.Pen Vape, "saw a job fair for another industry advertising in the paper and we were like, 'Oh why don't we do that?' Initially we were going to do a job fair just for O.Pen, but why not open this up to a wider audience?"
Their results were a success.
Everyone from entrepreneurs and marketing managers to cannabis lovers and people who were just getting started in the job field attended.
Jordan Matthews, an Aurora resisdent who recently moved here from California, was looking for a sales position. She claims marijuana was the only way to cure the pain she was having, and it's the main reason she wants to get involved in the field.
"I wouldn't be sane, or alive, if it wasn't for the medical marijuana industry," Matthews says.Not only could attendees hunt for potential careers, but there was also an opportunity to get educated on pot. The Cannabis Hemp Academy offered $420 online courses to learn whatever is needed to become well-rounded in the industry.
"Our idea is to get more people educated about the basics of hemp and cannabis," explains the Academy's Laura Kriho. "Since the whole propaganda campaign of 75 years of people lying about cannabis, there's still a lot of misinformation out there. So our goal is to educate more people and make them more aware."
Other organizations at CannaSearch included The Hemp Connoisseur Magazine, 420 Tours, Southwest Alternative Care, Organa Labs and Colorado Green Tours.
Almost every table in the packed room held a line of five to ten job-seekers clutching their cover letters and resumes and hoping to get a foot in the door within the ever-changing, rapidly growing weed business."It's obviously a fast growing industry," said one attendee, Sean Quinones. "It's blowing up in Colorado, I need a job, I like cannabis, and it all seems to come together right here."
Continue for more photos from CannaSearch, Colorado's first-ever cannabis job fair. Continue for more photos from CannaSearch, Colorado's first-ever cannabis job fair. Continue for more photos from CannaSearch, Colorado's first-ever cannabis job fair. Continue for more photos from CannaSearch, Colorado's first-ever cannabis job fair. More from our Marijuana archive circa March 13: "Recreational marijuana smoking a firing offense? Colorado Bar Association says 'yes.'"
