Jacqueline Collins
Audio By Carbonatix
One of North America’s largest hemp conferences had to find a new location on short notice. Again.
The eighth NoCo Hemp Expo was slated to run from Wednesday, March 23, to Friday, March 25, at the Crowne Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center, but NoCo Hemp Expo organizer Morris Beegle says he learned on February 18 that the Crowne Plaza wouldn’t be able to host the event.
“There’s no space to hold our event there. All of the rooms, conference areas and office spaces are taken,” Beegle says.
During the pandemic, space at some local motels and hotels have been booked by social agencies providing shelter for people experiencing homelessness and other at-risk populations. But the pandemic has also resulted in many postponed conventions and conferences, and as a result, Beegle was able to trade up to the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Aurora, and keep the same dates.
“The Gaylord was very accommodating. They’ve got space for us and it’s a beautiful facility,” he says, adding that there will be enough space to allow for all of the expo’s previously planned vendors and speakers, including Colorado Governor Jared Polis. And the expo will honor the same hotel packages at the Gaylord that it was offering at the Crowne Plaza, Beegle adds.
The three-day conference, a mix of business-to-business and consumer events, is dedicated to industrial hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids such as CBD, as well as other health foods, non-intoxicating mushrooms and alternative building materials.
The Crowne Plaza is currently providing a “transitional housing site for humanitarian purposes,” according to the Colorado Department of Human Services. The DHS declines to give specifics about who’s staying there for safety reasons, but does note that the state’s contract with the Crowne Plaza has been extended into April as the people placed there continue to look for more permanent housing.
This isn’t the first time the expo has had to make last-second changes. The 2020 edition was initially postponed when the pandemic hit in March 2020, a few weeks before it was scheduled; that year’s in-person expo eventually was canceled and forced online because the planned location, the National Western Complex, was serving as a shelter for homeless individuals at the time. The 2021 expo was held in March at the National Western Complex as planned, however, making it the first major cannabis industry conference in Colorado since the pandemic began.
But then came the unexpected challenge of finding a new spot for the 2022 event.
“Everyone at the Crowne was very nice. Their hands are tied. It’s a humanitarian effort,” Beegle says. “Fortunately, I’ve been in the music industry,and have had to produce a variety of events. Being an event organizer, that’s what you have to do. You have to pivot.”
