American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
On Wednesday Tony Magee, the founder and Executive Chairman of Lagunitas Brewing returned to the Colorado Convention Center, a Denver location he’s attended many times in the past for the Great American Beer Festival.
But Tony’s return this time around was to deliver the keynote address at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Seed to Sale Show.
Known to many as a both a vocal proponent of the cannabis industry and an enthusiastic consumer himself, Tony opened the two-day industry gathering in an address that was both provocative and wildly entertaining…
In his keynote, titled “A Glimpse into the Future: Lessons from 20 Years of Craft Brewing Give Traction to the Cannabis Industry,” Magee discussed what craft beer and the marijuana industry have in common, and shared the many lessons he’d learned over his last 25 years brewing beer in a highly-regulated industry.
And here’s some of what he touched on in his keynote address ….
Magee started things in his own inimical fashion by noting the a former Budweiser executive who likened the cannabis industry to the craft beer biz, got it “way, way wrong….I think (cannabis) is going to be way, way, way, way bigger.”
Describing his years in the craft beer industry as “24 years of life on the nose of a rocket ship,” Magee implored the thousands of cannabis entrepreneurs to prepare for any economic convulsions or industry consolidation that craft beer biz is currently experiencing.
“You’ve got to be thinking about this stuff today, while you’re in the boom time, that you plant the right sorts of seeds and grow the right kind of company that you can persevere into a future that will have constraints that are not present today.”
Magee also addressed his 100% sale of Lagunitas to Amsterdam-based beer giant Heineken as critical to his company’s future….
“It’s not the same as selling out … it was the necessary step not for today, but to prepare ourselves for the world coming 10 years from now.”
He also stressed the importance of the rule-breaking techniques he employed building the Lagunitas brand and suggested that same strategy be applied to the emerging cannabis industry…
“What’s important is to do things that amaze your customers, I think, even if it does sort of rub up against the rules…Because people chafe against the rules, just like you should.”
As we’ve reported Tony Magee clearly sees this as a seminal time for the ‘budding’ industry…
“It’s an exciting moment for the cannabis industry right now. It strongly reminds me of when we were first getting started…it’s almost as if cannabis is where craft beer was some fifteen, twenty years ago.”
And only time will tell if he’s right about that…
Pot Beer Image Credit: Mitchell Maglio
