Latest / Bite Me The Show About Edibles / How to Host a Cannabis Event People Remember: Lessons From Christina Wong of Fruit + Flower

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How to Host a Cannabis Event People Remember: Lessons From Christina Wong of Fruit + Flower · Bite Me The Show About Edibles

• 0:05
  Margaret: Welcome back, friends, to episode 305, and today I am thrilled to be sitting down with Christina Wong of Fruit and Flour.
• 0:12
  Margaret: Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your high life.
• 0:19
  Margaret: I'm your host and certified Ganjier, margaret, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home.
• 0:25
  Margaret: I'm so glad you're here, friends.
• 0:29
  Margaret: Welcome back to another episode of Bite Me.
• 0:31
  Margaret: I'm so glad you're here to listen in on this conversation, which I was really excited to have.
• 0:37
  Margaret: I've been following Christina's work for quite some time over on Instagram.
• 0:40
  Margaret: She makes the most beautiful baked goods I have ever seen, and not only that, hosts what looked to be the most magical events that I could imagine, and as someone who has been looking to host in-person events locally because I can't always get to the nearest big city to attend I thought who better to ask than this queen of cannabis events?
• 1:05
  Margaret: And so when Christina said yes, that she would come on the show, I was very excited.
• 1:11
  Margaret: Christina is a Clio award-winning storyteller and seasoned PR and communications pro who spent over a decade in the food and restaurant industry, working with well-known chefs, restaurants, hospitality and cannabis brands.
• 1:24
  Margaret: Industry working with well-known chefs, restaurants, hospitality and cannabis brands.
• 1:26
  Margaret: Her imaginative and delectable creations have earned numerous awards and accolades.
• 1:30
  Margaret: And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
• 1:37
  Margaret: You're going to hear a whole lot more about how Christina hosts events, what makes them so magical, what makes them so buzzworthy and why people keep coming back, and if you've ever thought about hosting your own event whether that is just a simple dinner party with a few close friends or something larger and more formal than this episode is for you.
• 1:54
  Margaret: Without further ado, please enjoy this conversation with Christina Wong.
• 1:59
  Margaret: Okay, everyone, I am really excited to be joined today by Christina Wong of Fruit + Flower and, in case you aren't familiar with her work, I'm going to have Christina say hello and introduce herself to the listeners of Bite Me and to maybe tell the listeners what it is that you do.
• 2:22
  Christina: Hey everybody, thanks for having me on Margaret.
• 2:25
  Christina: So I started as a baked baker.
• 2:29
  Christina: I was just really interested in learning how to cook and bake with cannabis and then it just kind of opened up a whole new world and my background.
• 2:37
  Christina: Before I started doing, before I became fruit and flour, I worked in public relations and marketing and branding for restaurants, chefs, food brands, so I was very familiar with the culinary world and when I got into cannabis I noticed that there was an opportunity to really use food and this farm to table narrative and language and storytelling that I was working on in the food space to teach people how to choose better cannabis products for themselves in the culinary cannabis space.
• 3:12
  Margaret: That is amazing.
• 3:13
  Margaret: It also explains a lot because your baking is absolutely beautiful, like if I don't know if anybody hasn't seen your Instagram yet, they should really check it out, because your baking is is stunning and you obviously have the background to photograph it beautifully as well, which is a big component to that.
• 3:30
  Margaret: But you've been doing a lot of things obviously in the culinary space for a while, but you've kind of shifted into this cannabis event planning yeah, sort of wanting to do something around in in person cannabis events where I am.
• 3:44
  Margaret: I thought who better to talk to about it than somebody who's hosting these absolutely beautiful events?
• 3:50
  Margaret: So can you talk a little bit about what drew you into doing cannabis event planning to begin with?
• 3:58
  Christina: Yeah, so it's funny that you mentioned my baking, because that's something I love to do and that was like my way of processing my emotions and using it, making art and storytelling.
• 4:08
  Christina: But the odd thing is, these days I find that I don't bake that much anymore, like when yeah, and it's been really odd because I struggle, because I'm like, oh you know, like I should be making more time to bake and trying to make a schedule to force myself to do this thing.
• 4:22
  Christina: But the odd thing was I realized that before it was it's the plant guiding me Before, when I would get high, I'd have these beautiful ideas of the things that I wanted to make and the flavors and how they would pair and the stories that they would tell.
• 4:35
  Christina: And now, when I get high, I'm imagining all of the different events and gatherings and stories and how to bring people together.
• 4:44
  Christina: And when I first started, it was I was baking desserts or different things and bringing them to my events so that people could taste them and try them.
• 4:52
  Christina: And I quickly realized that I can't host, produce an event and bake things and do all of it.
• 5:00
  Christina: So it became a lot.
• 5:01
  Christina: So I let go of the baking for a bit, just simply because it wasn't what inspired me anymore creating these gatherings and these spaces for people to be able to physically experience the fruit and flour world, like the baked goods.
• 5:16
  Christina: You can see it, you can make it at home, there's an educational aspect and then there's an opportunity to taste it.
• 5:21
  Christina: But then there's the world and the universe of fruit and flower coming to life through these gatherings.
• 5:27
  Christina: So that's kind of the evolution of how it evolved and I think, because I've always worked in hospitality and PR, it's the world of events and hospitality is something that's always called to me.
• 5:40
  Christina: So using events to gather people, to provide safe spaces and opportunities for people to try, experiment, learn and talk about cannabis, I feel is really important and much needed, because dispensaries are places to purchase cannabis and you might get some education if you are lucky and have a good dispensary and a good bedtender.
• 6:06
  Christina: There's a lot of online education, but overwhelming and difficult to parse through and a lot of the events that I noticed that I was going to here in Los Angeles were not for me.
• 6:18
  Christina: I didn't feel comfortable there.
• 6:20
  Christina: It wasn't that I wasn't welcome, but it was just not the type of environment where I.
• 6:27
  Christina: No one wanted to talk to me about the type of conversations that I wanted to have.
• 6:31
  Christina: And so when I met Chef Wendy and we just started hanging out, getting high, cooking food and eating and a lot of it was just and Chef Wendy Zheng is a Sichuan chef here in Los Angeles and we co-host Mogu Magu, together and she cooks some of the most amazing food and we would just get high and eat her food and talk and just share stories and so much healing happens that we're like, wait, how do we do this with more people?
• 6:59
  Christina: I think more people would really enjoy this connection of culture meets food, meets cannabis, and so that's how Mogu Magu was born and that's why we host so many of our gatherings and events Like it's not just a party.
• 7:13
  Christina: I know on Instagram it just looks like a fabulous party and it is, but there's so much story and healing and narrative and themes behind each event that's very intentional that it's very difficult to get across in just like a highlight reel on Instagram.
• 7:31
  Christina: So we've started doing more long form storytelling as well, but we realize, you know, things take time to build and we have to be patient.
• 7:39
  Margaret: Yeah, I don't.
• 7:40
  Margaret: I know that's so true.
• 7:42
  Margaret: When it comes to like things like baking, there's, I feel like in life there's always an ebb and a flow.
• 7:46
  Margaret: You kind of have all those ebbs and flows.
• 7:48
  Margaret: I mean, I used to bake a ton of sourdough bread and I've done that, you know, throughout periods of my life, but sometimes I'm really into it and other times I haven't baked it.
• 7:56
  Margaret: So, and I think there's a real also desire for people to get together in real life again after this post-COVID world that we're in, and people are really craving that in-person connection.
• 8:07
  Margaret: So I can see why it's so important and, like I said, you say it doesn't really translate over the Instagram reel like the real essence of your events, and that's probably true to a point, but I think some of it does come through, which is why they look so magical.
• 8:21
  Margaret: Now I am curious if there's any misconceptions about the events that you're hosting and maybe you can touch on a little bit more in depth about the events that you've been to that didn't really resonate with you, because I feel like I've been to some of those as well.
• 8:35
  Christina: Yeah, what does that look like for you?
• 8:39
  Margaret: Probably like I hate to say it like this, but bro culture, I guess like the really like, yeah, just heavy dabs and like heavy smoking, and maybe that's because I'm not in that space.
• 8:51
  Margaret: Like, I enjoy cannabis pretty much every day but I'm not like a super heavy smoker and yeah, just my experience of the plant is a lot different than that.
• 9:00
  Christina: Yeah and same.
• 9:01
  Christina: That is the exact environment in which I found myself, because that is the type of cannabis culture that is being portrayed to us currently for marketing, for sale.
• 9:13
  Christina: That's who you know, the high dose dab consumer.
• 9:16
  Christina: Mostly men on the surface level are what seems to be driving sales, but really women are the primary sales drivers and when I would go to those events I would be there and it would just be a haze of smoke and guys wearing hoodies and hats and you know many are very nice, very helpful, taught me how to roll my first joint, gave me my first dabs, but I realized that for me, when I'm high, I like going deep, I like having deep conversations and really exploring the depths of our soul and healing and doing different and just doing things.
• 9:56
  Christina: I like to craft, I like to learn, I like to do new things, and so every single event that I do is in all of these gatherings.
• 10:04
  Christina: It's really out of my own curiosity, like I just want to learn more about something and then the opportunity comes together so we're like, all right, let's make this happen.
• 10:13
  Christina: But the like the gathering, it's misconceptions about the events that we do, that any of this makes money, about the events that we do that any of?
• 10:27
  Christina: this makes money.
• 10:28
  Christina: Yeah, they look really fabulous and a lot of work goes into them, but this is truly, truly a community created experience.
• 10:39
  Christina: Wendy and I could not do this without the support of our friends, volunteers, our co-hosts, our generous you know the farmers.
• 10:49
  Christina: Like none of this is a cash transaction based experience and when we started they were free, they were.
• 10:59
  Christina: You know, we would bring together all of our friends who were in the industry, bring together all of our friends who were in the industry and it was just kind of to meet, because a lot of the other events we would go to or things that were geared for, like AAPIs and cannabis, are more business networking and that was nice.
• 11:12
  Christina: But, like we again, I like to go deep into my emotions and healing and trauma, and so the business networking was great and that gave us an opportunity to meet each other and kind of spin off onto this side.
• 11:25
  Christina: And so what?
• 11:28
  Christina: Each event is totally different.
• 11:30
  Christina: It started with just us but then it grew into bringing on co-hosts to tell their stories and you know people look at cannabis from the outside and think, wow, there's so much money, but if you're here in California, it's collapsing and not doing well at the moment and it's kind of been on a decline.
• 11:48
  Christina: However, you know, the world still has to continue, stories still need to be told and we still feel it's really important to continue gathering and continue meeting.
• 11:58
  Christina: And just because a brand or somebody doesn't have, you know, cash to contribute to participate, doesn't mean that they can't.
• 12:06
  Christina: So we've created volunteer opportunities for people who want to attend to be able to pitch in, and in that way, it's very much like a traditional potluck, where every person and every brand, everyone who comes, participates in some way, whether by donating something that they have, giving some piece of knowledge, sharing, volunteering, helping in the kitchen, you know, even washing dishes and taking out trash is immensely helpful.
• 12:33
  Christina: Because what we realized was when we were starting to do these, it was just Wendy and I.
• 12:38
  Christina: We were trying to do everything ourselves and we weren't even enjoying the party.
• 12:41
  Christina: We weren't able to talk to our guests, we were just running around trying to, you know, manage, and so when people volunteered to say, hey, how can we be helpful?
• 12:51
  Christina: It was also an experience, a learning lesson for us on how to ask for help and how to accept the help.
• 13:01
  Margaret: Yeah, a little bit, and I love what you're saying too, but everybody participating in some way, cause that also means that let go a little bit.
• 13:05
  Margaret: And I love what you're saying too, about everybody participating in some way, because that also means that everybody has a little bit of buy-in to what's happening.
• 13:10
  Margaret: And when you say also that, like you know, you're not doing this for profit first.
• 13:15
  Margaret: I think that also really shows up in how these events turn out, Because when you have profit motive as the primary goal, things often will look a lot different.
• 13:24
  Margaret: They can't Exactly.
• 13:26
  Christina: Yeah, and it's not that I'm like I will happily accept cash sponsorships because that makes it possible for us to.
• 13:33
  Christina: You know, it's just a little bit less stressful.
• 13:35
  Christina: And so what I like to tell you know any brands that I'm partnering with?
• 13:38
  Christina: I'll say, okay, like here's what we need, how would you like to participate?
• 13:43
  Christina: And oftentimes they surprise me.
• 13:45
  Christina: Those who do have cash and are able to participate in that way do, and they offer, and so they're offering to give something instead of me asking for something in exchange, which changes the nature of the relationship and how we interact together.
• 14:01
  Christina: You know, we charge ticket prices.
• 14:03
  Christina: At first it was free, but then we're like, all right, we kind of got to cover some of our costs, like we can't be out of pocket for everything.
• 14:08
  Christina: So we really try to make it as affordable and accessible as possible.
• 14:15
  Christina: That's something that I'm always trying to push for, because I just I know that it's hard, I know that it's hard to part with those hard earned dollars right now, so I try to make it accessible.
• 14:25
  Christina: But also we want to pay people for their art, for their creativity, for their talents.
• 14:32
  Christina: So whenever we are able to raise enough, it ends up being given to our co-hosts.
• 14:38
  Christina: We just hosted a Bad Asians comedy tasting show for 420 Weekend with Jenny Yang and a bunch of comedians, and I was so proud that, thanks to everyone's contributions, our sponsors included, we were able to pay them.
• 14:53
  Christina: Like, comedians don't get paid to do gigs, like they were just happy to be there and do it, but we're like no, like let us pay you, and so that felt really good to be able to do that and you know, pitching into our kitchen staff, being able to pay our photographers and video people to help, like, tell the story, because, again, at first it was just me trying to do all of it and that's not possible.
• 15:18
  Margaret: Yeah.
• 15:20
  Christina: Yeah, so it's really grown in this very organic way and I think for those who are interested in hosting gatherings, you know, don't be dissuaded because a brand doesn't have money or you can't pay for something.
• 15:31
  Christina: Yes, there's realities of hard costs, but be creative and open-minded about how to achieve and accomplish your needs and goals.
• 15:41
  Margaret: Yeah, and I think that that will also be reflected in the event afterwards, like I already mentioned, when you get that buy-in from people and they can participate in ways that feels good to them as well.
• 15:50
  Margaret: So I think that does translate in the way your events come across online as well.
• 15:55
  Margaret: I'm just going to say that, oh thank you.
• 15:58
  Margaret: Yeah, Now how do you incorporate the storytelling and the cultural context into your events that you're doing?
• 16:06
  Margaret: Because you've touched on this a little bit, but I'd love to hear you talk more about that it always starts with a theme.
• 16:11
  Christina: Wendy and I go hard on a theme and all the way and it just almost comes to us.
• 16:16
  Christina: It just comes naturally.
• 16:18
  Christina: We have so many ideas that we really just sort of put a pin in things or sit on it until all of the right elements come through.
• 16:25
  Christina: But again, usually it's something we're just naturally curious about.
• 16:29
  Christina: Like, for example, we hosted Diwali and Dabs back in 2003.
• 16:36
  Christina: And that was just.
• 16:37
  Christina: Wendy and I sat back and we're like, oh, all of the events we're hosting are very East Asian and Chinese focused holidays and events and storytelling, because that's what we know.
• 16:48
  Christina: We're both Chinese, different kinds of Chinese, but still, and we're like, well, we're forgetting about the other A's and the P's and the I's, and how can we make this more inclusive and how can we be better ourselves and learn?
• 16:59
  Christina: And so that's how we ended up hosting a Diwali and Dabs.
• 17:02
  Christina: We invited our friends Myra and Maha to co-host with us, and sometimes the theme comes out in the planning.
• 17:10
  Christina: It's not intended, you know.
• 17:11
  Christina: It started off as celebrating Diwali and Holi and this you know the contrast of light and dark.
• 17:17
  Christina: But really what came out of the conversations and the speeches that day, like the event itself isn't the narrative.
• 17:24
  Christina: Sometimes the story comes out of it because what I heard from everyone who attended they're like, wow, I've never experienced anything like this before or I never felt Indian enough to celebrate this.
• 17:37
  Christina: There's a lot of intersectionality in the Asian American diaspora.
• 17:41
  Christina: You know, I'm Chinese American.
• 17:43
  Christina: Sometimes someone is Filipino and Mexican, you have a Spanish and Chinese.
• 17:50
  Christina: There's just so much crossover of our identity and politics that sometimes that's the conversation that comes up.
• 17:58
  Christina: And so with both of our co-hosts they were both half Indian and so they grew up celebrating it kind of but they were told that they were not Indian enough to celebrate Tivoli, and or people were saying this is the first time I've ever celebrated it.
• 18:15
  Christina: We also partnered with Latinas and Cannabis, with Susie Placentia, to co-host a Dia de los Muertos, because I just really selfishly also really wanted to celebrate a Dia de los Muertos.
• 18:24
  Christina: But I also found I learned and found a commonality that in Filipino culture there is also like a Day of the Dead type celebration called Undas, and it's around the same time very similar traditions, and so it was an opportunity to be able to explore that and again the theme of.
• 18:43
  Christina: You know, people came to Dia de los Marchos and they said because my family grew up so Catholic we didn't get to celebrate Dia de los Marchos.
• 18:51
  Christina: This was their first time, and so being able to incorporate cannabis with those experiences just opens us up to that conversation, makes us feel I feel like it's a little bit of a truth serum.
• 19:04
  Christina: You know, like once you feel people being vulnerable, like it's a little bit of a truth serum.
• 19:05
  Christina: You know, like once you feel people being vulnerable, like it just starts to come out because people feel safe to share that and that's what leads to the collective healing and that kind of experience has been very magical, and so the narrative part is it's a lot we.
• 19:20
  Christina: That is something that Wendy and I are working on wrapping our minds around, because it's really just us and we don't make.
• 19:28
  Christina: You know, no one pays us to do this.
• 19:30
  Christina: We just do it for fun, because we think it's interesting.
• 19:32
  Christina: You know it helps definitely bring business to our individual respective work, but we're working on more YouTube content, possibly podcasts.
• 19:45
  Christina: I would love to put all of these stories and photography and the how-to host a gathering and the recipes into a zine, but that all takes time, creative energy and a little bit of budget.
• 20:01
  Margaret: Yeah, it does, and you're already pulling off so much.
• 20:03
  Margaret: But I think you have the creative spirit to do it, that's for sure.
• 20:06
  Margaret: I mean, yeah, listening to like the way you to come up with all these like themes, it's just boggles my mind really eat something like, oh, wouldn't that be so rad.
• 20:25
  Christina: And then the next thing, you know, it's like come to life in front of us and her husband laughs because he'll be in the background working in the garden or doing things, and he'll just hear us, just, you know, being silly and talking.
• 20:33
  Christina: And then the next thing he knows, a couple months from now, like it's in front of him and it's a reality and he can see it.
• 20:38
  Christina: He heard the idea and then all of a sudden, it's brought to life.
• 20:42
  Christina: And so for us, we really double down, we narrow down the theme.
• 20:47
  Christina: It's very specific and it's easy to kind of want to include too many things, but curation is key.
• 20:56
  Christina: Every single one of our gatherings is extremely curated from like who.
• 21:01
  Christina: We're not just accepting every and any brand to participate, like it's very it's an invite, only that we're not just accepting every and any brand to participate, like it's very it's an invite only that we're curating um or if brands come to us and we're like you know what, this isn't a right fit, but like let's talk how, what are your goals and how can we make something or create something that does feel authentic and natural and real, um and anyone who's interested in hosting these kinds of events and gatherings.
• 21:23
  Christina: I highly highly recommend a book called the Art of Gathering by Priya.
• 21:27
  Margaret: Parker.
• 21:28
  Margaret: I just read that book very recently.
• 21:30
  Margaret: It was amazing.
• 21:31
  Margaret: It was so good.
• 21:32
  Christina: It's so good.
• 21:33
  Christina: So Wendy and I decided to read it together and then we would kind of discuss it and talk about it.
• 21:38
  Christina: And the takeaway from that was like I think that, as we're natural, I'm a natural people pleaser, so I want to say yes to everything.
• 21:48
  Christina: But what I learned from that book was that you have to say no.
• 21:51
  Christina: It is our responsibility as event hosts, as gatherers, as producers, to curate it, to say no, and sometimes saying no is creating a better experience for the guests, limiting the amount of people.
• 22:07
  Christina: So each event starts with like okay, what's the wherever?
• 22:10
  Christina: The genesis of the idea came from, sometimes, like we're doing a puff and pottery, a queer puff and pottery in a couple of weeks, and that the instructor came to us because she was introduced to us by someone in our community and she's like I would love to do something and we're like all right, great, let's hang out.
• 22:27
  Christina: She came over, we smoked, we had some tea and like talked about like what like her dream would be, and then we just started to build around it and the theme of that was very much this intersection, because it's also June and pride month, you know, this intersectionality of like a celebrating your Asian queerness and letting go of perfection and just really allowing the creative process to flow, because so often we're we're taught this level of perfectionism leads to success.
• 22:57
  Christina: So we're all nervous wrecks and it's a point of conversation that's come up a lot.
• 23:03
  Christina: So we thought it would be fun to be able to get high, get your hands to craft, learn something new and just do something with the joy of doing it.
• 23:11
  Christina: And it's not going to be perfect and it doesn't have to be, and there's no one telling you that it has to.
• 23:17
  Margaret: That's beautiful.
• 23:18
  Margaret: I love it.
• 23:19
  Margaret: I'll be looking for the photos of that online when it comes out.
• 23:21
  Margaret: Yeah, the photos of that online when it comes out, yeah.
• 23:29
  Margaret: So I mean the way I'm hearing you talk about this.
• 23:30
  Margaret: You obviously have, like, a real attention to detail when it comes to creating these events.
• 23:32
  Margaret: Is there any other approaches that you take to creating these events from the ground?
• 23:38
  Christina: up.
• 23:38
  Christina: I try not to rush them.
• 23:39
  Christina: I know that sometimes we work on a timeline where we pick a date first and then force everything to work into it, and my biggest lesson through all of this baking life and hosting these gatherings is that you have to let go and flow and everything will happen in its own time in the way that it's supposed to be.
• 24:00
  Christina: So we really don't commit to a date on anything until certain elements are in place.
• 24:08
  Christina: You know it's like okay, do we have, do I have enough security, do I have enough interest in partners and people who are a, who are definite yeses that I can work with and around to be able to produce this event, instead of choosing a thing and then trying to like squeeze everyone in at once, because that creates unnecessary stress, I feel.
• 24:34
  Margaret: I mean that's pretty interesting.
• 24:35
  Margaret: But then I see you're like, you seem very prolific, like you're putting out events on a pretty regular basis, which impresses me because they're again, they're not just like event that you've thrown together, you've put a lot of time and attention into them.
• 24:48
  Margaret: So I'm just curious, like how?
• 24:52
  Christina: Thank you, I feel I'm very tired.
• 24:55
  Christina: It is a lot.
• 24:56
  Christina: It's a lot.
• 24:57
  Christina: I'm like, okay, we're doing like mogu mogu, we're doing like one event a month and then, you know, depending on kind of if we're busy or things, we take a break, and then even my own personal fruit and flower ones.
• 25:09
  Christina: Those are becoming quite a lot too.
• 25:10
  Christina: So I think, being realistic with your time, I'm also able to be prolific and do so many of these because I was an event planner in my very early, early career days and then I did PR, so I do have my planning document and my tools to make it extremely organized.
• 25:29
  Christina: And also because I have a great partner.
• 25:32
  Christina: Chef Wendy and I is like we're excellent, collaborative, creative partners and we have complimentary skill sets and resources.
• 25:40
  Christina: So having someone to do this with, who's a friend, who, it's just more fun.
• 25:47
  Christina: I couldn't do this alone.
• 25:49
  Christina: I it's.
• 25:50
  Christina: It's honestly quite a lot and the the keys to our success.
• 25:55
  Christina: One, chef Wendy's space, because she so Chef Wendy was on Chopped 420 and she was one of the winners, and she's been on a couple other shows too.
• 26:04
  Christina: But she and her husband used their winnings to build out their home and their backyard to create her dream outdoor kitchen, farm to table, supper club space, because prior to the pandemic she was hosting a lot of cannabis infused supper clubs and dinners and events, and a venue was one of the biggest challenges that they had.
• 26:26
  Christina: You know, charge the cannabis fee or freak out and panic and, like um, cancel the event at the last minute was just so hard.
• 26:39
  Christina: Even to this day, when I'm, if I'm trying to host something not at Wendy's house, it's very difficult.
• 26:44
  Christina: So because we have her home and it's we were safe there, it's it's free to consume, it's legally, it kind of checks all of the boxes and it's already turnkey.
• 27:00
  Christina: I don't have to think about the venue and set up every time I go there because we already have everything.
• 27:07
  Christina: I already I have the role, I have a list of what's available, so that takes out a lot of work, which makes it much easier to do these on a regular basis.
• 27:15
  Christina: And then I have my event planning document.
• 27:18
  Christina: That makes it even easier.
• 27:20
  Christina: Like, I already know what elements do we need.
• 27:23
  Christina: You know the volunteer spots, my budget template, and that has made it much easier to execute these over and over again.
• 27:33
  Christina: And also again having Wendy and her talents, because she's a chef and the thing that she loves more than anything is to feed people and make them happy with her food, and so being able to partner with her to create the food and the menu infinitely easier, because otherwise I'm either calling for catering or I'm trying to work out food myself, and that adds to the costs.
• 27:55
  Christina: So these gatherings and events for both of us are like a canvas for each of us to express our own artistry and watching it just grow and blossom in different ways.
• 28:10
  Christina: And I love seeing her menus and the food that she's created and how her creativity with the storyline of Magu and these ingredients that show up in traditional Chinese medicine and like some of our traditional foods like, and modernizing it for today and seeing this like farm to table, like fine dining quality of food, but put together with this cultural element and with cannabis, is just magical.
• 28:41
  Margaret: Right, and I mean, when I'm hearing you say this too, it sounds like you've removed some of those big barriers to putting on an event, like you said the venue, which I hope to ask about that in a little bit, but also partnership, because it is nice to have somebody that you can rely on and like bounce ideas off of each other, as you clearly do.
• 28:59
  Margaret: I can just tell, by the way you talk about Wendy, how important it is to have her as part of this whole process.
• 29:04
  Margaret: Now, do you have any non-negotiables as far as a successful event or just event planning in general?
• 29:12
  Christina: No assholes, like it's truly like.
• 29:15
  Christina: If no, assholes.
• 29:16
  Christina: If someone is being a jerk and difficult, then like no, we just have no tolerance.
• 29:23
  Christina: We're creating this kind of space and we will not tolerate that behavior.
• 29:26
  Christina: So that's definitely non-negotiable.
• 29:29
  Christina: You know, paying her a venue fee, that's, it's built into the budget, because she invested her money and time and energy and effort and even using the space puts wear and tear, so that's just already built in.
• 29:45
  Christina: Also, just trust between the both of us to do the work and move quickly, like we're able to make decisions quickly because we both just trust, like we know each other and we trust each other.
• 29:59
  Christina: So I don't feel like neither of us feel that we have to check in with somebody in order to make a decision.
• 30:07
  Christina: It doesn't have to be like a collaborative, agreed and moving forward.
• 30:10
  Christina: It's just like we already know the framework and the outline so we can be very nimble in our decision making.
• 30:19
  Christina: And again, complete trust.
• 30:22
  Christina: We're both on the same page.
• 30:23
  Christina: So, and just also, no stress.
• 30:27
  Christina: The purpose of this is to have fun and if we're not having fun and something becomes stressful, we have to stop and be like OK one, how can this be not stressful and how do we want to resolve it?
• 30:45
  Margaret: Right, Pardon me, I like that too because it makes me think of my mom.
• 30:50
  Margaret: My mom's passed away now but she used to really like to host dinners for special occasions and stuff and she used to get really stressed out about it and then that would create like stress in the house when people were coming over and stuff and I don't know why she just couldn't relax.
• 31:07
  Margaret: But having also that trust with a partner that you're working with in this space is huge, Because I mean, I think what you have is probably very special, because I do also recall a lot of profs telling me in university cause I went to business school and they're just like you have to be really careful with partnerships because they often don't end well.
• 31:27
  Christina: So yeah, and that's something we do talk about, both of us have had partnerships with friends and business partners and collaborators that haven't gone well.
• 31:35
  Christina: So we do check in a lot.
• 31:37
  Christina: You know we do post event.
• 31:39
  Christina: You know check in to be like, hey, you know what went well, what didn't go well.
• 31:43
  Christina: You know we'll have guests who come who are rude to our friends who are working in the kitchen and it's like that guest is, that person is no longer welcome.
• 31:52
  Christina: You know, it's really, yeah, like our purpose and our mission is very clear and it makes it really easy and also like it's kind of broken out and built in to how we work together and our friendship, knowing our past histories and traumas.
• 32:12
  Christina: So just the fact that we can sit and talk about what our traumas were and me understanding where she's coming from.
• 32:20
  Christina: There's been occasions where we had a really stressful event when we first started and Wendy was in the kitchen working really hard because we didn't have enough volunteers, we didn't have enough people.
• 32:30
  Christina: I wasn't available to help her because I was outside trying to get the party going, replace, you know, water trash set up, and so being prepared and having enough resources to be successful is so important as well.
• 32:44
  Christina: So when we sat down, we're like, all right, like what was unfun about this and what led to like that?
• 32:48
  Christina: You know that us feeling one way, cause she was like I was being like, okay, can you hurry up?
• 32:53
  Christina: And she was like I'm only one person, I can only do so much.
• 32:56
  Christina: And I'm like, okay, like what resources do you need?
• 33:00
  Christina: So now those are just built in.
• 33:01
  Christina: You know we have, we have a call for volunteers, so we'll have front of house and back of house so that I have help with the front and like refilling waters, she has help in the kitchen and everyone's.
• 33:11
  Christina: And then the people who volunteer are really happy to be there sharing their skills and talents to be a part of it.
• 33:17
  Christina: So yeah, and you know I'm also realistic where our friendship and business partnership could go sour, that's not off the table.
• 33:25
  Christina: I don't want to say that like, oh my gosh, we're best friends and that'll never happen, like misunderstandings are going to happen.
• 33:31
  Christina: But we have, you know, we have a responsibility and respect towards each other to be able to have a conversation about it and work through it and come to a mutual agreement.
• 33:41
  Margaret: Yeah, you'd be able to have a conversation, communicate about it before things just went out the window.
• 33:46
  Christina: Yeah, and we do track everything.
• 33:48
  Christina: You know, like again, like there's a, you know it's not for profit, but like we do run it like a business and we track everything and things are split and fair and we definitely talk about fairness.
• 33:58
  Christina: You know, does this feel fair to you?
• 33:59
  Christina: Is this okay?
• 34:01
  Christina: And so there's no hard feelings at the end of all of it, feeling one way or another.
• 34:06
  Margaret: Now, what have you learned about community building through hosting your events and how do you keep people coming back?
• 34:13
  Margaret: Although from what you're saying, why people come back, but is there?
• 34:16
  Margaret: You're saying white people come back, but is there anything specific that you've learned about building community?
• 34:21
  Christina: I think that the word community is thrown around a lot.
• 34:23
  Christina: I think it's often misused as well, and just because you have a like-minded group of people, it doesn't mean that it's community.
• 34:30
  Christina: Just because you have people who gather for an event doesn't mean that they are automatically a community.
• 34:37
  Christina: I think there has to be more than that and there's like a shared, the shared sense of belonging that has been created through Mogu Mogu and through the work that Wendy and I do.
• 34:51
  Christina: That's created a really wonderful community.
• 34:54
  Christina: I do that's created a really wonderful community.
• 35:00
  Christina: It's the support for each other In the business networking way.
• 35:01
  Christina: Mogumogu isn't intended for everybody to come and business and network, but naturally you're hanging out with friends, meeting other cool people who are also creatives and entrepreneurs and forward thinkers in this space.
• 35:11
  Christina: You're naturally going to meet other rad people you want to collaborate with and create partnerships with.
• 35:16
  Christina: So we've seen a lot of success come out of it, just naturally, which has been really really cool and satisfying to see.
• 35:25
  Margaret: Right, yeah, okay, I do sometimes think the community is thrown around a lot, but I also think that that's because people are really looking for it and it's something genuine and deeper than just a bunch of people getting together and smoking weed Although that can be community as well but I think there has to be more to it.
• 35:41
  Christina: I think that's the challenge.
• 35:42
  Christina: Everyone, everyone thinks that, oh, I got weed, so it's, I got weed and it's a party there.
• 35:48
  Christina: I think that there can, that could be okay too, and that is perfectly acceptable.
• 35:52
  Christina: But I think community is people are looking to connect with other people who have shared interests, who have shared passions, people that like it's just really like a really close connection of friendship and support.
• 36:07
  Margaret: Right, which means it's on a bit of a deeper level as well.
• 36:10
  Christina: I think, yeah, we're, we're looking for understanding, we want people who understand us and want to explore the same thoughts and ideas, and it's like we can belong to multiple communities and communities kind of bump and bump back out every once in a while.
• 36:28
  Christina: We keep people coming back because it's always different, there's something new, there's something unique because we're always working with a different collaborator.
• 36:40
  Christina: They're also bringing their audiences, who are hearing what we're doing for the first time.
• 36:43
  Christina: To this point of intersectionality is really important.
• 36:46
  Christina: You know, wendy and I are both food and weed kind of that intersection, but through Mogu Mogu we've been able to expand out into comedy and entertainment through our 420 event with Jenny Yang and to fashion, when we did our goddess garden party with Dawong and, you know, with Latinas and cannabis, that was a whole other community of you know.
• 37:08
  Christina: So it's and finding commonality between all of it.
• 37:12
  Christina: And so the cross pollination that we're seeing, I think, is what people, why people love coming back.
• 37:18
  Christina: Because you never know who you're going to meet or what the conversation is going to turn into.
• 37:22
  Christina: You just know that, like if this is what makes you feel good and this is like the type of conversation you want to engage in, people just keep coming back.
• 37:32
  Margaret: Right.
• 37:32
  Margaret: So then how do you go about choosing your collaborators, because it sounds like some of them are starting to come to you now as well, but obviously you're probably looking for folks who are going to resonate with the vision you have for your events.
• 37:46
  Christina: They just kind of flow into our lives.
• 37:48
  Christina: It's, um, yeah, it's very natural.
• 37:52
  Christina: It's either, you know, an idea will pop up and I'll think who, who do I know that might be a fit, and then eventually you know, or I'll start to talk about the idea and naturally somebody who's really interested will step forward and so things will come together.
• 38:08
  Christina: Or yeah, somebody just comes straight to us and we'll be like, okay, like you seem cool.
• 38:13
  Christina: Or, and a lot of times, if somebody wants to work with us but they've never been to a Mogumagu event before, we'll be like, yeah, we're down, but like, just come experience this.
• 38:23
  Christina: Yeah, Come experience this Cause, like it's different.
• 38:26
  Christina: And once you've been to one and you kind of understand the vibe, then it helps set the tone for the collaboration and the partnerships that we're going to do.
• 38:37
  Margaret: Right, which is which is a real fortunate thing for you, because you've had so many of these events now that you can invite them to them beforehand and vet them that way, in a sense.
• 38:46
  Christina: So yeah, and we also want to go to their like and support them and their events.
• 38:51
  Christina: Like with our pottery making.
• 38:52
  Christina: You know, wendy went to attend one of her classes, um, at pot studio, so we could support her.
• 38:57
  Christina: Um, you know, we'll go, we'll do different things with our collaborators and it's it's not just like a one-time thing, it's a period of time.
• 39:06
  Christina: There's a friendship that grows.
• 39:07
  Christina: It's like a really cool project that we kind of get to put out into the world and then, um, they're part, and then they become part of the community and they'll show and then, like, those collaborators will come to the events as guests and vice versa.
• 39:19
  Christina: And then now I start to see other attendees crossing into other people's events and it's just really cool.
• 39:26
  Christina: Like that's where I see community, because it's like everyone's starting to show up in each other's worlds.
• 39:32
  Margaret: Right, and I love that too, because you were mentioning this a little bit earlier but just the support for the artists that you're collaborating with.
• 39:38
  Margaret: It feels so important right now in this sort of age of AI that's kind of commoditizing a lot of stuff in a way that I don't know how I feel about that yet.
• 39:50
  Christina: I don't know if it's very positive.
• 39:52
  Margaret: So you know, finding ways to support the people in our communities that are putting out great work, I think is really important.
• 39:59
  Christina: Yeah, and that's why we feel really called to doing, like, in-person live events and gatherings this year.
• 40:04
  Christina: Last year, before the election, before 2025 even started, we were actually going to take a break from hosting events because we were doing these we called them tentpole events, these really big epic events, and we were just like, oh damn, we're tired, like let's focus on content and storytelling and doing a zine.
• 40:22
  Christina: That's what it really felt was needed.
• 40:24
  Christina: And then just everything changed between November and January.
• 40:28
  Christina: We're just like wow, like, and it gave us a moment to take stock in where we were at and where our community was feeling, and we really felt that people were really needing in-person connection again to learn how to do things.
• 40:48
  Christina: So this year, the theme of the events are not about holidays and cannabis and they're not big temples.
• 40:54
  Christina: They're actually much smaller gatherings, which is why they're also easier to execute.
• 41:01
  Christina: They're more workshops and classes, because we want to teach people how to do things how to make your own medicine, how to grow your own plants, how to make things with your hands, because that seems like a really good survival skill to have for most.
• 41:12
  Christina: And so we pivoted and shifted what we thought we were going to do, and while we would like to do all of those things at the same time, this feels like the right thing to do right now.
• 41:25
  Margaret: Yeah, and I think people are looking for that, like the intimacy that you get in a smaller event as well, because if it's really big, there's no way you can really talk to all the people that are there, and when it's smaller, it just creates it's a different vibe, I guess.
• 41:36
  Margaret: So I can yeah?
• 41:37
  Margaret: We've gone that direction.
• 41:39
  Christina: Yeah Well, in Priya Parker's book she said, right, like 15 is like a really good, like small group size, and beyond that it's like 30-something, and then it's like 75 or more.
• 41:50
  Margaret: Yeah Now, have you ever faced any resistance or pushback when you're trying to put together any kind of events?
• 41:57
  Christina: I mean the resistance from, like neighbors who might not be happy about parking, but you know this can be resolved.
• 42:06
  Christina: Like the resistance, I mean resistance other than you know cash flow and needs, rain, weather, things that are beyond your control.
• 42:15
  Christina: Right, extreme weather we definitely had our Lunar New Year event two years ago, had a giant rainstorm.
• 42:23
  Christina: It was the heaviest, hardest rain that has ever happened and we switched venues to an indoor venue thanks to a friend, and people still came.
• 42:33
  Christina: They parked, they trudged up the hill like in a monsoon and we did a sound bath.
• 42:40
  Christina: There's like a year of the dragon sound bath and you could see this rain coming, that you could hear it and it ended up being really magical.
• 42:46
  Christina: So it's working around things like that.
• 42:48
  Christina: We've also had the heat waves, so we had another.
• 42:52
  Christina: We had a Mahjong party during a heat wave.
• 42:54
  Christina: It was 106.
• 42:55
  Christina: So we switched it to a pool party, had frozen towels and frozen snacks and drinks, um, and like bumped it back an hour.
• 43:05
  Christina: So it's like things like that um are challenging, like pushback wise.
• 43:12
  Margaret: Um, I mean, you're in California so I don't have to stay legal for a long time, so I could see you not having too much pushback.
• 43:20
  Margaret: I think people in other jurisdictions might possibly, I know.
• 43:24
  Christina: Yeah and hosting events is kind of a gray area in california.
• 43:28
  Christina: It's this these are private events, so you know that's cannabis lounge.
• 43:33
  Margaret: The cannabis lounges are legal.
• 43:35
  Christina: Yes, we do have legal cannabis lounges where you can have open consumption, but honestly, working with them is really difficult.
• 43:42
  Christina: Hmm, yeah, okay, it's really.
• 43:45
  Christina: It's difficult for me because a lot of the and especially for the work we do with Bogumagu because the dispense the lounges need to.
• 43:55
  Christina: They're a transaction based business.
• 43:58
  Christina: They have to be and we're chewing trying to do not transaction based, so it makes it challenging and so like that's kind of the resistance that gets frustrating when, um, you know, I'm trying to either make it accessible, cheap or free and they want to charge more because they need to do this, or it's like, okay, like purchase required and tickets and all of these things.
• 44:19
  Christina: You know.
• 44:20
  Christina: Also, also, I don't want to host events in places that don't match my level of hospitality and attention to detail, and places that don't align with my beliefs, that maybe don't carry all the products or support the place, the brands and people that I would like.
• 44:39
  Christina: So I'm like we're very choosy with what we work with.
• 44:43
  Christina: So the lounges are great, it's awesome that those are options and I've done a lot of events there with Buddhist.
• 44:51
  Christina: So I think, for the right event for the right audiences, these places are great because they do have open consumption available, but the challenge is in the accessibility and affordability for a lot of them.
• 45:06
  Margaret: Right, that's a really good point that you bring up, because, yeah, yeah, and it sounds like those challenges would be similar in a lot of ways, and we don't even have legal consumption lounges in Canada yet, so that's a frustration.
• 45:21
  Christina: And it's not even a knock on them.
• 45:23
  Christina: This is one of the hardest jobs that they have.
• 45:26
  Christina: It's like you're running a legal dispensary which is already hard as fuck and almost impossible and losing money here in California, and then you're trying to open a consumption lounge which is kind of like a restaurant, kind of like a bar People haven't quite decided what it is yet and like that's a layer of hospitality on top of running a shop.
• 45:44
  Christina: That is even more difficult.
• 45:46
  Christina: And then over at the Woods in West Hollywood they just opened like a coffee shop next door.
• 45:51
  Christina: So like you're just right.
• 45:53
  Christina: And then now you're Larry Marmore, and then in California the governor just signed a bill that said that now these consumption lounges can serve food, because before they couldn't serve food or drink in there.
• 46:05
  Christina: It was a loophole that you would order it via like DoorDash or Postmates and have it delivered and like yeah, there's all these weird workarounds.
• 46:14
  Christina: And then there's the other place, the OG Cannabis Cafe.
• 46:17
  Christina: That's actually a sit down restaurant where you can consume, but like the way that they're able to keep their to do business is like it's a very limited menu, so you can't get all the brands that you want, you can only get their brands and I'm like get their brands.
• 46:38
  Christina: And I'm like you can do a BYO, but it's expensive, table side fee, and so it's really hard.
• 46:42
  Christina: It's kudos to all of them for trying and doing it.
• 46:45
  Christina: I would.
• 46:46
  Margaret: I could not do it, so I think it sounds like the private space is the best way to go.
• 46:54
  Christina: Yes, yeah, especially for the type of events that we're doing, working with the lounge can work for sure.
• 47:01
  Christina: It just takes a lot of extra coordination that sometimes I don't have the patience for.
• 47:08
  Christina: So I feel very lucky to be able to have a space like Wendy's house.
• 47:12
  Christina: But it's you know, there's events that I go to there.
• 47:17
  Christina: I host an event at one of them, or I was part of an event.
• 47:19
  Christina: And because I already kind of knew what to expect when I went there, wendy and I both showed up at this event like completely prepared, like I brought all my own bongs, I brought extra grinders, extra rolling trays, I brought extra lighters, like just because we were there representing ourselves and the farms were partnered with.
• 47:38
  Christina: And I was like I really want to make sure that when someone steps foot into like this space, it feels like you're coming here to my home to experience it.
• 47:46
  Christina: And so if I'm going to a space that it doesn't have all of these things that like I would like to show, like I try to think through all of that.
• 47:54
  Christina: So it's just.
• 47:55
  Christina: I mean, I also worked in restaurants for a while, so part of hospitality is all about anticipating what your guest needs.
• 48:01
  Christina: So all the way down, for, okay, I'm going to need if I have bongs and other things people are smoking out of.
• 48:07
  Christina: You need alcohol wipes.
• 48:08
  Christina: Where are you going to put the trash for the alcohol wipes?
• 48:10
  Christina: Where you get the little Q-tips?
• 48:12
  Christina: Where do they throw them away, like grinders and papers and all these little accoutrements and things that, like having them there and thinking through the entire experience makes all of the difference and the attention is in the details.
• 48:29
  Margaret: Right, which is what makes your events so wonderful because you do think about those details.
• 48:34
  Christina: I try to.
• 48:34
  Christina: We try to yes.
• 48:39
  Margaret: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:39
  Margaret: But I mean, like you said, you have the background in hospitality.
• 48:41
  Margaret: But you mentioned Priya Parker's book, but I'm trying to remember the name of it.
• 48:42
  Margaret: Right now I read another book written by a gentleman on the topic of hospitality.
• 48:47
  Margaret: I wish I could remember the name of it right now.
• 48:49
  Christina: Is it Setting the Table by Danny Meyer?
• 48:52
  Margaret: No it's by the fellow who runs a.
• 48:56
  Margaret: Is it the vegan Michelin star restaurant in New York Will?
• 49:01
  Margaret: I wish I could remember it, but it's all about hospitality.
• 49:04
  Margaret: Yes.
• 49:04
  Margaret: Yes, I know who you're talking about yeah, and a lot of it is that attention to detail those little things that a lot of people can easily skip over or just don't even think about, that's going to make like something go from that was a fun event to like wow, that was magical.
• 49:19
  Margaret: And then you're talking about it for three months.
• 49:24
  Margaret: Now do you have any like what would you say to somebody who wants to host their first cannabis friendly event, but they're not sure where to start?
• 49:36
  Christina: just do it.
• 49:36
  Christina: I'm so excited, I want more people to do this and like, don't, feel like you can't because you're limited.
• 49:42
  Christina: You're like, oh well, I don't have as beautiful space like this, so I can't let go of the cats and just figure out what can I do and just go for it.
• 49:50
  Christina: You know it's, your home is a place, a park, like I.
• 49:54
  Christina: Just technically consuming cannabis in public is not allowed, but, like you know, there's gray zones and also, like, what am I trying to do?
• 50:03
  Christina: So think about what you want to accomplish, what you want to do.
• 50:07
  Christina: What type of gathering do you want to do?
• 50:09
  Christina: You know, and cannabis and something is usually a really great place to start, whether it be crafting, listening to music, drawing and coloring, going to a botanical garden, going for a hike, reading a book, book clubs.
• 50:25
  Christina: So, like I love that cannabis and any niche topic really work together and that's how you find your audience in your community.
• 50:33
  Christina: So be narrow about what you're doing and don't be afraid.
• 50:38
  Christina: I think if you're hosting an event, the first thing you need is one a place.
• 50:43
  Christina: Where are you going to do it?
• 50:45
  Christina: Where are you going to get your cannabis products and things?
• 50:49
  Christina: So, whether you're talking to a brand or a dispensary or if you are providing it yourself, figure out where you're going to acquire your products from.
• 51:00
  Christina: And then food, always food, and water, especially water.
• 51:05
  Christina: So once you throw an event with a bunch of stoners, you will see that they're very hungry.
• 51:12
  Christina: They eat like a plague of locusts and we all need lots of water because we all have dry mouth.
• 51:17
  Christina: So that's that's something that we try to make sure we have at every event that there's plenty of water available, because the worst is walking around an event and you're so high and you're so thirsty and you can't find any, or so we try to make sure we have that little snacks and things for people to eat, because if you get too high and you are on an empty stomach, you don't have something to eat.
• 51:38
  Christina: People could definitely over consume and we've had a few people accidentally pass out at events.
• 51:42
  Christina: So, um, consider that, keep it low dose.
• 51:52
  Christina: Um, it's sitting at home and getting high off your ass is different than being in a social setting and consuming cannabis.
• 51:55
  Christina: Less is more.
• 51:56
  Christina: Give people choices and options.
• 51:58
  Christina: Uh, I don't, wendy, and I actually don't recommend doing infused foods at events, because, um, I've been to a lot of events with infused foods and everything is infused, so it's not fun.
• 52:11
  Christina: It's actually very anxiety creating because I don't know what I can consume.
• 52:15
  Christina: It's hard for me to keep track of how much I've consumed at different levels, and it creates for a not great experience.
• 52:25
  Christina: I think the for one of the first ones I went to, it was like a pizza and movie night and it's like the pizza was infused.
• 52:31
  Christina: There was the student glass with the gravity bong.
• 52:34
  Christina: All the drinks were infused and I had tried all of them and I was like, oh, I need to get home.
• 52:39
  Christina: Like I can't even stay to enjoy this because I'm going to get too high.
• 52:43
  Christina: Um, also like giving people a safe and quiet place to be high and have a quiet moment.
• 52:51
  Christina: Um, a lot of people who attend my events are also neurodivergent.
• 52:56
  Christina: A lot of us who consume cannabis are also neurodivergent.
• 52:58
  Christina: If you're introverted, it is very difficult to be in a high, extrovert, high social situation.
• 53:06
  Christina: So creating and providing like quiet places is really important.
• 53:11
  Christina: So we'll have like a side of the venue or corner and we have a sign where, like this is a quiet place that you can sit, and if you see somebody sitting here, like know that that's what they're doing, and that is perfectly acceptable.
• 53:23
  Margaret: And is that like a quiet place that people can use too, if maybe they've over-consumed a little bit too much and just need a minute to sort of calm down?
• 53:30
  Christina: Exactly.
• 53:30
  Christina: Yeah, we had recently at one of the Blue Dream tasting party.
• 53:34
  Christina: I mean, there was 13 different farms with 13 different strains of Blue dream and it was the first hot sunny spring day and while we had food and water, you know like, and there was, there was a lot of consuming and so we did have a couple people who passed out and so, like that was really scary.
• 53:50
  Christina: So having cold towels on hand that was definitely a lifesaver, like cold, wet towels that people could put on themselves, especially if it's hot, if you have CBD available, tinctures or even like a smoke that can help reduce people if they've accidentally consumed too much Orange juice always helpful.
• 54:10
  Christina: A little shot of vitamin C orange juice, get some sugar, drink some water, just sit down.
• 54:15
  Christina: And then the cool thing is also a lot of people in the space community like we've all been through it, so we know.
• 54:22
  Christina: So mostly people are um, ashamed, right.
• 54:26
  Christina: They're like, oh my god, this is so embarrassing.
• 54:27
  Christina: We're like no, no, it's good, we got you like this happened.
• 54:30
  Christina: Like everybody it happens.
• 54:32
  Christina: Yeah, I was like this happened to me last week.
• 54:34
  Christina: It's fine, uh, yeah, and and everyone's so nice.
• 54:38
  Christina: Like they, they're they just like I got you sit down and they sat and talk to them and um, but you know, considering that.
• 54:47
  Christina: So this is not a race.
• 54:48
  Christina: I think that the best events and gatherings and the unlocking of conversation happens, um, when it's just a light dose.
• 54:56
  Christina: So we try to keep our events mostly to smokables and then anything that is infused, we clearly label and we put a sign on it and we'll say like this, like this, contains wheat or mushrooms, consume responsibly.
• 55:10
  Christina: And we set it aside so people can either take it home to consume on their own later or again, being responsible and knowing their own dose.
• 55:20
  Margaret: Right, so you don't typically do a lot of edibles.
• 55:22
  Margaret: They are available for those who want them, but the food isn't infused.
• 55:27
  Christina: I find that interesting.
• 55:28
  Margaret: I have been to some infused meals before and the one that I really liked I've been to a few by now the one that I really liked the most probably was a woman put on this lunch and there was so much food and it was so amazing.
• 55:40
  Margaret: But she didn't infuse any of the food.
• 55:41
  Margaret: She infused the butters and the sauces and things like that and everything was clearly labeled so you knew how much was in it.
• 55:47
  Margaret: So that means you could dose yourself, but then if you wanted seconds or you wanted a little extra dessert or whatever, you could freely enjoy it without worrying about getting too high.
• 55:56
  Margaret: But how do you feel about infused drinks at these events?
• 55:59
  Margaret: Because they do tend to come on faster and then they have a much shorter onset than a traditional edible.
• 56:06
  Christina: I love them, I think they're great.
• 56:08
  Christina: I think they're a great option to have at events.
• 56:11
  Christina: We often say, you know, like cannabis infused drinks should be available just like wine, beer and cocktails at any event, and people can have a choice, especially, again, low dose.
• 56:22
  Christina: I would not put any of the hundred milligram things out for guests at a party just simply for your own liability, unless you know your audience and you know everybody has a tolerance and you've asked that question.
• 56:35
  Christina: I would always keep things low dose and also providing options, different ways for people to choose how to get high, and I've had some people.
• 56:45
  Christina: I think there was an article I was interviewed for in Lifehacker about how to host your own cannabis gatherings, and somebody in the comments section was like what?
• 56:53
  Christina: I wouldn't give away my fruit, I would never give away my weed, like that.
• 56:58
  Christina: You know it's like, but also like, if you like to throw a party, it's food, wine, drinks, it's kind of the same thing.
• 57:05
  Christina: And so, again, think about your guests.
• 57:09
  Christina: You want them to have a good time, to have a good experience.
• 57:13
  Christina: What does it feel like for them when they come to this event and they walk through and they see all the options?
• 57:18
  Christina: What would they want to see?
• 57:20
  Christina: Not necessarily what I want to see, and you have to think of everybody from the lowest dose new consumer to somebody who's very experienced.
• 57:28
  Christina: The best cannabis infused food dinner I went to recently was actually for the Bon Appetit 420 reunion episode Long Appetite 420 reunion episode.
• 57:41
  Margaret: That was that looked good I saw that online too.
• 57:50
  Christina: Yeah, that was one of the best infused dinner experiences I went to, and there's a couple reasons because Vanessa Lovrato was producing and overseeing the kitchen.
• 57:54
  Christina: She had asked each of us what our tolerance was, so she had all of that information and the basis of the episode was that there was a chef who had no cooking with cannabis experience, partnered with a chef that does have cannabis cooking experience, and they were to collaborate to create a meal together for us who are attending the dinner party.
• 58:14
  Christina: And so when chef Wendy was the chef with the cannabis experience and that was that dinner was the most high I've been in a second without getting sick.
• 58:26
  Christina: Like there's been times where, like I've accidentally over-consumed in the next thing, you know, I'm like passed out or barfing.
• 58:31
  Christina: Um, I don't like to do that.
• 58:33
  Margaret: And I've tried not to make a habit.
• 58:36
  Christina: Um, but this was like this pushed the limits of my high, like I was very high but like kind of pushed the ceiling and I kind of came back that had.
• 58:48
  Christina: I mean, I arrived we were smoking B-Real was there, so naturally there's a lot more smoking.
• 58:55
  Christina: We shared dabs out of the new mocha pivot.
• 58:59
  Christina: There was welcome there's a welcome CBD mocktail to kind of bring us down from what we had been smoking.
• 59:05
  Christina: And then each course was clearly like dosed and then also same, like similar to your experience.
• 59:13
  Christina: Mostly it was like the sauces were dosed and it was very light.
• 59:18
  Christina: So, and then the chefs were very clear about the experience and like so not only just that you're going to get high, but they were curating like the cultivar and the product so that it would kind of take you on like a flow and a journey.
• 59:32
  Christina: And sometimes people say that, but I don't feel it.
• 59:35
  Christina: This.
• 59:36
  Christina: This dinner really took us on an experience like each dab that was like paired with the courses, like the flavors, the terpenes, the experience matched where the host wanted us to be at that point and then like kind of like mid-meal when we're all like extremely high and kind of dipping.
• 59:55
  Christina: Um, one of the infusions was with caffeine and kush, which is like an espresso and chocolate, like infused.
• 1:00:05
  Christina: It's a capsule, but she, wendy, took the capsule apart, infused it into like a cream and a sauce and used it to make these like coffee, brown butter, baby corns that were so good, but also that little bit of like the caffeine and that sativa, like brightening.
• 1:00:22
  Christina: It kind of took us from like that food coma, like overly high state, to like awaken us back into the conversation.
• 1:00:29
  Christina: And then they did this really beautiful mid-meal like mocktail over a granita that was, I thought, so elegantly presented.
• 1:00:37
  Christina: So if you look at, if you watch the episode on YouTube which is now available on Munchie's channel, like you can see my eyes at the end of the episode and I'm just, I'm so high, it was intense, but they were able to really they knew that and they were able to kind of bring it back with like CBD at the end and like take us into a nice journey.
• 1:01:02
  Margaret: So that was and these were experienced cannabis chefs as well.
• 1:01:05
  Margaret: So, folks, do not try this at home for your first-.
• 1:01:08
  Christina: Yeah, I wouldn't, I actually stopped.
• 1:01:11
  Christina: I didn't even do all of the pairings for each course, like the smoking pairings, cause I was like I'm just nope too much so knowing my limits.
• 1:01:18
  Christina: Because I was like I'm just nope too much so knowing my limits.
• 1:01:23
  Christina: I also know from experience how much of an edible I can eat and how much I can smoke on top of it.
• 1:01:27
  Christina: So now I'm much more aware of my high experience and what I'm consuming.
• 1:01:33
  Christina: When I was newer to these events and cannabis and I didn't know that information, it was really intimidating.
• 1:01:40
  Christina: So that's that's something I still try to remember.
• 1:01:44
  Christina: When I'm hosting my own, I'm trying to remember myself as the bright eyed, excited person in the space who is just very intimidated and unsure of what my own limits were.
• 1:01:55
  Margaret: Right, and that's that's.
• 1:01:56
  Margaret: I'm glad you pointed that out because as a host, you want to be mindful of that that some people might have experience with edibles and with smoking but maybe don't combine them very often and as a guest, it's important to the events like consumption is totally optional.
• 1:02:21
  Christina: It's just, this is what we're doing and what we enjoy.
• 1:02:24
  Christina: It's here.
• 1:02:25
  Christina: If you want to learn more about it, you can take some home if you'd like, but a lot of people, like you know, if you want to take just one puff, that's fine.
• 1:02:33
  Christina: No one's here to make you feel judged or shamed or that you don't know how to do something or you can't take the biggest, fattest bong rip, like we are here, it's.
• 1:02:43
  Christina: It's kind of like we look at ourselves as like aunties, right, it's.
• 1:02:47
  Christina: We want to make sure you feel safe, You're being able to experience and try this in a really in an environment where, like you know, like we got you.
• 1:02:57
  Margaret: Yeah, set and setting, as always, and it's really important to remember that cannabis is so incredibly personal to everybody, so you know what works for one person is going to work for the next.
• 1:03:06
  Margaret: That's important to keep in mind when you're hosting events.
• 1:03:09
  Margaret: Now, do you see any, any trends in the cannabis event space that have been sort of formulating at all?
• 1:03:16
  Christina: Definitely Like.
• 1:03:17
  Christina: You were mentioning those fast acting nano drinks.
• 1:03:19
  Christina: I'm loving those.
• 1:03:21
  Christina: I know that that's really popular and very easy to find now in like the hemp beverages.
• 1:03:26
  Christina: So now in the US because of the loophole in the farm bill that they haven't addressed yet, so now there's.
• 1:03:32
  Christina: You can get tons of just gummies and especially the drinks.
• 1:03:36
  Christina: You can go to like BevMo and regular grocery stores and you can find these hemp derived THC drinks and most of them tend to be low dose.
• 1:03:50
  Christina: Know that a hemp derived THC high is a little bit different than a THC high.
• 1:03:56
  Christina: So if you're getting products from like a legal dispensary in a market, those for me that that high can, depending on the ingredient, it can hit a little bit harder.
• 1:04:06
  Christina: But if you keep it low dose, keep it clearly labeled so that people can make informed decisions for themselves and have a backup plan.
• 1:04:18
  Christina: You know what if somebody does get too high?
• 1:04:20
  Christina: That's why we will try to have like CBD elixirs or like those tinctures available so that people can make something for themselves and then also provide options so that people, if people do want to smoke but they don't want to be too high, we'll have a CBD or herbal blends that they can put together An herbal blend is a great way for somebody to who's nervous or hasn't tried it to like.
• 1:04:40
  Christina: They can try a tiny bit and you get to smoke, but it's not the full like too strong experience.
• 1:04:47
  Margaret: Yeah, and you have to remember like and I don't mean you, I just mean people in general need to remember that people are often very intimidated about consuming cannabis for the first time, especially in a social place like you said.
• 1:04:56
  Margaret: So having those options is a good idea.
• 1:04:59
  Margaret: I never would have thought about the herbal blends, but I do tend to personally combine a lot of my, my uh THC dominant flour with CBD anyway, because it just takes off, cause I am prone to getting paranoid when I, when I like, smoke or vape cannabis.
• 1:05:13
  Margaret: but again, you know, cannabis is so personal to everybody that having the option, as many options as possible, sounds like the best route to take Now.
• 1:05:22
  Margaret: Is there anything right now that's lighting you up?
• 1:05:26
  Margaret: As far as what's lighting you up right now?
• 1:05:31
  Christina: Oh man.
• 1:05:34
  Margaret: I mean, we just talked about all your amazing I know it's hard.
• 1:05:40
  Christina: It's kind of hard when the world is so stressful right now.
• 1:05:42
  Christina: Um, it's been really intense.
• 1:05:44
  Christina: Honestly, what is lighting me up?
• 1:05:46
  Christina: Hmm, I love the feedback.
• 1:05:49
  Christina: Honestly, I I love hosting these events because, like you said, just the joy that I see from people when after they come to an event, and the reactions and how it's made them feel like that, that level of joy is unmatched.
• 1:06:06
  Christina: It's like such a great sense of satisfaction for me personally.
• 1:06:10
  Christina: I mean, I'm also judging for the California State Fair, so I have a giant bag of the entries, so that's bringing me great joy at the moment.
• 1:06:22
  Margaret: Yeah that sounds like fun.
• 1:06:24
  Margaret: The fact that they have this at a state fair, I think, is incredible too.
• 1:06:28
  Christina: It's so cool and it's so innovative.
• 1:06:32
  Christina: Like at the California State Fair next to like all of the other agricultural, food and beverage and drinks and plants and things that are judged and win an award cannabis is there, and so this is the third year I believe they've been doing it and so I'm part of the judging group and I can't really say anything else about it yet.
• 1:06:54
  Christina: But it's so exciting and that there's a whole area dedicated to California grown cannabis at the state fair.
• 1:07:03
  Christina: People can walk through and learn about how it's grown and meet the farmer, and there's a consumption area that people can try these products and buy.
• 1:07:13
  Christina: It's really neat and I hope that it continues to destigmatize and that other states will welcome it into their state fairs.
• 1:07:21
  Margaret: I would love to see that at local fairs here in Canada too, because obviously we have the agricultural fairs and I do like to go to some of those in the in the fall in particular, and seeing cannabis at them would be incredible.
• 1:07:32
  Margaret: But I'm one day.
• 1:07:34
  Margaret: One day we'll get there.
• 1:07:35
  Margaret: One last question for you before you wrap up, because I want to be mindful of your time.
• 1:07:41
  Margaret: What would surprise people about you?
• 1:07:45
  Christina: I'm actually really introverted.
• 1:07:48
  Margaret: That is surprising.
• 1:07:49
  Christina: Yeah, I, I used to be much more extroverted when I was younger and these days, actually, it's really draining.
• 1:07:59
  Christina: I don't really like to be around people that much, but I love hosting events, I love hosting gatherings, I like seeing all of the elements coming through, but that's also when somebody, someone else had mentioned like that it was overwhelming to them and they need, and I could see people like trying to find quiet corners to hide and I do that myself at events and then there's this weird need to like force people to be social and extroverted.
• 1:08:27
  Christina: It's like, no, like it's okay.
• 1:08:29
  Christina: So I actually I find, lately especially, I need a lot of alone, quiet time and in social settings it's okay to be the quiet person in a corner.
• 1:08:44
  Margaret: I love that.
• 1:08:44
  Margaret: I'm glad.
• 1:08:44
  Margaret: I think that's a perfect way to end this because I resonate with that so much, yeah.
• 1:08:48
  Margaret: So, christina, I am so grateful that you took the time to spend with me today and answer all my questions about hosting cannabis events.
• 1:08:56
  Margaret: It's definitely renewed my interest in doing the same where I am.
• 1:09:00
  Margaret: And, yeah, I think everybody should check you out and I'll have show notes where people can find you online.
• 1:09:06
  Margaret: And, yeah, once again, thank you so much.
• 1:09:08
  Christina: Oh, thank you so much.
• 1:09:09
  Christina: It was such a pleasure being on and thanks for having me.
• 1:09:11
  Christina: Yes, you should host events.
• 1:09:13
  Christina: I mean, you also teach people how to cook and bake with cannabis, and people really want to like teach people how to cook and bake with cannabis and people really want to like small groups of just like making cookies, making tinctures, like we're going to make mints at a gardening class for potheads, and people are so stoked about it.
• 1:09:27
  Christina: So it's cannabis is more fun with friends.
• 1:09:31
  Margaret: Yes, it is.
• 1:09:32
  Margaret: Yeah.
• 1:09:33
  Margaret: Well, friends, I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did and I hope it inspires you to think about creating some special occasions.
• 1:09:41
  Margaret: I will post everything in the show notes that we talked about today, with links to Christina's work and where you can find her out in the world, and some of the other things that were mentioned in the episode, in the show notes and bitemepodcastcom, and with that, my friends, please share this episode with somebody that you think would learn from it as well.
• 1:09:57
  Margaret: I'm your host, margaret, and until next week, my friends, please share this episode with somebody that you think would learn from it as well.
• 1:10:00
  Margaret: I'm your host, margaret, and until next week, my friends, stay high.