VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/198069
VEGAS INC but it can set the mood and pace interactions. "Networking is a lot more effective at social functions because once seated for meals, you are limited to engaging only with people at your table," Reyes said. "At a social function, you can control the amount of time you want to spend with each person you meet." Some people, however, choose to schmooze and dine because of the intimacy and captive audience a dinner table creates. Others prefer conferences or association meetings for more structured introductions, while some cite a casual activity such as golf as their preferred approach. Most networking experts agree, however, that environment is far secondary to interaction. "I don't think the context matters as much as just having uninterrupted face time," said Bob Potts, research director at the Governor's Office of Economic Development. "Quality time happens in the context of quantity time." Follow up Networking shouldn't end when you leave an event. "Handing out a business card is Step 1," said Cara Clarke, communications director for the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce. "It's what you do after handing out that business card that really matters." "Handing out business cards doesn't work because business cards tend to get lost," Arshadi said. Instead, make an effort to schedule a follow-up meeting, lunch or outing. Even a simple phone call or email can be effective. A note thanking a person for the time he or she spent getting to know you can go a long way in forming a longterm relationship. Be patient Don't jump the gun trying to make a sale or land a deal. Building lasting connections takes time. "It's one of the biggest mistakes you can make: going for the sale instead of the relationship," Sukenick said. Sukenick and Clarke both said that many people at networking events are too anxious to jump into business relationships without developing rapport. "If you try to dive right it, it may turn people off," Clarke said. "And if you build a reputation as being someone who is pushy or drives into the hard sale, it's going to hurt your opportunities to build a longerterm relationship." Embrace the Internet Most businesspeople have become well versed in Facebook and Twitter. But LinkedIn, advertised as a business networking tool, remains the red-headed stepchild. Some tout the site as the best social media option for businesspeople. Others are confused by how it works. Clarke admitted that while she was an early user of LinkedIn, she no longer uses it as extensively as other social media. When used properly, LinkedIn can be one of the most valuable networking tools, Sukenick said. "I like to do as much research as I can about people when I meet them, and I can find out a lot about a person's background if they've filled in their profile information," he said. Sukenick recommended that people go beyond just accepting LinkedIn connections and spend time rounding out their profile with information about their background, experience and skills. | 28 October 2013 20131028_VI01_F.indd 15 | BIG MONEY CLAMORING FOR PIECE OF NEVADA'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA PIE MARIJUANA, From page 1 Nevada. Like Nevada's Wide Open Gambling Bill that legalized gambling in Nevada in 1931, investors see this as a Sky-High Marijuana Bill that could earn them lots of money. "It exceeds our wildest dreams," said Sen. Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, a sponsor of the medical marijuana dispensary bill. "When we wrote this law, we said we wanted to make it attractive commercially so that people with money and resources will come here and fight for these licenses. They're coming here in droves." Similar to restricted gaming licenses, these pot prospectors first need to obtain one of 40 licenses to grow, test and sell marijuana in Clark County. Applications for licenses are due in April, and many of the valley's big-money lawyers are requesting fees of up to $100,000 to prepare a medical marijuana establishment application, according to lawyers, investors and medical marijuana patients. "People are kind of shopping for consultants," said Lisa Mayo-DeRiso, a Las Vegas consultant. "A guy (called and) said 'I got your number and we have half a million dollars and we're looking to get an application.'" Earlier this year, Sen. Mark Hutchison, R-Las Vegas, promised other legislators there would be no smoke-filled rooms, no potheads lighting up joints on the patios of dispensaries if they voted for the dispensary bill. "This will not be the Dr. Feelgood hanging out in a Jerry Garcia smoking lounge with a giant pot flag hanging outside the door," he told legislators in June. So far, he's on track to be right. Just look at who's trying to make a buck in the Nevada marijuana industry: • Joe Brezny, a former Nevada state director for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is running the Nevada Cannabis Industry Association. • Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas, is getting paid to help prepare a medical marijuana license application. • The MMJ PAC, a medical marijuana political action committee, has formed in Nevada. It purports to support candidates who support the medical marijuana industry. • Many of the Las Vegas Valley's major law firms also either have medical marijuana clients or are hoping to gain them. "People in our shoes try to take on clients who are businessmen, above board," said Sean Higgins, a gaming lobbyist with the Gordon, Silver law firm in Las Vegas who has a client hoping to apply for a license. "Our reputation is as on the line as well as theirs." • Derek Connor, an attorney at Connor & Connor in Las Vegas said his firm used to be split between personal injury and criminal litigation. Now he said he spends three-quarters of his time with medical marijuana clients. "It's taken over a huge area of my practice," he said. "We've seen people who are well-established, wellconnected Nevada families down to housewives interested in this as a way to make money." ••• Nevada is just one of several states making medical marijuana accessible. But Nevada's new law comes more than a decade after Nevada voters amended the state constitution to allow for access to medicinal marijuana. It wasn't until this year that the Legislature passed a law that allows a system for people to get their medicine in a convenient, regulated and legal fashion. Prior to this new law, patients could have marijuana but couldn't get seeds. They could grow their own plants but couldn't buy the product, meaning sick people had to learn some botany to legally get their medicine. The new dispensary law replaces that murky legal milieu. By design, it's not going to be easy to open a medical marijuana establishment in Nevada. Somebody who wants to open a kitchen for cooking edible marijuana products or start a pharmacylike dispensary needs to have at least $250,000 in liquid assets — something like cash, not a fixed asset like a house — and must pay additional licensing, background check and application fees. The law also smiles upon applicants with business experience, medical marijuana expertise, an existing location in a commercial or industrial zone, a record of paying taxes in Nevada, and an "integrated plan for care, quality and safekeeping of medical marijuana from seed to sale." The monied pot peddler eager to dive through all these hoops will greet a relatively small Nevada market. Right now, about 4,500 Nevadans have obtained medical marijuana cards through the state's health division. But the new law allows medical marijuana cardholders from other states to shop at Nevada dispensaries in some circumstances. With the dispensaries slated to open in late 2014, Nevada could welcome the first of many legal medical marijuana tourists. ••• The Nevada bud boom isn't a guarantee. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law. So federal government workers could raid and close dispensaries at any time, wiping out millions of dollars in investments. But the marijuana landscape has changed in recent months with a U.S. Department of Justice memo that has emboldened investors and marijuana advocates. see MARIJUANA, page 16 15 10/23/13 2:50:49 PM