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Thursday, May 24th, 2018

The California Cannabis Entertainment and Technology Forum

2 PM - 2:45 PM - Herscher Hall - Guerin B

Weed Media – Internet – Influencers - Social – TV – News – Entertainment

David Bienenstock, Weed Guru, Author, Journalist, co-host of Great Moments in Weed History with Abdullah and Bean

Amanda Chicago Lewis, Columnist, Rolling Stone

Alex Campbell, Producer, Documentary Filmmaker, Cannabis Activist

Joshua Otten, CCO, PRØHBTD

Brian Weiss, Publisher, Los Angeles Cannabis News

Katie Labrie, EVP, Civilized Studios

Moderator - Marty Perlmutter, President, Multisensory Interactive Learning Institute (MILI)

 

David Bienenstock is the author of How to Smoke Pot (Properly): A Highbrow Guide to Getting High (Penguin / Random House - 2016), and co-creator of the podcast Great Moments in Weed History w/ Abdullah and Bean. Previously, he served as Head of Content at HIGH TIMES and was a columnist, frequent contributor, and video host/producer at VICE Media, where he co-produced the series Bong Appetit, including viral episodes like A Gourmet Weed Dinner at Hunter S. Thompson's House and Marijuana Nonna. A contributor to VICE, GQ, Motherboard, Salon, Munchies, the Guardian, and other publications, he has been profiled by The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling

Stone, LA Weekly, Food & Wine, Slate, and elsewhere, while making frequent media appearances, including on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, HBO and Fox News.

 

Amanda Chicago Lewis writes about marijuana and the war on drugs, with an emphasis on public safety, the influence of special interests, and the ways in which the documented racial disparities of drug law enforcement are being cemented into the details of legalization. She writes a biweekly column for Rolling Stone. Her work has also appeared in GQ, BuzzFeed News, Vice, LA Weekly, Pop Up Magazine, and the LA Review of Books.

 

Joshua Otten, Founder PRØHBTD Media: For nearly 20 years, Joshua Otten has developed, sold, distributed, produced and directed original content across broadcast, theatrical, OTT and digital media networks. As an entrepreneur himself, Otten enjoys working with emerging talent and storytellers and creating evergreen content and formats for cross-platform distribution. For the past 10 years, he worked with major brands creating, producing and distributing original branded content across a multitude of verticals. In 2015, Otten co-founded PRØHBTD, the premier online destination for modern cannabis enthusiasts, which showcases art, music, fashion, travel, gastronomy, lifestyle, pop culture and original video content. The PRØHBTD audience represents savvy, millennial-aged consumers who enjoy accessing entertaining content, learning about the latest gear and engaging with like-minded individuals. Otten heads the entire content department producing original youth-driven video and editorial from conception to final product. Co-founded the No. 1 video production and content marketing company in the cannabis industry • Co-founded a successful digital marketing, content and technology agency working with top brands like Microsoft, Kia, Universal, Sol Republic, Purity Vodka and Level 99, among others. • Produced unscripted series and documentaries for FOX, CBS, Spike, Discovery, IFC and First Look. • Ran a film production and development company working with directors Joel Schumacher and Morgan Spurlock and discovering/producing Academy Award winners Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin. • Consulted major Southeast Asian media conglomerates on content acquisition and IP development for multi-country OTT media networks. • Started his career at UTA and moved to Industry Entertainment focused on scripted TV development and moved into unscripted and documentaries.

 

Brian Weiss is the Founder of L.A. Cannabis News. Brian has always been an advocate for cannabis and has had a strong connection in the cannabis industry for over 20 years. Brian grew up in an entertainment family and has been focused on marketing & business development within the cannabis, entertainment and digital media sectors.  He began his career in entertainment with his first job at KROQ in the late 1990’s and then advanced to working with many of the biggest entertainment and tech companies in the world.

 

Katie Labrie, EVP, Civilized Studios: A specialist in content acquisition and development, Katie has distributed thousands of hours of lifestyle programming across broadcast, cable and digital networks. As Vice-President of the independent syndication leader PPI, she worked on dozens of series leading her to pursue the rapidly growing branded entertainment industry. Katie joined Civilized in 2016 as EVP of Civilized Studios with a vision for bringing exceptional branded content opportunities to the cannabis marketplace. She believes strongly in the power of storytelling and the cannabis industry’s ability to shape the future by playing an active role in the cultural narrative through education, engagement and entertainment.

 

Alex Campbell is a documentary filmmaker and cannabis activist. In 2006-2007, Campbell created and produced Super High Me for Netflix. The film was the opening night selection for the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival and went on to become one of the highest grossing documentaries released in 2008. At the time that Netflix stopped releasing data on the popularity of its streaming titles, Super High Me was the #2 most-watched title of all time on Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” streaming service, just behind Disney/Pixar’s WALL-E. In 2010 the film made its US television debut on the G4 cable network. It received the highest ratings of any film that played on the G4 cable network in 2010 and also in 2011 when it was repeated. While making Super High Me, Campbell become radicalized after being repeatedly threatened by DEA and California law enforcement officers over his filming of their raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivators. He moved to Oakland and started working with Richard Lee in Oaksterdam. Campbell delivered the cannabis plants to the first ever set of classes held at Oaksterdam University, which at the time were in a small storefront in downtown Oakland. in 2008, Campbell opened Oaksterdam Nursery–Los Angeles and was the first medical marijuana cultivator to provide a trusted source of genetics to  dispensaries throughout the state of California, from Sacramento south to Orange County. Oaksterdam Nursery is widely recognized for releasing the first legitimate cutting of the fabled OG Kush strain, the availability of which reduced wholesale prices of cannabis by 25%. Along with Richard Lee, Campbell helped put Proposition 19 on the ballot in California in 2010, a measure which was to tax and regulate adult cannabis consumption in California.  Although it did not pass,  Prop 19 is widely recognized as having spurred the movement toward legalization throughout the US.  Campbell was the second largest donor to Prop 19 throughout much of the campaign and was also involved in the day to day operations. His financial political activities were curtailed when DEA and LAPD agents raided his legal cultivation facility in Los Angeles during the middle of the Prop 19 campaign, a precursor to the larger raid of Oaksterdam in 2012 that was widely viewed as payback for putting Prop 19 on the ballot. Campbell is currently in post-production on two documentaries. The first, entitled SUPER HIGH ME REDUX, will be released later in 2018 and is a comedic sequel to SUPER HIGH ME detailing the difficulties the filmmakers had in making the original film. The second film is titled FEAR AND LOATHING IS THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL and is the story of the Prop 19 campaign and the subsequent large scale police raids that resulted in no indictments.

 

Marty Perlmutter, President, Multisensory Interactive Learning Institute (MILI): Marty Perlmutter is currently working on the campaign to save Africa’s elephants, using social media and Virtual Reality to create programming and consciousness to reduce demand for ivory in China. Marty’s education nonprofit, Multisensory Interactive Learning, is developing mobile math games. The first in the series, “Tangram Jam,” is available for Apple and Android devices. He has worked in interactive media for over four decades. He invented an immersive display helmet in 1970 and later incorporated 3D TV in a series of science museum exhibits. He created interactive products for IBM, AT&T, HP, Pioneer, Mindscape, AOL, Looksmart and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His interactive and education work has won awards in the US, Japan and Europe. Perlmutter built long-lasting interactive exhibits at the Boston Museum of Science, Lawrence Hall of Science and New York Hall of Science. He has consulted to HBO, Sony, Xerox, AT&T, MIT, Harvard, NYU, UC, Ericsson, BT and Mass General Hospital. He has lectured at Harvard and MIT and taught at Tufts, NYU, San Francisco State and Cogswell College. His writings on new media have been widely published.