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Pot Conference on Mag Mile Aimed at Budding Entrepreneurs

 The 3-D Denver Discrete Dispensary in Denver, where recreational marijuana use is legal.
The 3-D Denver Discrete Dispensary in Denver, where recreational marijuana use is legal.
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Theo Stroomer/Getty Images

STREETERVILLE — A two-day conference on owning and operating a "canna-business" on the "new marijuana frontier" will be hosted by the Marijuana Business Academy at the Magnificent Mile Courtyard Marriott Aug. 23-24.

The conference — which includes a seminar Saturday that runs from 9 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. (the end time being an apparent nod to the coded 4/20 pot term) — is "a step-by-step" "how-to" on opening a marijuana business within boundaries of the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act of Illinois, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law a year ago this month.

Lizzie Schiffman says the conference aims to help investors and start-ups navigate through the red tape:

The $299 seminar in the hotel at 165 E. Ontario St. will cover "rules, regulations, applications, licensing, zoning, tracking, taxes, funding, cultivation, branding, operations, employment and more," according to a release from the Marijuana Business Academy, a consulting company based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Marijuana Business Academy "helps start-ups, investors and current owners navigate the legal web of regulations and take advantage of market opportunities in the cannabis industry," according to its website. Operating since 2010, its trained consultants use "the experience gained in Colorado to prepare industry leaders ... to legitimately enter the viable MJ market."

After the seminar ends, the agency will host a "business mixer" after-party from 6 p.m. to midnight.

On Sunday, industry leaders will sit in on a four-hour open pitch session from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. where budding entrepreneurs can present their business ideas to investors and brokers, according to a release from the Marijuana Business Academy.

A separate pitch session for women titled "Women on Top" will connect "the unsung leaders in the cannabis industry" with potential mentors and investors to help "create the next generation of female ganjapreneurs, leaders, inventors, scientists [and] agronomists," according the the program description.

The city's first medical marijuana clinic, Since Good Intentions, opened last August in Wicker Park. By October, the dispensary had received 20,000 patient requests.

Advanced registration is recommended for the two-day seminar. Tickets include brunch and admission to the networking after-party.

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