If we deliver fewer than 25 buyers, you pay less.
If fewer than 25 vetted buyers attend, $480 is refunded for every missed buyer meeting — $480 per missed meeting, straight back to you.
White-glove networking · worldwide
The industry’s ultimate networking experience.
Not a trade show. A six-day, high-touch networking experience built around 25 vendors × 25 vetted buyers, private hotel-suite meetings, and the kind of shared experiences that turn access into partnership.
Founding Vendor Offer · Las Vegas · March 10–15, 2027
Founding vendors. First 10 only.
$12,000Baseline vendor package — private suite, 25 vetted buyers, full social program. Founding terms for the first 10 vendors to sign.
This is not a discount gimmick. Founding vendors lock the founding terms below, backed in writing by two guarantees — then founding terms end for good.
Founding terms close the day the venue is publicly announced.
- 2027 rate lockYour $12,000 baseline vendor package rate is locked for 2027 — founding pricing does not rise on you.
- Category exclusivityFounding vendors hold exclusivity in their product category for the Las Vegas cohort.
- Priority suite placementFirst choice of suite placement, ahead of the general vendor field.
- First 10 onlyOnce ten founding vendors have signed — or the venue is announced — founding terms close. No exceptions, no holds.
Full refund if the law closes your category.
If a regulation taking effect in January 2027 prohibits the sale of your product, you receive a full refund. You do not carry that regulatory risk — we do.
25 vetted buyers — every one able to write a six-figure check, every one authorized to decide on the spot.
Vetted buyers attend as guests of C3 VIP — their standard rooms are covered by C3 VIP. Vendors meet in private suites; buyers are hosted, vetted, and ready to buy.
The first C3 VIP event
Las Vegas opens the series.
March 10–15, 2027
The first C3 VIP experience takes place at one of Las Vegas’s premier resorts — venue to be announced. Six days of private in-suite meetings, shared tables, and curated social experiences with 25 vendors and 25 vetted buyers, in the days leading up to one of the industry’s largest conventions.
CityLas Vegas, Nevada
DatesMarch 10–15, 2027
VenueOne of Las Vegas’s premier resorts — to be announced
The cohort25 vendors × 25 vetted buyers
Las Vegas is first
Founding terms are open to the first 10 vendors — and close the day the venue is publicly announced.
Secure Your SuiteFollow along
Follow the experience.
The series unfolds in public first — event announcements, behind-the-scenes production, and the rooms where the industry gathers. Follow along as each city is revealed.
@c3vipofficialC3
Not another aisle. The industry’s permanent networking experience.
C3 VIP is built for fewer introductions, deeper conversations, and more time together. The setting is elevated. The access is intentional. The objective is simple: create the right corporate relationships, then give them space to grow—event after event, city after city.
The hosted-buyer format, reimagined
Business happens beyond the booth.
C3 VIP is a continuing series of events following the largest industry conventions throughout the world. Each experience takes place in the days leading up to the convention in its corresponding city, within walking distance of the convention hall. The series opens in Las Vegas, March 10–15, 2027; further dates are announced as each city’s calendar is confirmed.
The private suite is the meeting floor
One-to-one, without the noise.
Each participating vendor receives a private hotel suite as a dedicated meeting environment. Buyers stay in standard rooms. The result is focused time, product discovery, and decision-making in a setting designed for conversation—not foot traffic.
- 01Vetted buyers matched to participating vendors
- 02Private in-suite meetings across six days
- 03White-glove support that keeps every connection moving
25
Vendors
A tightly curated field, each with a private hotel suite and direct access to the buyer group.
25
Vetted buyers
Qualified operators invited for fit, buying authority, and the value they bring to the experience.
1
Connected cohort
Meetings, meals, parties, and curated experiences built to turn a schedule into a network.
Meet in a private suite
Baseline vendor package pre-selected — complete the application and pay via Stripe in Step 2.
Secure Your Suite
The preservation mission
The industry survives together.
Compete in business. Unite in preservation.
Competition is natural. Fragmentation is optional. C3 VIP brings the industry’s leaders together around the shared work of keeping this category compliant, credible, profitable, and available.
Stay compliantTake regulation seriously.
Hold dignityRaise the standard together.
Make moneyBuild durable businesses.
Give optionsKeep adult choice alive.
Be in the room
25 vendor suites. 25 vetted buyers. Founding terms for the first 10.
Secure Your SuiteCounterculture, in full
Vape is the anchor. The horizon is wider.
C3 VIP is not a vape-only event. It is a counterculture business platform that recognizes vape as the category’s foundation, while creating a serious place for hemp, legal cannabis, and the businesses supporting them.
01 · The foundation
Vape Always the anchor
Created and marketed as a smoking-cessation alternative, nicotine e-cigarettes can help some adults stop smoking and are generally considered less harmful than combustible cigarettes, though they are not risk-free. CDC context ↗
It helped build the modern counterculture retail channel and will always hold a strong showcase position inside C3 VIP.
02 · The evolving category
Hemp
Fast-moving, regulation-shaped, retail-driven. Hemp brings innovation and new consumer formats into the same channel, creating opportunities for responsible brands, buyers, and service partners to build clarity together.
03 · The white-market path
Legal cannabis
A larger regulated ecosystem. Licensed operators, technology, compliance, finance, supply chains, and established counterculture experience can meet in one high-trust business environment.
One counterculture network. Distinct categories.The point is not to blur them. It is to connect the people shaping them—along with accessories, glass, technology, and services—in one compliant, commercially useful network.
Your category. Your suite.
Founding vendors hold category exclusivity and priority suite placement.
Secure Your SuiteMarket signals
A mature market demands a better experience.
Scale alone does not create durable business. Access, compliance, margin, and relationships matter more as categories mature.
Market snapshot prepared October 16, 2026. Source definitions differ; figures are presented in their original context.
Participant value · planning benchmarks
More qualified conversations per dollar.
These comparisons are planning tools—not guaranteed returns. They show how C3 VIP’s concentrated hosted-buyer format can compare with common event and appointment-setting benchmarks.
Estimated cost per one-to-one meeting
Lower is better. C3 VIP assumes the $12,000 baseline vendor package and approximately 25 meetings.
Executive-summit comparison: $26,900 for five meetings. Meeting costs exclude travel and any internally valued staff time.
Time compression
25Pre-qualified one-to-ones
Planned across six days—turning months of separate travel, outreach, and scheduling into one concentrated relationship-building window.
Category opportunity · market benchmarks
The experience sits inside substantial, connected markets.
Sponsor value compounds.
Every sponsorship tier includes the baseline vendor package, then adds a hosted moment, highlighted placement, and brand activation—combining meetings, visibility, and relationship time in one package.
The math points one way
~$480 per meeting at the baseline rate — backed by the Buyer Guarantee if fewer than 25 buyers attend.
Secure Your SuiteAll figures above are industry benchmarks or C3 VIP planning figures supplied for comparative planning. They are not guarantees of attendance, leads, sales, revenue, or return on investment.
From NVE to C3 VIP
The ultimate experience comes from a proven legacy.
25 years
Live-event instinct
Michael Wittenberg built a career across roughly 100 live events, learning how audience energy, sponsor value, operations, and relationships converge.
NVE
Counterculture scale
The NVE chapter paired major-event production with deep category relationships—proof that this industry will gather when the experience is worth entering.
C3 VIP
Precision over volume
The model shifts from large-floor exposure to curated access: 25 vendors × 25 vetted buyers, six days, private suites, and a connected social program.
Ongoing
The worldwide series
C3 VIP follows the largest industry conventions throughout the world. Each city’s experience unfolds in the days before its convention, with the host hotel or resort within walking distance of the convention hall. This is a lasting platform—built to continue, expand, and lead.
Michael Wittenberg, founder
Producer. Connector. Room-builder. Twenty-five years of live-event experience distilled into one operating belief:
“The business is the room.”
This room has 25 suites
Founding vendors go first — rate lock, category exclusivity, priority placement.
Secure Your SuiteParticipation and sponsorship
Enter the experience. Or help shape it.
Every sponsorship tier includes the baseline vendor package, then adds visibility, hosted moments, and brand activation. Packages are designed around actual access—not passive logo placement.
25 vetted buyers — every one able to write a six-figure check, every one authorized to decide on the spot.
Vetted buyers attend as guests of C3 VIP — their standard rooms are covered by C3 VIP. You are not paying for foot traffic. You are paying for 25 decision-makers, hosted and ready to meet in your private suite.
Baseline vendor package
$12K per event
- Private hotel suite
- One-to-one access to vetted buyers
- Full social-experience participation
- White-glove meeting support
Infrastructure sponsor
$20K per event
- Everything in the baseline vendor package
- Enhanced brand presence
- Visibility around a core event touchpoint
- Activation planning support
Experiential sponsor
$30K per event
- Everything in the baseline vendor package
- Host a signature social experience
- Highlight placement across the program
- Branded activation and guest engagement
Title sponsor
$45K per event
- Everything in the baseline vendor package
- Premier billing throughout the experience
- Host-level access to a major event moment
- Custom activation and strategic integration
Examples of hostable moments include a cocktail hour, steakhouse dinner, curated experience, or other program-defining event.
Fewer than 25 buyers? $480 back per missed meeting.
If fewer than 25 vetted buyers attend, $480 is refunded for every missed buyer meeting. The buyer standard above is guaranteed, not just promised.
Regulation closes your product? Full refund.
If a regulation taking effect in January 2027 prohibits the sale of your product, you receive a full refund.
Beyond the event: C3 VIP also offers consulting, social media management, and web development for counterculture companies — explore Consulting & Business Development →
Secure Your Suite — Las Vegas
Baseline vendor package pre-selected below. Your application forwards to hello@c3vipevents.com, then pay via Stripe online checkout (cards, Klarna, Afterpay / Clearpay). Separately, outside online checkout: Apple Pay & Zelle to 516-834-3790, wire on request. Founding terms close the day the venue is publicly announced.
Secure Your SuiteNot ready to apply?
Get the vendor prospectus.
See the full Las Vegas picture first — the format, the buyer standard, the guarantees, founding terms, and all four packages — in one document from the production office. Enter your name and email and we will send it to you.
Your request forwards to hello@c3vipevents.com, the same production office that receives vendor applications. No application required.
For vendors & sponsors
Your suite. Your buyers. Your stage.
Participation is built around one thing: uninterrupted access to decision-makers. Vendors get the suite, the schedule, and the social program. Sponsors get all of that — plus the moments everyone remembers.
25 vetted buyers — every one able to write a six-figure check, every one authorized to decide on the spot.
Vetted buyers attend as guests of C3 VIP — their standard rooms are covered by C3 VIP. Vendors host in private suites; buyers arrive vetted, hosted, and authorized to buy.
Vendor benefits
Every participating vendor receives the complete baseline experience.
- Private hotel suite. Your own dedicated meeting environment for six days — set it up once and meet decision-makers in comfort, not on a show floor.
- One-to-one access to 25 vetted buyers. Pre-qualified operators with real buying authority, matched to your categories.
- Full social-experience participation. Dinners, cocktail hours, parties, and curated experiences are included — the relationship work continues after hours.
- White-glove meeting support. The production team coordinates the schedule and keeps every connection moving.
- No booths. No freight. No pipe and drape, no drayage, no exhibition floor — walk in and start meeting.
Sponsor benefits
Every sponsorship tier includes the baseline vendor package, then adds presence.
- Host signature moments. Put your name on the cocktail hour, the steakhouse dinner, or another program-defining experience.
- Brand activation. Branded touchpoints and guest engagement woven into the program — not a logo on a wall.
- Premier billing. Highlighted placement across the experience, scaled by tier, with the Title Sponsor at the top of every billing.
- Strategic integration. Activation planning with the production team, so your presence lands with the right people at the right moments.
Baseline vendor package$12,000
The complete vendor experience.
Infrastructure sponsor$20,000
Includes the baseline vendor package.
Experiential sponsor$30,000
Includes the baseline vendor package.
Title sponsor$45,000
Includes the baseline vendor package.
~$480 per meeting
The $12,000 baseline package across roughly 25 one-to-one meetings works out to about $480 per meeting. Executive summits charge $26,900 for just five meetings — more than $5,000 each. C3 VIP delivers the full cohort for less than the cost of one summit meeting.
Fewer than 25 buyers? $480 back per missed meeting.
If fewer than 25 vetted buyers attend, $480 is refunded for every missed buyer meeting.
Full refund if January 2027 regulation prohibits your product.
If a regulation taking effect in January 2027 prohibits the sale of your product, you receive a full refund.
Beyond the event, C3 VIP is available to help your company keep growing: consulting, social media management, and web development are available beyond the event — see Consulting & Business Development →
For buyers
Selected, not sold.
Buyer places at C3 VIP are earned through vetting — never purchased. If you carry real buying authority, the experience is built for you: private meetings, direct access, and six days with the vendors shaping the category. Vetted buyers attend as guests of C3 VIP — your standard room is covered.
Buyer benefits
- 01Pre-scheduled private meetings
Meet vendors one-to-one inside their private suites, on a schedule built around the categories you buy.
- 02Curated social experiences
Dinners, cocktail hours, and shared experiences where the real relationships — and the real information — move.
- 03Direct access to 25 vendors
Decision-maker to decision-maker across vape, hemp, legal cannabis, and the supporting categories — no intermediaries.
- 04No badge-scanning crowds
A closed cohort of fifty people. Every conversation is with someone who was chosen to be there.
How vetting works
Every buyer application is reviewed by the production office against three standards:
- Company fit. Your business operates in — or is building into — the categories represented at the event.
- Buying authority. You can say yes: budget ownership, purchasing decisions, or direct influence over them.
- Commercial relevance. Your footprint and purchasing volume make the meetings valuable on both sides of the table.
There is no buyer pricing and no pay-to-play. Vetted buyers attend as guests of C3 VIP — their standard rooms are covered. Places are selected to keep the cohort balanced for the vendors who host you. The standard: every buyer able to write a six-figure check, every buyer authorized to decide on the spot.
Vendors — meet these buyers
The buyer cohort above is who your suite is built for. Baseline package pre-selected at signup.
Secure Your SuiteConsulting & business development · Beyond the event
My job is the room. All rooms.
Events are where C3 VIP brings the industry together. Consulting is where we go to work inside your business. With over 12 years in the counterculture space — watching this industry change, tighten, and reinvent itself in real time — we help veteran and new companies reach the masses while staying compliant, pivot the right way, and climb to the top — and stay on top.
01
The smoke shop
Where the customer decides. What actually moves, what buyers ask for, how independent shops and chains really stock, price, and reorder — learned on the retail floor, not from a report.
02
The manufacturing floor
Where the product is made. Packaging, presentation, production realities, and the operational decisions that determine whether a great product can scale — and stay compliant while it does.
03
The convention center floor
Where the industry gathers. Twenty-five years of live-event production and a career built in these halls — how to show up, stand out, and turn a crowded floor into real buyer relationships.
04
The board room
Where the direction is set. Positioning, partnerships, distribution, and the hard pivot calls — made with the numbers, the regulations, and the long game all on the table.
“My job is the room, but which room? The answer is all rooms.”
Help us help your company succeed in this amazing industry. One conversation can cover the shop, the floor, the show, and the strategy — because in this business, they were never separate.
12+Years in the counterculture space
25Years producing live events
4Rooms, one perspective
What we do for your company
Engagements are built around where your business is stuck, changing, or ready to grow. Start with one service, or bring us in across the business — the point is a plan that fits this industry as it actually works.
Industry consulting
Straight counsel from inside the category — vape, hemp, legal cannabis, accessories, glass, and the channels that carry them. What is changing, what it means for you, and what to do next.
Business development
The relationships and deals that move a company: retail and distribution introductions, partnership strategy, buyer access, and channel growth built on a network earned over decades in the room.
Compliance & pivot strategy
Regulations shift. Markets compress. Categories get redefined. We help you read the change early, stay compliant, and pivot the right way — without losing the business you already built.
Brand & market growth
For companies ready to be seen: positioning, launch and expansion planning, and go-to-market direction that helps you reach the masses, climb to the top, and stay on top.
Social media management
A named C3 VIP specialty. Content, presence, and audience growth handled for you — consistent, on-brand social that keeps your company in front of the industry and your customers, in a voice that sounds like you.
Web development
A named C3 VIP specialty. Websites designed and built to sell — fast, credible, and made for this industry, from a first site for a new brand to a rebuild that finally matches where your company is headed.
For veteran companies
You built something real — now the ground is moving under it. We help established operators protect their position, open new channels, and make the next pivot from strength, not from scramble.
For new companies
Entering this industry the wrong way is expensive. We help new brands start compliant, positioned, and connected — with the mistakes already mapped by someone who has watched them happen for over a decade.
Book a 30-minute call
Start a consulting inquiry
Email the office
hello@c3vipevents.com · (866) 483-7342
Here for the event?
Vendors and sponsors sign up online for Las Vegas — baseline package pre-selected, Stripe checkout in Step 2.
Secure Your SuiteStart in Las Vegas
The series starts March 10–15, 2027. Founding terms apply to the first event's first 10 vendors.
Secure Your SuiteExpansion vision
The continuing series. Into the white market.
The hosted-buyer model does not stop at counterculture retail. The next expansion path brings C3 VIP’s deliberate, high-touch format into the white-market legal cannabis ecosystem surrounding the world’s largest industry conventions.
- Protect the anchor. Build the continuing series alongside major global conventions with vape and counterculture at the core.
- Translate the network. Extend the model to licensed operators, technology, services, compliance, finance, and regulated supply chains.
- Build the bridge. Create a credible network where counterculture experience and white-market cannabis infrastructure can do business together.
Request consideration
How will you enter the experience?
C3 VIP is curated by design. Vendors & sponsors can now sign up online for Las Vegas (March 10–15, 2027): complete the full application, it forwards to the production office at hello@c3vipevents.com, then pay for your exact package through the Stripe payable link generated in Step 2. Buyers and consulting clients use the same forms below. Founding vendors: “Secure Your Suite” buttons pre-select the baseline vendor package ($12,000). Not ready to apply? Get the vendor prospectus instead →
Vendor & sponsor application — Las Vegas signup
Sign up online for Las Vegas, March 10–15, 2027. Step 1: complete & email the full application to hello@c3vipevents.com. Step 2: pay your selected package via the Stripe payable link generated for you below.
Frequently asked
Before you enter.
This is a different kind of event because the objective is different: fewer handshakes, more useful relationships.
Still have a question? Talk to the production office →Is C3 VIP a trade show?
No. C3 VIP is a high-end networking experience at a hotel or resort. There is no conventional exhibition floor. Vendor meetings happen inside private hotel suites.
Who receives a hotel suite?
Participating vendors receive private hotel suites that function as dedicated meeting environments. Vetted buyers receive standard rooms.
What does 25 vendors × 25 buyers mean?
Each event is designed around a curated group of 25 participating vendors and 25 vetted buyers. It is a cohort size—not a room dimension or booth size.
How long is each stop?
The program runs for six days in the lead-up to one of the world’s largest industry conventions, concluding before convention move-in begins.
When will event dates be announced?
The first C3 VIP event is set: Las Vegas, March 10–15, 2027, hosted at one of Las Vegas’s premier resorts, with the venue to be announced. Dates for future stops are announced as the global convention calendar and each corresponding city’s move-in timeline are confirmed.
Is this only for vape companies?
No. C3 VIP is a counterculture event. Vape remains the foundation and anchor, while the experience also includes hemp, legal cannabis, accessories, glass, technology, services, and adjacent categories.
How are buyers vetted?
Buyer participation is reviewed for company fit, current authority, commercial relevance, and the ability to create meaningful opportunities for the vendor cohort. The standard is explicit: 25 vetted buyers — every one able to write a six-figure check, every one authorized to decide on the spot. Vetted buyers attend as guests of C3 VIP; their standard rooms are covered.
What are the Buyer Guarantee and Regulatory Guarantee?
Buyer Guarantee: if fewer than 25 vetted buyers attend, $480 is refunded for every missed buyer meeting. Regulatory Guarantee: if a regulation taking effect in January 2027 prohibits the sale of your product, you receive a full refund. Both guarantees are also displayed beside the package tiers in the Packages section, where buying decisions happen.
What is the Founding Vendor offer?
For the first 10 vendors only: the baseline vendor package at $12,000 with a 2027 rate lock, category exclusivity, and priority suite placement, backed by the Buyer Guarantee and Regulatory Guarantee. Founding terms close the day the venue is publicly announced.
What is included in sponsorship?
Every sponsor receives the baseline vendor package, plus tier-specific value such as event hosting, highlighted placement, and brand activation.
How do vendors sign up & pay for Las Vegas online?
Two steps: complete the Vendor / Sponsor application in the Apply section — it forwards to hello@c3vipevents.com when you send the pre-filled email — then, in Step 2, pay for the exact package you selected through its Stripe payable link ($12,000 baseline, $20,000 Infrastructure, $30,000 Experiential, $45,000 Title). Online checkout is available only for credit / debit cards and the other Stripe payment methods for this account, Klarna and Afterpay / Clearpay, on Stripe’s secure checkout (statement descriptor: “C3 VIP EVENTS”) — never on this page. Apple Pay (516-834-3790), Zelle (516-834-3790), and wire transfer (details on request) are separate payment options handled outside online checkout; include your company name with any of them.
Does C3 VIP offer consulting beyond events?
Yes. C3 VIP Consulting & Business Development works with veteran and new counterculture companies on industry strategy, business development, compliance and pivot planning, brand and market growth, social media management, and web development. Start with a consulting inquiry in the Apply section or book a 30-minute call.
The industry’s ultimate networking experience
Let’s make the connection.
For vendor participation, vetted-buyer consideration, sponsorships, strategic partnerships, and consulting & business development, contact the C3 VIP production office.