With honed talents for creating spectacular, over-the-top experiences and curating a magnetic stew of cannabis executives, creatives, characters, and interesting people, James Zachodni and Dave Tran of Farechild Events are doing what they do best: bringing people together. 

The two are orbiting the center of the cannabis industry constellation this week as they prep last-minute details for what is the most coveted event ticket of the big MJBiz Conference this week in Las Vegas. The invite-only Zodiac Party, presented by Sensi, is taking place Thursday evening at The Industrial, located at 2330 South Industrial Road in Las Vegas—a 10,000 SF indoor space and 1.5 acre adjacent open air space, in the epicenter of the famous Las Vegas Strip. 

And they are loving it. 

“Being the center of the cannabis universe is really fun ’cause you can really work with everybody,” Zachodni says with a laugh. “That’s really the exciting part about where we’re going.”

Wherever they are going, it’s guaranteed to be a good time. 

The Farechild Events team has a knack for bringing together the right elements to create a kind of a magic, an alchemy. The Zodiac Party theme includes plays on numerology and astrology that will leave guests in awe with an “easter egg” like hunt for details found throughout the event.

Zodiac Party theme to combine the high energy of world-class Las Vegas nightlife with the stage production of Broadway theatres. The party will be both indoor and outdoor with the primary activities taking place in a giant outdoor circular calendar where each zodiac sign will be represented by a different event sponsor.  

As anyone who’s been to one of the Golden Ticket parties or past Farechild events can attest, Tran and Zachodni have a knack for conjuring up ever-more delightful environments in which the mundane business of industry conferences fade away. 

The Zodiac event is poised to offer an adrenaline-fueled rush of entering a whole new setting and a whole new mindset—that thrill you get upon discovering something special. The party will provide a natural good time for all who come through. 

“Our background in events, even before the magazine, before cannabis went through it’s phase, we had all that knowledge and that background, bringing it into the cannabis industry, letting it kind of like learn and flourish over the years with DOPE.”

“Now we’re at a point where we feel like we can give back a lot of that knowledge and that information to the industry. So we created Farechild as a platform, not only to produce events, but then also to solve problems”—the type of problems unique to the still-federally-illegal cannabis industry. Zachodni continues, “Ticketing and just kind of basic compliance type issues with a lot of different producers that want to throw cannabis events but they just don’t know how or what to do. So we help them kind of fast-track their event production.” 

Which is a lot quicker than trying to do like Tran and Zachodni did, learning the ins and outs of a new industry as it emerged from the black market over more than a decade.  They learned how to throw an event in a highly regulated industry the right way. 

“I think the most important part of what Fairchild is to be is that community builder, and  we could do that through events,” says Tran. “We can gather people, people could share these experiences with others, and you’d be able to go to one place and be able to find that, and with technology now we’ll be able to really cater and really craft like, uh, someone’s experience, whether it’s food, whether you’re doing a painting event, a community gathering, or even an expo.”

A common theme running through all Farechild events, Tran explains, is the same question running through Tran and Zachodni’s minds: “How can we also give the world an opportunity to learn more about cannabis through very specific events that we cater towards you? And how can we help?”

They help by doing more than just throwing a cool party but by creating solutions. Farechild is more than an event planning co, it’s a tech platform that handles ticketing, correspondence, and event promotion and social sharing.  

When asked what they’ve got in store for Zodiac, they are pretty coy, not wanting to overshare details about what’s in store. But they are, as Zachodni says, “making sure that there’s that wow factor. Make people go, oh my gosh, this isn’t just like a bunch of people in a room with cocktail. This is a production.” 

Not that the event is taking place in a room anyway. The largely outdoor event is going to be decked out with futuristic planetary fixtures while Las Vegas‘s DJ Kelly J from 91.5 KUNV Las Vegas, will grace revelers with an array of party music throughout the night, setting the mood for exciting performances by synth/pop duo New Constellations and popular Bay Area hip hop Lil Debbie.

The rising artist will bring an exciting performance of hits from her current album “Debbie,”  which charted at  #41 on Billboard and #5 on iTunes Hip Hop Charts. 

The Zodiac party is a turnkey event where all health and safety precautions are front of mind. To keep guests safe and social, Farechild Events partnered with Moose Labs (@mooselabs), a product design company creating harm-reduction innovations for cannabis consumers, and will provide each guest with a complimentary MouthPeace or MouthPeace Mini (pictured above) upon entry. The MouthPeace creates a sanitary barrier, preventing direct oral contact with a shared joint, glass pipe, dab rig, or vape pen for a cleaner, pathogen-free experience.

It’s part of the answer to the questions Tran and Zachodni are always asking themselves: “what can we do to really take it to that next level and make the guest experience unforgettable and also show people that cannabis events are as good as mainstream, normal events.”

Tran continues: “We always want to try to, you know, not put ourselves on the playing field with just the cannabis producers, but put ourselves on the playing field with the guys that are, you know, throwing parties for Amazon and for Microsoft.”  

“I like a good party, out of everyone but it always comes down to the people there,” says Tran. “That’s what I’m in charge of—the people side of it, what the party feels like.”

“These events are very important because they really change the dynamics,” says Tran. “You know, once one person meets another person that relationship could really change the face of what they do in their business. And in fact, a lot of relationships have changed the face of care cannabis, whether we like it or not. And that’s why we do love events in general. They bring people together.”