Project Overview
The Virginia Cannabusiness Summit is a two-day business conference for Virginia’s cannabis industry, held March 17–18, 2027 at the Hyatt Regency Dulles. Produced by 420NJ Events and presented by AYR Wellness, the Summit brings together operators, investors, service providers and policy leaders as a new market takes shape.
STS Media designed and built the Summit’s website at vacannasummit.com, a flagship conference site built to do two jobs: collect interest from attendees and turn sponsors into conversations.
The Challenge
A first-year conference in a new market has no past attendance numbers, no speaker roster and no photo archive to lean on. The site still needed to feel established enough that a cannabis operator, an investor or a law firm would raise a hand.
It also had to speak to very different visitors at once. An entrepreneur looking for partners, a capital firm looking for deal flow and an ancillary business looking for customers all needed to see why the room mattered to them, and all needed one clear next step.
The Solution
STS Media researched leading conference and event sites, presented three design directions, and built the chosen “flagship conference” direction in WordPress. The homepage leads with the promise, “Where Virginia comes to do business,” followed by the dates, venue and presenting partner.
From there the page walks each visitor through the event: a six-part audience directory, a two-day program with day tabs, sponsorship, venue and map, FAQs, and the interest form. Every section points back to one of two actions: be part of it, or explore sponsorship.
Key Website Features
One-page conference homepage with a dedicated interest page.
Audience directory covering entrepreneurs and licensees, operators and brands, capital and finance, professional services, policy and equity, and ancillary businesses.
Two-day program section with day tabs, clearly marked as in development.
Presenting partner placement for AYR Wellness.
Four expandable sponsorship tiers: Signature Experience, Premier Access, Industry Program and Supporting, with pricing kept private and a “Request the sponsor package” call to action.
Interest form rebuilt from the client’s Jotform inside WordPress, with a budget field that appears only for sponsorship inquiries.
Spam protection using a hidden honeypot field and a self-hosted proof-of-work check instead of a CAPTCHA.
Venue section with an embedded map of the Hyatt Regency Dulles.
FAQ section answering who the Summit is for, timing, and how to get involved.
Search and social sharing metadata plus event structured data, so the Summit reads correctly in Google and when shared.
Privacy Policy page and mobile-ready layout.
Design Direction
The design borrows from the confidence of top-tier tech and business conferences. Deep navy and soft paper grounds alternate section by section, set in a single type family with tight tracking. There are no rounded corners, shadows or gradients.
Green is reserved for action. If something on the page is green, it is a button. That one rule keeps the page calm and makes the next step obvious. A licensed photo of the Northern Virginia skyline anchors the hero in place.
Content Strategy
The content strategy was simple: say only what is true. A new event is tempting to pad with invented attendance stats, a countdown clock and empty speaker silhouettes. STS Media removed all three. The program is labeled as in development, and speakers are announced as on the way.
Copy is written for business readers. Each audience gets a one-line reason to attend, sponsorship focuses on outcomes rather than price lists, and the FAQ answers the questions a first-time attendee or sponsor would ask before reaching out.
Outcome
The Virginia Cannabusiness Summit now has a credible, conference-grade home online months ahead of the event. Attendees, sponsors and partners can understand the Summit, see where they fit and raise a hand from any device.
The result is a lead-focused event website that gives a first-year conference the presence of an established one, without a single invented number.
Services Provided by STS Media
Design research and creative direction
Website design
WordPress and Elementor development
Conference homepage structure
Audience and program section design
Sponsorship tier presentation
Interest and sponsor lead form setup
Spam protection setup
Email delivery configuration
SEO, social sharing and event structured data
Privacy Policy page setup
Mobile-responsive design
