We will be kicking off our annual conference in Santa Rosa in October with our Sharing Best Practices Summits.  Moderated by experts in each field, these three-hour summits will allow participants to discuss topics that are of the most concern to them with immediate feedback and solutions as well as being able to share their own best practices.

We will have Summits for the following groups:

• Tasting Room Managers
• Event Managers
• Wine Tour Operators
• Destination Management Organizations & Winery Associations
• Marketing/Communication Experts

Learning from your peers can be one of the most valuable experiences out there, so be sure to join one of these groups this at the conference this year. You will walk away with valuable tips and information that you can put into place immediately to enhance your own program.

The 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will be held October 23-25 in Santa Rosa –  to register, please visit our registration page at www.winetourismconference.org.  Early registration deadline is June 30th, so register today!

We will have three session tracks for attendees:  Marketing, Events and Tourism. at this year’s Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference.  Attendees can choose to follow one track or attend sessions from different tracks.

Our Tourism Track will focus on working together with your local and regional partners to get results and drive traffic to your area and your tasting room. Topics include:

United We Stand: Aligning around the path to purchase: To get the best results for all stakeholders in a destination’s wine tourism industry, everyone needs to be singing off the same song sheet. From the destination marketers, to the media, to the trade, to the wineries, everyone must have a coordinated role along the consumer’s path to purchase.

SEO Goes Local: Local Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your online business to be discoverable via local organic search. Find out how you can optimize your local SEO by using your physical location and specific location keywords that non-local users can use to find you.

How To Use Online Rating Sites to Your Advantage: Want excellent customer reviews online?  Focus on offline service for online results. Emphasize providing a great visitor experience. What you do – or don’t do – during a visitor’s stay determines the guest’s experience and resulting review.

Working With Regional Hotel Concierges to Drive Traffic: Almost all local wine country businesses would love to have referrals from their local hotels, who house most visitors to the area. Hear from a panel of hospitality experts on creating a successful program to work with local and regional hotels.

The 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will be held October 23-25 in Santa Rosa –  to register, please visit our registration page at www.winetourismconference.org.  Early registration deadline is June 30th, so register today!

We are excited to welcome our 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference Keynote Speaker – Rob Torres from Google Travel!  Today’s travel consumer is more empowered than ever. Digital is a trusted advisor more than ever before. Travelers turn to digital for travel research 2.7X as much as friends/family and 4.5X as much as offline sources. 69% of travelers are more loyal to a travel company that personalizes their experiences (online and offline).  The mission for our Travel products is to be the trusted place where travelers go for personalized information to make faster, effortless decisions.  In this session, Rob will explore ways you can make the customer experience even better by utilizing these online tools.

Rob Torres
Managing Director of Travel, Google

In his position, Rob manages and develops integrated and innovative advertising campaigns to help some of the world’s biggest travel brands reach consumers.  Before joining Google, Torres was the Vice President of Strategic Hotel Partnerships at Expedia. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a Masters of Business Administration from Georgetown. He also sits on the board of directors for many nationally recognized travel business trade associations.

The 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will be held October 23-25 in Santa Rosa –  to register, please visit our registration page at www.winetourismconference.org.

This year’s Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will feature three session tracks for attendees: Marketing, Events and Tourism. Attendees can choose to follow one track or attend sessions from different tracks.

Our Marketing Track will help wineries utilize their online marketing to drive traffic to their tasting rooms and improve both onsite and online wine sales.  The session topics include:

How Content Marketing Can Grow Your Winery/Hospitality Business: Have you ever wanted a guaranteed engagement model for your marketing? Have you ever wished you had the resources to tell your story – in your own way – to your audiences? Native advertising is the solution to all of this.  Learn how you can create a turnkey solution with a sophisticated distribution strategy that is centered around creative excellence and hands-on service.

There is No Spoon: Harnessing Human Nature to Drive Digital Profits: This session will explore how wineries can translate patterns of human behavior (aka, the tenets of behavioral economics) into captivating online experiences, thereby driving brand loyalty & DTC sales.

Ok, Google.  Take me to the nearest winery.: Learn about the rise  of voice search and how wineries can use voice search strategies to drive real visitor traffic.  With connected devices and voice recognition quickly becoming part of our daily activities, wineries need to be ready for the day when consumers search for a winery nearby using voice search rather than by using a search engine.

Managing Your Online Presence to Drive Tasting Room Visits: 80 percent of a consumer’s decision is made about your winery before you even talk to them. Ensuring that you have a strong presence online through your website, social media and review sites is critical if you want to drive new customers into your tasting room.

The 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will be held October 23-25 in Santa Rosa –  to register, please visit our registration page at www.winetourismconference.org.

New this year to the Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will be three session tracks for attendees:  Marketing, Events and Tourism.  Attendees can choose to follow one track or attend sessions from different tracks.

Sponsored by Eventbrite, our Events Track is designed to provide helpful tips and key takeaways for success. Are you looking to  increase your online events engagement or ramp up your customer’s onsite experience?  These sessions will have you covered!

This year’s Events Track Sessions include:

The Key to Events:  What is the key to a successful event? Learn how to create and manage unique events that appeal to different guest types at your winery. Take away best practices and tips for creating, executing, and measuring events and learn which goals you should be setting for each event.

Using Facebook Events:  Facebook Events are a great way to boost engagement, get people talking, provide helpful information and ultimately plan your upcoming business events.  Learn how to plan, coordinate, and spread awareness of your brand through this tool.

Success in Event Registration: From Online to Onsite:  Learn how to create a successful online registration and turn it into a successful onsite event, including ticketing, pricing, and onsite execution.

Local Guerrilla Marketing for Your Wine Event:  Marketing can be the hardest part of the event planning process if you are on a budget – and that’s where guerrilla marketing comes in. Learn how to engage in high impact, low-cost local marketing to fill your events.

The 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference will be held October 23-25 in Santa Rosa –  to register, please visit our registration page at www.winetourismconference.org.