The 2018 Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference is fast approaching – are you coming?  Here are 5 great reasons to join us next week in Santa Rosa!

1. Best Practices Sharing Summits.  Join your peers to discuss key trends in the industry.  We will be breaking the groups down into Events, Marketing and Tourism – pick and choose your topic!
2. Opening and Closing Keynote Speakers.  Michael Thomas of Google Travel will be highlighting key aspects of Google Travel that you can use and apply; and Judd Wallenbrock of C.K. Mondavi & Family will close out the conference with insights from his many years of experience in the wine industry.
3. Breakout Sessions.  We have a long list of breakout sessions in Marketing, Tourism and Events.  Need help with your SEO?  We have you covered!  Want to learn how to work with your local partners?  Join us as our expert speakers explore a variety of relevant industry topics.
4. All-Group Sessions.  Our panels will provide key information to our audience in the areas of hospitality and events.  Between them, the panelists have decades worth of experience just waiting for you to discover.
5. Networking.  Join us for our Hospitality Suite, our Wine Reception and our optional Bottle Share Dinner, all of which are a great opportunity to meet your fellow attendees in a relaxed setting.

Registration is still open, so signup today!  If you are already registered, we look forward to seeing you there!

 

 

by Eventbrite

It’s no secret that people love live experiences.

So how can you draw people to your experience? Delicious food and libations are an excellent start. But to make a food and drink event memorable, it has to stand out from a crowd of pop-ups and cocktail parties.

Whether you host a big festival or an intimate wine tasting, you have to find a way to make your event original. In fact, 87% of food and drink event-goers claim that an event’s “uniqueness” helps determine whether or not they will attend.

Convince them to attend your event using these eight ways to make your wine event stand out.

1. Make it exclusive

More than a third of food and drink event attendees gravitate towards special dining and drinking events that are small and secretive. Think intimate pop-ups with limited seating and invite-only restaurant openings. The more exclusive, the more special event-goers feel. Even if your event is big, that doesn’t mean it can’t have an air of exclusivity.

2. Curate better VIP experiences

Of the food and drink festival-goers Eventbrite surveyed, more than half are willing to pay more for exclusive experiences and access at a festival.

For example, Ali Walker of the Firestone Walker Brewing Company offers early entry ticket holders first access to the brewers. “We give 100% of those sales to the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund, which makes attendees feel good about the higher price tag,” says Ali.

Want to create VIP options for your event? Establish  multiple ticket types — not just custom VIP packages, but Early Bird discounts and other variations on the standard price.

3. Find a memorable new venue

The food and drink are important — but people can eat anywhere. What makes your event interesting is the location. Host your event in nontraditional spaces like warehouses, greenhouses, or private vineyards. This might take some extra planning — especially if there’s not a commercial kitchen onsite. But the payoff is well worth it when you attract attendees.

4. Use rare and fantastic ingredients

One of the best and most obvious ways to set your event apart is with special ingredients attendees can’t find anywhere else. Think a pre-release of a product that’s about to become hot, or a rare, foraged mushroom handpicked by the chef herself.

That unique ingredient can be the golden ticket. In fact, 65% of food and drink event attendees are more likely to attend a special food and drink event if the menu has unexpected ingredients or food combinations.

5. Gift guests with thoughtful mementos

The right take-home swag will help your attendees remember your event. For example, you could make every menu different by including a unique, hand-drawn sketch. Or, as Top Chef finalist Melissa King recommends for pop-up dinners, “Consider a to-go treat like a scone for their breakfast along with a personalized note.”

6. Use RFID to enhance the experience

For wine festivals, RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) bracelets help you track where attendees are spending the most time, so you can hone in on the most (and least) popular parts of your event. RFID also speeds up entrance and purchasing lines. Attendees can pay for food and drinks with a simple tap of their wrist — and go home satisfied and impressed.

7. Lean on your sponsors

One of the best ways to carve out a one-of-a-kind event is to team up with special sponsors who bring their own brand of unique experience. Look for sponsors who will offer interactive, immersive experiences to engage attendees on the ground and give them memories to last a lifetime.

But don’t overdo it with so many sponsors that your event’s message gets lost in the melee. The key is to handpick just the right sponsors for your event.

8. Give them something to do après wine

Hybrid events add experiences beyond wine into the evening — elements like live music, photo booths, or even horse-and-buggy rides. Your imagination is the limit! And this creativity pays off: More than half of food and drink festival attendees told us they are more likely to choose a festival that has more to it than a great food spread.

A truly unique and inspiring event stays in the minds of participants long after it leaves their stomachs — so find ways to make yours unforgettable.

Check out Eventbrite’s session at the Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference on Event Marketing in 2018 on Thursday, October 25, at 9:00 am to learn more ways to stand out in the wine industry. 

 

We have several opportunities to network and socialize at this year’s Wine Marketing & Tourism Conference. Whether you are new to the group and the area or are reconnecting with old friends and acquaintances, we have a networking event for you!

Sharing Best Practices Summits: Included in your conference registration price, these three-hour summits allow you to meet with your direct peers to learn from industry leaders, hear from those with experience in your field, and share your own best practices.

Opening Night Reception & Expo: Meet all our sponsors and enjoy wines from across North America and the world on Tuesday evening. This is a unique opportunity to try wines from states you don’t normally patron with your wine purchases. Staffing a table is free to non-profit or governmental winery associations and DMOs attending the conference.

Taste of Sonoma County Wine Reception: Relax and unwind with a variety of Sonoma County wines in this wrap-up to Wednesday’s events.

Optional “Bottle Share Dinner”: Coming to WMTC and want to socialize with your fellow attendees?  Join us Wednesday evening as we enjoy a 3-course Prix Fixe meal in the Flamingo’s restaurant and bring your favorite bottle of wine to share with the group. This will be an additional cost ($36.50) and limited to 22 attendees. Sign up when you register.

Registration is $475 for the conference – register today!

 

 

by Polly Hammond, 5Forests

Who here lives with a gamer? Well, I’m surrounded by them, from husband to business partner to staff. Lately, in conversations about empathy and delight, the 5forests team have found ourselves referencing video games as oddly analogous to wine business. Both require a sweet blend of technical skill, creative vision, and relationship-building to make a profitable end product. Both exist in a super-saturated market where differentiation has become key to success. And both rely on dedicated teams to develop and promote products that might take years to be ready for market.

While some folks may argue that games are entertainment, and wine is . . . food (?), neither are basic human needs and creators of both must, therefore, create a compelling reason for a potential customer to buy and have buy-in to the brand.

There is a lesson here.

Game design is driven by a concept that few other industries have adopted: the Core Experience. Simply put, the Core Experience is what we want the user to feel as they interact with our product. Not what they see, hear, taste, and touch, but what they feel.

From designers and producers to scriptwriters, artists, animators, editors and programmers, a game development team uses a clearly defined core experience to empower a scalable team to work toward a cohesive game feel. And the end product immerses a player in that experience, whether they jump on for minutes or stay for hours.

So what does this have to do with wine?

Simply put, core experiences create emotional response and tap into basic human desires and needs. In doing so, they empower brands to create genuine delight and lay the foundation for long-term customer relationships. The gaming development team is not so very different from what it takes to make a winery work: leadership and vision, winemaking expertise, branding and marketing, sales and distribution, cellar door staff, somms and retailers on the front lines. And in the case of wine, these teams are often all working in different locations, sometimes globally, to build a successful brand.

This week, ask yourself, “What is your desired Core Experience?”

• What do you want your customers to feel when they interact with your brand?
• How does a customer experience your brand?
• Do each of those customer touchpoints create a cohesive core experience?
• What existing systems or communications can be a starting point for change?
• Even better, what team members can champion this shift with you?

Here’s the deal. We are talking about a full-scale organizational shift from Wine = Transaction to Wine = Experience.

Status quo, whether bad or good, is always easier than change, and I know not every reader will be ready to hear this. But wine marketing MUST evolve to remain relevant. If there is one takeaway from the game-wine analogy, it’s that we cannot relegate our product, with its blend of artistry and skill, with its ability to bring delight and build relationships . . . we cannot relegate wine to mere transactions when we have all the needed parts to build experiences.

We have a few changes to our speaker lineup for this year’s conference:  Google Travel will still provide the opening keynote, changing the focus slightly with Michael Thomas, Principal Analytical Lead, who will provide insights into incorporating digital tourism practices to your current program that will help drive consumers to your door.

And, back by popular demand, we have added Judd Wallenbrock, President & CEO of C. Mondavi & Family, as the closing keynote speaker.  Judd will share his many years of experience in the wine industry on trends affecting marketing, tourism, and events.

We are excited to welcome both of these speakers to our program!

Updated Opening Keynote

Michael Thomas
Principal Analytical Lead, Google Travel

Michael has been at Google for 5 years and works with some of the world’s largest travel brands. His clients include hotels, airlines, and online travel agencies, just to name a few. Michael provides the business analysis and innovative strategies needed to drive growth across 20 clients touching diverse areas in the travel space. Michael is also an avid traveler, having been to 15 countries and 5 continents. Before working at Google, Michael worked at General Electric in their Energy sector.

New Closing Keynote

Judd Wallenbrock
President and CEO, C. Mondavi & Family

Judd is a seasoned veteran of the wine industry with over 38 years experience and has the scars to prove it. His excitement and passion for wine, food and the arts has never been stronger. Judd has a BS in Agri-Business, an MBA in International Marketing and has served as an executive for Robert Mondavi, De Loach Vineyards, Michel-Schlumberger Estate and The Good Life Wine Collective of Jessup Cellars and Handwritten Wines. He has experienced the thrill of starting his own winery, Humanitas, and is now President and CEO of C. Mondavi & Family, home to Charles Krug, Purple Heart, and CK Mondavi.

For a full Agenda, please visit www.winetourismconference.org.

Registration is currently $450.00 for the three day program and it will go up to $475.00 on September 16, 2018, so be sure to take advantage of the early pricing and Register today!