We will be announcing our 2020 speakers in the coming months. In the meantime, see below for some of the speakers at the 2018 conference.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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.
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.
SESSION SPEAKERS
Tammy Boatright
President, VingDirect
Tammy is president at VingDirect, which provides tasting room management and sales tools to family wineries. Prior to founding VingDirect in 2009, Tammy served as the head of Foster’s Wine Estates U.S. Direct to Consumer division. In this role, she was acting President of Windsor Vineyards from 2005-2007 and President of International Wine Accessories from 2004-2007.
Sarah Morse Cooney
VP Marketing, Hearst Bay Area (San Francisco Chronicle, SFGATE
Sarah responsible for developing strategic multi-platform programs that drive sales revenue, implementing and managing in-house marketing objectives and tactics that shape the brand, drive circulation acquisition and retention goals, and identify strategic partnerships that enhance local community relations and grow incremental ad spend. Prior to joining Hearst Bay Area, Sarah oversaw Marketing for Dwell, a media company devoted to modern architecture and design, from 2012 to 2014. From 2007 to 20012, she held various Marketing positions at Hearst Magazines in New York. In her role at Hearst Bay Area, Sarah overseas sponsorship sales and branding of the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and Public Tasting. Learn more at WineJudging.com.
Susan DeMatei
Founder and President, WineGlass Marketing
Susan DeMatei is the founder and president of WineGlass Marketing, the premier full-service direct marketing agency for the wine, beer and spirits industry located in the heart of the world-famous Napa Valley. An industry veteran with over 30 years experience in direct sales to a luxury market, Ms. DeMatei has spent half her career in winery consumer direct marketing, working with organizations such as Opus One, Fosters Wine Estates, Goosecross Cellars and Diagio prior to starting her own agency. Ms. DeMatei is not only a wine marketing specialist but also a Certified Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers and a Certified Specialist in Wine/Wine Education with the Society of Wine Educators. She holds a B.S. in Communications from Boston University and an A.S. in Viticulture from Napa Valley College.
Scott Fish
Founder, 32 Degrees Digital
During the past two decades, Scott has worked with hotels, resorts and tourism organizations around the world to help them drive more business and connect better with their customers. In addition to working within the tourism industry, Scott also works with wineries promoting their club membership and event space, sports associations and athletes to connect better with players and fans, and museums and cultural organizations/non-profits to further their mission and drive more donations and revenue from attendance.
Ernst Flach
Regional Director, Americas, The South Australian Tourism Commission
Prior to joining as the Regional Director, Americas for The South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC), Ernst’s love for travel and international business led him to a globetrotting career that has included stints with The Canadian Tourism Commission, and advertising agencies in Toronto and the Baltic region of Europe. Now working with the agency (Wagstaff Worldwide) that represents SATC across North America, Ernst has the delight of convincing more travelers to choose South Australia’s WOW (Wildlife, Outback, and Wine) experiences for their next vacation down under. At home, Ernst’s wife and two young children share in his love of getting lost on meandering drives—which is when the best discoveries are made! And, as a proud Canadian, he plays hockey, albeit with a lot more enthusiasm than talent.
Polly Hammond
Founder and Managing Director, 5Forests
Pairing a love of behavioural economics with wine marketing and digital innovation, Polly spend her days helping wineries grow beyond the confines of traditional sales channels. Together with a team of designers, developers, content writers, and social media whiz kids, 5Forests empowers wine businesses to understand their digital data and make best use of the web, social media, and rapidly evolving trends to turn fans into brand advocates.
Laura Larson
Founder, Virtual Vines
After over two decades as a successful sales and marketing leader in the Fortune 500 sector, Laura launched Virtual Vines with the intention to introduce DTC industry best practices among the growing DTC channel within the winery community. Since 2015, Laura has developed an extensive client list and is an active leader and advocate within the DTC Winery Community. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Napa Valley Hospitality Forum and Committee Chair and speaker for the Save the Grapes DTC Wine Symposium. Laura is a contributing writer with Napa Valley Life Magazine and Wine Industry Advisor, specializing in features showcasing winery experience best practices. Laura’s passion for wine fueled her extensive studies of wine theory, supported her sommelier accreditation from the Court of Master Sommeliers and ultimately led her to embark on her own winemaking journey with the launch of her own label in 2018.
Christine McMillan
Independent Concierge, CM Destinations
Christine has a background in corporate event planning, economic development, business development for non-profit organizations and was a long time Restauranteur in St. Augustine, Florida. She has also planned national conferences for the U.S. Army, The Cathedral Ministry Conference, three-day music festivals, and multi-day corporate meetings and conferences. She started her company, CM Destinations in 2001, which is a private concierge company that focuses on trips to Napa and Sonoma for couples to corporate groups. Two years ago she started consulting with small production wineries, under 1,000 cases, to market their wine directly to consumers, design wine clubs and find new markets to niches for their brand. For fun she plans a 10K every September to raise funds for prostate cancer.
Joel A. Miller
Co-Founder & President, Customer Vineyard
Guiding senior-level strategy and operations for both public and private firms across Wine, Retail and Tech, Joel brings a unique expertise to growing a business. He spent three years as an officer at Jackson Family Wines, where he helped guide strategy and teamwork. Prior executive roles include Newegg ($2.7B eCommerce), Guitar Center ($2.5B retailer), and his early career at Procter & Gamble. Joel also teaches in the EMBA program at SSU’s Wine Business Institute. Joel has a degree in Industrial Engineering (RPI), and can often be found hiking or cycling all around Sonoma County. He is also a devoted wine geek with an interesting cellar and Level 1 Master Sommelier.
Carin Oliver
CEO, Angelsmith, Inc.
Carin is the CEO of award-winning digital advertising agency Angelsmith, Inc. She developed Intercept & Influence™, a proprietary work process that maps how consumers use digital channels along their path to purchase. She is dedicated to understanding how affluent Americans make purchase decisions in wine, health & fitness, and restaurants. With more than 20 years of marketing experience, she loves to share her knowledge. Although never a high school geometry teacher, Carin is a great lover of test, iterate, and test again. You can find her in her Point Richmond office with her husband and partner, Eric and their intrepid digital advertising team.
Debbie Osborn
Event Manager, Wine Road Northern Sonoma County
Debbie is responsible for managing Wine Road events, which include the annual event weekends Wine & Food Affair, Winter WINEland and Barrel Tasting. In her current position Debbie is the first line of contact for participating wineries (up to 100) as well as helping visitors plan their event experience. She coordinates with the health department, hires security, designs programs, event maps and working with a designer comes up with the inspiration for the overall event theme and look for all printed and online materials. Along with these event planning tasks, Debbie works with advertisers and our PR Manager to make sure our events are getting the exposure needed to always bring in new customers.
Alison Pfaff
Executive Director, Hearst StoryStudio
Alison has more than 10 years of experience developing, selling and managing custom integrated content solutions for businesses across multiple verticals including retail, tech, wine, travel, financial services and more. Before joining Hearst Bay Area, she developed content marketing solutions for multiple national brands including NBC Universal, Nike, L’Oréal, and Pepsi Co.
Katie Sawyer
Content Marketing Manager, Eventbrite
Katie Sawyer is a marketer at Eventbrite, where she helps event organizers throw awesome festivals, food and drink bonanzas, and cultural events. With more than 10 years of experience in writing, editing, and event management, she produces content so any event creator can host successful events.
Andrew Shotland
CEO, LocalSEOGuide.com
Andrew is editor of the Local SEO Guide blog which includes their definitive Local SEO Ranking Factors study. He is also a regular contributor to SearchEngineLand and co-founder of BayAreaSearch.org, the association of Bay Area search marketing professionals. Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the Internet. He was a founding member of NBC’s Internet group and former GM of NBC.com. He helped start Insider Pages, a pioneering local-social search engine, which was acquired by CitySearch in 2006.
Colby Smith
Founder, Concierge Alliance of Napa Valley and Sonoma
Colby moved to Napa Valley in 2005, where she immediately embraced the hospitality community by becoming a Concierge at Villagio Inn & Spa. After almost four years at the desk, wanting to do more, she and Monica Stevens (who was with the organization for the first year) spawned the idea of creating a support organization for the hospitality community, and the Concierge Alliance of Napa Valley was formed. After a year and a half Colby reached out to incorporate Sonoma, promoting a broader region and pride in the uniqueness of each County. With that the name evolved to CANVAS, Concierge Alliance of Napa Valley and Sonoma. She has grown the organization to over 1,100 members and developed a great number of programs that align, connect and educate the important people who serve our visiting guests.
Maggie Walker
Lead Concierge and Wine Director, Kenwood Inn & Spa
Maggie first discovered her passion for wine over 15 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. Wine has taken her around the world: From being a Wine Merchant as well as a home winemaker in Knoxville, TN, to attending wine classes at the University of Adelaide, National Wine Center in South Australia, to working in Sonoma, CA at the Biodynamic Benziger Family Winery in 2007. Following her passion to further grow, develop, and advance her hospitality career, Maggie continued her wine education and Concierge roles at the prestigious Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma, CA in 2011. In 2016 she was appointed Lead Concierge and Wine Director at the luxurious Kenwood Inn & Spa. Also, in 2016 she advanced her wine knowledge and joined the Court of Master Sommeliers, and in spring of 2018 became a Certified Concierge through the National Concierge Association.