At long last…The Craft Brewers Conference is upon us. Here’s where you can find us…getting our learnin’ on!
The team here at VicinityBrew is ready for the annual Craft Brewers Conference. While we are not exhibiting this year (2022 we will be back on the floor), you will find our team attending many seminars.
CBC is an excellent brewing industry event and we are excited to connect with everyone in attendance! It’s been so long since we have all been in the same location that I expect the smiles to be bigger, the hellos to be louder and the beers to be the best ever.
In addition to our excitement towards reconnecting with breweries, we are also eagerly awaiting to attend the fantastic and informative sessions at this event. We have listed below our top 10 sessions that we cannot wait to see at this years conference!
1. Direct to Consumer Strategies for Any Size Brewery
As craft beer competition increases, breweries of all sizes are increasingly looking at sales channels beyond at-the-brewery and traditional distribution. In this panel with direct-to-consumer (DtC) compliance expert Alex Koral, hear how three breweries of all sizes, from local to national, are handling their DtC efforts. They’ll dive into their current DtC methods and future goals, as well as where DtC fits into their overall sales and distribution strategy.
2. #beerstagram – Get Dynamic Brand Photos Without Hiring a Professional
Social media has changed the way that brands interact with their audience, and without a strong online presence it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. Fortunately, we all carry around high-quality cameras in our pockets and can take great pictures to post online. But our smartphones can only do so much to help an amateur photographer. Learn how to not only take better photos using your phone camera, but how to use them effectively on your social media accounts.
3. Brewery Ergonomics: How to Stay Safe and Healthy in Your Brewery
As the brewing industry grows and ages, so do its challenges, including the safety, health, and wellness of its workers. New breweries are often created and operated by professionals and workers from other professions, not used to the rigors and physical exertion of the industry. For those of us that are at bit more established, the challenge then becomes preserving and sustaining healthy physical and mental capacities, so that we can maintain our breweries and keep them running efficiently. This seminar will examine current health and wellness concerns not currently documented in our industry and what we need to do to promote the health and wellness of our brewers.
4. Direct to Consumer Shipping: How to Do It Legally and Successfully
Direct to consumer (DtC) shipping of alcohol is on everyone’s minds these days, as consumers and suppliers alike look for better and easier ways to interact. While the positives for DtC shipping are clear, many brewers may struggle to enter this new, developing market. And there are many issues to consider, from compliance with various state laws, to how to build customer interest and manage the infrastructure necessary, to successfully shipping beer.
Join Alex Koral, Senior Regulatory Counsel for Sovos ShipCompliant, and Scotty Hunter from Urban Artifact, as they present on what you need to know to build a compliant and successful DtC shipping platform.
5. Talkin’ About Talking: Where to Start the Discussion on Mental Well-Being
How do we start the conversation on our own mental well-being and why is it so hard? Mental health was already a sensitive and personal topic, but it’s been highlighted as a crisis during the pandemic. Stressors can come from a variety of places: work, outside of work, or pre-existing conditions. It is not always clear who is responsible for the mental well-being of employees, and that question has only become more confusing with COVID-19. Mental health is never a one-size-fits-all problem for individuals or for businesses, but having a positive company culture that strives for good mental well-being is directly linked to physical safety and the overall success of your brewery. This seminar will help us all kick off the conversation. Let’s see where we can go together!
6. Brewing with Cannabis: Using THC and CBD in Beer
The topic of cannabis becomes more popular every year as additional states legalize its use, either medically or recreationally. Many brewers have wondered about the possibilities of using hemp or marijuana in a brew.
In this seminar we will cover the major aspects that a brewer must consider before experimenting with cannabis.
7. Does Your Taproom Only Look Like You?
The intent of this roundtable discussion will be to speak on the reasons taprooms and breweries in general aren’t as diverse or inclusive as they could be. To this end, we will discuss ways that breweries can engage with their local communities and increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in breweries everywhere.
8. Demystifying the Elusive “Standard Operating Procedure”: The SOPs that Saved Our Breweries and What You’ll Want to Know About Them
Anyone who has been part of opening a brewery will tell you that that the actual opening was the easy part. Maintaining positive momentum during an ever-changing set of market conditions and operational challenges is where the real difficulties are found. What will make or break a brewery is the ability to adapt to these challenges, and one of the most significant challenges is keeping consistency over time. Inconsistency can present as variable flavors, quality issues, or production inefficiencies, all of which have negative effects to the financial bottom line.
A critical tool for establishing consistency is the use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Unfortunately, these often get lost in the day-to-day nature of brewery operations, or become a project for a tomorrow that never comes. This presentation brings together three industry experts to lay out a template for establishing and maintaining an effective SOP program. This starts with understanding how SOPs fit into an organization and recognizing the business case for them. The next step is learning how to create a foundational set to build upon, how to coordinate SOP management across larger organizations, and how to adapt to changes so that your program remains in tune with the current needs of your brewery.
Attendees will be able to see actual programs from active breweries and walk away with templates and a system that can be customized and implemented immediately.
9. Exploring Untapped Sources for Future Employees, Ambassadors, and Collaborators
Your brewery has made a commitment to diversifying its talent pool, but you aren’t sure where to find potential hires with a different background than our own. Not to mention, the thought of posting yet another ad on a recruitment site brings you to tears. You have created an amazing brewery that’s one of the best places to work in town…so why aren’t these awesome candidates coming to you? Chances are that these candidates aren’t aware that the skills and experience they have are just what you need! This session will explore how your brewery can create various pipelines that will flow excellent individuals to you.
10. Legal Compliance for the Craft Brewer
In this panel, craft brewers with limited resources and no in-house legal counsel will learn practical tips to organize their legal compliance efforts.
These are the the top 10 sessions VicinityBrew is looking forward to attending and gaining knowledge from during the 2021Craft Brewers Conference in Denver. We hope to see you there!
Want to know more about VicinityBrew or chat with us while at the conference? Click here to schedule time to talk beer with us during the event.