Conference Schedule

Grand Ball Room: Session I - May 23, 2023 (9 AM to 11 AM)

Farming for the Future – Sonoma County Winegrowers role in the Climate Movement

The farm of the future is starting in Sonoma County, the nation’s most sustainable winegrowing region. Sonoma County Winegrowers has used the past two years to rethink everything we do to ensure we further our sustainability goals. This includes creating the resources, programs, and collaborations to accelerate our efforts to successfully farm in the future. Our intent is for Sonoma County to be an active case study and living lab for the world and our recent collaboration with Ford Pro is a big step to achieve that mission. Learn about our mission and the path ahead for farming in the future.

12 Lessons from Silicon Valley That All Wineries Should Learn

We are entering a golden age of wine online that will forever change the way wineries think about customers, marketing, and channels. This presentation will explore how we as an industry can learn from Silicon Valley and how the landscape of wine discovery is changing forever.

Embracing the Digital Revolution and Supporting Beverage Alcohol Suppliers Along Their eCommerce Journey

As the world’s preeminent distributor of beverage alcohol, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits understands the power of business to consumer eCommerce as it accounts for an ever-increasing share of sales. With a dedicated in-house B2C eCommerce team, and a home-grown digital agency (DRAM Agency), SGWS has created a center of excellence for its 1,700 suppliers who are eager to accelerate their business in the e-premise. Through strategic advisory, digital enablement and executional support, SGWS is ideally positioned to partner with suppliers to optimize beverage alcohol brand growth online.

DTC Sales in 2022 and beyond

Direct-to-consumer sales in 2022 and beyond. Learn the tangible steps you can take to sell more and grow your average lifetime value, order value, and direct-to-consumer sales this year - and into the future.

Innovating with AI

Google products are powered by AI (artificial intelligence) at every level — from the core infrastructure and software platform to the application logic and the user interface. I’ll share a behind-the-scenes look at how Google AI works and how we use it to create innovative experiences at a planetary scale. I’ll end with our vision to democratize AI and how you can use Google AI in your own work.

How to develop a digital presence that drives sales

Since prohibition, beverage alcohol brands have lacked visibility and control. A unique bottle or interesting name is simply not enough to engage with shoppers. Over the decades we have seen incredible product innovation, but traditional tactics on the sales side still dominate. Even now, many brands are beholden to other partners, but the game is changing. The digital channel presents enormous opportunities that the savvy are maximizing. Join me and learn how to take back control over your data, customer relationships, and what it all boils down to, control over your own destiny. 

Grand Ball Room: Session II - May 23, 2023 (12.50 PM to 4 PM)

DTC in the Digital Age of Wine

Justin Noland with Co - Speaker Mr. Shem Swerkes will discuss their perspectives on 'DTC in the Digital Age of Wine'. A global pandemic kicked open the door of online alcohol sales. It is forcing the industry to reconsider consumer relationships and how brands are built online. From conversational marketing, to KPI shifts in digital media spend, to understanding digitally influenced sales, join us for an open conversation about what “DTC” really means today and how it is leading digital transformation across the industry.

Increase Customer Retention, Acquisition & Profits With Implicit AI/ML Recommendations

A 5% increase in customer retention can produce a 25% increase in profit. Yet, AlcBev businesses mostly fail in this due to the inability to match individual customer tastes with specific wines and other drinks. That failure results because drinks are non-fungible, personal experience products subject to individually unique subconscious perceptions. Research shows that no two people perceive the same wine, beer, or spirit drink the same way. due to genetics and other factors. This presentation will demonstrate how a just-published research study from Asahi, plus a patent-pending AI/Machine-Learning technology, can solve this shortcoming using implicit recommendation methods that capture user perceptions.

How to Win at B2B E-Commerce

In the beverage alcohol space, the secret to winning at B2B e-commerce is understanding how it works and where the opportunities lie. Cheryl Durzy will walk you through B2B e-commerce, how to use it to reach the B2C channel, how to build a brand, and ways to leverage e-premise. You’ll leave with an understanding of how to win and how to promote your brand via this very important channel. 

Embracing the Future of Wholesale E-commerce

As digitally-native consumers become digitally-native business leaders, all three tiers of the bevalc industry face an “adapt or die” moment. The demand for improved efficiency, increased options, lower costs and an innovative, streamlined customer experience is at our doorstep. Embracing this new future is crucial to success, yet hesitancy remains strong throughout some segments of the industry. Aaron Sherman, founder and CEO, SevenFifty (a Provi company), will examine how the wholesale ecommerce marketplace has evolved in recent years, where it’s going, and what buyers, distributors and brands can do today to better position themselves for future where a three-tier system is more digitally interconnected than ever before.

Global Wine & Spirits Fraud: Technology to the Rescue?

Maureen Downey, global expert in wine and spirits fraud and authentication discusses the current scope and various forms of fraud across several price points and in different markets. She will describe the efforts producers and vendors are making to combat fraud including an exploration of different technologies currently employed with a discussion of the efficacy of each. She will address the future for the implementation of different technologies to combat fraud.

Paths to growth and profitability in the global fine wine industry

This session is all about how the global fine wine market is adapting their operating model to drive growth and profitability during and post Covid. What steps have they taken, how do those ideas translate , which frameworks are needed to take those on board? Purpose of the session: Sharing global fine wine strategies and success stories

Digital Marketing is dead

Sorry, wine, just when you thought you had a handle on social media, digital ads, the DTC funnel, and your online customer, it’s all changing (again). Here’s what you need to know to ensure that the time, work, and investment you’ve put into digital in the past two years is ready for the future of profitable wine marketing.

SMS Text Messaging: effective and alcohol-industry compliant strategies

More businesses than ever are embracing text messaging to improve how they communicate with prospects, customers, and members. Texting saves you time. Texting sells more product. And customers LOVE it. But not just any mass-market texting platform will work for your extra compliance burdens, and many of them consider messages about alcohol prohibited content. Come learn how to start, execute, and grow your text strategy, including best practices and industry specific examples of web-to-text chat, 1:1 and bulk texting, payment collection by text, text marketing, automaton, compliance, and integrations. 

How to connect digitally with your Customers

Learn from Heath Willis , The Global Head of TheBar.com at Diageo on How the pandemic focused our attention on leveraging our digital channels to connect with consumers and bartenders in completely new ways.

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