CBC Busts Attendance Record
Largest gathering ever in SF
The Craft Brewers Conference in San Francesco, now a distant two week memory, was the largest CBC ever with 4,076 attendees, a 44% increase over the 2,821 in attendance in 2010. Remember Seattle; 1997? Bigger than that year even!
The Brewers Association, the host of the event, announced today that the association is considering a few new ideas for future events including;
• Adding open forum roundtable options where established brewers and owners of the same size/type of brewery are available to mentor new brewers/owners of similar breweries.
• Adding additional trade show hours.
• Developing etiquette/protocol guidelines for approaching others in the trade show hall.
Because the BA must book venues far in advance (usually three years) there were a few growing pains this year. Next year, the conference will have limited space again, but in 2013 its back to a convention center which will allow for much more space and much more flexible space.
I guess “hi” is a bit old fashion. :rolleyes:
Yeah I’m wondering too?! I’m envisioning training much like the traditional Japanese tea ceremonies.
Good one MikeRoy!
A lot of brewers noticed that distributors were intentionally roaming the trade show floor to stop and talk to them about getting their brands to distribute. Some brewers found it overwhelming, and hard to do what they wanted to do — which was seek out specific suppliers and talk to them about needs. Instead they were corralled by distributors shopping for brands.
there were also suppliers who didn’t have a booth who were roaming about trying to sell in the aisles. And lastly, some were there trying to sell various services to the suppliers who had booths — which took away their ability to chat with potential customers.
I think the idea is to set some guidelines that say; “hey, if you are in the tradeshow area, respect the purpose of the trade show. Unless you have a booth, do your selling somewhere else.”
I love some of the problems craft brewing is having. 😀
I love the roundtable idea. We went this year and definitely are seeking out those mentoring relationships.