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.