CBP Connects Milwaukee Event Preview with Andrew Coplon

Episode Overview

Andrew Coplon joins us to answer some questions about the upcoming Craft Beer Professionals Connects Workshop in Milwaukee this June. Their event is very different from other conferences/expos, and we wanted to uncover what actually makes it so unique. Andrew answers a ton of questions and shares a little secret about the event that you won't find online. 

To register and learn more about CBP Connects, go to craftbeerprofessionals.org/cbp-connects

Episode Transcript

(AI-Generated, please forgive any typos)

Welcome to the Get Hoptimized podcast. This is your host, Chris, and this is a show all about marketing and growth in the craft beer industry. So as the beer season starts to warm up, so does the beer conference. Season. There's a lot of events that go on throughout the year, and one of them that is actually really special is the Craft Beer Professionals Connects Series.

And what this is, is it's a kind of series of workshops that happen across United States. They offer a more collaborative and educational experience for craft beer professionals. It's hosted by the craft beer professionals. Which is run by Mr. Andrew Copeland, a very good friend of ours. We're, uh, GI optimizes actually industry ambassadors, industry allies to C B P, and, uh, you know, we're, we're very grateful and happy to be part of that.

Um, it's an awesome network. Many of our listeners are part of that network, but, uh, maybe, you know, maybe you don't know, uh, but CBP puts on these connects a couple times a year, and they have one coming. In, uh, Milwaukee in June this year, and it, it's a very special kind of event. It's very different from other types of conferences that are kind of these big, large scale slideshow, vendor exposed space, kind of focused events.

This one's a little more intimate, a little more focused on networking and education. And we had Andrew on the podcast to talk to us. This event and give us a little preview on it. So I'm gonna share that conversation with you. Uh, if you are interested in the event, just go to craft beer professionals.org.

You can find all the information there. Uh, and, uh, there's still registrations open for it. You gotta go check that out. It's, it's definitely one that, uh, we recommend. We're also gonna be speaking at that event too, which will. Fun and exciting and all that stuff. So anyways, I will get you into the interview.

Enjoy. All right, what's up Andrew? Thanks for being here, dude, how are you Chris? I get so excited to see you, but I'm more excited to see you twice in person over the next few months. So this is like getting me even more excited for those upcoming events we have together. I know, man, we do so much conversing digitally that, uh, you know, it's gonna be nice to finally, you know, shake hands and say what's up and share a beer and all that kind of stuff.

So I am definitely pumped about it, especially for Milwaukee because this is a, a very cool event that you're putting on. Um, it's a little different than some of the other conferences that are out there, and I'm very excited to. Talking to you and asking you, like, you know, getting it straight from the horse's mouth as to what this event is and why we should attend and what's cool about it, and all those things.

So I am, I'm excited to, to have this. Thank you for giving us the time. Well appreciate the opportunity. Cool. So a couple of like just ground, uh, breaking, not really groundbreaking, I don't know, uh, baseline setting questions, uh, for those that don't know who you are, uh, give us a little background on you and what you do and, and where you're coming from.

Chris, thanks I, I got into the industry about seven years ago. I first launched a company called Secret Hopper, essentially a mystery shopping company for breweries to create more memorable and profitable tap room experiences. And at that point, it's crazy to think that almost seven years ago there was only 5,000 breweries.

And you know, now we're almost at that 10,000 mark. And so when I launched that company, I was actually shocked that there wasn't a place specifically on social media. People like you and I and those working at breweries to connect. So I simply launched craft beer professionals in 2017 as a Facebook community.

We're, at one point in time, I was the only member and now we've grown at the 16,000 people. So it's been a fun adventure so far. And you know, that's where I am. Such an active group too. You know, I'm, I'm a member of the group and I just see nothing but notifications coming from there and really honest and uh, like very value focused conversations as well.

So, a tip of the hat to you for, for making that happen and having it not be like this shill account, this shill group where it's like nothing but people trying to sell you life insurance and stuff, you know, uh, which is so common on Facebook group. So thank you for. I appreciate that. So, uh, CBC, craft Beer professionals, uh, not cbc, C B P, there's lots of CB abbreviations in the world we live in.

So I, I forgive you. CB p Connects is from what I understand, relatively new, uh, for, for you and the organization. Tell us about like, what this event is and, and kind of where it came. Yeah, so the story's pretty fun. So as we mentioned, you're a cbg. He almost had me make mistake there. It started as a Facebook community and the whole backbone of what we do is that community.

It's bringing people together. It's those conversations that we have, you know, with strangers on the internet that don't turn to strangers. They, they're turn into friends like you and I. You build these relationships for the shared love of seeing the success of our community. And we've grown over the past few years.

We've really changed what we've been doing. We started off just with the conversations, then we started adding weekly education. Then we added, you know, during the pandemic virtual conferences. And it was all our goal all along to bring education to everybody because not everybody is able to ex go to these larger events, whether it's in their in state or you know, a larger nation.

Type event. You know, even the two day a week beer tender deserves to be able to educate themselves and grow personally and professionally. So we've always tried to offer as much content for a hundred percent free as we can online. But in 2021, we hosted our first in-person happy hour like event. And it was at Jagged Mountain Brewery during the Crown Brewers Conference in Denver, and it was still kind of in the heart of the pandemic where things were still a little bit weird.

Chris, I had no idea how many people would show up for attracted professionals in-person event cuz we're on this weird little corner of the internet where, you know, everybody knows each other by that little circle by their name and their snarky comments they make sometimes. So we promoted this event and let me tell you.

For those two and a half, three hours we were at Jagged Mountain. It was uncomfortably crowded in the midst of ways, but one of the coolest things about it was there was so many people I had never met face-to-face, but it felt like we knew each other. So you wasn't like you were going into a room of strangers.

It was like there's people from the internet bringing together. It was a beautiful sense of community. And one of my favorite parts about it was, you know, looking at you and I, right now we're on Zoom. I don't know how tall you are. You could be six five or you could be five five. I have no idea. So it almost became a game when you saw someone, you're like, oh, you're taller than I expected, or, you're smaller than I expected.

And that was the first C B P event we did in person. And at that point in time, we were already planning our workshops. You know, there's something special about when you come together, there's nothing wrong with virtual content and. I love virtual content so much. I love the relationships I've built online, but when you can share a pint with someone across a table, there's something really special about that.

And then, you know, we've all seen so many presentations over the past few years, virtually. We've looked at enough slides, Chris, we have seen so many PowerPoint and Google slide presentations over the past few years. It was really our goal through C B P Connects to do something different. So, you know, like any good business model launched during the pandemic, I hate to even use this word.

We had to pan, we had to pivot, you know, we were supposed to launch an early 2022. We ended up swapping the order of our conferences and we launched with our first in-person workshop in June of 2022 in St. Louis. And the goals for our. Or to, you know, be a lot like we created our community online to really build relationships.

And when I talk about the goals for C B P Connects, it's somewhat twofold. The first really is a focus on the education side. You know, as I mentioned, we've seen so many slides over the past couple years, and often when you watch these presentations that have just the 30 slide deck, it's great. You see some really cool data.

But the real question is now what? What do I do? What sort of actionable strategy do I take away and apply to my. Right now, you know, we've all soaked in so much information, but I like having those action items where I can actually see results in my own business. So one of the goals that educational workshops we do for our event, and I really try my best to call it a workshop versus a conference, but I'm even guilty of making the same mistake because a workshop is much more interactive.

You know, it's not just gonna be a speaker on stage presenting for an hour. Then you're like, okay, well that was cool. It's going to be someone who's engag. With the audience at the exact same time, there's gonna be questions, they might have them do some sort of activity. And in 2022, I literally kicked off the workshop with a room of few hundred strangers.

I gave everybody a bunch of arts and crafts, supply supplies meant for children. And I had them getting teams and they built a brewery out of these kids, arts and craft supplies, and it was an awesome team building activity. It brought strangers together and the presentation of them on stage was fantastic.

It really broke the ice, I think Set the tone for the rest of the. And I hate to disappoint you, Chris, but we're not gonna be building breweries this time around, so you'll have to wait to see what we do to kind of break the ice in Milwaukee. But you know, having that interactive component is so important for me.

We don't want to just have you sit there all day long and just look at those slides. Like I mentioned, you are part of the event. You are part of the workshop. It's going to be hands on and you're going to leave with actionable takeaways. That way when you go back to your. You can implement them. So the education and the interactive component is one part of it.

And the other part is, you know, that event at Jogging Mountain in this was 2021. It was great to see all these people, but the room was so crowded. And if I had bumped into you, Chris, it would've been great to see you, but we would've been yelling at each other's ears. You couldn't really build a deep.

Relationship. So it's really tough in this virtual world, in this crowded tap room world to build meaningful relationships. So what we aim to do is bring people together, not through the love of education, also through just being fun together. There's three nightly receptions to showcase Milwaukee breweries, and they're not gonna be packed, crowded tap rooms.

You're gonna see the same people. Three nights in a row. So Chris, we're gonna hang out on night one. We're gonna get to know each other a little bit better on night two and night three. I'm gonna stay in touch with you if I'm not already that way I know I have someone I can bounce ideas off of. Someone I can learn from someone.

I can say, Hey look, I'm having these challenges. What do you think? And when we went into 2022, you know, this was all my vision. Everything I'm telling you today is pretty much what it was. Early on for C B P, no one had experienced. So what we had to do last year was tell people all the reasons to come and say, Hey, this is what it's going to be, but we haven't proven our model.

In 2022, I'm proud to say we did prove that model and everybody who came had a great time. And you know, I, I do like data and we ran all the numbers from all the reviews from all those who came. It's like a 9.1, three out of 10. Well, it tells me everybody had an awesome time, but it also tells me we have that wait, you know, it.

Seven or whatever it is to make it even better. So we're looking at this year as an opportunity to make it even more educational, even more relationship building, and I'm excited to have you come, honestly. So that's the long and the short of what we do there. But it's all about relationships, Chris. It truly is.

Yeah, man. Well, uh, thanks for that. That is an excellent preview of what this thing is. It helps me understand more about it and, you know, anybody who is, is not aware of what the conference is and what connects really is, you know, I think you've given it an excellent overview. You know, I, I also really love that the, there's the focus on relationships because in business, Most of what we, most of the decisions we make and who we are gonna work with is based on relationships.

You know, it's who you know, or you get a good recommendation from. Somebody you trust and then you know, if it's isn't a relationship that landed you into working with somebody, it's the relationship that keeps you there over time. You know, I mean, in my business, you know, we have to have a great relationship, a great working relationship with our clients and our clients' teams, and it takes that kind of like interpersonal communication to make it work.

You know, the focus on that from a conference level. But what I think is like, these are the people you're going to end up working with in some capacity, whether it be, you know, a mentorship or just a person to get a second opinion from. Or, Hey, you know, I found a new vendor, or I have found a new supplier, or whatever the case is, uh, which kind of makes me want to ask the question of.

Who comes to this event? Who should come? And, and what, what should you expect in terms of, of uh, who else is gonna be there? Yeah, really great question. Cause what you just described is all about trust. We want to work with those who we trust, we get along with, we simply want to have a beer with. That's how you build those relationships.

So what we've seen with regard to who comes to c p Connects, it's the brewery decision. That's who we're seeing coming. We're seeing the brewery owner slash head brewer. We're seeing people in the marketing finance tap room side. We're seeing people who want to connect with other people from across the country.

And when we hosted the event in St. Louis, our first one last year, we had attendees from 27 different states, and that blew my mind. We saw similar results for our Virginia event in the fall of last year. But there's people who want to build relationships who, people who've been in the comments section of C B P.

And wanna meet face to face. So they're coming to build those relationships, but they're also coming to better their business. And I think everybody who comes is people who are ready to engage. So often when we go to these conferences, we're kind of quiet. We're sitting maybe on our laptops, taking a few notes.

We're not really talking to a lot of people. The people who come here, Are ready to interact, they're ready to meet strangers, they're ready to be in awkward situations where you walk away learning something and you know a little bit of the content that we have. It skews a little bit towards the business side of things.

We definitely have some brewing focused content. We have an awesome panel I'm looking forward to in Milwaukee and alternative beverages, which is gonna be really, really intriguing. But a little bit more so skews towards the business side. So I think our audience definitely more so is the BR Brewery decision maker.

And often, like I mentioned, it could be the owner slash head brewer, but we're seeing people with more, some of the business roles be the ones that attend. Excellent. Excellent. Now, um, usually when you think conference, there's like some kind of big expo hall where there's vendors and stuff like that in there.

And from what I understand, you don't have something like that. Yes and no. Okay. Tell me about that. Everything takes, I'm not placed in one. There's not breakout sessions that we're not putting the brewers in one room. We're not putting the finance people in one room, not putting the marketing people in one room.

It is our goal for all 12 sessions and there's 12 sessions as part of our workshop to appeal to everyone and be applicable to everyone in that room no matter what hat you're wearing. So everyone is in the exact same room, and unlike when you go to some events and have a trade show, Hundreds or maybe even thousands of booths.

We have a very limited number of partners we work with who are there to support the industry and we, they're there to build relationships too. You know, we wanna make sure we're curating a trade show. And I really even don't like the word a trade show cuz trade show almost implies that it's selling. And there's something that one of our trade show partners said last year that I truly loved and shout out to Brad with Steel City Tap.

Brad is an amazing sales. He's one of the best. He's great. He knows how to break the eyes and he knows how to sell a product. But he came to me after the last event, after three days, and I think he had a really emotional and productive three days and he says, Andrew, you know what? For the first time ever, I felt like I wasn't selling something, but I was building relationships and you know, from the ultimate salesperson to say, That made me feel really good because that's exactly the experience that we want.

And he was there to build relationships. And you know what? Maybe they got in business, maybe they didn't, but he met people who trust him, who became his friend. Now he stays in contact with. And I think, you know, the experience that Brad had isn't, you know, unlike many, many, had those, someone who described last, uh, September's event as summer camp for craft.

It's when you get thrown into like a bunk with a lot of people you've never met before, but you leave with best friends that you've never knew you had. Excellent. You know, I, you're making me think of, you know, of all the expos that I've been to and, you know, I've been on both ends of it, you know, being.

You know, someone who's just attending to being a vendor in the space, you know, and the agencies that I've worked for in my past lives, uh, you know, you stand at this expo booth, this vendor booth, and you kind of got like the thirst eyes, you know, and you're looking at everybody passing by. You're like, oh, I wanna, I wanna talk to this person so I can sell them whatever the hell I'm selling them.

And, and you're walking through, you're trying to duck the thirst eyes because everybody's trying to pitch you something in the expo hall. Uh, it sounds like that isn't the case here, which, Extremely refreshing, honestly. Yeah. I mean, that's not the environment we're trying to create. I want those who may have those booths to also be building those breweries with you when we get started.

So they're going to be engaging, they're there to learn. They're dedicated to our industry. Excellent, excellent. So now networking is a big part of this, as you mentioned, the relationships, that's part of it. Um, part of networking. And you mentioned this like, you know, you're gonna have one room here. But you know, obviously networking is a big part of this thing and, and having those private conversations with somebody and, and talking about business or whatever the case is.

Uh, do you have, you know, certain dedicated time towards this type of activity or is there stuff going on before and after the expo or like what's there for, for networking purposes? Yeah, I mean, we open up every morning with time for people to gather, to have breakfast, to have that cup of coffee, to get to know your fellow crap, your professionals.

This is that dedicated time. In the mornings we have an extended lunch break where you can, you know, meet those who have the trade show booze, have a beer with people during lunch. Just have those conversations, whether it's talking about taking in what you just learned or sharing challenges, sharing things you're proud of, or just getting to know one another.

And one thing that I'm excited about, this is a really new development. So you're the first to hear it, like on. We're gonna also be, so the events phase we're having it at in Milwaukee is the old historic pap, um, pap brewery. So it's a historic, so cool. Dude, I'm pumped for this. It's an old historic brewery, so we're gonna add in the tour of the facility as part of the experience.

That's the spot that has like the, the Tiffany Glass or something like that, like up in the, up in the, oh, it's beautiful stuff. Haven't been, but I've heard tons about it. That's amazing. Yeah, it's gonna be a beautiful place. So times like this, you know, it's just times to get to know people in a casual setting, and that's what we're really aiming for.

And we, we do a happy hour in the afternoon where we crack some beers, thanks to a bunch of great local breweries in Wisconsin who are gonna be sharing them with us. But really it, the whole time is all about relationship. It's not having that dedicated time. It's like, okay, Chris, we can get to know each other right now.

You're going to be beginning to know those people next to you at your table and tables across from you the entire. So is this like a, a thing where you should show up and, you know, bring your notepad and your laptop and be like, ready to crank out the notes? Or is it more about trying to absorb what's going on around you?

Or is it kind of both? For, for whoever, however you want. I, I think it's a combination of both cuz everybody learns differently. Some people come into a room and just wanna listen and others have the laptops. Out taking notes. I know I'm an notorious note taker, whether I'm on a Zoom call like this, or you know, I'm somewhere in person.

I wanna make sure I'm not missing anything. But one thing we also do, for those who don't like taking notes, you're gonna get a massive email through the event with the slides and notes from every session that happened. So you're gonna have all the documents. Last session in Virginia, you know, you even received.

I think we have photo, we had a photographer there, Chris, thousand different shots. So you're gonna get some awesome new profile pics from this as well because, you know, we wanna make sure you're captured on this and we wanna make sure that the journey is something, you know, you don't forget. Excellent, excellent.

It's always good to have the, the photos from the event cuz you look your best, you're having fun, you're happy, and uh, it's good to share that stuff. Can you remember those memories? Yeah, it's good memories, man. I mean, I've seen some of the photos you've put out from previous events. It looks like everyone's having.

And enjoying their time. And, uh, you know, it definitely there's a vibe, uh, that's portrayed. So it, it looks fun for sure. Um, and educational and, uh, pro business, you know, I think that's something I think about when I go to these events. It's like, oh, you know, how do I get the ROI out of it? Because it's an expense to get up there, an expense to be there.

Obviously there's an expense. Registering, but you know, sometimes all it takes is that one relationship or that one bit of knowledge that helps you save costs and, and, you know, offset that expense. And, um, it sounds like you got so much packed in there that it's an easy no-brainer for roi. Yeah. And you nailed it.

You know, I want people to leave with that actual takeaway, whether it's one or 20 different things they know they need. Do it their business to see more success and, and that truly is the goal that you leave with something you can apply to make your brewery a more profitable, more successful business through all of this.

And you know, it's our goal also to make it as affordable and as accessible as possible. We've kept the registration. Extremely low. And that re registration includes, you know, you're gonna get breakfast, you're gonna get coffee, you're gonna get lunch, you're gonna get beers, you're gonna get three nights in a row.

You know, we're gonna be at Mob Craft, we're gonna be at Lakefront, we're gonna be at Good City Brewing. You're gonna have delicious beers on C B P, thanks to all of our wonderful partners. And you know, it's gonna be an action packed three days. Incredible. I mean, the bar tab alone is worth the cost a hundred percent.

You know, I don't use that as a selling point, but if you like drinking beer and having a good time and learning a little bit, or learning a lot, this is where you need to be at this gym. And it's in Milwaukee, man, which, you know, I lived in Wisconsin for like five years outta college, so I, I didn't live in, in Milwaukee.

I lived up up in the middle north part of the state. And uh, so we traveled through Milwaukee pretty frequently, especially if you're gonna Chicago or the airport or whatever. And Wisconsin beer is fantastic. The brewing community is awesome there, from what I remember. And, uh, you know, it's just a really cool place, especially in the summer.

Did you pick Milwaukee just because you, you like it or is there like a strategic reason, reason cuz it's kind of in the middle of the country? Or why Milwaukee for the, for the expo. So I'll walk through the prior two locations first to show you how we got to Milwaukee. So, CBP Connect was supposed to launch my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, and that was gonna be early 22.

22. It ended up getting moved to the fall, but I figured, you know what, let me do it in my backyard to start that way it's easy. Logistics speaking, you know, I can just work out the model, figure things out in my backyard, make it nice, convenient, and showcase my local crappier community cuz I. Uh, where I'm at in Norford, Virginia, we don't always get the love of some other places on the East Coast and even Virginia.

So I was excited to spotlight my hometown, St. Louis. I've been to St. Louis quite a few times in a past life, and they have quite the vibrant, and I'm gonna shout out to St. Louis. I'm wearing a perennial. Beer shirt today. Perennial Artist Nails is where we hosted our reception to kick things off in St.

Louis. But St. Louis has a lot of history too. I mean, yes, Anheuser Bush is is in the backyard there, but there's so much history in the beer scene in St. Louis while I was there. I had the opportunity to go in caverns below a brewery where they logged beer, and I'm doing a terrible job of remembering the name, but I'm very sorry on that one.

But it was an amazing experience. So we want to go into places where there's beer history and you can feel it. And we definitely did in St. Louis. With regard to Milwaukee, I think it's a lot like St. Louis. You have a lot of that beer history, you know, it's a major city, it's easy to get in and out of, and it's a city that hasn't seen a larger craft beer event in quite some time.

So we're really excited to showcase Wisconsin and over the years, like yourself, Chris, I have traveled through Wisconsin and every time I have a fantastic journey. And one of my last adventures, I think my only time actually in Milwaukee, I've been through other parts of Wisconsin before, but when I was at a restaurant in Milwaukee, I ordered dinner one time and the meal came with a regular PBR R, but also a PBR R Light.

I'm very excited to have a PBR light, which I did not know existed. It was like a baby blue can, it was amazing. So I'm really hoping to have one of those when I'm Milwaukee. Oh, yeah, man. I mean, you got the PBR there. I mean, you have the, obviously the, uh, the miller there, but there's so many craft. And, and I mean, real history there when it comes to, to beer.

I mean, the brewing industry ca in a lot of ways came out of that area. Uh, manufacturing is a big part of that state and that's probably why. But, um, what a fun place and doing it at the P V R. I know we mentioned this already, but like, Nice dude. Thumbs up. And you're gonna, that's amazing. You're gonna have the workshop there.

Then you're gonna walk across the street to the brew house and in suites where your room is. So you're not gonna have far to walk. And you know, we talk about the beer history in Milwaukee. You know, one of the sessions we have, the founder of Lakefront Brewing. Lakefront has been around. 30 years. We're excited to have the reception there, but I'm excited to learn from Russ too, how they've continued to innovate for 30 years.

So, you know, they were one of the early ones, early craft breweries in Milwaukee, but the scene has grown so much in that area. I'm so excited to visit. I'm Pom, dude, I'm, I'm very happy and grateful to be able to present during the, the, the conference, um, but also to attend. I can't wait to meet everybody.

Uh, is there still room or is this thing jam packed at this point, or can you still register before I mention that? Everybody know that Chris is gonna be giving a talk that I personally can't wait for it. It's gonna be called Max Capacity Marketing. So much to say, so little space, and I think it's something we can all relate to, whether you're brewery owner, type of manager, or even myself, we have so much we wanna put out to the world, not enough time and means to get it out there.

So I'm super pumped for your session, Chris, and to answer your question, There is spots still available. You know, spots are filling up pretty quickly at this point in time, but if you're interested in joining us in Milwaukee, I, I would encourage you to grab your spot right now to join a couple of hundred, a little bit more crappy professionals from across the country for a really immersive experience.

Yeah, I'm glad you said that, dude. I never wanna like talk myself up, you know, I'm like, oh yeah, I gotta thing, but I wasn't gonna let it not happen in this conversation. Yeah, dude, it's gonna be a good one, man. And like every single week, you know, I'm working on stuff, you know, we do so much marketing for brewers across the country, and it's like, I'm thinking about this presentation in June.

I'm like, okay, like this relates, this relates, I think it's gonna be a great thing to share. And, uh, I'm, I'm really excited to, to share some, some good tactics on this front. Yeah, what're tackling is something so many of us, I think, struggle with, and I'm not afraid to admit. It's definitely something I struggle with.

I'm excited to learn more strategies. Sweet. Sweet. And yeah, man, we got, uh, we got a, we got a little bit of time, but not much. You know, June is coming up. Uh, you know, so I'm gonna be locking in our travel plans for, for that as well. I mean, it's, it comes faster than you think, so, uh, you know, get registered and get it locked in so that you just know you're going and, uh, like I said, for nothing else, go to Wisconsin in the summer.

But this event is gonna be amazing. And, uh, Very different than other things that are out there. So you've done an excellent job setting that up and I can't wait to see, see what's in store for it. Um, yeah, man, I mean that's, that's really all I got, you know, I think, uh, this has been an excellent preview of, of the space and of the thing and of all the things.

Do you have anything else you wanna share with us about the, the conference or about anything you have going on, man. Yeah, I mean this is all about learning and building relationships, and it's great to have so much easily accessible on the internet, but to go back to it, there's truly something special about being in the same room and learning with your peers because when you're watching, even you or myself on the internet, you're watching it by yourself.

You know, sure, there could be other people watching it from their computer screens, but you're not able to break it down, talk about it with others, and just digest it and have those conversations. And I think it's so important we have these communications because so often we only speak to those. In our community where we live or in our region, you don't often have the ability to easily, you know, interact with others in similar roles in other parts of the country.

And the comment section is a great place to do that. But those are brief, you know, paragraphs of conversation. When you can have that conversation with someone face-to-face in real time, something special, you're gonna walk away learning something, you're gonna walk away with a friendship and you're gonna walk away.

You know, feeling like you've grown both personally, personally and professionally. And that's something that I love. You know, this growth is something, I think it's something that we all aim to do. We all wanna see greater success and opportunities like this aim to give you the means to be more successful.

I can't say it. Better than that. You know, I think that's the the way to, to wrap it up, you know, if you're interested in learning more information, you've gotta go to craft beer professionals.net, not.com net. We'll get there.org, actually chris org, or you can go to cbp connects.com. Then I imagine you'll drop a link in the show notes as well on this one, man, I thought it was.net, but it is.org.

Uh, well, you know what? The dot net's gonna take you there as well, but I'm used to saying.org, so, got it. You know what it was, we got 'em all. I put in.com the other day and didn't get me to where I wanted to go. And I was like, oh yeah, shit, it's, it's, it's dot uh, do something else. And then I found it.

Craft beer professionals, just Google it, you'll find it. And then you've got the, the Connects in the dropdown there for things that are coming up and, uh, get registered, get excited, and, uh, I look forward to, to seeing you there. Andrew, thanks again for, I can't wait to see you in Milwaukee this June 19th, the 21st.

Sounds good, cheers.