Craft Brewers Conference 2023 Preview with Ann Obenchain

Episode Overview

We get an insider preview of the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville this May. Ann Obenchain, Marketing & Communications Director for the Brewers Association, joins us. She answers questions about how to make the most of your conference experience, where to find the best Nashville hot chicken, and more. 

Learn more about CBC and register at www.craftbrewersconference.com

Episode Transcript

(AI-Generated, please forgive any typos)

  Howdy y'all, what is up? Welcome to the Get Optimized podcast. My name is Chris Overlay. I am your host, and this is a show all about marketing and growth within the craft beer industry, and how could we call ourselves a show about marketing and growth if we weren't talking about CBC in Nashville this year.

I've been wanting to do a preview episode on the Conference Craft Brewer's Conference in Nashville, and I manage to steal the time of Anne Ove and Chain. She is the marketing and communications director for the Brewers Association. She was very kind enough to join us to answer some questions. The conference.

So who better to ask than that? Right. She, uh, does a great job. I, I asked her stuff like, how do we make the most of our time during the conference? What kind of food should we eat? And a bunch of other stuff too. I think there's actually some uncovered tidbits about the conference and what they're doing with sustainability and community efforts that I think are also very interesting.

But I will not spoil it. I'll just get you into the interview with Anne. All right. Anne, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much for being here. How are you? I am doing great. Thanks for having me. I'm, I'm, it's pleasures all mine because, uh, this will be my first time going to, uh, cbc. So I get to learn a lot from you about what we can expect and I'm, I'm sure I have kind of a cool perspective to ask questions cuz it's all new to me.

Um, but maybe there's some folks out there that haven't been before or, uh, or maybe trying to just to learn a little bit more, maybe heard of it or they. Before it's been a long time or something like that. So this is gonna be a great episode of like, what is C B, C? What can we expect? And maybe some little uncovered nuggets about the conference that you might not gleam just by seeing the promos or the socials or the website.

But before we get into all that, let's learn about you. And so tell us about who you are, what you do for CBC and the expo and all that stuff. And let's start. All right. Well, I am Anne ocha and I'm the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Brewers Association, uh, for c bbc, and for all of the events that the BA does and all of our pieces, I oversee all of the marketing and the branding and the communications.

So, um, my team and I are the reason why your inboxes are filling up, uh, with, with news about n. Nice. Great job on those emails and they're on time. I see 'em come through and I'm like, all right, thank you for being on time and being relevant. and informational. There's links that work, , so you, I will tell our, our marketing team, they always love those links that work.

Yeah. You know, I can, I tell you how many times throughout my career I've like, sent emails and been like, oh my gosh, we, we attached the wrong link, and once you send the email, it's over. So then you gotta send the oops and, and all that. So, tip of the hat to, to those folks. Um, right on. How long have you been involved with C B C?

What did you do before that? Uh, so I've been at the Brewers Association since 2017 and, uh, I come to the brewing industry from the, uh, mostly the outdoor and ski industry as well as the entertainment industry. So, um, Brewers are very similar to outdoor retailers. You know, they're, they're, uh, innovative, you know, small businesses, scrappy risk takers, creative, uh, folks.

So I see a lot of, uh, parallels there and it's been really fun to, to be here and, and get to know, um, get to know a lot of the brewers and other folks in the brewing community. It's fantastic. I know there's like a seasonal component in there too. If you were doing the winter sports stuff, then, uh, you're certainly familiar with seasonal sales, which is certainly a factor, right?

Yes, that's right. Right on. Right on. And, and as we gear up for, for conference season, you know, we're all headed to to Nashville and I've never been to Nashville here. You're is fantastic and I'm told you had to eat all this barbecuing and all this stuff, but is this the first time the conference has ever happened in n.

It's the second time the conference Oh, wow. Has been in Nashville. So we first went to CBC in 2018, and, uh, Brewers and our members had such a great time. They're like, oh wow, Nashville is amazing. When can we come back? I mean, there was so much outpouring of enthusiasm to return to Nashville. Our events team worked with the city and usually we are.

well, we are five years, usually they're working seven, 10 years out with locations, and we were able to, um, get the 20, 23 dates. So we're excited to go back. You know, it's a, it's a, I like Nashville because it's, it's walkable. Yeah. Um, and you know, the, we're right at Music City, music City Center, uh, which is the convention center.

It's kind of in the shape of a guitar. So if you're walking around, you can try to figure out what part of the guitar you're in. Ah, um, But you know, it's really close by to a lot of, uh, the downtown, uh, scene in Nashville. Um, Nashville also is home to a, a budding brewing scene, so we're always excited to highlight the brewing scene in Nashville, um, as well.

Yeah, those local breweries gotta be pumped. They're like, all these craft beer people are gonna be here, we're gonna make it that weekend for sure. That whole week. Uh, so they gotta be excited. . Yeah. And, and it's really an opportunity for them to roll out their red carpets to you when you're visiting and, and ha, you know, make a point to go visit a few of 'em while you're there.

Oh, that's awesome. Um, I hear that about Nashville's is that it's such a cool place to just hop around and, and walk around and do stuff. Um, you know, it's, it's a little, uh, daunting almost cuz there's just like so many things and I'm glad you brought up that it's walkable. Cause one of the questions I had for you was like, okay, like if I'm going to the conference, like I, I ended up getting a hotel that's like, like right next to the conference.

So like, strategically, I'm like, I don't have to go very far. You know, you're saying that it's pretty walkable in other places too, so if you end up in there in one hotel, you can jump around and like, I'm not really familiar with their Ubers and stuff like that there and cabs and buses or any of that kind of thing.

Yeah, there's, uh, a great Uber system, which I would recommend if you're not, uh, if you're not walking from downtown but you, and then you can go out to the river walk. There's a really nice, um, Pathway if you'd like to get a little exercise and, um, stretch your legs outdoors. Um, close by also is the Ryman Auditorium, so if you wanna squeeze in some entertainment, there's, uh, I think I looked and I saw, um, John Cougar, not John Cougar Mellencamp, it's still the same guy, but he dropped the Melon camp.

He's playing, uh, one night and Trevor Noah's playing another night. So, um, there's that, and then there's plenty of. Bars with live music. I mean, this is where live music comes from mean so many folks are getting their start in music. So if you love music, you love beer, we know you love beer cause you're coming to the Craft Brewers conference, but it's an opportunity to go out and enjoy yourself.

I haven't told that. There's like two things you gotta do in Nashville. You gotta go to a honkytonk and then you gotta eat some barbecue. Um, and I promise I'm gonna ask about the conference, but I'm just gonna pick your brain cause you, you've been there. Uh, do you have any recommendations on that front of, of a barbecue or a honky tonk to go check out?

You know, I don't. And, and then there's one other thing in Nashville that Nashville is famous for and it is hot chicken. Ah, yeah, yeah, you're right. Everyone does a Nashville hot chick, super spicy, hot chicken. Um, and that is one of theirs, uh, evidently was accident accidentally created by a woman seeking revenge, and, uh, thought her husband was cheating on her.

She cooked the super hot chicken and he actually loved it. Um, but there's, there's some fun stuff, but, uh, princess Hot Chicken is probably the most well-known hot chicken restaurant, um, and the original. And then there's also, um, what's called the Honky Tonk Highway in Nashville. So you can pretty much just, it's a, it's a row of venues pumping live music, and that's within walking distance of the convention.

There we go. You've solved it for me. Hot chicken and, uh, honky-tonk row. Perfect. Okay, so let's talk about the conference because you know, there's so many cool things going on and like looking at the website, there is so much to do. You've got all these educational tracks that are part of this. You've got networking events including like author signings and taper room.

Like after, like I almost call them after parties. I'm in Vegas and like after parties are the big, are the thing. Mm-hmm. . Um, but they're really like networking hosted. There's so much to do. How do you make the most of this experience, you know, as you're going there, is there any tricks of the trade or, or methods that you can, uh, apply to make sure that you get the most bang for your time in, in at the conference?

That's a great question. If I was coming to, uh, to CBC for the first time, I think the first thing I would do is we have an app that'll be available for, uh, about a few weeks ahead of the conference. It's free, you just download it, and that's gonna have, um, basically the website right at your fingertips.

But then you can, you can start to make a plan and build out your own schedule. Um, if you're a first timer. on Sunday, we have a first time attendee meetup and I. Absolutely recommend you go and you can meet your fellow newbies and you can also meet, um, some folks that have been there many, many years and they're there to answer all the questions, you know, including where do I get hot chicken?

Where are the restrooms? What should I see? You know, there's all kinds of things that you can do. Um, and then go to the welcome reception. And that is outside. Uh, just across the street we'll have live music and we really do, we have food and beer, and it's a really fun thing to do. So when you actually start the conference the next day, um, first don't miss the general session.

That is the kickoff with our chief Econom economist Bart Watson, and he has. Sharing the latest info, like where is craft bird going, what's happening? And he does an amazing job, and it's only info that you can get at cbc. We also will be awarding our industry awards at that. So we get to celebrate our community.

And so we have four awards. We have the BA recognition award, we have the Mentor of the year. Cause we have this whole mentorship program to help people get involved in the brewing community. We have the defense of the Industry award, so who's out there on the front lines fighting for legislation, and then we have the Russell Sheer Award, which is Excellence in Brewing.

So it's a, it's a fun time to kick off and really celebrate some individuals that are, um, really, really contributing to the community. Um, from there, and maybe the night before, you might wanna check. , I would encourage you to think about what are you there to learn, because we have eight different tracks of education.

So if you're a brewer, um, you may want to. Look at brewing operations and beer styles or potentially quality in, in ingredients where you can really dive into learning more about that or refining it if you're a marketing person. We have a whole track on sales distribution and marketing, and that ranges from.

You know, how do, how are we gonna attract Gen Z when they're old enough to drink and get us, get them into the brewery? To, what do you need for your website? You know, C B C is for breweries at all stages of their, of their business path. So whether you're a brewery and planning, or you are. Micro brewery that's distributing around the country.

We try to have information for breweries of all sizes. And the, um, each session is, um, vetted and approved by your peers. So we have. A committee of brewers looking at these. So these are curated and selected by your peers as well. So it's a really great opportunity, um, to do that. So I would start by kind of deciding, you know, if you're a taproom or a brew hub, you might wanna look at that track if you wanna learn more.

If you're an owner, we have a business and leadership track. So I would start there and then you can, then you can pick and then add those to your app and, and decide from. I love that you guys have an app, by the way, because I've used apps for other conferences and it makes things so much easier. It's like I just pull this thing up, I'm like, oh yeah, I gotta be over in ballroom B right now cuz I'm trying to see this one thing.

Or maybe I'll move stuff around. That day based on what I'm hearing about different ex different, you know, presentations or, you know, that kind of stuff. And you guys really have done a great job vetting. I, I actually, I'm presenting at the conference as well, and like, so I personally went through this vetting process to even get on the list.

And then the process leading up to it has been like, I've never had something like this happen. Usually as a, as a speaker, you just submit your stuff and they're like, okay. We'll see you there. Y'all are like making sure we're on point with this stuff. It's like, submit your outline, submit your slides, and then you gotta revise and submit it again.

So it's like you guys are taking a lot of, uh, a lot of care in curating this content to make sure that it's valuable is my assumption here. And I think that's what I'm hearing from you as well. So another tip of the hat to you on that, but if you really mean it when you say you're writing these folks and making sure the content's.

Yeah. No, exactly right. And, and, and that those same committees are, are vetting and providing you with your feedback. So, um, n you know, it's an expense. We are honored that people are choosing to take time out of their brewery to come to, uh, C B C, and we wanna make sure that it is valuable for everybody.

Absolutely. Something else that's, uh, going on there is you have a big exhibition hall mm-hmm. and like I looked at your vendor list and like, oh, you, there is a ton of vendors there. Um, I I wanted to ask you like, obviously there's like vendors at all kinds of different conferences and things like that, but like, is there anything that makes your exhibition call exhibition hall special?

And part two of the question is like, how much business goes down? at this conference, you know, is this where the deals happen and the shaking of a hands, uh, goes on at CBC or, or what are your thoughts on that? Uh, great questions. You know, we have a over 600 exhibitors that are expected to be on the floor, and I like to call it the Grain to Glass Shopping Mall, right?

So it's really everything from suppliers, uh, to. , um, glassware, you know, to everything you need to run, everything you need to run your brewery, everything you need to can merchandise to dress your staff merchandise to sell stools, you know, whatever you need is there. So it's really a one stop shopping mall for you and for you to get ideas.

You know, there's also technology providers, so, um, you know, a lot of the. Point of sale databases or just anything that you might be running there. You can, you can talk to these vendors and troubleshoot and find things out. Um, I don't have a number for you on how much business is being sold, but it's a really cool place to go.

And, uh, one other thing I have, you cannot miss, um, the. Queen and the hop smell, like, you know, we have hops out. You can come and smell and, and sample those. Um, it, so it's, it's a sensory too. It's not just visual, it's, it's all the senses, uh, there as well. So, um, I think it's fun, you know, canning lines, if you wanna, if you need a canning line, if you wanna see the latest in packaging, you know, that is on the forefront of change right now, you know?

Yeah. With aluminum or, or digital printing, you know, there's some new digital printing that's going on, so, um, lots of things either for window shoppers or if you, uh, need to buy, so, . No, I think that's great because, um, You can only see so much when you're looking at someone's website or obviously you can't see anything every talking over the phone unless you're doing like a Zoom or something like that.

But, um, you know, with, with so many people in so many different locations, like actually holding one of these cans or seeing the digital print in a, in an actual physical product or seeing something being demoed live. Is a totally different experience than trying to figure that out on the internet, you know?

Um, so tons and tons of value of actually seeing it, and I suspect there's probably a lot of business that goes on. Uh, there are, at least the relationships get built, and that's what I'm excited about too, which is huge. Um, can you still, is there still room for exhibitors if, if they're trying to sign up?

You guys still have space or are you guys stacked? We are stacked, but it never hurts to put yourself on the wait list. There you go. You'll find a table in the corner for him. . . No, that's cool. Cool. What about registrations? Can you still, uh, can you still sign up to, to go to the conference? Absolutely. You can still sign up to go to the conference.

So, uh, we have Regis, we'll, we'll take onsite registrations as well. Nice. Bring it on. Come check it out. Uh, some other stuff that you're doing that I think is cool that maybe people don't, uh, know about or they haven't found on the website or whatnot, is you're actually doing some really cool community projects.

You've got mm-hmm. , the thing with housing insecurity that you're doing, you got some sustainability stuff. Can you tell us a little bit about that, like with these different community projects? Yeah. So when we were in Minneapolis last year, we really started the concept of. Giving back to the community that we're in.

Um, you know, cuz we're trying to improve our own brewering community, but how can we actually give back to the community that we are in? And um, this year we have a, a project to help fight, um, housing insecurity and that we're doing in conjunction with the Community resource center and it's providing.

What we're going, what attendees are gonna do is they can stop by anytime. Like they have a little downtime, they can use that downtime to lift somebody else up. Right? And so they can stop by and they're going to be building kits and um, they could be either, um, hygiene kits. Or, um, cleaning kits for families.

So there's four different kinds of kits. We hope to at least build 3000 of these, um, to benefit individuals and families in Middle Tennessee. . That's fantastic. You know, I saw that there was a community effort and usually when you see that the mind goes, oh yeah, we're just raising some money. But then when you open up that section of the site, it's like there's all sorts of kits that you're building in there.

I saw one that's like a period preparation kit, which is so thoughtful. Um, which, you know, I don't think a lot of people think of that as something that is needed by folks and. , uh, so awesome that you guys are putting that together for, for these folks and making it a good cause. Uh, so we get together, we can talk about beer, but we're trying to help folks too.

So, and if you're not coming to cbc, for your listeners not coming to cbc, uh, we are taking donations so they could go online in the community. Engagement project webpage and make any kind of donation, and that's gonna help underwrite the kit. So we currently have the budget to build 3000, but if people wanna contribute, Willie will build more money works.

Just had to do a little plug there. So thank you for that opportunity. No, it's, I'll plug something like that so you can feel good. Even if you can't make it to Tennessee. Throw some dollars in there and help some, some folks out every, every little bit. Matters. Uh, for sure. Right on. So we talked about a lot of stuff that is going on at the event.

You've done a great job of talking about some of these different educational tracks, the exhibitors that are gonna be there, the community events, there are community support, things that you got going on. What else are we missing? Is there anything undercover that, uh, that maybe you wouldn't gleam from looking at the promo material that folks gotta look out for?

We have recovered all the bases. Oh gosh. There's, there's a lot of things, you know, there's uh, some little things like, uh, we just added last week, some C P R and a e d training and certification. So, um, thinking back to the last football season, you know, it's like, oh yeah, incidents can happen at any time.

So, uh, if you're, it's $20 add-on, but if you wanna come in and get certified and, and learn how to be trained with C P R or using the a e D machines and actually talk to vendors about putting those in your brewery, uh, that is something we added. 20 bucks is so worth it too. Get the certification, you'll get it there, done, and then, uh, you know, you get to learn about that and then, you know, have it in your brewery.

What a great addition for sure. Um, other things, gosh, so many things. I'm just trying to think. One thing that the technical committee will be, um, having a seminar on, but it falls into your question earlier about sustainability is. providing the, the information on a recent water risk assessment for some of our breweries.

So water risk can be for scarcity or it can be quality around the us. And they took a, um, measurement with breweries, used this assessment tool based on city water, based on potential drought, based on water. And they're gonna be talking about that, how to use that tool and roll that out so that members can look up their brewery where they are and start to make a five year plan based on potential threats to the water or lack of threat.

You know, there's a few places where. Where water is, um, plentiful in, in good shape, but most places, you know, just being aware of how we're using our resources is important and being able to have a successful business plan around that is as well. . Absolutely. You know, I, speaking from personal experience, I live in Las Vegas and you know, we're always talking about water here and, uh, the businesses that take note of that and are, uh, aware of it, you know, I think customers appreciate that.

I think any business in California is probably the same. Mm-hmm. situation anywhere in the desert, but, I love what you said too about, it's also, it's not necessarily lack of water, but quality of water too. And you think about other situations where there's, you know, issues with rivers that break pipes and things like that.

And now you've got an issue that you've gotta deal with. And, uh, people wanna be informed about that stuff. We're more aware as a society than we've ever been on these kind of topics. . So being prepared to answer those questions and who knows, you could marketing spin that too. I'm a marketing guy, so I'm like, yeah, you don't get the thing, learn about it and then tell everybody about it what you know and what you're doing because it's, it's a good thing.

So that's awesome you guys providing that too. Yeah. And then one thing for our, um, HR professionals. So if you have a HR team that's looking to grow and, and looking to grow their experience as an HR professional, we were just certified by the, um, I'm, I was gonna say shrm, the Society for Human Resource Management.

So for those HR professionals that are coming to cbc, some of our classes, they can actually get credit. Their higher education or their certification in, in that process as well. Nice. So something for everybody. Something for everybody. Nice. What are you gonna be doing running around, uh, the conference? I am, I'm hoping to spend time chatting with brewery brewers.

Find you somewhere to have a beer on the floor. See how your experience is going. just take in, you know, take in everything. It's, it's one of the few times our whole community gets together and just draw some energy out of that and enjoy myself and I have to go find some hot chicken. Yeah. And uh, and then one other thing, as we get closer to the event, you're saying, how do I find my way around or know what's going on?

Oh, sure. Um, on our, on our website and on the, on the app, we'll have, Section called week events. And you can see by evening, these are non Brewers Association events that are happening in the area, whether at a brewery, um, or at another venue. Um, so lots of things there. There's um, some cerone tasting and exams.

There's. Beer and barbecue. There's one for you right there. There's all kinds of different things that you can, um, go and check out. There's a arm wrestling, uh, as well. Yeah, let's do it. You're gonna win that one, right? You're competing. No, no, no. I, I might watch, I don't know. We'll see what my schedule looks like.

Yeah. Nice. That's fantastic. Um, it's awesome you guys are listing those too, cuz it, you know, it's just adds to the community. There's so much to do, it sounds like. And, uh, I'll be pumped to, to have a beer with you over there on the floor. Check it out and, uh, chat about the conference. Speaking of beer, I try to ask this if everybody that comes on the show, and I almost always remember, but I gotta ask you is, is, you know, what are you reaching for these days?

Here it is. It's like March, April time. Spring is on the horizon. , are you a seasonal beer drinker person, or, or do you have a go-to that you, uh, always stick with? I am a seasonal, uh, seasonal beer person, and, and here in, in Boulder, Colorado, we can have all four seasons in a day, . So, but I try to stick to the four seasons throughout the 12 months of the year.

So right now it's sunny and, and my, um, my brain is turning to summer in a glass. I'm thinking about loggers, I'm thinking about rattle. and, uh, there's a couple really great breweries here in Boulder. That and in Longmont that I, I'd love to go to. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah, I haven't, um, even thought about Rattler, uh, so I'm gonna have to put that one on my radar as well.

Loggers as well. Um, pilsner for me, man, if it's, it's starting to get warmer, let's bust out the pills and malts and, and get some bruises going for that way. Um, right on. So I, I'm pumped. I'm super excited for C B C. I can't wait to. , I know everybody that's going is pumped about. If you're not going yet, you should consider it.

At least go onto the website. Where do people go to find out more and, and get signed up? Uh, people can go to craft brewers conference.com to register and find out more, see what they're missing, and they can take a look. There's even a list of look who's coming. So if you see your friend on there and you wanna see your friend go online and grab a, grab a registration.

Nice craft brewer conference.com and, uh, I, I mean, cbc, if you just CBC Nashville, you're gonna find it anywhere. Um, as well. That's how I found, it's how I always swap. So good old Googles and I very much so appreciate the time. Thank you for, for giving it to us and I look forward to meeting you at the, at the conference.

Thank you. Cheers. Cheers.