10:00-11:00am Multiculturalism on Tap: New Orleans as a Model for Community Engagement
Angi Thomas (Being Black in Craft), Ari Ballard (Collective Vibration), Jon Renthrope (Cajun Fire Brewing Company), Shalanda Jackson (Urban South Brewery)
11:00am-12:00pm Taproom Revenue Lab: New Models Beyond Pint Sales
Panelists: Evan Blum (BrewedAt), Rich Bloomfield (Funkytown Brewing), Rob Day (Barrel One Collective)
Moderator: Victoria Howell (MoMac Brewing Company/Nansemond Brewing Station)
Growth does not come from doing more of the same. It comes from reaching people who are not already walking through your doors.
In this panel, we’ll hear from leaders bringing different perspectives to the table, including a Gen Z voice, a Black-owned brewery owner, and an operator running multiple taprooms across diverse markets. Together, they’ll share how they are building relevance, earning trust, and creating experiences that resonate beyond the traditional craft beer audience.
This conversation will focus on what it actually takes to expand your audience today. From programming and product decisions to representation, partnerships, and community engagement, you’ll hear real examples of what is working, what is not, and how breweries are intentionally broadening who feels welcome in their spaces.
Learning Objectives:
Identify practical ways to make your brewery more welcoming and relevant to audiences who may not currently see themselves in your space
Learn how to align product mix, programming, and messaging with the values and expectations of emerging consumers without alienating your core audience
Understand how operators in different markets approach growth across multiple locations and diverse communities
Walk away with specific strategies you can test to expand reach, increase visit frequency, and build long term loyalty with new audiences
Evan Blum is a Gen Z entrepreneur and the Founder of BrewedAt, a media & marketing agency redefining how craft brands connect with younger consumers. With over six years of experience in the beverage industry, Evan began his career in Supply Chain at Nestlé in 2020, gaining firsthand insight into how large-scale operations drive consumer products to market. Fueled by a passion for local business, marketing, and craft beer, he founded BrewedAt in 2023 to help brands authentically engage Gen Z audiences through strategic digital media. Evan brings a uniquely generational perspective to every campaign, meeting today’s consumers where they are.
Rich Bloomfield is the co-founder and CEO of Funkytown Brewery, a leading Black-owned craft beer brand based in Chicago. Since its 2021 launch, Funkytown has earned national recognition, including the Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream Award, VinePair Brewery of the Year, and a spot on Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40. Under Rich’s leadership, the brewery has expanded across Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, ranking among the top 25% of Illinois breweries by volume and the 5th largest Black-owned brewery in the U.S. He also serves on the boards of the National Black Brewer’s Association (NB2A), the FAME Center, and the Beer Culture Center, where he continues to champion the intersection of craft beer, culture, and community.
Rob Day is a marketing leader with two decades of experience, currently serving as the VP of Marketing for Barrel One Collective, the 13th largest craft brewing group in the U.S. In addition to his work outside of beer, Rob has held marketing leadership roles at Lord Hobo, Jack’s Abby, and now at Barrel One. Beyond his role at Barrel One, Rob is an active member of the BA PRM Committee and contributed to mentorships with the BA and Kraft Kulture. Rob is a proud dad to a cool, brewery-going toddler and always down to talk food, drink and business.
Victoria Howell is a brewery owner and Director of Operations with extensive experience in the craft beverage and hospitality industry. She is known for building high-performing teams, fostering inclusive workplace cultures, and driving community-focused business growth. Wearing many hats daily, Victoria oversees operations, mentors staff, and tackles challenges with a practical, people-first leadership style. Outside of work, she’s passionate about supporting her local community and believes the best conversations—and ideas—often happen around a shared table and a good beer.
finding money in your brewery through margins, efficiencies, and smarter decisions
Panelists: Chris Farmand (Small Batch Standard), Mike Corneille (Pryes Brewing), Tim Wilson (Caboose Brewing)
Moderator: Adam Howe (GoTab)
Every dollar matters right now. From getting your team more confident selling to-go beer to tightening up production and operating costs, small decisions can have a real impact on the bottom line. In this panel conversation, financial experts from across the industry will share where breweries can grow revenue, reduce costs, and protect margins through smarter, more intentional choices. The focus is not theory. You’ll hear practical, real-world examples of how breweries are tightening operations, improving efficiency, and making clearer financial decisions across all areas of your business. Attendees will leave with ideas you can actually test, measure, and apply in your own brewery.
Learning Objectives:
Identify practical ways to increase revenue and control costs across different areas of your brewery.
Learn how to spot inefficiencies and make small operational changes that improve profitability.
Understand which financial metrics matter most and how to use them to make clearer, more confident day-to-day decisions.
Adam Howe is a hospitality and brewery operations leader with more than 20 years in the service industry and over a decade dedicated to craft beer. He has held leadership roles with Pyramid Brewing and North American Breweries, Drake’s Brewing, Upland Brewing, and Taxman Brewing — overseeing multi-location operations, flagship management, and expansion into new markets.
In his current role as Director of Product Enablement at GoTab, Adam partners with craft breweries, taprooms, and hospitality venues to modernize operations, elevate guest experiences, and unlock new revenue through flexible point-of-sale and engagement technology.
Adam regularly speaks on experiential marketing, brewery-forward tech adoption, and guest-centric service models that help breweries thrive in evolving markets. His work champions the idea that great beer and great hospitality go hand in hand — creating memorable moments that keep guests coming back.
Chris Farmand got his start in 2010 helping a new brewery build its back-office systems, a firsthand look at how complex running a brewery can be. That experience led him to found Small Batch Standard. He’s worked with more than 200 breweries, helping them uncover profit through outsourced accounting, tax compliance, and benchmark consulting. Chris holds a BS in Business Finance from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of North Florida, and is an active member of both the AICPA and FICPA.
Mike Corneille is the president and co-founder of Pryes Brewing Company in Minneapolis. Since co-founding Pryes, he has helped build it into one of the largest taprooms and the largest self-distributed brewery in Minnesota, with a focus on running a high-volume, community-driven taproom. Pryes has expanded beyond beer with a full food program, large outdoor concerts, and private events and catering that drive repeat visits and deeper brand connections. Mike also serves as president of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Legislative Committee, where he works on policy issues that impact craft breweries and the future of the industry.
Tim Wilson’s career in craft beer began about 10 years ago in Virginia, though he is originally from New Orleans. He joined the military in 2005, which gave him the opportunity to travel across the United States and abroad. After his military service, he attended the Culinary Institute of America, followed by Cornell’s hospitality program. Since then, he has found his niche in breweries and hopes to continue in the industry for years to come.
Crowdsourced: A Collaborative Hour of Problem Solving
CBP Connects attendees continually list the ability to connect and learn from others as a highlight from our workshops. We are excited to host a session dedicated to learning from your peers. In this session, we will field questions from you and then develop the best solutions together. Plan to walk away with strategies to problems many of us are facing and best practices to improve brewery operations. Together, we can grow stronger.
Learning Objectives:
Collaborate with your peers to solve problems faced by other Craft Beer Professionals
Discover new strategies and solutions to help you see greater success at your brewery
Build new relationships that you can reach out to with future questions
Building Strong Brewery Teams and Future Leaders
Panelists: Brittany Waiss (KettleHouse Brewing Co.), Courtney Landry (Urban South Brewery), Jake Keyes (Skydance Brewing)
Moderator: Amy Mast (Craft Leadership)
Your beer is only as strong as the team behind it. Every role in the brewery matters, and success comes from people doing their jobs well while also helping others succeed. In this session, we’ll talk about how to break down walls between departments so everyone is pulling in the same direction. We’ll cover the importance of accountability, setting clear expectations, and giving your staff the tools they need to thrive. You’ll also learn how to recognize future leaders, create opportunities to promote from within, and build a culture that keeps talented people engaged for the long haul.
Learning Objectives:
Balance individual performance with supporting your team
Improve communication and cooperation across roles in the brewery
Build accountability into daily work
Identify and grow future leaders from within your staff
Strengthen retention by setting expectations and keeping people engaged
Amy Mast is an Ohio-based consultant specializing in building high-functioning teams and fostering collaboration within the brewery industry. With a passion for the good-hearted nature of brewery professionals, their entrepreneurial spirit, and their commitment to local communities, Amy brings a unique blend of expertise to enhance brewery operations. She is dedicated to contributing to the success and growth of each brewery by elevating team strengths and exposing and improving blindspots.
Brittany Waiss, ACC, SHRM-SCP, PHR, has embraced being an HR and organizational development nerd. She has a depth of experience across various industries. In 2017, she joined KettleHouse Brewing Co. merging her passion for beer and HR strategy, and following in the footsteps of her grandfather and father as a third generation “beerman.” Brittany has led the charge to develop and optimize HR strategy as the company grows. In addition, she offers leadership coaching and consulting through her company, Expedition Coaching and Consulting. When not practicing HR or talking beer, you can usually find her playing in the mountains.Building Strong Brewery Teams and Future Leaders
Courtney Landry is part owner and the Director of Human Resources at Urban South Brewery, Louisiana’s second largest craft brewery, as well as Perfect Plain Brewery in Pensacola, FL. Between the two cities, Courtney oversees a staff of 90. Prior to joining her husband in the family business, Courtney was a Teach For America corps member, staff member, and public school administrator for more than a decade. She is most proud of bringing a continual focus on staff culture and retention to Urban South and Perfect Plain. She is the mother of 4 children.
Jake Keyes graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in journalism and spent ten years working in tribal gaming before founding Skydance Brewing in 2018. The brewery began in a co-op space and opened its own location in October 2021. In 2023, Keyes was elected Chairman of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma for a three-year term. His recent honors include being named one of Native Business Magazine’s Top 50 Native Entrepreneurs, recognized among the OKC Metro’s Most Influential by 405 Business Magazine, and Skydance being selected as one of Hop Culture Magazine’s Top 12 New Breweries in America in 2021.
Tap Talks: 3 18-minute sessions on critical topics
Ales over Algorithms!
Ross Stensrud (TapWyse)
Thousands of years ago, the taproom gave birth to modern society! Today the taproom is absolutely critical to the future of humankind. In a world riddled with algorithms and artificial intelligence, people need human to human connection now more than at any point in our short history on this planet. How can the taproom co-exist with technology, compete with mega-corps and win with our backs against the wall? Here’s why Craft Beer will come out on top and how to take part in the greatest underdog story ever told.
New NA Opportunities, New Audiences
Dawn Kirchner (Full Circle Brewgarden)
Craft beer, the reason we’re here! It’s our love and the foundation of our businesses. But how can we adapt to changing trends without sacrificing the passion that brought us to the industry? Find out how to expand your menus, minus the alcohol, to include new tastes, preferences, and dietary restrictions, and perhaps gain a few new fans in the process.
Lovin’ on Local: Keeping Consumers Close
Kate Conway (Pickett Brewing)
This Tap Talk will use Maryland as a case study for emphasizing the choice and impact of drinking local products in restaurants, bottle shops, events and beyond. Key takeaways will include data points that support choosing local products, possibilities for funding to grow initiatives that promote local craft and working with state guilds to strengthen the power of this message.
Taproom Revenue Lab: New Models Beyond Pint Sales
Panelists: Cory Smith (Twin Oast Brewing), Leah Jensen (Parleaux Beer Lab), Tom Paynter (No Label Brewing Co.)
A few years ago, it was arguably just about the beer. Today, taprooms have grown into something much bigger: restaurants, community gathering spaces, event venues, and producers of far more than one product. The breweries seeing real stability aren’t relying on one revenue source, they’re stacking them. From memberships and mug clubs to run clubs, collabs, sold out merch programs, and taproom experiences that create true regulars, these operators have turned ideas into repeatable revenue they can count on. This panel digs into the systems behind those wins including how they structure offers, price them, and decide what’s worth continuing. If you’re looking to build a stronger business model and get more out of the relationships you’re already creating, this panel will give you real examples, fresh ideas, and approaches you can test the moment you get home.
Learning Objectives:
Learn how to identify and test new revenue ideas without overextending your team or drifting from your core taproom experience.
Understand how successful breweries price, package, and promote programs like memberships, events, partnerships, and limited releases so they generate repeatable results.
Walk away with a simple framework to measure performance and decide which revenue streams should scale, which need refining, and which aren’t worth continuing.
Cory Smith is a Co-Founder of Twin Oast Brewing, located on Catawba Island, Ohio. What began as a small dream on his family’s 60-acre farm has grown into a destination brewery known for great beer, beautiful views, and authentic experiences. Cory brings a mix of creativity and practicality to his work, always focused on crafting memorable moments that keep guests coming back.
Leah Jensen is the Founder & Owner of Parleaux Beer Lab, a small neighborhood-based brewery & taproom in Bywater New Orleans, overseeing the taproom and business aspects. Parleaux’s ethos is equal parts quality, innovative beer program and customer experience, creating a welcoming space for all to gather and exchange social capital. Leah previously had a 15 year career in public health, and serves as past vice-president and board member of the Louisiana Craft Brewers Guild. She’s lived in New Orleans for 20+ years, and when not in the brewery their family enjoys the rich and vibrant culture on NOLA streets.
Tom Paynter is the co-owner and marketing director of No Label Brewing Co. in Katy, Texas, where he has helped redefine what a taproom can be. A former co-host of ESPN’s Drink of Ages radio show, Tom brings storytelling and culture to the forefront of craft beer. Under his leadership, No Label earned back-to-back Platinum Craft Beer Marketing Awards in 2024 and 2025 for Coolest Taproom. Through mug clubs, run clubs, high-demand merchandise programs, and deep community partnerships—all anchored by marketing moments that drive traffic, such as the statewide Month of Murkey beer collaboration. He speaks on taproom strategy and modern revenue models.
Multiculturalism on Tap: New Orleans as a Model for Community Engagement
Angi Thomas (Being Black in Craft), Ari Ballard (Collective Vibration), Jon Renthrope (Cajun Fire Brewing Company), Shalanda Jackson (Urban South Brewery)
This panel will explore the vibrant cultural tapestry of New Orleans and how it serves as a visionary blueprint for impactful community engagement in the craft brewing industry. Led by the Being Black in Craft’s Angi Thomas, and local cultural ambassadors from Cajun Fire Brewing Company, Bywater Brew Pub, and the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund, this conversation will delve into the essence of culture, the vital distinctions between cultural appreciation and appropriation, and the profound ways to genuinely connect with diverse communities. This session will illuminate the power of culturally aware marketing, inclusive event planning, and community outreach as essential tools for fostering deep and meaningful relationships within local neighborhoods.
Learning Objectives
Engagement Strategies: Ignite creativity by developing and implementing authentic engagement strategies with diverse cultures, creating meaningful partnerships with local artists and community leaders, and incorporating community feedback sessions to ensure initiatives resonate passionately with local populations.
Celebrate Diversity through Events: Inspire unity by organizing inclusive events that honor the rich tapestry of cultures in New Orleans, focusing on fermentation as a powerful theme. Consider planning culturally themed beer releases or hosting events that spotlight local traditions and culinary practices.
Community Involvement: Harness the spirit of goodwill by leveraging business resources to nurture community relations through volunteering, sharing space for community events, or sponsoring local cultural celebrations. This not only enhances brand visibility but positions the brewery as a supportive neighbor, actively invested in the vibrancy and welfare of the community.
A proud Dallas native, Angi Thomas brings over 11 years of experience as a Brand Ambassador and a passionate advocate for diversity in craft beer. As Moderator of Being Black in Craft, Angi amplifies voices and fosters conversations that celebrate inclusion. She has served as Co-chair for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) with the Pink Boots Society, where she also holds the national role of Communications Director. In addition, she contributes to industry growth and representation as Social Curator for Lifting Lucy. Her work reflects a dedication to building community, elevating equity, and shaping a more inclusive craft culture.
Ari Ballard is a hospitality professional and Certified Distiller based in New Orleans, LA. After completing the Turning Tables NOLA program, she shifted her focus to distillation, supported by a scholarship from the Michael James Jackson Foundation. Driven by a commitment to community empowerment and continued learning, Ari launched Collective Vibration—a business that champions hospitality professionals through education and curated events, while also supporting producers such as farmers and suppliers.
Jon Renthrope, a beverage manufacturer, exporter, and brewmaster (Beer expert) by trade profession. Renthrope is an entrepreneur, native to New Orleans, majority of businesses are headquartered in Louisiana, and is a tribal member of the United Houma Nation. Renthrope serves on the Louisiana District Export Council that he was appointed to by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the New Orleans Regional Business Park, 100 Black Men of Metro New Orleans, and is President of the National Black Brewers Association. Renthrope is also recognized as a cultural ambassador of the historic Treme neighborhood. He is the founder and CEO of his family owned beer brand Cajun Fire Brewing Company. Historically, the company is federally recognized as the first Native American owned beer brand in U.S. history, the first Black American owned beer brand in the U.S. South history, and internationally the second longest continuously operating Black owned beer brand in the world (13th year of operation). My company is even featured in the Smithsonian Museum of D.C. The company’s most awarded beverage is the flagship Honey Ale that is distributed in more than 300+ retail locations. Renthrope also has site control of the largest privately owned commercial development in Eastern New Orleans, the New Orlean East Cultural Hub that will serve as a 14 acreage food/beverage manufacturing campus and distribution hub. Notably Renthrope is one of the first Black American to sell his alcohol products to the countries of Japan, Spain, Canada, and Peru. Renthrope’s efforts have attracted the #1 Beer Festival in America, Barrel & Flow Fest, to host an inaugural sister city version in New Orlean April 17-19th 2026 dubbed Barrels on the Bayou. It is estimated the festival will attract 2,000 attendees and contribute to more than half a million dollars in revenues for the City of New Orleans and small businesses in the community.
Shalanda Jackon is a brewer who is originally from New Jersey. She started her brewing career in 2019 at a brewpub in Princeton NJ after her career change from a K 8 music teacher. In her brewing career she started out as an apprentice, worked her way to become an assistant brewer and is now on a brewing team at Urban South in New Orleans LA. She has her bachelor’s degree in music education from Westminster Choir College which is a performing arts conservatory in Princeton NJ and is a certified teacher for K 12 in New Jersey.
She is a Michael James Jackson Foundation recipient which funded her two brewing science certifications. Those certifications are from Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago IL and from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia PA.
Since moving to New Orleans in 2023, Shalanda has joined four different dance and social groups. These groups are Nola Chorus Girls, WoW (Woman of Wakanda), The Nola Lolas and TAP Dat. You may find her dancing and participating in parades quite often due to the variety of her memberships.
Shalanda is also a part of PBS, Pink Boots Society, which is a society that aims to assist, inspire and encourage women and non binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers through education. She is a part of NB2A, the National Black Brewers Association, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a more inclusive and vibrant beer industry by providing Black brewers access to the resources, mentorships and networks needed to thrive.
She has most recently participated in the Yakima hop selection in Yakima Valley Washington in September 2025 and taught the Yeast and Fermentation class for Turning Tables which is a bar training program.
Crafting the Big Picture: Building Impactful Marketing
In today’s crowded beer market, quick promotions and one-off campaigns only take you so far. If you want to grow in a meaningful way, you need more than just social posts and special releases. Long-term success comes from knowing who you are, what you stand for, and how to share that in a way that connects with the right people.
This session is a chance to take a step back from the daily hustle and think bigger about your marketing strategy. We’ll walk through practical ways to define what makes your brand stand out, create a plan that’s actually useful, and make smarter decisions about where you’re putting your time and money. It’s about doing less guessing and more building with intention.
Learning Objectives:
Learn how to define what sets your brand apart and build a marketing foundation that supports long-term growth.
Gain tools to evaluate your current efforts, spot missed opportunities, and make smarter, more strategic marketing decisions.
Walk away with a clear, practical framework to align your brand, goals, and team so that your marketing actually drives results.
Warren Bondi is a digital marketer, brand strategist, beverage sales guy, and father of three—all before turning 30. Talk about an overachiever. After dabbling in distribution and surviving the chaos of agency life, Warren realized he was after something more. He’s still figuring out exactly what that is, but co-founding Beer Marketeers with one of his best friends and opening his own brewpub, Wood Foot Beer Co., feels like the right path.
When he’s not obsessing over strategy or dropping buzzwords like “Nielsen data,” you’ll find him mastering the art of fire-cooked cuisine on his outrageously expensive Breeo fire pit. Picture a dad-sized audition for Chef’s Table: Over The Fire Cooking—while three kids launch a coordinated attack from all sides.
Don’t be fooled by the chaos. Warren thrives in it. He’s the chaos whisperer, the strategy guy with a plan—except when his wife leaves him alone with the kids. Then it’s all survival mode.
With a sprinkle of dad jokes, a dash of marketing expertise, and an obsession with craft beverages, Warren is here to shake up the beverage industry one well-targeted campaign at a time.
Surviving Seasonality: How Smart Taprooms Beat the Slow Months
Panelists: Abby Leonard (Parish Brewing Co.), Bobbi Keyes (Skydance Brewing), Heidi Guerra (Abita Brewing)
Moderator: Dan Watson (Arryved)
The holidays are finally behind you. The gift card promos ran, mug club renewals came through, and now the taproom is quiet. Welcome to Q1. This panel explores what every brewery is thinking: how to keep things moving when guest traffic slows to a crawl. You’ll hear from experienced operators who have figured out how to turn gift card redemptions into foot traffic, build out smart programming in January and February, and keep guests engaged with seasonal menus and beer releases. We’ll also dig into how you can use this downtime to dial in staffing, inventory, and training, and get creative with campaigns like Dry January alternatives, winter events, and loyalty perks built for the slow season.
Learning Objectives:
Understand how to strategically leverage holiday gift cards, memberships, and seasonal offers to boost Q1 visits and spending.
Discover effective off-season programming and marketing tactics to drive guest engagement during historically slow months.
Learn how to use winter downtime, or slower seasons, to strengthen operations—from staffing and training to inventory management and event planning.
Abby Leonard is an inside sales manager at Parish Brewing Company, where her passion for business and craft beer come together. With a strong focus on building relationships and driving growth, Abby plays a key role in connecting the brewery’s exceptional products with partners and customers across the region. Her dedication to quality, communication, and collaboration reflects Parish’s commitment to excellence and innovation in craft brewing.
Bobbi Keyes is the Director of Operations at Skydance Brewing Company, Oklahoma’s first Native American-owned craft brewery in Oklahoma City. She’s been with Skydance since day one, helping shape the brewery’s growth and the heart of its taproom experience. With over 20 years in customer service, Bobbi’s passion is creating spaces where people feel welcome, connected, and part of something bigger. Whether it’s a pint, a plate, or a friendly smile, Bobbi’s mission is to make every guest feel at home and part of the Skydance story. For her, a great taproom is more than great beer; It’s about the memories made, the community built, and the good times shared around the table.
Dan Watson is an Account Executive at Arryved, a leading provider of software solutions for craft beverage makers. With over 14 years in the industry, Dan spent nine years working at breweries including Echo Brewing Company, Renegade Brewing Company, and Good River Beer, where he held roles ranging from bartender to sales and operations. Based in Leadville, Colorado, Dan particularly loves Belgian styles of beer and is also passionate about snowboarding, fly fishing, his wife and dog, flannel/plaid shirts and has a mustache. He is pretty much the stereotype of the craft beer/tech/outdoorsy broski you’d expect to meet in Colorado.
Navigating A Changing Beverage Landscape: A SWOT Analysis
Pulkit K. Agrawal (Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient)
This interactive session is broken into three parts: a short presentation, group work, and open discussion. Attendees will split into five groups based on their primary role at the brewery—owner, production, sales, taproom, or marketing. If someone wears multiple hats, they’ll choose the group that fits best.
Each group will work through a SWOT exercise, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for their area of the business in today’s evolving beverage landscape. After brainstorming, we’ll come back together to share insights and explore potential solutions. Everyone will leave with a personal game plan: one item from each quadrant to act on—lean into strengths, improve a weakness, pursue an opportunity, and address a major threat. We’ll also encourage cross-department sharing to bring fresh ideas back to the team.
Learning Objectives:
Identify key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within your role at the brewery.
Collaborate with peers to explore solutions and actionable next steps.
Create a focused plan with one takeaway from each SWOT category to bring back to your team.
Pulkit K. Agrawal (PKA) is the Founder and CEO of Beer30 by The 5th Ingredient®, a leading brewery operations management software aimed at enhancing beer quality and consistency. After graduating from Harvard College, PKA worked as a Process Engineer at Ballast Point Brewing, where he focused on packaging lines and nitrogen beer. In January 2018, PKA launched Beer30®, a brewery data management system that offers grain-to-glass process and quality data tracking, while expanding beyond the standard inventory tracking of other systems. Beer30 focuses on real-time brewing data input, raw material inventory, cost of goods analysis, quality and sensory tracking, sales and distribution, and accounting integration. Beer30 is in over 450 breweries globally, helping to #BrewMoreBeer and #BrewBetterBeer. In December 2022, PKA was selected to the Forbes 30 Under 30, Class of 2023, in the Food and Drink category. In his free time, PKA enjoys traveling, scuba diving, and entrepreneurship coaching.
Open to Innovation: What We Can Learn from Outside the Beer Industry
Moderator: Jacob Landry (Urban South Brewery)
Panelists: Christa Cotton (El Guapo Bitters), Drew Ramsey (Hubig’s Pies), Howie Kaplan (Howlin’ Wolf Music Club), Mark Romig (New Orleans Saints/New Orleans & Company)
“Creativity is the focused combination of unlikely things. Your mind locks onto a certain element and then searches widely for something unexpected that fits with it. What can scuba diving teach you about agriculture? What can trees teach you about public speaking? There is always some connective tissue between disciplines. If you wish to be more creative, look for the connections between two previously unconnected things.”
That quote, by James Clear from ‘Atomic Habits,’ nails it. If we continuously look to each other as our only source of inspiration, we risk becoming an echo chamber of sameness.
In this conversation, we will hear from guests who do not work in the beer industry. We will learn their stories, hear their challenges, discover similarities, gain outside-the-box ideas, and ask unique questions to inspire you to greater success.
Learning Objectives:
Hear real-world stories and challenges from professionals outside the beer industry, providing practical examples of how overcoming obstacles and applying fresh perspectives can lead to success
Recognize and apply innovative concepts from unrelated fields to the beverage industry.
Break free from conventional thinking patterns by examining how unconventional practices and ideas from other sectors can inspire novel approaches in their work.
A Georgia native, Christa Cotton moved to New Orleans after helping her parents establish Georgia’s first legal distillery since Prohibition. Christa is passionate about all things Southern, from cocktails and entertaining to the strong farming traditions and community essential to Southern culture. Christa became the CEO of El Guapo in 2017. As a certified sommelier, she sources the finest raw ingredients for her bitters, syrups, and mixers and is dedicated to sustainability—using only recycled materials for the labels, glass packaging, and supporting local farmers. When she’s not being a full-time mom or at the office, she also serves on the board of Glass Half Full, a New Orleans non-profit focused on glass recycling. Christa is the recipient of the 2025 Tory Burch Foundation Founder Award as well as Wine Enthusiast’s 2025 Future 40 Tastemaker.
Drew Ramsey is the third generation of his family to own and operate Hubig’s Pies, a beloved New Orleans institution. Famous for their individually wrapped, glazed hand pies, Hubig’s has been a local favorite since 1921. The path hasn’t been without challenges—after a devastating fire destroyed the factory in 2012, Drew’s tenacity resulted in a complete rebuild and a triumphant reopening in 2022. Today, Hubig’s Pies are once again delighting customers in local stores and via Hubigs.com. Beyond the bakery, Drew loves supporting local restaurants, canoeing, playing poker, and spending time with his wife, their teenage daughters, and friends.
Howie Kaplan was the founding Director of the Office of Nighttime Economy for the greatest city in the world, and the birthplace of modern music, New Orleans. Since 2000 he has been the owner and operator of the multi room venue, the Howlin’ Wolf. For over 19 years he has been the manager of the Grammy Award Winning Rebirth Brass Band.
Howie is also a precinct captain for the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) that was responsible for the $16.25 billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) and was crucial in saving independent venues, movie theatres, Broadway, Performing Arts Centers and non- profits that were devastated through the pandemic closures.
At the beginning of the covid shutdowns he started Meals for Musicians. This program, in conjunction with the New Orleans Musicians Clinic was responsible for distributing over 60,000 meals and assisting culture bearers and first responders in accessing health care, housing assistance and unemployment payments. Mr. Kaplan also received the SBA Phoenix award for his efforts after Hurricane Ida severed all power to the city. Working with supplies donated from over 100 restaurants and hundreds of volunteers, they created over 20,000 meals in eight days in a makeshift street kitchen.
A native New Orleanian, Mark Romig is Senior Advisor for The Ehrhardt Group, the Gulf South’s leading public relations firm, and New Orleans & Company, New Orleans’ travel industry’s marketing, sales and promotion organization. He also serves as Honorary Consul in Louisiana for the Kingdom of Thailand.
In 2013 Mark became the Stadium Announcer for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, succeeding his father, Jerry (who served in the same role for 446 consecutive Saints home games over 44 years). In addition, Mark is a member of the Board of Directors of Fidelity Bank(NASDAQ: FBLA).
Active in his community, Mark is Vice-Chair of the Board for the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, Chair of the Board of Trustees for WYES-TV, Chair of the Board of Fore!Kids Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors of Methodist Health System Foundation and YouthForce NOLA. He recently completed a fifteen-year term of service at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Travel and Tourism Advisory Council. In addition, he serves as an advisor to the Louisiana Hospitality Foundation and St. Andrew’s Village.
Derek Smith (Small Batch Standard)
Brewery Profit Makeovers: What Worked, What Didn’t, and Why
If you own or operate an established brewery, and want to increase profit this year, this session shows exactly how. Drawing from 15 years of financial insight across 285+ U.S. craft breweries, we’ll break down three common paths to increase profit by $100k/year or more using adapted examples from real-world scenarios:
We’ll work through the step-by-step process together for each scenario to find profit opportunities, build a +$100k/year profit strategy, and create an action plan the brewery team can execute without hiring, buying equipment, or spending more. No matter where your business is today, there’s always a path to more profit. Our goal is to help you find it.
Learning Objectives:
Learn how to leverage price, margin, and labor ratios in the taproom to unlock way more value from the same exact beer, food, and foot traffic you have today.
Understand how to guarantee your wholesale beer makes money using a margin-first portfolio approach.
Uncover the powerful profit impact expanding your events can have on the bottom line, using your current team, space, and customer base.
Walk away with strategies, templates, and examples to find profit within your brewery, take action, and see meaningful progress in as little as a week.
DEREK SMITH is the Brewery Consulting Manager at Small Batch Standard, the premier financial agency built to serve the craft industry. In this role, Derek works with breweries to increase profits through a better understanding of their financials. When he’s not building financial analysis tools and benchmarks, Derek can be found exploring the mountains around his home in Salt Lake City or experiencing the growing beer scene in its young market.
Crowdsourced: A Collaborative Hour of Problem Solving
CBP Connects attendees continually list the ability to connect and learn from others as a highlight from our workshops. We are excited to host a session dedicated to learning from your peers. In this session, we will field questions from you and then develop the best solutions together. Plan to walk away with strategies to problems many of us are facing and best practices to improve brewery operations. Together, we can grow stronger.
Learning Objectives:
Build new relationships that you can reach out to with future questions
Collaborate with your peers to solve problems faced by other Craft Beer Professionals
Discover new strategies and solutions to help you see greater success at your brewery
The Role of Flavor in 2026
Panelists: Andrew Burman (Other Half Brewing), Katie McNulty (Revolution Brewing), Nic Bortolin (Amoretti)
Moderator: Jason Pratt (Cicerone)
Consumer expectations are shifting faster than ever. Preferences around flavor, style, experience, and even the role a brewery plays in a community evolve with every new trend on tap. In this conversation, a mix of sensory experts, market analysts, and brewery leaders will break down the flavors and drinking occasions winning today, what is starting to fade, and what signals point to the next wave of demand. From nostalgia to premiumization, from beyond-beer beverages to zero proof options, we will explore the choices guests are making and why. Attendees will leave with a clearer view of where the market is heading and practical ideas to keep their taplist and taproom aligned with consumer behavior.
Learning Objectives:
Develop actionable strategies to align taplists, product development, and taproom programming with evolving flavor expectations to increase relevance, repeat visits, and spend.
Identify the flavor profiles and drinking occasions gaining momentum in 2026 and understand the consumer motivations driving those choices.
Recognize early signals of shifting demand, including what styles, ingredients, and experiences may be plateauing or declining.
Evaluate how trends like nostalgia, premiumization, beyond beer beverages, and zero proof options are influencing purchasing behavior across different guest segments.
Andrew Burman, co-founded Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn, New York, in 2014. Serving as the Chief Operating Officer, Burman oversees the brewery’s daily operations. His journey into the culinary and brewing world began after earning a degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, where he also played lacrosse. Pursuing his passion for food, he went to L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, MD. To deepen his understanding of food systems, Burman obtained a Master’s degree in Food Culture and Food Systems from New York University. Since Other Half’s establishment, the brewery has expanded beyond Brooklyn, opening locations in New York City, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, the Finger Lakes, and Buffalo. Burman’s commitment to quality and innovation has been instrumental in Other Half’s growth and its reputation for pushing the boundaries of beer and brewing culture.
Jason Pratt is a Master Cicerone®, and the President/Owner of the Cicerone® Certification Program. He is a recognized business leader and innovator whose career in beer spans more than 17 years, with roles in both the technical and commercial sides of the industry. After passing the Master Cicerone® exam in 2015, he transitioned from leading beer education efforts for Molson Coors to the marketing team, where he was Director of Beverage Innovation for North America. In that role, he developed several successful brands that launched both domestically and internationally.
Katie McNulty is the Director of Marketing at Revolution Brewing, where she leads marketing strategy across the brewery’s craft beer and THC-infused beverage portfolios. Katie began her career in advertising, spending eight years at global agencies developing campaigns for leading brands such as Anheuser-Busch, High Noon, UnitedHealthcare and Kellogg’s. The majority of her career was spent working across the Anheuser-Busch craft and import portfolio, as well as iconic lager brand families — Michelob Ultra, Bud Light, Budweiser, and Stella Artois. Her passion for craft beer and deep love for the city of Chicago brought her to Revolution Brewing in April 2023.
Nic Bortolin has enjoyed a 15-year career as a Head Brewer throughout Southern California, two decades of homebrewing experience, and is a graduate of the American Brewers Guild Brewing Science and Engineering program. His dedication to quality and innovation has earned him a total of 8 GABF and World Beer Cup awards, recognition as California Craft Brewery of the Year, and numerous local and international awards. Nic’s decade-long history as an Amoretti customer highlights his strong trust in the brand. He now guides brewers on how to optimize the use of Amoretti’s extensive industry-leading catalogue of premium brewing ingredients. He plays a crucial role in the research and development of new products and is a free resource for brewers looking to develop new award-winning recipes.
Tap Talks: 3 18-minute sessions on critical topics
Moving Forward by Looking Back
Marty Nachel (American Craft Beer Hall of Fall, Nachel Beer Education)
For years craft beer thrived by being the new shiny thing. Constant innovation, new styles, new experiences. But long before “craft,” brewers were already building loyal communities around their beer. This session looks at traditional brewing and pub culture from centuries past and what it can still teach today’s breweries. From education and storytelling to creating a sense of belonging in the taproom, we will explore how looking backward can help breweries strengthen customer relationships, build deeper loyalty, and create better guest experiences now.
better trainings workshops. better teams.
Mickey Bryant (Black and Brew chicago)
As the craft beer industry evolves, great beer alone isn’t enough. This session introduces a mindset shift from traditional training to interactive, performance-based workshops that drive real behavior change. Think less lecture, more hands-on experiences that save time, strengthen team culture, double as team-building, and help staff show up with confidence in every customer interaction.
We’ll also explore DEI through a practical lens: Deliberate, Empathy, and Impact. Move beyond manuals and into real-world application with simple, intentional actions that create more inclusive, memorable experiences. When teams shift how they show up, breweries move from serving beer to creating experiences customers come back for.
How to Not Do Tasting Wrong
Randy Mosher (Author, Your tasting brain: A Sensory Approach to Wine, Beer, and Other Pleasures)
We’ve all been taught to taste beer in a particular way and have improved over time with practice. Generally, that’s served us pretty well. But to reach the next level, it’s helpful to know a little more about how our sensory systems and mind operate. Whatever you’ve known in the past, recent research has revealed many mysteries and identified flaws and limitations in common practice. Having spent six years digging into the latest science, I’ve uncovered a few fascinating insights that should both make tasting more effective and explain why most of us struggle with certain aspects of it.
Bitter Honesty: How Malört Turned Hate Into a Disruptive Brand Strategy
Anna Sokratov and Zach Jarosz (CH Distillery, home of Jeppson’s Malört)
Malört is a cultural phenomenon built on wormwood, Chicago grit, and the kind of brutal honesty you can taste. In this session, Malört’s marketing and leadership team will unpack how a once-niche shot grew into a nationally recognized brand without changing the recipe or compromising its identity. We’ll share the origin story behind one of America’s most infamously polarizing beverages and dig into why embracing the hate can be a powerful tool rather than a liability. Attendees will learn how Malört continues to find growth in a market where consumers are drinking less overall – yet not drinking less Malört – by leaning into curiosity, self-deprecating humor, and genuine storytelling. We’ll discuss how packaging innovations, unique collaborations, national distribution expansion, and a cult-like social following have led to success.
Most of all, this session is about empowering brands to be authentically themselves. When you start owning your voice, you cut through the noise. Attendees will walk away entertained, educated and armed with tangible examples for building brand loyalty, one shot at a time.
Learning Objectives:
Attendees will learn how brand authenticity, even when it’s polarizing, can be a strategic advantage that drives cultural relevance, loyalty, and growth.
CH Distillery is the home of Jeppson’s Malört, the famously bitter Chicago spirit turned national phenomenon. Leading the charge is CEO and Founder Tremaine Atkinson, whose passion for craft beverages and Chicago’s hospitality culture helped revive Malört and expand CH into a multifaceted, innovation-driven distillery. Head of Marketing Anna Sokratov has been instrumental in transforming Malört’s polarizing reputation into a strategic advantage, using sharp, irreverent storytelling to turn skeptics into loyalists. Director of Operations Zach Jarosz, a lifelong Chicagoan and Malört superfan-turned-maker, brings deep experience in food manufacturing and supply chain, plus an unshakable love for the Bears, to the operation. Together, the team champions authenticity and the belief that great brands stand boldly, unapologetically apart from the pack.
Signal vs Noise: Making Better Decisions When Everything Competes for Attention
Jake Keyes (Skydance Brewing)
Brewery owners are constantly surrounded by reports, opinions, benchmarks, and instincts, all competing for attention. This session explores how leaders separate signal from noise when making real business decisions. Grounded in real world experience, the conversation will highlight practical strategies owners can use to prioritize initiatives, pressure test ideas, and decide where to focus limited time and resources. Rather than tracking more metrics, attendees will leave with clearer ways to interpret information, ask better questions, and make more confident decisions in a resource constrained environment.
Learning Objectives:
Better separate useful signal from the noise that comes from reports, benchmarks, opinions, and instincts
Pressure test ideas and initiatives to decide what’s actually worth their limited time and resources
Ask better questions and feel more confident about where to focus, even when the data is messy or incomplete
Jake Keyes graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in journalism and spent ten years working in tribal gaming before founding Skydance Brewing in 2018. The brewery began in a co-op space and opened its own location in October 2021. In 2023, Keyes was elected Chairman of the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma for a three-year term. His recent honors include being named one of Native Business Magazine’s Top 50 Native Entrepreneurs, recognized among the OKC Metro’s Most Influential by 405 Business Magazine, and Skydance being selected as one of Hop Culture Magazine’s Top 12 New Breweries in America in 2021.
The Wild, Wild West: Preparing for the Next Frontier
The beer industry is entering uncharted territory. New constraints, emerging technologies, and changing consumer expectations mean breweries can no longer rely on the playbook of the past. This panel will dig into how to plan ahead, innovate with purpose, and recognize the next drivers of success. You’ll hear honest perspectives on doing more with less, building awareness without big budgets, and resourcing for growth. The conversation will also explore innovation beyond beer, why it can be healthy to get smaller, and how to strengthen your community while balancing business expectations in an unpredictable market.
Learning Objectives:
Identify the key shifts reshaping the beer industry and why old growth playbooks no longer apply
Learn how to plan, prioritize, and innovate when resources are limited and uncertainty is high
Understand practical ways breweries can build awareness and momentum without large marketing budgets
Explore when getting smaller, more focused, or more local can be a strategic move that strengthens both the business and the community
Doug Veliky is a CPA who led Internal Audit at Reyes Holdings from 2009-2016. His love of craft beer led him to create his social media presence under the handle @beeraficionado, as well as his industry Substack Beer Crunchers. Content helped open the opportunity to join Revolution Brewing as their CFO in 2016, then eventually evolve into their CMO in 2021. This past year, Doug joined BrightBev as a Partner, where he and his partner Jeff work with early stage start-up beverage founders on their route to market strategies and execution. Doug continues to actively create content and in late 2025, Beer Crunchers won Best Blog / Newsletter from the NA Guild of Beer Writers.
Matt Steinke is the Head of Sales at Go Brewing, where he leads commercial strategy and distribution expansion for one of the emerging brands in the non-alcoholic beer space. With a career spanning leadership roles at Anheuser-Busch InBev and Rhinegeist Brewery, Steinke brings deep expertise in scaling brands, building wholesaler networks, and executing go-to-market strategies. He also has a strong background in national accounts, developing partnerships with key retailers and driving alignment across large-scale customers. Known for his high-energy leadership style and strategic mindset, he plays a key role in expanding Go Brewing’s presence in the rapidly evolving NA beverage category.
Tim Hohl spent more than two decades telling other people’s stories on the radio before deciding to build something of his own: a brewery, and the stories that came with it. As the founder of Coin Toss Brewing in Oregon City, Tim built a neighborhood taproom from the ground up before returning to his storytelling roots. His latest project, The Narrative Studio, helps breweries and small businesses capture and use their stories, work that extends to collecting oral histories for the Oregon Hops and Beer Archive at Oregon State University. Tim lives in West Linn with his wife Val, and when he’s not chasing a good story, you’ll find him on his bike, in his garden, or at a baseball game with a balanced IPA in hand.
Tracey Ireland is the Vice President of Marketing at Rhinegeist Brewery, Ohio’s largest craft brewery and one of the Top 20 independent craft breweries in the U.S. She joined Rhinegeist in 2015 as the company’s first marketing leader, working directly with the founder to build and scale the brand across new categories, brands, and channels.
Today, Tracey leads brand, creative, content, digital, and eCommerce, partnering with sales, production, and executive leadership to drive portfolio strategy, new brand development, and go-to-market execution. She is known for strong judgment and collaborative leadership, with a deep belief that strong brands are built by strong teams.
Open to Innovation: What We Can Learn from Outside the Beer Industry
Panelists: Aaron Campos (Dark Matter Coffee), Andy Blackburn (Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field Events), Brendan Kelly (The Lawrence Arms)
Moderator: Dan Abel (Pilot Project)
“Creativity is the focused combination of unlikely things. Your mind locks onto a certain element and then searches widely for something unexpected that fits with it. What can scuba diving teach you about agriculture? What can trees teach you about public speaking? There is always some connective tissue between disciplines. If you wish to be more creative, look for the connections between two previously unconnected things.”
That quote, by James Clear from ‘Atomic Habits,’ nails it. If we continuously look to each other as our only source of inspiration, we risk becoming an echo chamber of sameness.
In this conversation, we will hear from guests who do not work in the beer industry. We will learn their stories, hear their challenges, discover similarities, gain outside-the-box ideas, and ask unique questions to inspire you to greater success.
Learning Objectives:
Hear real-world stories and challenges from professionals outside the beer industry, providing practical examples of how overcoming obstacles and applying fresh perspectives can lead to success
Recognize and apply innovative concepts from unrelated fields to the beverage industry.
Break free from conventional thinking patterns by examining how unconventional practices and ideas from other sectors can inspire novel approaches in their work.
Aaron Campos has worked in the coffee for 18 years with Dark Matter Coffee. Through this time he has worked as a barista and also in sourcing, roasting, and production of coffee on an intimate level. Today he is Director of Operations for the company assisting in shaping the future of Dark Matter Coffee.
Brendan Kelly has been a driving force in Chicago punk rock since his teens. Best known as bassist and co-vocalist of The Lawrence Arms, he built his career on DIY ethos, sharp storytelling, and a healthy dose of irreverent humor. A Northwestern graduate, Kelly also created the viral Nihilist Arby’s persona, blending absurdism with cultural commentary. Whether on stage or online, he brings wit, heart, and an unapologetically independent perspective to every room he steps into.
Dan Abel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pilot Project Brewing, a beverage incubator based in Chicago and Milwaukee. Described as a “recording studio for the beverage industry,” he has helped launch 23 brands, scaled Pilot to eight-figure revenue, and led its recognition as the #8 fastest-growing food and beverage company by Inc. 5000. Under his leadership, Pilot has expanded to 3 locations—with 2 more on the horizon—and partnered with comedian John Mulaney to create a non-alcoholic brand. Previously, Abel spent five years at Google/YouTube before serving as CMO at Reverb.com, where he helped drive its nine-figure acquisition by Etsy. He lives in Highland Park, Illinois, with his wife, two kids, dog, and an ever-growing guitar collection.
The People and the Process: Real World Tools to Lead, Protect, & Support Your Team
Jessica Hart (Jessica Hart Consulting)
Managing people is hard. Managing people in a brewery — where alcohol is part of the product, teams interact directly with the public, and roles change throughout the day — adds another layer of complexity. In this environment, informal practices and “we’ve always done it this way” decisions can quietly create risk.
This 60-minute interactive session uses real, anonymized brewery stories to show how everyday people decisions can resurface later as audits, investigations, or costly mistakes. Attendees will hear how a misunderstanding — not misconduct — triggered a Department of Labor audit, and why a single undocumented workaround from years earlier resulted in a significant fine. They’ll also explore a story where untracked shift beers and after-hours cleanup led to an investigation, and how unclear boundaries and dishonesty — not alcohol itself — became the real issue.
The session then shifts from stories to action. Leaders will walk through a practical self-check of common people and pay risk areas, including tip credit use, tip and service charge documentation, salaried classification thresholds, and pay stub clarity. Participants will work in table groups to assess a realistic brewery scenario, identify red flags, and discuss how they would respond.
This session is designed to be practical, engaging, and immediately useful — helping brewery leaders leave with clearer instincts, better questions, and simple steps they can take back to their operation.
Learning Objectives:
Understand how everyday shortcuts and missing documentation can create serious risk, and learn what to document, when, and why to protect your business and team.
Learn why informal practices and inconsistent rules create the biggest risk during investigations, and how clearly defining, tracking, and setting boundaries protects both leaders and staff.
Gain a practical checklist to identify common wage, tip, and classification risks and know which questions to ask to reduce exposure and stay compliant.
Jessica Hart, MBA is the founder of Jessica Hart Consulting, where she helps craft beverage and hospitality businesses build people systems that actually work in the real world. Her experience spans large, well-known brands like Heineken and Lagunitas, growing regional producers like CaliCraft, and small, single-brewer operations navigating growth for the first time. Jessica specializes in the in-between space where good intentions, fast growth, and limited process often collide. She supports leaders with HR audits, role clarity, compensation strategy, and practical compliance — always with an eye toward protecting both the business and the people behind it.
Known for her relatable stories and straight-talk approach, Jessica brings a mix of humor, honesty, and real-world lessons to every room. She believes clear processes make it easier to lead, easier to scale, and easier to keep good people — especially in an industry built on community.
Turning Taproom Regulars Into Super Fans
Panelists: Cody Lannom (Cedar City Brewing Company), Kevin ‘Swirv’ Irvin (Atlantucky), Sarah Purvis (Nurvis Purvis)
Moderator: Ross Stensrud (TapWyse)
What if you never had another new customer? How would you make your current audience even more valuable?
In this session, we’ll focus on actionable strategies to help you increase guest spending, build loyalty, and keep people coming back more often. From creative promotions to enhancing the guest experience, you’ll walk away with tools to drive higher revenue per visitor. Discover the power of focusing on your current audience and turning them into passionate super fans. It’s about making every guest count.
Learning Objectives:
Learn practical ways to increase guest check averages and drive repeat visits through loyalty programs, memorable events, front of house training, and continuous improvement in the guest experience
Explore creative strategies from brewery owners on how to strengthen loyalty and turn casual visitors into passionate super fans
Understand how to identify meaningful guest experience signals and use them to improve consistency, recognize strong performance, and make smarter decisions across the business
Walk away with a clear playbook of customer experience strategies you can put into action right away to boost spending and repeat visits from your current audience
Cody Lannom is one of three Operating Partners at Cedar City Brewing, a fast-casual hospitality and beverage production brand based in Lebanon, Tennessee, serving more than 65,000 guests annually and generating over $2.5M in gross revenue. He leads guest acquisition, brand development, and community-focused programming, with responsibilities spanning brand management, digital marketing, loyalty initiatives, live events, merchandising, packaging, and wholesale distribution.
He has built and operated a self-distributed wholesale program for packaged kegs and cans, produced ticketed events and large-scale festivals in partnership with the local municipality, and remains closely involved in brewing operations, compliance, and regulatory oversight. He also serves on the board of the Tennessee Brewers Guild.
Kevin “Swirv” Irvin is a nationally recognized advocate for equity in craft beer. A Pittsburgh native rooted in Atlanta by way of West Palm Beach, Florida, he serves as President of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild—the first Black president of any state brewers guild in U.S. history. He is Co-Owner of Draught Season, a craft beer lifestyle brand, Operations Manager at Atlantucky Brewing, and Director of Strategy for the Crafted For Action Craft Beverage Conference. Kevin builds culture-driven campaigns that fuse beer with community, fashion, and music—expanding opportunity, visibility, and ownership across the industry nationwide.
Ross Stensrud accidentally graduated from UCSD while studying lacrosse and spending plenty of time at O’Brien’s. After a brief stint designing pool cleaners (yes, really) in an effort to justify the cost of his degree, he pivoted and began recruiting smart friends to help build app marketing tech for local businesses—starting with music, then golf, and now craft beer with TapWyse. He lives in Carlsbad with his wife Laurel and their two boys, Roscoe (11) and Mason (9). When he’s not working, you’ll likely find him biking down PCH or shuttling his kids to basketball, golf, music, and skateboarding.
Sarah Purvis is the co-owner of Nurvis Purvis Brewing Co. in Carlsbad, New Mexico. With a background in graphic design and marketing, she focuses on building a brand rooted in creativity and community. As a veteran and entrepreneur, she’s passionate about creating spaces that feel welcoming, unique, and memorable.
