CBP Connects: Norfolk, VA | Craft Beer Professionals

Attracting New Audiences

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.

BREWING A NEW CULTURE: STOPPING HARASSMENT IN BEER SPACES

AJ Head and Kailie Smith (Safe Bars)

Safe Bars helps bars, restaurants, breweries, and other alcohol-serving spaces create safe and welcoming cultures for patrons, and safe and respectful workplaces for staff. Such cultures encourage customer satisfaction and loyalty, and better-performing teams with lower turnover. Safe Bars does that by offering three programs: active bystander skills, empowerment and assertiveness, and de-escalation for hospitality professionals.

We also train people all over the country — and the world — to start local Safe Bars programs where they live.

Program manager AJ Head has a background in hospitality, marketing, events management, training, nonprofits, and empowerment self-defense. He’s been teaching self-defense in the DC area for more than 20 years, mostly to women, young people, and the LGBTQ community. AJ is thrilled to continue teaching and empowering people by showing them their inherent power.

Kailie Smith is the founder of Safe Bars RVA and is the Director of Outreach, Education, and Community Engagement at Safe Harbor in Henrico, VA. Safe Harbor is a non-profit organization which helps survivors of sexual and domestic violence as well as human trafficking to overcome their crises and transform their lives.

The #MeToo movement has opened our eyes to harassment and other violence in many realms, including craft brewing. Like many other arenas, the brewing industry has been susceptible to toxic work environments because of its macho bro culture, the commodification of women, and the underrepresentation of diverse genders and races. Safe Bars, founded in 2013, works to shift these pernicious realities through education, training, and culture change.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the full spectrum of harassment, what it looks like in breweries and taprooms, and have the skills to identify it early
Expand their skills and options to interrupt sexual (and other) harassment, whether it’s directed at a team member or a customer
Gain understanding and strategies that they can take back to their workplaces and apply on the individual and company level.

After attending the session, participants will have greater understanding of options and strategies for preventing and interrupting harassment, bringing new skills back to their workplaces for ongoing conversations on culture change, and more.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR TAPROOM FINANCIAL PLAN

Kary Shumway (Founder, Craft Brewery Financial Training.com)

Kary Shumway is the founder of Craft Brewery Financial Training.com, an online resource for beer industry professionals. He has worked in the beer industry for more than 20 years as a certified public accountant and a chief financial officer for a beer distributor. He currently serves as CFO for Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, Massachusetts. Craft Brewery Financial Training publishes a weekly beer industry finance newsletter, offers online training courses on topics such as cash flow planning, financial forecasting, and brewery metrics. For more information visit www.CraftBreweryFinancialTraining.com.

In this session, you’ll learn how to build a financial game plan for your taproom. We’ll take a hands-on approach as we work together to build your sales forecast, margins, and operating expense plan. You’ll work with proven and practical financial models to make the process quick and easy. At the end of our session, you’ll have a financial plan ready to implement for your taproom business.

Learning Objectives:

Identify the key building blocks of your taproom finances.
Calculate your sales, margins and operating expenses for your business.
Assemble a ready-to-use financial game plan for your taproom.

STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE: HOW SPORTS MARKETING CAN HELP YOUR BREWERY

Blake Edmunds (Owner/Brewer, Studly Brewing)

Blake Edmunds is a fifteen year veteran of the sports industry with stops at Wake Forest University, the Winston-Salem Dash and, most recently, the University of South Carolina. After accomplishing many of his career goals, including National Collegiate Mascot of the Year as an undergrad and the National Collegiate Sports Marketing Team of the Year, Blake decided to pursue his other passion, brewing, and open up a brewpub in his hometown of Chesapeake, VA. Studly Brewing Company is a 7 BBL brewpub serving Neapolitan inspired pizza and salads with plans to open its doors Summer of 2022.

After fifteen years of experience in the collegiate athletics industry, Blake Edmunds begins a new career opening up a brewery and has learned there is much from his background that brewery owners can apply to their businesses. Join us as an outside perspective sheds light on proven sports industry marketing tactics and how they can be used for your brewery.

Learning Objectives:

Identify similarities between the sports industry and craft brewing industry and how CBP members can apply those similarities.
How the game day experience/atmosphere applies to your brewery.
Identify marketing tools and objectives used in the sports industry that can apply to marketing your brewery.

CLOSING THE LOOP BETWEEN YOUR ONLINE AND TAPROOM SALES

John Kelley (Head of Ecommerce, Arryved POS)

It is projected that online sales of alcohol are expected to reach 7% of total sales by 2024, creating a $12 billion opportunity for regulated beverage companies in the US. This represents both a massive opportunity for breweries, and a departure from a traditional brink-and-mortar-only structure.

This session will explore how great craft brands are positioning themselves to win in this new environment and the technology and techniques they are using to connect with more of their customers online. We will further illustrate how those brands are leveraging their taproom experiences to support all of their sales channels while creating differentiation and building brand loyalty in the process.

At the conclusion of this session, our audience will be able to identify the key elements required to create a thriving online/offline ecosystem.

Learning Objectives:

Leveraging e-commerce to build the Omnichannel experience your customers are looking for
- What is an “omnichannel”?
- Why are the best retail brands having success with it?
- What does this look like for regulated beverage companies?
The benefits of closing the loop — “The Golden Lasso”
- What is customer lifetime value (CLV) and why is it so important?
- Why is customer retention the key to increasing CLV?
- How does the taproom support online channels and vice versa?
The benefits of closing the loop — “The Golden Lasso”
- Learn how to create great experiences that extend online
- Recognize and reward your most passionate supporters and grow the base!
- Drive more revenue, higher margins, and build loyalty
- How to calculate your return on Marketing Spend

Craftpeak is a provider of best-in-class online solutions for the craft beverage industry. More than 200 breweries rely on Craftpeak’s technology to connect with more customers online and to drive sales and loyalty through their membership programs, DTC shipping, high-demand beer releases, product finders, subscription programs and websites.

BAGELS & BRAND STORYTELLING

Brian Winkeler (Founder/Creative Director, Robot House)

What do bagels and brand storytelling have in common? Are the bagels plain? Cinnamon raisin? Toasted? Is there cream cheese? Peanut butter? Some thin slices of banana, maybe? Who’s hungry for a bagel now?

If you’re gonna have a bagel, it should be the bagel that’s exactly right for you, just like your craft beer business’ brand should have a truly unique story that’s completely authentic to the soul of your enterprise.

And it’s at 8:00am, so there will be bagels. And coffee. And other breakfast-y necessities to start our second day of sessions. After two nights of local brewery bonding, the last thing we’ll need is heavy thinking first thing in the morning, so Brian Winkeler, founder of strategic brand creative firm Robot House, will be crafting an entertaining, low impact mental exercise over bagels and coffee to get you thinking about your brand’s story, personality, and voice that you’ll have fun sharing with your tablemates and fellow craft beer professionals.

Will the secrets to brand storytelling be revealed before 9:00am? Not at all. But “Bagels & Brand Storytelling” will help get your brain warmed up for a second day of industry education and inspire you to reflect on the state of your brand’s story, and if you’re making the most of your messaging to fully engage with your audience, both passionate and potential.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will analogize their business to different personality types and cultural signifiers to help them reflect on how they articulate their unique brand voice through their marketing.
Attendees will discuss their selections to build the rationale behind the “why” of their business.
Attendees will think about how their brand storytelling isn’t just about them and it’s not just about their audience. It must be authentic to both to truly build the strongest connection.

Brian Winkeler is founder and lead brand storyteller at Robot House, a boutique creative firm specializing in brand development and packaging design. Currently in his 30^th year in the advertising industry, Brian is the first nine-time recipient of the Fontana Award for Advertising Humor. His favorite beer is a Mango Alpha Hive Double IPA he had at the COOP Ale Works taproom a while back.

Robot House is a boutique branding creative shop located in Downtown Oklahoma City’s Automobile Alley District (within comfortable walking distance of five local craft breweries). Robot House focuses on strategic brand development for new businesses and businesses who could use a rebrand or a fresh brand messaging platform, with a specialty in branded packaging design for food & beverage clients. Founder Brian Winkeler has 30 years’ experience in branding and advertising and is the only 8-time winner of the prestigious Fontana Award for Advertising Humor. Robot House’s food & beverage industry clients include COOP Ale Works, SONIC Hard Seltzer, Bricktown Brewery, Bitter Sisters Brewing Company, the Oklahoma Beer Alliance, and Nestlé USA.

BUILDING A BRAND THROUGH MULTIPLE RETAIL OUTLETS, IN HOUSE DISTRIBUTION, AND DIVERSIFIED BEVERAGE LINES

Scott Roth (President and Founder, Three Notch’d Brewing Company)

Scott currently oversees production and retail operations as well as chain distribution sales. Scott got his start in the food and beverage world 27 years ago (cooking sausage sandwiches and making lemonade at a small stand in a smaller town in PA) and fell in love with craft beer while managing an Irish pub at his alma mater, Lehigh University (Industrial Engineering), back in the early 2000’s. He now has 15 years of entrepreneurial experience in food and beverage under his belt and remains the 3NB lead when opening any new location. As passionate about soccer as he is craft beer, Scott spends his nights and weekends coaching his two oldest sons Evan (10) and Tyler (8) and enjoys family time with his wife Kristin and their youngest son Logan (3) whenever possible.

In this session you will learn how Three Notch’d Brewing Company, an 8 year old company, has built a dominant Virginia brand by executing on three different pillars of the business. By opening multiple outlets throughout the state of Virginia (currently 5 locations in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Richmond and Virginia Beach with a 6th property under contract) and chasing those localities with distribution handled by a sister distribution company and now graduating into other beverage offerings the company has created reliable cash flow and stable top and bottom line numbers.

Learning Objectives:

Opening Multiple Retail Outlets
- Why spend the time and money on multiple locations?
- Why add food?
- How 3NB has structured its management team to oversee operations
- How 3NB manages reporting and back office functions
- Marketing power related to brick and mortar locations
“Self” Distribution
- What is happening in the distribution world and why self distribute
- How to navigate the Three Tier System
- Benefits and Negatives to running a distributorship
- “Flipping” the brand and the reality of that sale and its pros/cons
Diversified Beverages and Offerings
- What other lines can you consider adding to your portfolio?
- 3NB entering the Non-Alc and Whiskey Distilling space (and how 3NB is raising capital without diluting the current members of 3NB ownership)

HOW TO BUILD A BETTER BEER LABEL

Glenn Clark (Founder and Creative Director, Crafting a Brand)

Glenn Clark is a brand strategist, a designer, and the founder of Crafting A Brand, a branding and creative services consultancy in Rochester, New York. Crafting A Brand helps beverage producers create long-lasting strategies to differentiate their brands, while also producing creative communications tactics (labels, packaging, logos, video, and more) that attract and engage consumers. Glenn has worked at ad agencies in Boston, Syracuse and Rochester, and in 2001 he played an integral role in launching the Vine Design design studio to service Constellation Brands at the Partners + Napier agency in Rochester. Glenn started his own marketing firm in 2003, and in March 2018 he rebranded the firm as Crafting A Brand to serve clients exclusively within the beverage industry.

It’s a great time to be a craft beer drinker: bottle shops, supermarkets and convenience store shelves are bursting with beer, and consumers have a staggering variety of choices to consider before they decide which beer to spend their hard-earned money on. But are you creating beer labels that help them favor your brand over all the others? It’s more important now than ever to have a system in place to make labels that represent what you’re all about (as well as what’s inside the package), while also differentiating your brand from all the others surrounding it.

Glenn Clark of Crafting A Brand will use real case studies to help you understand the components of an effective beer label, he’ll describe the unique categories of label designs across the craft beer industry, and he’ll show you how to create an efficient and easy-to-implement design system for your beer brand.

Learning Objectives:

Learn about the different visual categories of beer label design, and see examples of effective labels from across the industry.
Learn what your brewery peers in our workshop session are doing with their label designs, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Learn how beer brands across the nation create label design strategies that break through the clutter and increase sales—and how you can, too.

THE IMPORTANCE OF FERMENTATION FOR EACH ROLE IN YOUR BREWERY

Jacob Hoover (Sales Development Specialist, White Labs)

Jacob Hoover is the Sales Development Specialist at White Labs. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Science from the University of Delaware, is a Certified Cicerone, and actively participates in the BJCP. In his time at White Labs, Jacob has held various roles in both the Education and Brewing Co. departments. He loves sensory and fermentation science, and believes the spread of information is vital for the advancement of the fermented beverage industry.

From production to service and sales, fermentation plays a key role in the products we create. Join Jacob for an exploration of yeast’s impact on beer flavor, alcohol, appearance, and shelf stability. We will discuss ways you can equip each role in your brewery to better understand how to promote the magic of fermentation both internally and to your customers!

Learning Objectives:

The importance of product handling and understanding fermentation for all roles, not just cellar-persons. From quality to cost of goods each role handles some aspect or byproduct of yeast and fermentation whether as a raw ingredient or finished product.
From shelf stability to COG’s we’ll dive into how yeast and fermentation touch each role in the brewery.
Arm yourself with ways to educate staff on the importance of fermentation.

USING KEY METRICS FOR BREWERY SUCCESS

Pulkit K. Agrawal (Founder & CEO, The 5th Ingredient)

Pulkit K. Agrawal (PK) is the Founder and CEO of The 5th Ingredient®, a leading brewery operations management software company dedicated to helping breweries improve beer quality and consistency. After graduating from Harvard College, Agrawal began working in the beer industry as a Process Engineer for Ballast Point Brewing, where he focused on packaging lines and nitrogen beer. He soon discovered a need in the market for software that expanded beyond standard inventory management systems, where there would be an emphasis on the brewing process and quality, not just inventory tracking. In January 2018, Agrawal launched Beer30®, a brewery data management system that offers grain-to-glass process data tracking. 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 currently in more than 250 breweries globally, helping to #BrewMoreBeer and #BrewBetterBeer across the nation. In his free time, Agrawal enjoys traveling, and speaking about entrepreneurship and using data to improve brewery efficiency and quality.

In this interactive workshop, Pulkit will lead the session on focusing on the three step process on setting up key metrics. (1) WHAT & WHY — The importance of setting metrics and measurable goals at your brewery in four key areas — Process & Quality, Operations, Marketing, and Sales. (2) HOW — How to set up these metrics at your brewery. (3) EVALUATE — Identify what success looks like and how to improve the results for the future. The session will be broken down into three 20-minute components. The first 20-minutes will be focused on education and diving into the definitions of KPI and the importance to a brewery with examples on the three step process. The second 20-minutes will be in groups where individuals will work in teams of 10-15 that are sitting around them to begin outlining the examples that they are using or interested in using at their brewery. The final 20-minutes will focus on the teams explaining what they’ve come up with, with Pulkit taking the notes in the presentation. At the end, we’ll be providing handouts on some examples of KPIs in the categories, and will provide the full list people have presented for future use and sharing with their team members at the brewery.

Learning Objectives:

WHAT & WHY — The importance of setting metrics and measurable goals at your brewery in four key areas — (1) Process & Quality, (2) Operations, (3) Marketing, and (4) Sales.
HOW — How to set up these metrics at your brewery.
EVALUATE — Identify what success looks like and how to improve the results for the future.

DIVERSIFYING YOUR WORKFORCE THROUGH TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

David Kushner (Co-Founder, Trace Brewing) and Tranice Watts (Co-Founder, Lifting Lucy/Patuxent Brewing )

Workforce/work ready development programs enable people to meet occupational employment trends and real-time labor needs within various industries. Additionally, these programs also level the playing field among underrepresented groups such as: people of color, new immigrants, individuals with disabilities, those living in rural and socio-economically segregated communities, and those involved with the criminal justice system. This workshop will discuss the importance of the beer industry supporting workforce development through thoughtfully planned vocational programs, paid apprenticeships, and other avenues of opportunities which encourages an increase in diverse applicants and talent; decreases occupational turnover rates; and fosters socio-economic equity and inclusion.

Learning Objectives:

Understanding statistics that indicate the importance of the brew industry and craft breweries supporting workforce development. Examples of different types of workforce development programs and activities utilized by craft breweries.
Current barriers for increasing the talent pool and diversifying the workforce of the craft brew industry. Comprehensive overview of the benefits and impact of craft breweries creating or participating in workforce development.
How to find funding to support your specific efforts? How can you build relationships for continued support and financial assistance to offset the costs associated with your workforce programs? How to understand your internal rate of return (IRR) for investing in workforce development and training.

David started his professional brewing career in 2012 and has worked on the brewing teams of John Harvard’s Brew House, Harpoon Brewery, and Lord Hobo Brewing Co. He is the Co-Founder of Solera Brewing Group which owns and operates Remnant Brewing (Somerville, MA), Trace Brewing (Pittsburgh, PA), and Our Town Brewery (Lancaster, PA).

Tranice L. Watts is a co-owner for Patuxent Brewing Company, in Waldorf, Maryland. Patuxent Brewing is the first craft brewery within Charles County, and one of the only 100% Black-owned breweries in the state of Maryland. She also is a founding member of Lifting Lucy, a non-profit dedicated to supporting Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color in beer industry events and educational opportunities. Ms. Watts is also a member of the Greater Maryland Chapter of Pink Boots and the Brewers Association Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. She currently co-chairs Charles County, Maryland’s Economic Development Business Outreach Committee.

How to Authentically Engage with Your Communities: There’s More of Your Pie to Go Around Than You Know

Alison Wisneski (Director of Marketing, Lady Justice Brewing), Betsy Lay (Co-Founder/Owner, Lady Justice Brewing), Jamaar Valentine (Regional General Manager, Bevana)

From building it into your day one company business model to realizing the impact various communities have on you once you have opened, you can make a difference. In this session, you will learn about building in giving back into your business plan, communities that could be supporting you more than you realize

Learning Objectives:

Understand how to create a mission statement to center on why and how you give
Discuss methods for continued contribution to your community
Walk away with strategies for thinking outside the box: it’s not just money

5 Financing Mistakes Breweries Make and Best Practices to Secure Funding

Jason Sleeman (Vice President-Craft Beverage Lending, United Community Bank) and Nick Matthews (Co-Founder, Mainvest)

Jason Sleeman leads the national craft beverage lending group for United Community Bank. This is a specialty vertical focused on providing funding and exceptional service to breweries and brewpubs looking for bank financing. Jason has been a banker for over 20 years and focused on the craft brewing industry for the last 7 years. He started with funding breweries just in Georgia and now gets the opportunity to work with breweries all over the US.

Nick is the CEO and Co-founder of Mainvest. An expert in marketing and operational strategy, Nick led demand side initiatives for Uber Boston, launching back in 2011. While launching Uber in new markets, both suburban and urban, he experienced firsthand local challenges around economic development. He founded Mainvest in 2018 with the goal of empowering communities to determine their own economic development, utilizing new regulations and novel investment vehicles to align incentives between local community members and small businesses. Nick’s mission is to revitalize the American Dream, one small business at a time.

Capital is the lifeblood of any growing brewery. There are many ways to obtain that funding from friends and family to SBA lending and crowdfunding. We will look at some of the opportunities for missteps in the process and the top 5 mistakes that breweries can make in the process. We will also discuss best practices to secure funding, depending on the type of brewery and what its goals are.

Learning Objectives:

You will leave understanding the top mistakes both new and existing breweries make when capitalizing their business and how to avoid them.
Y ou will discover multiple options on how to finance your project from both crowdfunding and more traditional funding sources.
You will learn how several breweries successfully funded their capital needs and be provided next steps to securing yours.

Increasing Retail Sales with Strategic KPIs

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Julie Rhodes (Owner, Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions)

With over 2 decades of experience in the food and beverage industry, Julie Rhodes is an authority on beverage sales, digital marketing, leadership, and distributor partnership management. She is the owner of Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions, an educational services, and strategic business consulting company built specifically for growing craft beverage brands, where she teaches small to medium-sized beverage alcohol companies how to work smarter, not harder, in order to achieve long term growth. In addition to being an educator and strategic advisor, she is also a business writer, public speaker, is Cicerone Certified, a national committee chair and local chapter leader within Pink Boots Society, and a mentor for the Brewers Association and on the BA DEI Marketing & Communications Subcommittee, the North American Guild of Beer Writers, the American Cider Association, Women of the Vine & Spirits and multiple state brewery guilds. When not working, you can find her spending time with her husband and two boys in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado or on the couch watching sci-fi movies.

KPIs (key performance indicators) are metrics that can help determine the health of your retail sales environment. They can be anything from sales volume to market segment ratios, classes of trade to the distribution of market share, or tap handles in the market compared to shelf spots in chain accounts. KPIs help suppliers identify areas of improvement, but can also help us realize how we can recreate success without reinventing the wheel. The questions I hear the most from suppliers are: which KPIs are most important? What tools do I need to collect this data? And once I have the data, how do I interpret the results to impact my sales? In this session, we will cover all of those things.

Learning Objectives:

How to identify and build a set of core retail sales Key Performance Indicators
Know what software tools you need to collect and analyze your retail sales data (and how much they cost)
How to create strategic retail sales plans based on your core set of KPI data

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.

Monday, September 12, 2022

7:00-9:00 PMWelcome Reception at Elation Brewing thanks to White Labs

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

9:00-10:00amWelcome/Get to Know Your Fellow Craft Beer Professionals

12:00-1:30PMLunch Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

1:30-2:30 PMTHE IMPORTANCE OF FERMENTATION FOR EACH ROLE IN YOUR BREWERY

3:30-4:00PMSnack Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

7:00-9:00PMReception at Three Notch’d Brewing Company thanks to ABS Commercial

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

12-1:30PMLunch Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

2:30-3:30PMBEER, BARRELS, AND BUSINESS

3:30-4:00PMSnack Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

4:00-5:00PMCREATIVE WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY

7:00-9:00PMClosing Reception at Maker’s Craft Brewery thanks to River Drive Cooperage

Industry Allies

Initiatives

Get Involved

7:00-9:00 PM
Welcome Reception at Elation Brewing thanks to White Labs

9:00-10:00am
Welcome/Get to Know Your Fellow Craft Beer Professionals

12:00-1:30PM
Lunch Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

1:30-2:30 PM
THE IMPORTANCE OF FERMENTATION FOR EACH ROLE IN YOUR BREWERY

3:30-4:00PM
Snack Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

7:00-9:00PM
Reception at Three Notch’d Brewing Company thanks to ABS Commercial

12-1:30PM
Lunch Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

2:30-3:30PM
BEER, BARRELS, AND BUSINESS

3:30-4:00PM
Snack Break/Mini Trade Show/Networking

4:00-5:00PM
CREATIVE WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR COMMUNITY

7:00-9:00PM
Closing Reception at Maker’s Craft Brewery thanks to River Drive Cooperage