Wednesday, February 28, 2007

It's Conference Time Again

The grapes are dormant, but the winery conferences certainly are not! Because March is a quiet time for grapes and winemaking, it seems like just about everyone schedules a conference now.

This year we're doing a marathon.

First is Crystal Mountain - the annual conference run by the Michigan Wine Council. It's a great way to get together with other winery folks from around the state. The sessions are always useful and the behind-the-scenes socializing is a great way to get to know everyone better.

Unfortunately we'll have to miss the biggest social time -- the parties AFTER the reception on Thursday evening. Several wineries & winemakers traditionally throw blow-out parties in their condos. It's a fun evening and a great opportunity to try lots of Michigan wine! But this year we're leaving right after the reception because we fly out of the Lansing airport first thing the next morning for Albuquerque.

The second stop for Holly and I is the New Mexico Vine & Wine conference in Albuquerque. We are both presenting two sessions there. Holly will be talking about (and pouring samples) French hybrid wines and fruit wines. I'm talking about winery marketing and events. We're so looking forward to attending this conference and visiting some New Mexico wineries afterwards.

The last stop is Valley Forge, PA for the Wineries Unlimited conference. We've always heard that this is a great conference -- lots of information, lots of vendors. We are finally making it there this year. It was so inexpensive to add it as an additional "leg" to our plane trip, it seemed silly not to do it...

We'll be two tired girls by the time this marathon is over...

1 comment:

stevenjared0853 said...

Pleased to know about your conference and hope it was a successful one. It was my office meeting last month and I arranged it at a beautiful Seattle convention center. Glad to have such an amazing party and every employee enjoyed very much.