4th annual Beer Marketing and Tourism Conference

There is no other conference like the Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference (BMTC). That’s why we created one.

The BMTC is purposely built as a boutique conference that offers niche content and ample time and space to network with peers in your industries. And just what industries will you find at our conference? Essentially, any industry that benefits directly from BEER TOURISM.

Above and beyond that, our conference also highlights unique places around the country that embody the beer culture at large. Now approaching our fourth year, here’s where we’ve held the BMTC the first three years:

• 2019 Boise, ID: Agenda, Sponsors
• 2018 Burlington, VT: Agenda, Sponsors
• 2017 Asheville, NC: Agenda, Sponsors

During each of our conferences we make sure we provide attendees the following: access to a Best Practices Summit where you sit alongside your peers and discuss important topics in a roundtable discussion format; we offer breakout sessions in three tracts (Beer Tourism, Marketing, and Events); we feature cross-industry speakers for all-group sessions so information is applicable no matter your background; and we always bring attendees to a unique off-site dinner, lunch, or excursion that truly showcases why we chose that city for our conference.

More About the BMTC

The Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference (BMTC) provides hard information about the important and growing functions of beer marketing and beer tourism that you can bring home to both grow and improve your local offerings. Attendees include breweries, brewery guilds, Destination Management Organizations, tour operators, bloggers and media, and others. We expect from 250 – 350 people at the 2020 conference, making it large enough to be valuable networking and small enough to meet your peers.

The craft beer revolution has been in a boom market for years and breweries throughout North America and the world have been riding the wave of this cultural shift. Two key factors driving the growth of new breweries have been 1) the ability to sell beer directly to consumers from tap rooms or brewpubs and 2) the changing taste profiles of consumers.

Now with over 7,300 breweries in the United States and the number exploding throughout the world, competition for tap room visitors and shelf space is becoming intense. Perhaps more importantly, the double-digit growth figures for craft beer the industry experienced for over a decade are now over.

Beer tourism and beer marketing are increasingly becoming of strategic importance. If you are not engaging in these crucial aspects of the industry, you are losing ground to your competitors.

The Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference (BMTC) serves two needs: 1) It provides hard information about the important and growing functions of beer marketing and beer tourism that you can bring home to both grow and improve your local offerings and 2) It provides a forum for meeting your fellow leaders in the beer marketing and tourism industry. Subjects to be covered include marketing, sales, driving consumers to your region or business (tourism), tap room management, events, beer tour operators, and much more.

The conference will appeal to:

• Brewery marketing, tap room, and events managers
• Brewery Guilds who are moving beyond legislative affairs to focus on marketing their region as a beer tourism destination
• Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) who are tasked with increasing the number of butts in seats, bodies in beds, and inquiring minds at area attractions, all of which can be increased via beer tourism
• Tour operators, travel agencies, transportation companies, and event planners who provide beer tourism offerings to the public
• Public relations professionals and other consultants to the beer and tourism industries
• Academics and students from university beer business programs
• Media and bloggers who write about beer and tourism

What can you expect to get out of the conference?

• An overview of the current state of beer marketing and beer tourism from our keynote speakers and industry panels
• Specific, useful information you can use in subjects such as social media, digital marketing, tap room management, events, and more from our breakout sessions and pre-conference workshops
• Networking opportunities during sessions, meals, and events
• An opportunity to pour your beer at our opening reception at no cost if you are one of the first 30 brewery guilds, DMOs, or Florida breweries registered to attend
• Lunch included in the conference price thanks to Visit St. Pete / Clearwater, an opening reception, and optional evening activities

Join us February 4 – 6, 2020 in St. Petersburg, Florida for the fourth annual Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference.