I just returned home from my second Great American Beer Festival, which went off without a hitch as brewery members and supporters descended upon Denver for a three day celebration.
This is not only a great argument for brewers to attend GABF, but a great argument for businesses to attend industry shows in general. There is always value beyond immediate revenue, leads, etc.
Sep 26, 2023·edited Sep 26, 2023Liked by Doug Veliky
Love this! I started following your Instagram account because of a New Mexico brewery re-share at GABF. As a startup brewery owner in Southwest NM, I hope we can get to GABF one year!
Thanks for checking out the post and the Instagram post. Hopefully I get to check out your brewery next time. Some friends of mine are starting up a brewery in Sante Fe called Keeping Together.
I would argue that this same argument could extend to regional or state tradeshows as well. If expense is an issue for bootstrapped brewers, attending regional shows can have many of these same benefits as going national.
Let's not pretend like ROI is a bad word here. If you suck at networking, the above is functionally useless. Better to reinvest elsewhere.
Definitely. GABF gives the ability to fanboy/fangirl out over breweries you never normally get to see, but regional shows provide great networking and education in a similar way.
Great article and insight. I hope a lot of breweries can see this and take these suggestions into consideration. The meeting up with people in similar roles to hang and talk shop is a great idea, and one I'd love to see organized even for next year. Would be cool to see marketing folks meet up and hit some Denver breweries to see how they market themselves, talk about those decisions, and bounce ideas. Same for brewers, sales, finance, etc.
Great perspective, Doug. One of the great challenges at the "boot level" in this industry is convincing ownership of the value of things like GABF. I think a lot of us have the instinct that it is a worthwhile investment, but have trouble articulating it in a convincing manner, and this helps!
This is not only a great argument for brewers to attend GABF, but a great argument for businesses to attend industry shows in general. There is always value beyond immediate revenue, leads, etc.
Love this! I started following your Instagram account because of a New Mexico brewery re-share at GABF. As a startup brewery owner in Southwest NM, I hope we can get to GABF one year!
Thanks for checking out the post and the Instagram post. Hopefully I get to check out your brewery next time. Some friends of mine are starting up a brewery in Sante Fe called Keeping Together.
I would argue that this same argument could extend to regional or state tradeshows as well. If expense is an issue for bootstrapped brewers, attending regional shows can have many of these same benefits as going national.
Let's not pretend like ROI is a bad word here. If you suck at networking, the above is functionally useless. Better to reinvest elsewhere.
Definitely. GABF gives the ability to fanboy/fangirl out over breweries you never normally get to see, but regional shows provide great networking and education in a similar way.
Great article and insight. I hope a lot of breweries can see this and take these suggestions into consideration. The meeting up with people in similar roles to hang and talk shop is a great idea, and one I'd love to see organized even for next year. Would be cool to see marketing folks meet up and hit some Denver breweries to see how they market themselves, talk about those decisions, and bounce ideas. Same for brewers, sales, finance, etc.
Awesome read as usual.
Great perspective, Doug. One of the great challenges at the "boot level" in this industry is convincing ownership of the value of things like GABF. I think a lot of us have the instinct that it is a worthwhile investment, but have trouble articulating it in a convincing manner, and this helps!