Review of the Direct-to-Consumer Wine Symposium - Napa Valley

This was the first who visited directly to consumers Wine Symposium I and I want to tell you that there's absolutely wonderful and worth every penny of the nearly $ 300 I paid to visit!

And just this symposium was of great interest, since the huge hall was filled. I estimate at close to 500 people can listen and participate.

What has this wine symposium in particular?

For me there are 4 things that really stand out:

Theconcentrate on winning speakers from outside the wine industry insights, which provide for them. I particularly liked John Thompson from BestBuy.com.
The marketing version of Iron Chef, where 3 wine marketers were reaching a difficult task and had to produce a successful marketing plan in less than 2 hours - they have their job and developed a great plan.
Directly to consumers break out sessions helped to demonstrate how this major increase inChannel and focus on very specific business problems.
A chance to network with other industry professionals in a comfortable environment - always a good thing.

What have I learned?

Plenty! Here are a few highlights.

The use of social networking tools at the symposium clearly demonstrate the rapid growth of this channel and the need for small wineries to use them. Since it takes time, start with Twitter and YouTube, then the next step Facebook.
Creating andPublish video testimonials for visitors, prospective clients and inspire. Make it short and point to your website.
Large companies must) (growers to grow organically across all channels. That's hard, because you have to flexible enough to follow your customers desired type of interaction, which changes over time.
They are not selling wine, you are selling an experience.
Learning and storing information about your customers is of vital importance.
Online search is stillthe predominant method of acquisition for the Web.
Building and growing relationships are key to the success of the wine directly to consumers.

Congratulations to Free the Grapes Coalition for Free Trade for implementation at a major event.