#WineBiz Winery Owners & Direct to Consumer Managers can get the most out of this year’s DTC Wine Symposium with these top tips.
The DTC Wine Symposium is presented by Free the Grapes! This annual fundraising event has raised more than $1 million for Free the Grapes’ PR campaign, and the Coalition for Free Trade’s legal work (CFT “retired” in 2014 after achieving its goals). These two groups have worked closely with industry lobbyists and regional associations to streamline onerous wine shipping regulations and to increase the number of legal states from 17 to 45 (as of July 2020) which represent 95% of the US population.
The 14th annual DTC Wine Symposium would have taken place in Concord, California but is 100% virtual this year due to the pandemic. All sessions and the virtual tradeshow take place on event the app, Whova. So, how can attendees get the most out of the Virtual Symposium this week? Having served on the Steering Committee for years and spoken at the event for the past 7 years, I can share some wisdom.
Here are my Top 3 Tips for getting the most out of your time invested this week:
#1 Review the lineup of sessions in the Whova app and add your favorites to your Agenda to ensure you will be a part of the conversation. Each session will have a Q&A tool to ensure all attendees get questions answered by the featured speakers. You will also be able to download the presentations to review after the symposium. If you need help narrowing down which sessions, to attend, identify those where actual Case Studies, Proven Methods, and Best Practices are being shared. There are no “one size fits all” methods to building long-term and repeatable direct to consumer wine sales models. Be sure to absorb the best information available this week.
#2 DO ask questions and explore options, ideas, various approaches! This is your time to engage with subject matter specialists so be sure to maximize your learnings by interacting in the Q&A sessions. Attendees from all over the nation will be attending the symposium this week and you can glean a lot from those DTC managers who share tried and true approaches in the Q&A periods. Some are doing business in iconic wine regions while others represent evolving regions throughout the US. This is an excellent time to be a part of the conversation. AND, why not connect with like-minded attendees post-conference? Send a direct message and keep the conversation going.
#3 Carve out time post Symposium to identify “Top 3 Things” you and/or your team can take forward from each session. Be sure to schedule these meetings (online more than likely) within a week and while still fresh with new learnings. Identify those best practices and proven methods that fit your unique business model. Start to up your game within the next 30-90 days by building out the proper initiatives and tools needed. At DTC Wine Workshops, we ensure our clients are using the ideal blends of Talent, Tools & Tech to become high-performing DTC Divisions. We take time to build out Customer Engagement and Re-engagement Models using tools such as “Customer Journey Maps“, “Tuesday Morning Workflows” and “Hospitality Service Standards” to name some of our proven methods. These are some of the tools you may need to invest time in developing to ensure your new initiatives are holistic and repeatable models.
I invite you to join our “Virtual Winery Offerings” session on January 22nd at 11:00 as I will be moderating an important discussion. I invited three winery leaders across California to share examples of how they built their new virtual programs and the corresponding results between March and December 2020. We have taken a Case Study Approach to developing the data points and presentations so that each attendee gets the most out of their time.
I am wishing you an excellent week ahead filled with inspiration and enlightenment.
Cheers!
Sandra
