We have no plans at this point to bring back the Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference.
Founded in 2017, the conference last ran in February, 2020 in Florida, just prior to the pandemic. Our 2021 conference was canceled when our local host city and largest sponsor pulled out. The conference appealed to breweries, brewery associations, tourism organizations, and tour operators.
Obviously, the pandemic has been bad for conferences. Even conferences that have run have tended to have fewer participants and sponsors than in pre-pandemic years.
We at Zephyr Conferences also faced the reality of losing 1/2 our four-person staff due to the pandemic. We would need to hire new staff, since our beloved employees Reno and Sara have moved on to new careers.
In 2021 we also experienced a surge in (mostly domestic) travel and this surge has only increased in 2022, as people are hungry to again travel around the world. This means the tour side of our Zephyr United business has been booming and requiring much of our time and attention. Which we are not complaining about!
In the end, we have decided to focus only on our media conferences, which includes the Beer Now Conference, for 2022 and beyond. We are open to any suggestions from key wine or tourism industry players regarding the future of the BMTC.
Leave a Reply