Please see below for a list of speakers for the 2020 Beer Marketing and Tourism Conference in St. Pete/Clearwater, Florida.
Neil Reid, Ph.D. | The Beer Professor
Dr. Neil Reid is a Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo, with a specialty in local economic development. Since 2014, Professor Reid has been researching the growth of the craft brewing industry in the United States and its potential role in helping to revitalize neighborhood economies.
To date he has published over a dozen journal articles and book chapters on the economic geography of craft brewing. Professor Reid has also delivered lectures at conferences in both the United States and other countries. Professor Reid authors a blog about the beer industry (www.thebeerprofessor.com). This semester he is teaching a graduate seminar titled, ‘The Geography of Beer and Brewing’.
He is currently writing a book titled Agritourism, Wine Tourism, and Craft Beer Tourism: Local Responses to Peripherality Through Tourism Niches. Dr. Reid will deliver the keynote speech at BMTC20.
Cameron Davis | Atlanta Brewing Co
Cameron is the Marketing Director at the Atlanta Brewing Co, where she is responsible for all marketing aspects of the brewery. She recently took the brewery through a complete rebranding of not only the beers but the company name and logo. Prior to this Cameron had a career in sports marketing, including stints with the Atlanta Falcons, ESPN College Gameday, and the Peach Bowl.
Marissa DeSantis | Great Lakes Brewing Co.
Marissa is Communications Supervisor at Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland. She serves as GLBC’s in-house copywriter, crafting all digital and printedcommunication for the company. My duties involve social media and web contentmanagement, special program planning and execution, sales support, videography,photography, merchandising, and connecting with media representatives.
Kenny Gould | Hop Culture Magazine
Kenny Gould is the founder of Hop Culture Magazine, which in just three years has become one of the most well-read online beer magazines. He is also a contributor at Forbes, Thrillist, and Men’s Health. In 2019, Kenny and Hop Culture organized 14 craft beer events in their home base of New York City and around the country. Follow him on Instagram at @hopculturemag.
Julia Herz | Brewers Association
Julia is the Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association, co-author of the free CraftBeer.com Beer & Food Course, and co-author of Beer Pairing (Voyageur Press). She is a life-long homebrewer, BJCP beer judge and Certified Cicerone®. She is also well-known as the dynamic voice of craft beer.
Kendall Joseph | Rhizome Productions
Kendall Joseph is an event manager for Rhizome Productions, an event production company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Rhizome runs 14 events a year, most of them focused on craft beer. Kendall is an Advanced Cicerone and a veteran beer blogger, who along with his wife June authors Beer Makes Three.
Eric Kean | Left Hand Brewing
Eric is the Community Outreach and Events Manager for Left Hand Brewing Company and the Executive Director of the Left Hand Brewing Foundation where he oversees the production of 3-4 major beer festivals every year. Prior to his work at Left Hand Brewing Company, Eric worked as the Event Manager for TEDxMileHigh, producing the largest ticketed TEDx events in the world and as Operations and Ranch Manager at Planet Bluegrass and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Eric also currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors for Visit Longmont and is pursuing his MBA at the University of Colorado Denver.
Tim Leffel | Al Centro Media
Tim Leffel is an award-winning writer, author, blogger, and publisher. He runs five travel-related websites and has also written about the intersection of beer and travel for the likes of Imbibe, Global Traveler, Perceptive Travel, Transitions Abroad, USA Today, and the company blogs of Trivago, Viator, and BedandBreakfast.com. He is often invited to speak at travel industry conventions and is the Conference Director for the annual Travel Bloggers Exchange event in North America. He frequently consults with companies on how to work with the media and get more press coverage through cost-effective methods with a high return on investment.
Paul Leone | New York State Brewers Association
Paul is Executive Director of the New York State Brewers Association, which has over 400 breweries and is one of the top craft beer states in the country. Paul began his career as a multi-media producer for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. He soon moved on to editing, shooting, and producing several series for cable television, including writing and developing several television pilots on American craft beer, the first few hosted by Dogfish Heads Sam Calagione.
Kristen Muraro | Ska Brewing Co
Kristen Muraro is Marketing Director at Ska Brewing Co in Durango, Colorado. Bio coming soon.
Rich Owings | Local Is Where It’s At
An Internet marketer since 2005, Rich Owings sold his tech blog in 2014 and now spends his time helping businesses around the world improve their online presence. Rich spoke at the very first Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference where he was the highest rated speaker that year, presenting a unique twist on SEO that focuses on getting listed as a local business. You can find him on Twitter @RichOwings.
Matt Plapp | Driven Media Solutions
Matt Plapp is the CEO of Driven Media Solutions, a full-service marketing firm located in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. For the past 13 years his company has created targeted social media campaigns that turn clicks into customers. With a specialty of restaurants, breweries, and tap rooms, Matt’s successful marketing strategies can specifically be used to grow a company’s visitors (i.e. beer tourism) but more generally can be applied to most small businesses.
Julie Wartell | PubQuest
Julie Wartell is a Continuing Lecturer in the Urban Studies and Planning Program at the University of California, San Diego and an independent advisor to governmental agencies and communities relating to analyzing crime problems, neighborhood safety, and the geography of breweries. Julie currently teaches a course called “Craft Breweries and the Urban Economy,” and her research, training and writing has been used in communities around the world. In her spare time, Julie also runs PubQuest, a brewery mapping company.
Bart Watson | Brewers Association
Bart Watson is the Chief Economist at the BA and is in charge of the BA’s statistical resources, including production surveys, economic analysis, and market research. In addition to dazzling BA members for the past 6.5 years with industry data and his clear analyses, his responsibilities include interacting with the media on economic and statistical issues. He has an undergrad from Stanford and a graduate degree from UC Berkeley in political science. Bart will deliver our Closing Keynote address at BMTC19.
Kevin York | Kevin York Communications
Kevin is the founder and president of Kevin York Communications, which provides marketing services to the craft beer industry. Kevin has done PR, social media, and content marketing at both the strategic and tactical levels. Prior to founding KYC, he worked at Edelman Digital and Voce Communications, a Porter Novelli company, where he served as head of Porter Novelli’s global digital technology practice. He also founded and managed The Couchletes, a national sports editorial site with seven regional writers.