AGENDA

Note: All sessions are at the Boston Park Plaza hotel unless indicated.

OPTIONAL PRE-CONFERENCE EXCURSION
Thursday, July 25, 2013
5:00 PM           Meet in Portland, Maine for beer and cheese pairing reception at Cabot Creamery
7:00 PM           Beer dinner at Sebago Brewing
9:00 PM           Portland Pub Crawl

Friday, July 26, 2013
10:00 AM           Depart Portland, Maine for Boston by bus
11:00 AM            Tasting and lunch at Portsmouth Brewery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
1:00 PM              Depart Portsmouth for Boston with 2:15 PM arrival

OFFICIAL CONFERENCE AGENDA
Friday, July 26, 2013
2:30 PM            Registration & Trade Show
4:30 PM            Depart by bus for the Boston Beer Company
5:00 PM            Introduction by Julia Herz of the Brewers Association
5:30 PM            Keynote Speech – Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company
6:30PM             Tours, tasting, and dinner courtesy of Boston Beer Company
9:00 PM            Heavy Seas Pyrate Party at Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale

Saturday, July 27, 2013

9:30 AM           Current State of Beer Blogging Survey Results
10:30 AM         Panel of Industry Beer Bloggers
11:30 AM          Mechanics of Beer Pouring presented by Heineken
12:30 PM          Food & Beer Pairing Lunch courtesy of the National Beer Wholesalers Association
2:00 PM           Social Media Best Practices
3:30 PM           Depart hotel for Live Beer Blogging at the Massachusetts Beverage Alliance
6:00 PM           Depart MBA for tour, tasting, and dinner at Harpoon Brewery
9:00 PM           BeerSocial – integrate all forms of social media with beer tasting

Sunday, July 28, 2013
9:30 AM            Blogger Reports – 10 Five-Minute Reports
10:30 AM          Standing Out in the Crowd by Blogging Local
11:30 AM           Keynote Speech – Ray Daniels of the Cicerone Certification Program
12:15 PM            Wrapup
12:30 PM           Conference Finish

PROGRAM CONTENT

Current State of Beer Blogging Survey Results
Zephyr Adventures has not only been compiling data on beer blogs but, this spring, will be conducting a Current State of Beer Blogging survey. We’ll share our results on what we learn and compare beer bloggers to food, wine, and fitness bloggers.

Mechanics of Beer Pouring 
Presented by Heineken, global draught master, Frank Evers, offers a demonstration and education on the Heineken Star Serve program and the mechanics of pouring beer.

Panel of Industry Beer Bloggers
A range of topics will be covered including suggestions from industry bloggers on how to build relationships with breweries that can lead to guest blogging and other unique opportunities.

Social Media Best Practices
Are you using social media to market your beer blog, or is social media using you? Get tips from experts on how to effectively use social media tools like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google +, and Pinterest.

Blogger Reports
Hear 5-minute reports from ten bloggers. No topic is off-limits! Reports can discuss a current project/campaign, how traffic grew in 2012 compared to 2011, what post was a bust, or what content surprised readers.

Standing Out in the Crowd by Blogging Local
There are over 1000 Citizen Beer Bloggers in North America. How do you stand out in the crowd? You need a niche and blogging local is often the best choice. Beer bloggers and authors John Holl (of www.beerbriefing.com and the book Massachusetts Breweries) and Norm Miller (of Beer Nut and the book Beer Lover’s New England) will provide tips and insight.