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North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild Partnership to Host Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference

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Acacia serves as Brewers Guilds Manager on the Brewers Association Government Affairs team. Acacia's focus is on supporting organizational development of small non-profit U.S. state and regional brewers trade associations (also known as brewers guilds). Currently based out of Missoula, Montana, Acacia’s roles include crisscrossing the country participating in guild member and board meetings, climbing Capitol Hill, contributing to various national and international beer conferences, attending association management and regulatory conferences, and of course, reveling at beer festivals nation-wide.

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The North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild will be partnering with Zephyr Conferences and Asheville Brewers Alliance to host their first-ever Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference in Asheville, NC, March 28-30, 2017. Beer and tourism industry leaders from throughout North America and beyond will gather for three days of education, discussion, and networking.

North Carolina is rapidly becoming well known for craft beer culture, with over 160 craft brewers. The ranks the state number nine in number of craft breweries out of the 50 states. Three regional craft breweries (Sierra Nevada Brewing, Oskar Blues Brewing and New Belgium Brewing) have also recently opened second manufacturing facilities in the Asheville area, adding to the 36 local brewers, and making the town an ideal host to the conference.

Beer marketing and tourism have become increasingly critical to the craft beer industry of late. With craft beer having grown 12.8 percent by volume in 2015 on top of 18 percent growth in 2014. With over 4,400 breweries in the U.S., both retail shelf space and tap room handles are harder to come by–strong marketing strategies have become imperative to a successful business model.

“The Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference provides factual, concrete advice for breweries looking to improve their marketing and for all beer and tourism industry players to improve their beer tourism offerings,” says conference organizer Allan Wright, president of Zephyr Conferences. “Beer tourism is booming but also becoming more critical as tap room sales provide much higher margins to breweries while beer tourists fill beds and restaurant seats in areas successful attracting visitors.”

Moreover, on a state level there is strong support for the local beer industry in general and beer tourism in particular. “Beer tourism is becoming increasingly important as a driver of visitors to North Carolina,” explains Scott Peacock, public relations Manager for Visit North Carolina. “Increasing visitation both locally and from out of state is a major boon to the state’s breweries,” adds Margo Knight Metzger, executive director of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild.

For complete information about the conference, visit BMTCon.com.