#WBIS – The first edition of the Wine Business Innovation Summit was held on Saturday 19th January attracting figures from across the globe

#WBIS took the world of wine by storm. A new type of event, #WBIS combined highly interesting discussions and round-tables with a spotlight for wine business start-ups and a free tasting and networking event.

The first edition of #WBIS was held on 19th January at the Les Ateliers des Tanneurs in the Marolles quarter of Brussels. Organised by Marc Roisin (CEO and founder ofVinogusto.com) and Faye Cardwell (freelance organizer of international wine events) the duo were supported by Jens De Maere (founder of Belgianwines.com) and a team of highly enthusiastic members of the Belgian wine scene.

170 participants from all corners of the globe attended the 1st #WBIS held in Brussels in January 2013. They took part in some of the 9 concurrent seminars on subjects selected interactively by the on-line community. Top level speakers including Robert Joseph (well known wine critic), Rich Tomko (CEO of Snooth.com), Finkus Bripp (founder of Wine on the Rocks and media specialist), Ann-Victoire Monrozier (social media expert and creator of Miss Vicky Wines), Andre Ribeirinho (CEO of Adega), Ryan Opaz (organiser of the European Wine Bloggers Conference), Luiz Alberto (The Wine Hub & founder of #Winelover), Melanie Tarlant (owner of Tarlant Champagne) and other industry professionals lead seminars on how to launch a wine brand, how to communicate with young wine consumers, the importance of social media and bloggers trips, unique wine identification systems, wine tourism, video as a new means of communication and on-line wine-based communities.

Feedback from the attendees of the first edition of #WBIS was overwhelmingly positive. Rich Tomko of Snooth described it as the place the “big movers and shakers of the European wine industry meet” and one of our wine producer sponsors said “WBIS was the place to gather inspiration for how to move their business forward and develop on the international market“.

The event also hosted the first session of the #WBIS Business Award where start-ups (selected by the on-line community) were given the chance to pitch their business ideas to a jury of accomplished wine sector entrepreneurs. Projects were assessed according to the quality of their presentation, the level of innovation, focus on consumers needs and viability of business model. The winner of the #WBIS Business Award was Vincod an on-line storage system giving consumers and producers easy access to in-depth data on their wines.

 

DIGITAL REPLAY

 

 

 

Note that at the begin they were aiming to rich and get about 50 people to this first edition of #WBIS and ended up with about 200 people registered!

Here are some of the major comments relevant from this first edition of the Wine Business Innovation Summit, which was for me a very great success, very rich workshops, large panel of people around wine business, an awesome social sharing moment !

 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Engage your customer

#winelover invest much of their time to help wine love, culture & knowledge spread !

ROI of #winelover community for #wine producer is easy marketing from people that loves wine and share it

Events and good sharing on social media is helping a lot building connections between producer and casual consumer

Online content (blog posts etc) can be much more dynamic than traditional magazine articles!

#Winelover keys: dynamic community, cooperation, people who love wine, social media!

#Winelover is not only about fancy teeshirt ! Everyone who loves #wine can be part of the #Winelover community !

Wine world revolution is on ! Get closer to the customer! Thanks social media and web platforms !

Social media is a minor investment in money but a mayor investment in time

Each platform is different and you have to choose what you communicate where!

If you invite bloggers please know who they are, what they do. Message and knowledge

We need to get post-informations about the content before a bloggers trip to maximize richness and promote better

You need experiences to evolve, you don’t want be sitting and just be told what to write (press trips) !

 

 

BUSINESS

Need to build a brand – through whatever channels possible and desirable. Need to network for things to move, then let others talk

Every story is different, every client is different

We are all different, different backgrounds and drink different wines

Wine brand : You need value, concept and consistency

The consumer owns your brand!

One barrel of wine can work more miracles than a church full of saints

It’s important that we speak from person to person -rather than business to people. And take a real interest

Stories sells & people want to know how the wine is made! Banana, strawberry, fruit acidity… they don’t care!

Producers often forget that the customer want to buy a “story” label and don’t care about pairing with pizza/chicken!

You cannot really change the drinking profile of your customer!

Comparing expensive / cheap wine! Shame to drink cheaper or mid price bottle?  I don’t think, the difference is no price but quality!

If the label is done with good attention, the wine might be the same! Not all true but psychologic for the customer!

You need to centralize all the data, and make it easy access for all users, especially the final consumer !

 

 

COMMUNICATION

Can you produce cheap videos and still get audience? Yes, absolutely! Can find cheap equip just need to know how to use it

People will always remember how you made them feel!

Different nationalities have different approaches to wine – we need to take that into account

It is better to have a gun & not use it than not have one when you need it

Innovation in wine tourism is linked to new activities and creating networks with other subjects to create experiences

When you talk to people you will get followers – it is better to communicate than pay for like

Wine tourism is an option but must decide how much resources to invest – if not enough, better to do something else

Wine is doing a social job already by itself !

 

#WBIS aims to encourage new and innovative approaches to growth and communication in the wine industry. The first edition of #WBIS was hold on Saturday 19th January 2013 in Brussels(Les Ateliers des Tanneurs, rue des tanneurs 60).

By creating a forum for wine professionals, bloggers, social media whizzes and business experts,WBIS will encourage innovation, disruptive thinking and new technologies in the wine world. Special attention will be paid to examining who the consumer is, how they act and what should be done to meet their needs.

The format whereby experts in a particular field are invited to share their experience followed by open and in-depth discussion on how such subjects can be taken forward, has been inspired by other events in the wine and business world such as Vinocamp, European Wine Bloggers Conference, Founders Institute chapters, Betagroup sessions, and Levin 2.0. We’ll give each of the speakers 15 minutes to present before the discussion is opened up to all participants for discussion, Q&A and general brainstorming. To keep the order (!!?) we’ll make sure a time-keeper and reporter are on hand to keep record of what’s going on and make sure everyone who wants to contribute gets a chance to share their thoughts.

Besides the 9 seminars which will be run throughout the day, the programme will also include networking sessions (accompanied by lots of wine!) so that WBIS creates an environment to foster knowledge exchange, build relationships and create the right conditions to launch new projects.

We’re also hosting a special forum for creators of new business ideas. The winner (considered the most viable, innovative and interesting idea by our panel of judges), will be presented with theWBIS Business Award.

Who should attend? 
Well, everyone who has a professional interest – or just a serious passion – for wine. We want to talk business and we want to really look into how the wine business can grow. The solution is easy, more people need to drink more wine – so the question is, how can we make it happen? How can we make consumers feel at ease with wine? Are we giving them the right information? do we understand their needs? how can we work together to offer wine-drinkers what they want? These are just some of the topics we’ll be touching on… So if you’re a wine producer, merchant, sommelier, journalist, blogger, entrepreneur, web developer, communication specialist, representative of a wine region or anything else wine-related, WBIS is the place you need to be.

 

 

Here follows, few of  the recordings from the #WBIS workshops and the slides for your happiness:

SOCIAL MEDIA – Potential ROI of catering to a community such as #winelover for wineries or generic organisations

SPEAKERS:Luiz Alberto, Andre Ribeirinho, Jan Matthias Klein 

 

SOCIAL MEDIA – Potential ROI of community such as #winelover for wineries or generic organizations byFabien Lainé on Mixcloud

 

 

 

 BUSINESS – Unique Wine Identification & Database Management

SPEAKERS:Andre Ribeirinho, Marc Roisin, Rich Tomko

 

Business – Unique Wine Identification & Database Management by Fabien Lainéon Mixcloud

 

Different approaches to selling wine online. by Vincent Pétré on Mixcloud

Credits of this recording to Vincent Petre – vincentpetre.com

 

 

 

COMMUNICATION – How to communicate with 25-35 yr old wine consumers?

SPEAKERS:Robert Joseph, Rich Tomko,

COMMUNICATION – How to communicate with 25-35 yr old wine consumers? by Fabien Lainé onMixcloud