The OpenWine Consortium has organized the first Wine Bloggers Conference, which will be held from October 24-26, 2008 in the heart of US Wine Country - Sonoma.
Their press release states:
"As the number and influence of wine bloggers grows, the Sonoma gathering plans to bring together hundreds of online wine scribes to discuss their impact, how to better impart information to wine lovers across the globe, and how to stake their claim as the next generation of wine media.
Organized by the OpenWine Consortium and Zephyr Wine Adventures, the three-day conference will take place at the Flamingo Resort and Spa in Santa Rosa, California. Wine Bloggers and other attendees will be treated to a series of seminars, vineyard walks, wine dinners, tasting competitions, and an exposition of mass wine blogging.
“Wine blogging in America has exploded in terms of the number of people maintaining wine blogs as well as their impact on how wine lovers and the industry get their news and interpret it,” said Joel Vincent, an organizer of the conference. The wine blogging community has always been close knit but never had an event of its own or opportunity to all come together to discuss the state of their efforts. This is that chance.”
In addition to wine bloggers, the conference is open to wine industry participants and media professionals that want to learn more about the wine blogging community and how it is changing the way wine information and news is communicated.
Among the speakers at the 2008 Wine Bloggers Conference will be Alice Feiring, an award-winning writer and author who also maintains her own wine blog, and Gary Vaynerchuk, author, wine retailer and proprietor of the wildly popular Wine Library TV videoblog.
The sponsors of this year’s conference indicate the importance and growing influence of wine bloggers. Among those sponsoring the conference are Sebastiani Vineyards, the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, Inertia Beverage Group, the Sonoma County Vintners Association, and the Sonoma Winegrape Commission.
“For literally decades wine writing and popular wine education has been dominated by a few very visible critics and wine publications, yet the emergence of hundreds of wine blogs and their millions of readers is changing that old model,” explained Vincent. “Technology is changing the wine industry is and the way it is covered and explored that has broader and more democratic character. The bloggers attending this year’s conference are responsible for implementing these changes.”
OpenWine Consortium is a global, non-profit wine industry association featuring the newest generation of emerging companies, wineries, publishers, services and a motivated community dedicated to changing the world of wine. Zephyr Wine Adventures is the leading provider of active hiking, biking, and multisport wine vacations in locations throughout the world.
I should also note that there will be a European Wine Bloggers Conference held August 29-31 in Logrono, Spain. This conference will be similar, bringing together wine bloggers as well as other members of the wine industry together. Check out their website for more details.
And next year, in 2009, there will likely be a Wine Bloggers Conference on the East Coast.
The great thing about all these new wine blogs is that they help inform the average consumer about what's new and what deserves attention.
ReplyDeleteNowadays it's become easier for the wine to speak for itself and gain popularity in that manner
I wish this phenomenon would spread to other segments of the beverage industry (and outside the insustry as well)
I was just looking at this blog/info page http://drinkvivi.com they're actually making a new soft drink but it looks like they use the site to blog and educate consumers about what's healthy and what's not in carbonated soft drinks.
Anyway - this is a good trend. More information = more power; I know I've selected wine based on blog posts and I'm obviously not alone here