Say Goodbye to Static Winery Brochures and Hello to Interactive Winery Information

The theme of this year’s conference is “The Social Wine Brand” and part of this concept includes the use of technology in new and innovative ways. The new internet encourages information to be relevant and easily accessible so that it may be shared among the community quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, winery brochures fit the “static” category, as they are rarely shared and generally out of date.

Why do I bring this up? Because yesterday, Ryan and I recycled 3 garbage bags filled to the brim with winery brochures, catalogs and DVDs. We rationalized even trying to get some of the photos off the catalogs, but it would require so much work that in the end, it clearly wasn’t worth it. The only option we had was to accept that we enabled a small forest to be wiped out and vowed to do something different.

At the II Annual European Wine Bloggers Conference, we will provide all participants with a USB drive, rather than a bag filled with sponsorship information that can be downloaded to their computer and accessed for future articles or as material to be shared with others. Later, the USB drive can be reused over and over again, thereby promoting sustainability. Materials will also be made available to all readers through an exclusive online content channel that will encourage these materials to be shared with a wider audience.

We also want to make it clear this is a kind of “no winery left behind” initiative! In other words this year any and all wineries can be a small sponsor of the EWBC, thus showing their support for the event. Here’s how it’s going to work:

• For 25 euros you get 10mb’s of space = A couple of PDF’s and a photo or two
• For 200 euros you get 100mb’s of space = With this you could fit a small video, slideshow, Powerpoint presentation and maybe more!
• For 600 euros you get 1 gigabyte of space = With this you could put an feature length movie on the thumbdrive, your whole catalog of wines and a full slideshow!

What can a sponsor put on the USB drive? Well lot’s of stuff, but we hope that a few of you/them, take the time to be creative. Make a mini website that is accessible on the drive. Do a fun video that shows your wines in a new way. Put together a mix tape of your favorite music to drink your wines with. The sky’s the limit

• Videos
• Photos
• Website
• Technical Sheets
• Winery Info
• A song about the EWBC (really hoping for this one)

Clearly, the sky is the limit. If you are interested in more information about the USB, contact us! Or if you have an idea for a fun way to make this even more interactive we’d love to hear about it!

Cheers,

The EWBC Crew