Last week, Brew Your Own (BYO) held its first ever NanoCon, a two-day conference dedicated to education about small-scale craft breweries. The event was held in Burlington, VT, and included attendees that ranged between local small-scale craft breweries, suppliers, and those planning their nano-brewery. Attendees participated in over 30 seminars, as well as workshops, exhibitor tables, roundtable discussions, and events. Four learning tracks geared towards various small-scale brewery elements were available for attendees to learn more about some of the best practices to run their brewery on. These learning tracks included Brewery Operations, Start-Ups, Business Operations, and Sales & Marketing.
BSG’s Juno Choi, HandCraft Marketing Manager, and Ashton Lewis, CraftBrewing Sales Manager who is also known as BYO’s “Mr. Wizard”, facilitated discussions and held seminars at the event. “At our roundtable, we had all nanos-in-planning, and held a lot of discussion centered on ingredient suppliers, account set up, lead time, hop contracts, and warehouse locations,” said Juno Choi about his roundtable discussion Transitioning to Working Directly with Ingredient & Supplier Vendors. “Communication is the best thing for a new nano brewery with your supplier,” said Choi. “Everything is easier if we know where you’re at, and are proactive.”
Next year’s NanoCon will be held in Vancouver, WA on November 1st and 2nd.
