Leading Wine & Cannabis Industry Professionals on Hand to Present

Wine Industry Network (WIN) today announced the full line-up of industry experts who will be presenting at the 2018 North Coast Wine & Weed Symposium, to be held on August 2nd at the Hyatt Regency, Sonoma Wine Country, in Santa Rosa, CA. 

“No one knows what the ultimate impact of cannabis legalization will be on wine, but we do know that the two  industries are sharing the same neighborhood and to a degree, many of the same consumers. It’s just smart business for wineries to better understand what’s happening and we’ve assembled an incredible group of experts to help with that,” says George Christie, Founder & CEO of Wine Industry Network. 

Keynote speaker, Bill Silver, CEO of CannaCraft and former Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State, where he assisted in the establishment of the Wine Business Institute as the global leader for wine business education and research will be opening up the conference. He will be sharing his transition story from wine to cannabis, discussing comparisons he sees between the two industries, how they can work together, where they might see conflict as well as make predictions about what the future may hold for the wine & cannabis industries.

A few of the featured speakers include:

Jessica Lukas, VP, Consumer Insights / BDS Analytics, Inc.the leader in data, market research, analytics, and consumer insights for the cannabis industry will be addressing the million dollar question, what is the overlap between cannabis and wine consumers? 

Erin Gore, Founder, CEO / Garden Society a boutique cannabis confections company that is taking dispensary shelves by storm and catching the attention of every ‘Wine Mom’ in California & beyond, will be taking part in a panel that is geared to cannabis industry attendees ‘Distribution Program’s That Work’. 

Pamela Hadfield, Co-Founder / HelloMD the largest, most active most active, online community of health and wellness cannabis consumers will be presenting on the emerging trends in the cannabis industry and where they are taking us.  

Tammy Boatright, President / VingDirect, a wine industry marketing and branding expert will be sharing her winery DTC marketing and branding expertise with cannabis industry attendees and address common questions about how small wine producers compete and succeed in such a competitive environment?

Brian Applegarth, Founder of Emerald County Tours and California Cannabis Tourism Association will be speaking on a topic the wine industry had been paying close to attention to, cannabis tourism and potential impact on wine. 

For the full lineup of speakers, more information on sessions, or to register for the event please visit wine-weed.com or email info@wine-weed.com. 

The Wine Industry Network (WIN) hosted the 3rd Annual North Coast Wine & Weed Symposium on August 8th at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa, CA.  Professionals from the cannabis and wine industries came together again to explore the impact that the legalization of recreational cannabis consumption has had on wine and review the latest developments between the two industries over the past year.

The 3rd annual symposium hosted nearly 500 attendees who came from as far away as Florida. Of the days attendees, 53% were from the wine industry with cannabis and other industry professionals making up the remaining 47%. 

This year’s keynote was delivered by Corey Beck, CEO, Francis Ford Coppola Winery who was able to share experiences from his twenty plus years in the wine industry and his unique insight into the collaborations that are possible between wine & cannabis as Coppola recently launched The Grower’s Series, a cannabis lifestyle brand with a limited edition collection featuring three unique 100% organic cannabis flower strains. 

A talented line-up of expert speakers from both industries discussed a wide range of topics throughout the day including a presentation on the impact on wine sales in legal states, beverage industry’s investment in cannabis, cannabis consumer purchasing trends, marketing lessons learned from cannabis, and women and the cannabis industry, among other topics.

More than 40 companies were on hand to showcase new products and services, and attendees had the opportunity to participate in a unique cannabis sensory experience offered by Garden Society, a cannabis confection company that specializes in low dose edibles. The interactive experience allowed people to examine whole cannabis plants, flowers, and leaves, to smell different identifiers in different strains, and taste foods that share similar terpene profiles. 

A one-of-a kind extracurricular event, The Sonoma County Experience Tour, was back by demand again this year and designed exclusively for Wine & Weed Symposium attendees. Featuring a behind the scenes visit to CannaCraft, Solful Dispensary, a tasting at Barrel Brothers Brewing Company and concluded with a visit to Francis Ford Coppola Winery.  In addition, attendees were invited to finish their symposium experience by attending the sophisticated Terpenes and Terroir, a Crop-to-Kitchen dining experience hosted by TSO Elevated Events, The Herb Somm, and C2K Community at Gary Farrell Winery.  

“The reason this conference continues to grow in popularity is because we have outstanding speakers, we’re tackling a topic where there’s a tremendous amount of curiosity and things are evolving so quickly between these two industries that we’re never out of things to talk about,” said George Christie, CEO & President of Wine Industry Network, “Next year will be even better.”

The popularity of this event continues to grow each year due to rapid changes happening in the cannabis industry and the outstanding speakers that are on hand to dissect these topics for interested attendees. This year’s Wine & Weed Symposium will be held on August 6th, 2020 once again at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa, CA.

We would like to invite industry professionals, experts, and insiders to submit ideas and topic suggestions and encourage you to share your ideas regarding panel discussions, case studies, or presentations and consider joining our line-up of industry experts this August.

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, March 18, 2020.

Watch the 2019 Wine & Weed educational sessions now.

Cannabis and wine come together again to discuss impacts of emerging industry

Healdsburg, CA, August 6^th, 2018 – The Wine Industry Network (WIN) hosted the 2^ndAnnual North Coast Wine & Weed Symposium on August 2^nd at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa.  Professionals from the cannabis and wine industries came together for the second year to discuss the latest developments with legalization and challenges and opportunities that have arisen for the wine industry over the past year.   

The symposium was once again sold out hosting nearly 500 attendees from the North Coast and beyond. Of the days attendees, 60% were from the wine industry with cannabis and other industry professionals making up the remaining 40%. 

The opening keynote was delivered by Dr. Bill Silver, CEO of CannaCraft Inc., California’s largest producer of premium cannabis brands, and former Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Sonoma State University. Silver shared his experiences on the front lines of the emerging cannabis industry along with those from his former position leading the Wine Business Institute program.

A talented line-up of expert speakers from both industries discussed a wide range of topics throughout the day including rules, regulations, and policy updates, the impact of cannabis tourism on the wine industry, defining the cannabis consumer and overlap with wine, and lessons learned from wine applicable to the cannabis industry.

More than 40 companies were on hand to showcase new products and services, and attendees had the opportunity to participate in a unique cannabis sensory experience offered by Garden Society, a cannabis confection company that specializes in low dose edibles. The interactive experience allowed people to examine whole cannabis plants, flowers, and leaves, to smell different identifiers in different strains, and taste foods that share similar terpene profiles. 

Networking opportunities were abundant throughout the day and at several extracurricular events such as the Sonoma County Experience Tour that featured a visit to CannaCraft, Solful Dispensary, a local winery & brewery, and finally a demo cannabis garden and a sophisticated farm-to-table dining experience, Terpenes and Terroir, hosted by TSO Elevated Events and The Herb Somm, that highlighted select cannabis and wine aroma pairings.

“Of all the conferences that exist for the wine industry, none display the same level of engagement or enthusiasm as the Wine & Weed Symposium. Nearly all of the large wine companies and many small wineries were represented and the consensus remains, that over time, these two industries will have much more of a collaborative relationship than a competitive one. Wine & Weed Symposium 2019 will be even better”, says George Christie, CEO Wine Industry Network.

See pictures from Wine & Weed Symposium. 

About Wine Industry Network (WIN):

Wine Industry Network (WIN) (wineindustrynetwork.com), is based in Healdsburg, CA and is THE business resource for the wine industry. WIN produces two annual trade shows & conferences, the North Coast Wine Industry Expo (WIN Expo) (wineindustryexpo.com), and the Wine & Weed Symposium (wine-weed.com); the online daily news publication, Wine Industry Advisor (wineindustryadvisor.com); an online employment resource, WIN Jobs (wineindustry.jobs); and THE North American Wine Industry Database, Wine Industry Data (WIN Data) (wineindustrydata.com).

As the access to legal cannabis expands across the US, many in the wine industry are uncertain how to approach this budding $20B industry.

Join us as we explore in detail where wine and cannabis overlap using key demographic and geographic usage as well as demand trends provided by Headset and NielsenIQ experts!

More Information Here.