Academy of Wine Communications

Over the past few months, I have been working on re-launching the Academy of Wine Communications. I had been thinking of starting an organization of wine PR and marketing professionals to provide a forum to pool resources and discuss issues. I then recalled that the organization already existed, but had been inactive for a few years. The organization was started back in 1994 by three industry pioneers–my boss at Balzac Communications Paul Wagner, Napa PR institution Harvey Posert, and Sam Folsom, owner of Folsom & Associates. Over the past few years AWC has languished until I took over this year.

My goal is to build an online community as well as local chapters. Traditionally, the Academy has been centered in Napa and Sonoma. But, with the advent of social media tools, we can expand beyond the immediate area. We plan to employ these tools to expand membership to the rest of the country and world.

We will be holding our first event of the new era on June 30th, 6:00pm at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, California. The fee to attend is $15 for members and $30 for non-members. The annual membership fee is $100 for individuals, $500 for ornganizations.

For more info on the event, interested parties can RSVP at the AWC website.

Tags: academy of wine communications, awc, The Talking Stick, wine communications, wine marketing