WBC is the Place We Ought to Be.

Photo Credit: Chris Oggenfuss, VinTuba

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a month since the conclusion of the American Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, Washington. I have been to each conference since the first one on Sonoma in 2008, and I feel that this one was the best by far. An amazing array of bloggers contributed to the experience and the content surrounding the conference. There has been an amazing wealth of summaries, montages, and impressions, many more creative and eloquent than I could ever be. So, rather than reiterate what many have said about the conference and tell you what you may have missed, I’m going to tell you, as someone who represents a wine brand in some capacity, why you need to be at the next one.

First, if you still have any doubt about the influence of wine bloggers, you only need talk to the townsfolk of Walla Walla. The town, almost literally, rolled out the red carpet, or at least, chalk. Yes, chalk. Several shops and tasting rooms in downtown W²actually wrote messages for bloggers in chalk on the sidewalks around town, inviting them to stop in and visit. Brilliant. Several folks at the airport and restaurants around town asked if we were there for the conference, and were obviously excited by our visit. It was quite a contrast to the first year, when many folks had no idea what a wine blog even was. The folks of Walla Walla were friendly and welcoming, and above all, smart. They realized that these wine geeks, as a group, have immense influence with wine buyers. The wineries treated each blogger with the respect they deserved. Other wineries would be wise to follow suit, and next year’s town has a lot to live up to.

Speaking of the 2011 conference, my second point concerns next year’s location: Charlottesville, Virginia. This may seem like a long way away, and an odd choice, but it’s a great venue for the American Wine Bloggers Conference. As you may know, from my trip earlier this year to Virginia for the Drink Local Wine Conference, the state has a lot to offer in the way of wine history and culture. There is a lot of support for the industry from local government and local businesses. In fact, last Wednesday Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell released an announcement that the three-day conference will be held in Charlottesville next July. It made the Associated Press. I’d say that’s a ringing endorsement. With state government behind it, the 2011 conference has the potential to get even more attention than 2010.

Third, participating in the conference pays dividends. My firm and I have encouraged several winery clients to participate in both the 2009 and 2010 conferences, in one form or another. Some have engaged in the live wine blogging events, and some have poured during other events. In every case these wineries have received more blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates than ever before. In addition, it’s given me an opportunity to follow up with those bloggers who’ve expressed a positive opinion of any of these client wines. This has led to further posts and greater awareness.

Finally, bloggers today may be the wine journalists of tomorrow. When writers like Steve Heimoff, Lettie Teague, Paul Gregutt, and Bill Daly recognize the significance of these wine bloggers, you can bet that others will take notice. There is now a lot of crossover between the winestream media and bloggers on both sides. I expect that eventually the lines will be blurred beyond recognition. So, those wise wineries will recognize that these folks may be the future of wine writing, and this is an opportunity get in front of them early on in their careers.

So, I hope to see you all in Charlottesville next year.

Tags: Bloggers, blogging, wine bloggers conference

This is the last video of the sessions I recorded at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla. This one happens to be of the panel on which I participated, along with Grace Doyle of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Beth Cotenoff from Cornerstone Communications. Our goal was to have a dialog about how Bloggers and publicists can work together for the benefit of all, and I think we ended up with a very informative and constructive discussion.

As some of you who read this blog may know, I have a particular pet-peeve with what I call “lazy PR.” I can’t abide publicists who send generic pitches, don’t proof their work (Jeff Lefevre showed me a pitch from a winery while at the conference in which they had obviously cut-and-paste the email, but didn’t change the name of the publication–ooops), and don’t get to know who they are pitching to. It just makes the job the rest of us do that much harder. We tackled this subject at length during the session. We also discussed what bloggers should do to make it easier for publicists to work with them, such as introducing themselves and letting the publicist know their policy for samples, letting us know what is the subject of their blog, who is their audience, etc.

In the end, I think that a lot was learned on both sides of the aisle.

While waiting at the Tri-cities airport for my flight home, I had a discussion with Doug Levy regarding this subject. He had some great ideas on developing a standard policy and/or developing a juried/certified list of bloggers to help guide publicists and help bloggers establish a presence. I think it’s a great idea. How about it Doug?

Here is the third in the series of break-out sessions I recorded during the Wine Bloggers Conference. This one is titled Vlogging. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled 2010 = the Year of Video. In it I explain that video is the next big thing in blogging, which is why I was particularly interested in attending this session.

Andrea Robinson, Chris Oggenfuss, and Lisa Mattson did a great job of explaining what vlogging is all about and some pointers on how to do it well. I learned a lot from this panel, and I look forward to implementing some new things in the near future. One thing is certain… I need to get a camera with a mic hookup. The sound is pretty terrible on these videos, and it is the number one take-away from this session.

Here is the second in the series of break-out sessions I recorded during the Wine Bloggers Conference. This one is titled Growing Your Audience From Other Bloggers To Consumers, and was conducted by Andrea Robinson, Barbara Evans and David Honig. Some very good points in here for both citizen AND industry bloggers. Enjoy!

I’m back from the American Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla, and I have a ton of content that I need to organize. I plan to write a round-up and some thoughts on how this conference benefits wineries currently and in the future. In the meantime, I will be posting quite a bit of video I recorded while there, including the breakout sessions I attended or participated in.

This first video is of a session titled Advanced Wine Blogging with RJ Hilgers, Jeff Lefevre, and Joe Roberts. There is a lot of great info in here. Enjoy!

A copy of the slides used in the presentation, as well as a little write-up can be found on Jeff”s Good Grape blog.

Tags: Bloggers, blogging