First, some points to note:

• Each of the topics will have a moderator and a panel of key speakers to lead a discussion, so each of these subjects will be covered in a number of different ways. Some of these speakers and moderators will be well known and highly placed people in this business
• We are trying to make the subjects suitable for a very big range of bloggers with different experiences. If something looks too basic or too complex, there is probably something else happening at the same time that might suit you better.
• There will inevitably be some slots where a participant will want to take part in both streams. We will do our best to record each one, so you will still be able to catch up after the fact.
• We are not breaking up into many different small workgroups, we are either all going to be together for keynotes, or in 1 of 2 alternative ‘streams’ to the conference. You will be able to interact with most of the group most of the time and choose which stream you want to be in for each session
• Sessions will not be completely open-fora (forums) for discussion because we could have 50-100+ people in each session, so we will be asking for your input before each session, even before the conference, so we can raise questions and include your comments, but there will be limited opportunity to comment and raise questions in each session as well
• We kick off the day all together, split into streams, get back together for coffee & lunch times, and meet up again at the end of the day.
• During the lunch period and the breaks, there will be a limited exhibition area where wineries, destinations and service providers will showcase their products – this will be a key part of the day for discovering great new wines and ideas.
• As well as the long lunch period, where we can try lots of wines & browse while we eat, there will be short breaks between each session to encourage general feedback, mingling and a chance to introduce yourself to other participants.

So, without too much further ado, the conference programme looks like this at the moment:

Introduction and welcome:
9:00 – 9:50 :: Blogging and the Social Wine Brand

The we split the event into two streams of sessions which will loosely (for lack of better terms, but will change) be termed the “marketing stream” and the “tech stream”

STREAM 1 – ‘Marketing’
10:00 – 10:45  ::  Wine Tourism and Social Media
11:15 – 12:00  ::  Winery and Wine Blog Relations
12:15 – 13:00  ::  [Wine writing & ratings - topic title tbc]
15:00 – 15:45  ::  Monetising the Social Wine Brand (retailers, social networks, wineries, affiliate schemes etc.)

STREAM 2 – ‘Tech’
10:00 – 10:45  ::  Blogging 101 – essentials, tips and Q&A
11:15 – 12:00  ::  Video blogging – Basics and Q&A
12:15 – 13:00  ::  Tech Tools and Gadgets
15:00 – 15:45  ::   Social media to better reach your audience? (Using social networks, twitter, AbleGrape, etc. to raise your profile)

Then we finish the day back together again to discuss the future:

General Round-Up Session
16:00 – 17:00  ::  Social Wine Brand Future: New technologies, new media, and publishing

I am aware that most of these will raise as many questions as answers, but at least you will get a sense of what we hope to cover in the time available. If you do have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment box below and I will do my best to answer them. However, with the American Wine Bloggers Conference about to start and Ryan & Gabriella being away in the states, more complex discussions may need to wait a couple of weeks.

I hope you are as excited about this as we are, and we look forward to exploring these issues with you in Lisbon.

I do not think we have the time or inclination to address this whole issue in 1 weekend. However, we can consider a specific part of the overall brand experience in wine – what happens on the Social Web, the interactive internet space inhabited by the bloggers coming to the conference?

When we were trying to decide on a topic for this second European Wine Bloggers Conference, we wanted to find something relevant, contemporary, sufficiently meaningful to generate useful outcomes but also broad enough to apply to all bloggers, no matter what their role or interest was. A tough job! We settled on “The Future of the Social Wine Brand” for many reasons, most of which will be explored on this blog over the next few months in the build up to the conference. However, one aspect stands out in need of clarification. What do we, or in this case I, define as “The Social Wine Brand”?

Defining our terms

Here’s my first attempt, feel free to agree, disagree or better still, to refine and improve this description so that we may employ it consistently during our discussions:

The Social Wine Brand is the sum of all relationships created around a specific wine brand through Social Media channels

Note: I should mention that I was tempted, as with traditional marketing thinking, to include the phrase .. “for the purpose of increasing customer knowledge, loyalty and purchase” but one of the most important things to remember about social relationships is that they cannot be “for a purpose” because the brand owner in social media is the consumer and participant, not the winery.

Those who are new to social media and blogging may find these discussions a little confusing as they do require some knowledge and experience of the available tools. For those who are interested there will be a Workshop on Friday, October 30th (BEFORE the EWBC), designed to explain many of these tools and help wineries in particular learn how to interact with bloggers. We will post more about this soon, but if you are interested in this workshop, please contact us here.

A new branding conversation

We are not talking about the decisions a winery takes in traditional marketing areas such as packaging or distribution. These are independent of the “Social Brand” – relationships and conversations will happen whether the wine is a mass-market wine for the supermarkets, or an exclusive range for prestige outlets.

Consider a simple path: a winery creates a new ‘brand’ (decisions are taken on wine style, packaging, name, volume and price) and sets about ‘marketing’ and selling the wine. In the traditional process, the winery must find distributors, arrange delivery, agree promotions, publish materials and attend tastings. The wine gets pushed through the channels until it reaches a consumer who often purchases the wine based on little more than price and the alternatives available at that moment (on the shelf or wine list).

Now, that same wine, once it is “in the market” also starts a conversation. Consumers, the wine trade and maybe even the Media, begin to talk about the wine with the producer and each other. The winery’s new marketing task is to frame that discussion, make it interesting, and encourage it.

Before the use of Social Media became widespread, these conversation all took place out of reach of the producer, and therefore outside any influence, but with the arrival of public channels of communication these conversations can now be shared with the world. However, that conversation is now not under the control of the winery – it is not about printed brochures any more, but dynamic content such as blog posts, comments, tweets, status updates and videos.

If you were able to put all of these together, you’d have a picture of a wine’s “Social brand” – not a statement from the winery, but a collection of content created by everyone who comes into contact with the wine.

The discussion I believe we need to have at the EWBC is;

• how do wineries “frame” the discussion? what channels do they use (blogs, twitter, facebook, youtube, etc.) and how do they interact with those who are talking about them?
• what role do bloggers have in “spreading the word”? What rights and responsibilities do bloggers have in terms of wineries and consumers?
• how do retailers engage with the conversation and convert these relationships into sales?

Ultimately, the winery who created the brand wants bloggers and other social media users to spread the (right) word, encourage even more people to talk and read about it and demand the wine, and thus convert that interest into new sales.

If only it were that simple!

I think that the EWBC is a great opportunity to explore the different roles in this new value chain, and to discuss the many benefits for wine of doing this correctly. What do you think?

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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