BeerNow20 will not take place as scheduled on August 7 – 8 in Austin. However, we are not canceling it entirely.
We have been working hard over the past weeks to come up with a new date and new location in Austin. Our goal is to move the conference to October or early November to give the country, state, and city more time to contain the novel coronavirus. In addition, we plan to move the conference outdoors so we can safely conduct the event.
Obviously, the United States in general and some states in particular are still struggling to contain the virus. Our top priority is safety and we will not run a conference if we do not think we can keep our speakers, sponsors, and attendees safe. We at Zephyr United have already canceled or postponed two conferences and 12 tours this year. But we are running our first tour next month (a bicycling tour in Idaho, with safety precautions) and are hoping to make Beer Now our first conference since the pandemic hit.
Things are changing quickly (both with good and bad news on a daily basis) and the extra time might help. In addition, experts have been quite clear that being outside is much, much safer than being indoors. Holding a conference outdoors is itself “novel” and could not work for many events but might be perfect for Beer Now in Austin in October or November. If we do hold the conference, we will be taking other safety measures.
We plan to have an update by the end of July and will communicate directly with our registered attendees now about the move.
Where do we opt out and get a refund for our registration?
I encourage you to find a way to delivery it “virtually” as others have successfully done. Even though we miss out on the live interactions, much information can be had.
We are considering having the option of listening to the sessions virtually for those who can’t attend in person, of having sponsors who can’t attend send beers to those in Austin, and of having sponsors send beer to beer influencers at their homes. Working on it.