Thank you to everyone who sponsored, spoke at, or attended the Beer Now Conference in previous years and who signed up for 2022 in Asheville, North Carolina. As we saw last year in Austin, the pandemic has hit the conference industry hard. Although a very fun time, the Austin conference registrations were much lower and we are seeing the same pattern with Asheville this year. Ultimately, we have not hit our minimum number of registrations by this date and we have decided to cancel Beer Now 2022 in Asheville.
We have no plans at this point to bring back the Beer Now Conference in the future. Obviously, the pandemic has been bad for conferences. Even conferences that have run have tended to have fewer participants and sponsors than in pre-pandemic years. And while we think conferences will return, we at Zephyr Conferences also faced the reality of losing 1/2 of our four-person staff due to the pandemic.
In 2021 we experienced a surge in (mostly domestic) travel and this surge has only increased in 2022, as people are hungry to again travel around the world. This means the tour side of our Zephyr United business has been booming and requiring much of our time and attention. Which we are not complaining about!
In the end, we have decided to not plan any Beer Now Conferences unless something changes. We are open to any suggestions from key beer industry players or influencer groups.