Virtual Agenda

The 2020 Beer Now Virtual Summit will take place November 5 – 7. Check out our agenda below!

Thursday, November 5

7 AM PT/ 10 AM ET Featured Q&A With Julia Herz: Julia Herz, CEO of the newly formed HerzMuses Enterprises LLC, has kicked off every Zephyr beer conference since its inception and this virtual setting is no different. Join Julia as she answers questions from Beth Demmon, freelance journalist for Good Beer Hunting, Beer Advocate, and many media outlets as they dive into Julia’s COVID-journey. Topics will cover her vision quest tour across the U.S. post lay off as the former Craft Beer Program Director of the Brewers Association; the state of craft brewing and the relevance of beer media in a post-pandemic world; and how ‘working on working’ and the ‘gig economy’ are such familiar, fragile yet fertile ground for so many beer writers. Julia will also answer submitted questions from you! Email us with your question.

9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Enhance the Value of Your Beer Writing With SEO Strategies: Whether you focus on beer reviews or prefer to write about breweries, brewers, hop varieties, or industry trends, you already know your writing has to be an interesting telling of the story. But another step beer writers often forget is to make sure their writing reaches the widest possible audience. You can do this by using Search Engine Optimization and Content Marketing strategies. As a beer industry writer, you can add more value to the content you create by incorporating SEO strategies that will bring your writing to more readers. And of course, more readers benefits you too in terms of increased writing opportunities or pay. Join us for beer writing SEO strategies with Scott Fish, of 32° Digital.

11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET Beyond The Ad Network: Exploring Creative Ways to Make Money From Your Blog: Most bloggers take advantage of ad networks and sponsored posts to monetize their blogs, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. Come with Jason Logsdon, founder of Amazing Food Made Easy, and explore the variety of techniques he’s used over the last decade to create value for his readers and learn how to implement them on your own blog, including creating and selling online cooking courses, self-publishing cookbooks, forming a patronage campaign, creating custom kitchen tools, publishing e-books, producing branded t-shirts and aprons, along with many more. Leave with a plan of attack to better serve your fans, grow your income, and get the most from your blog!

1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET How Bloggers Can Better Work with Breweries: With over 8,000 craft breweries in the U.S., beer-centric writers and bloggers face endless partnership choices. Karen Hertz and Kaitlyn Gipple from Holidaily Brewing Company will offer tangible tips to 1. Find a good fit for your brand 2. Set expectations up front and 3. Uniquely share the brewery’s story.

3 PM PT/ 6 PM ET 3 Reasons Why Your Instagram Strategy Isn’t Working: Phil Pallen has figured out the secret sauce to squeezing Instagram’s value for people and company brands. This talk will teach you how to simply and easily attract more followers, improve engagement, and rack up loyalty. Effortlessly maximize every facet Instagram offers for exposure, and stay visually on brand to create a consistent experience for followers. This session is great for both media and for brewery marketing staff! Get ready to increase your Instagram skills and impact—in only 45 minutes.

4 PM PT/ 7 PM ET 1264 to 2020: A Journey Through History With Czechvar: Are you sick of the 4 walls of your own home? Join us for a sensory experience that will take you out of your home and into a Czech pub. Buckle in as we go back to where it all began. With over 800 years of brewing history in Ceske Budejovice, we will take you on a journey from our history to the sources of our Czech ingredients, and practice Czech pour with us as we light up your senses with the amazing aroma and taste of Czechvar Premium Lager. This session will have you say Na Zdravi, From the Republic of Beer!! Attendees must purchase Czechvar Premium Lager on their own. If you don’t have access to Czechvar locally, contact jekovich@usbev.net or @Czechvar_USA on Instagram. Media must choose between this session and the other At-Home Tastings and must post about the session on their blog or social media channels.

5 PM PT/ 8 PM ET An At-Home Sensory Experience with Bell’s Brewery: Join Bell’s Brewery for a fun, interactive beer tasting and history tour! Learn about how Bell’s got its start and see how those humble beginnings compare to how the brewery works today with Shelly Claflin, Bell’s Tour Manager. Then, buckle-in for a sensory experience like you’ve never had before! Long-time brewer, author, builder of breweries and VP of Production, John Mallett, will lead participants through a guided, side by side comparison & tasting of the brewery’s beloved Two Hearted Ale alongside its newest year-round release, the Lo-Cal Light Hearted IPA! This experience also includes a malt and hop sensory portion as it relates to both. John will also talk about how Bell’s got from Two Hearted to Light Hearted and why quality is still at the forefront even when lower calories and ABV are the main drivers for innovation.  A truly unique sensory experience with one of the oldest, most iconic craft breweries in the U.S.!  Sign-ups received after Monday, Oct. 26 must provide their own beer. Media must choose between this session and the other At-Home Tastings and must post about the session on their blog or social media channels.

Friday, November 6

7 AM PT/ 10 AM ET Throw Me Your Best Pitch: Ever wondered how to publish a piece in a major magazine? In this session, beer writer and Hop Culture Magazine founder Kenny Gould will walk you through the process of pitching and working with major publications.

9 AM PT/ 12 PM ET Learn How to Overcome Your Fear of Live Video and Get the Raving Fans You Deserve: It doesn’t matter if you have never been in front of a camera or if you are looking for ways to improve your messaging – live video will help your business. Live video is one of the ways to get seen more on social media because they love it when you are on their platforms. It’s the perfect way to really show who you, and your brand, are and gives you an opportunity to be seen as an expert in your field. In this session, Kathy Hester of Plant Based Instant Pot, an established cookbook author and live video expert will give you the basics to get started in live video. The main thing to remember is the only way you will get better is to practice. She’ll talk about the foundations of going live, tips, and tricks to help you be more confident, and best of all – why messing up is actually a great way to get closer to your fans. Grab one of Kathy’s classes with a special BeerNow discount here!

11 AM PT/ 2 PM ET 10 Ways to Secure Your Site from Potential Threats and Hackers: A few weeks ago, a popular food blogger lost her entire site after a hacker stole her domain. It’s likely the hack -– and so many others -– could have been thwarted if the publisher had taken just a few strategic steps to secure her site and other online accounts. Her site has since been recovered, thankfully, but it was an incredibly stressful few days — and cost her a lot of time, money, and reputation. In this session, Andrew Wilder of NerdPress will walk us through ten straightforward ways you can protect your site and business so a nightmare like this doesn’t happen to you!

1 PM PT/ 4 PM ET Beer Media in 2020 – Where Do We Stand?: 2020 has proven to be a crazy year with a pandemic, recession, and Black Lives Matter protests. And we are just over halfway through. These events have affected everyone in the world, including beer writers. We’ll talk to three of them to hear their views on the turbulence affecting the world, how their year has been affected, what they are doing to adjust, and how they are planning for 2021. Our panelists include moderator Owen Ogletree, Pete Brown and Randy Mosher.

3 PM PT/ 6 PM ET How Bloggers Can Support Black Creatives: In this candid discussion, Keisha Marie, the founder of Keisha Marie Co., the co-founder of the Museum for Black Girls, and co-founder of the Black Creatives Collective discusses how bloggers and influencers can best support black creatives in our community.