Wines & Vines to Hold Packaging Conference

Napa, USA, 05/01/2014 / SubmitMyPR /

The inaugural Wines & Vines Packaging Conference is scheduled for Aug. 20 in downtown Napa. The one-day meeting will offer winemakers, winery operations managers, wine marketers and other wine industry professionals an unprecedented opportunity to examine the latest improvements in packaging and discuss how to implement them.

The program will focus on how wineries are capitalizing on new features and products available in glass, labels, printing, closures, capsules and bottle decoration to encourage sales while assuring quality control. Key speakers will include prominent vintners, winemakers, bottling line pros and others who are pushing the envelope away from traditional wine packaging.

Registration includes seven conference sessions, a light breakfast, full lunch and wine reception, all taking place at the spacious event center formerly known as Copia, 500 First St. in Napa. Doors open at 8 a.m. for breakfast service and to allow time for attendees to explore the exhibits of packaging suppliers before conference sessions begin at 9 a.m.

Confirmed speakers include David Pearson, CEO of Opus One, speaking about anti-counterfeiting; John Conover, general manager of Plumpjack Winery and a partner in CADE Winery, speaking about the effects of closures on wine quality and aging, and Greg Kitchens, winemaker for Don Sebastiani & Sons, addressing winemaking adjustments related to packaging. More speakers will be announced soon.

For details about the program and to register, visit winesandvines.com/events/wvpack/, email [email protected] or call Tina Vierra at (866) 453-9701, ext. 102. Registration is $195.

The new Wines & Vines Packaging Conference grew from the magazine’s successful Wine Anti-Counterfeiting Seminar held in August 2013. “After we sold out that event, and saw how much interest the subject tapped, we decided to cover anti-counterfeiting again, while expanding the event’s scope to include other elements of packaging,” said Jim Gordon, editor of Wines & Vines.

“Our take on the subject is to emphasize the technical, how-to aspects of improving a winery’s packaging,” Gordon said. “Packaging starts with the owner or marketing director’s design ideas, and we will present plenty of those, but it’s often the operations people—winemakers, purchasing managers and bottling line managers—who do the heavy lifting on new packaging. We intend the program to serve them really well, too.”

Wines & Vines welcomes the Napa Valley Vintners as a sponsor for its Aug. 20 packaging conference. A discounted registration is available to NVV members through the NVV member relations staff.

The Wines & Vines Packaging Conference will provide a valuable opportunity for packaging manufacturers to exhibit their products and services to a very focused audience. Supplier companies may contact Tina Vierra for more information about exhibit space and related opportunities: [email protected] or (866) 453-9701, ext. 102.

The University of California, Davis, Graduate School of Management will also present a wine packaging program this spring. Wines & Vines and the Graduate School of Management have partnered to cross promote their complementary wine packaging events this year. The UCD Wine Packaging Strategy program will take place June 3-4 in Davis. It emphasizes branding, design and consumer trends.