Wine Bloggers Conference – North America

Details

“I didn’t know what to expect coming into the weekend and I was blown away by the whole thing, particularly the level of participation from the industry, the wineries and the winemakers.  Really cool and fun to be a part of it.” R.J. Hilgers, 2009 Participant.

The 2010 North American Wine Bloggers Conference will take place June 25-27, 2009 in Walla Walla, Washington. Wine bloggers, industry bloggers, and other wine and social media professionals will gather from throughout North America and beyond to meet, learn, and share.

Washington State is the second largest producer of wine in the United States and has over 32,000 planted acres. The state has 11 distinct appellations and two sub-appellations and our 2010 conference will highlight the diversity of the area.  The entire state wine industry is looking forward to hosting the conference. Our host, Walla Walla, is a town of about 58,000 residents that is smack in the middle of wine country, has an historic downtown often voted “Best Main Street” in America, and is known for its high quality restaurants.

Who Should Attend

  • Citizen Bloggers who write about wine or the wine industry on their own. In 2010, we are also focusing on wine & food pairing and so invite all food bloggers as well!
  • Winery Bloggers who have a winery-related blog. We will have special content tailored to winery bloggers.
  • New Media Innovators who work in the world of blogging and social media.
  • Wine Industry members who would like to learn about new media or interact with bloggers.

Cost, Payment, Cancellation, and What is Included

The cost of the conference is $95 for citizen wine bloggers (those unaffiliated with a business or organization), $195 for industry wine bloggers (those whose blog is affiliated with a winery, retail store, or other business or organization), and $295 for non-blogger participants (industry, media relations professionals, friends and family, etc). We are able to offer a lower price to citizen bloggers and wine-industry bloggers because it is for these folks our sponsors underwrite the conference. If you are a member of OpenWine Consortium, you will receive a discount of $10 (just indicate your membership on the registration along with your member name and we’ll discount it automatically). Payment is required in advance by credit card.

If you must cancel your registration, your payment is 50% refundable through May 25 and not refundable after that. Please note you can insure against losing your conference registration fee (and your airplane tickets) by purchasing trip insurance. This is only good for those of you traveling from outside of the conference area and staying overnight.

The conference includes multiple wine tastings, two dinners, one or two lunches, two breakfasts, and outstanding content. Not included in the conference price are your hotel and transportation to and from Walla Walla.

Host Hotel

Our host hotel is the Marcus Whitman, a beautiful historic hotel located in downtown Walla Walla. The Marcus Whitman is offering us conference space, discounted room rates, breakfast, and free wifi. We have a block of 100 rooms reserved for June 25 and June 26 for $129 per room per night; you can extend your stay if needed. To reserve your room, simply call the hotel directly (509-525-2200 or toll free 866-826-9422) and tell them you are with the Wine Bloggers Conference. If you would like to share a room with another conference attendee, please visit our Forums section on OWC and talk with other participants. Note we expect all 100 rooms to go quickly and will provide details on a backup hotel when this happens.

Arrival and Departure

Registration begins at 10:00 AM on Friday, June 25 and runs through 2:00 PM. Getting to Walla Walla will require some planning on your part but is much easier than you might imagine. Your options:

  • Fly into Seattle (4.5 hours by car) or Portland (4 hours), rent a car, and visit other wine areas on the way.
  • Fly to Spokane, Washington (3 hours) and rent a car. Spokane is a small airport with a major flight schedule and is easy to navigate.
  • Fly to the nearby Tri Cities Airport in Pasco (1 hour), which has many daily flights including a non-stop from SFO. We especially recommend this option if you are planning to do the pre-conference excursion on Thursday and/or the post-conference excursion on Sunday afternoon.
  • Fly directly into Walla Walla airport itself, via Seattle. Flights are limited.

Dress Code

Dress is “wine country casual”. What does that mean? Really, you should dress as you feel comfortable. For daytime sessions, jeans or shorts and a polo shirt are fine. For the evenings, many people will dress up a bit.

Comments

  • KateCorcoran
    Thanks Allan. I actually rented a car since it made things so much easier - so I might be able to help someone else back with me!
  • KateCorcoran
    Any thoughts on the best way to get from Marcus Whitman to Portland Sunday afternoon? Trying not to have to rent a car for the whole period.
  • allanwright
    Hi Kate,

    There might certainly be people at the conference traveling to Portland afterward. In fact, I would say it is a good bet. Any chance you can rent a car one-way in Walla Walla and then cancel if you find someone to give you a ride?
  • Hi Joel, do you think there is any way to extend the Whitman hotel block from June 24 - June 27? I just called the hotel and they want upwards of $400 a night for June 24 and June 27. Since most would probably prefer to come in on the 24th, it might be a deterrence of staying at this hotel if they can’t get an affordable rate.
  • interestingly enough, the online rates are less at $174 - $329. But hoping the hotel might be willing to extend the $129 offer for June 24 and June 27 :)
  • allanwright
    Hi Pamela,

    I just contacted the hotel and had them open our $129 rate for Thursday the 23th and Sunday the 27th. Thanks for pointing this out.

    Allan
  • that's awesome, thanks Allan! :)
  • Anyone have a pass for sale??
  • jillklein
    I've been trying to figure out how to be involved as a winery....I'm currently registerd as a guest.
    I emailed many months ago and never heard back. I would like to be able to pour at the live wine blogging.
    Thanks.
  • allanwright
    Hi Jill,

    Can you let me know when and which address you emailed? We are pretty diligent about replying to emails (read: we are glued to our computers) so not getting a reply would be rare and something we would want to fix. I'll email you directly about sponsorships.
  • allanwright
    Derek, apparently you won. I just checked with the Flamingo and they said that was an error and the deal on Expedia has already been removed. They told me they have 20 rooms left at the hotel and are still honoring our group rate. However, for those of you still needing to reserve a room its worth checking around to see if you can find that type of deal!
  • I just got a better deal at the Flamingo through Expedia--$129--than they were offering directly through their site using the BLOG group code.
  • is this a mistake: "conference ends at 12:00 noon on Sunday, October 26"
    thanks
    marcio
  • Yes. That was an error. The conference ends on Sunday, July 26th.
  • Ok, please tell me we'll have TwitterTags (name tags with our twitter names) I nominate @winebratsf to coordinate this... thanks Thea :D
  • Corey, We've asked registered participants via an email sent out last week, to respond to us with their Twitter Account Names. We'll do our best to add these to the name tags and will also post these on the participant list in pdf format on this site. If you have not sent in your Twitter Name, please do so by emailing reno at zephyradventures dot com . Thanks!
  • Just signed up! Looking forward to meeting everyone in person.
  • Can we call each other "Citizen Blogger" at the conference?

    'Cause that would be cool.

    "Why, greetings, fellow Citizen Blogger!"

    :-)
  • blogger
    Great idea, Joe! I think that would be cool, although if we also came up with a sign or handshake to go with it some of the wine press might use it against us. Only bummer is, although I created the name, I guess I don't actually qualify since I blog for my business. :)
  • evanjacobs
    I've developed an app that I think would be perfect for the "Live Wine Blogging" event. It's called 'idrankthis' and it allows anyone to create a wine blog with tasting notes instantly.

    Try it out at:
    http://idrankthis.com
  • Evan, like "idrankthis" idea! It's a nice way to see what other people are enjoying and why. Citizen Blogger
  • Could the organizers please elaborate a bit on the "special content tailored to winery bloggers" for the 2009 USA WBC?

    Thanks!
  • blogger
    Hi Marco,

    There are two reasons for wineries to participate. First, to interact with bloggers, learn how to work with bloggers, and possibly meet some who would be interested to post about your winery. Second, to learn how to use blogging and social media to promote your own business by attending sessions such as "Search Engine Optimization, Traffic Building, and Blogs", "Creating a Social Network for Your Winery", and ""Facebook and Other Social Media for Wine Businesses".
  • This sounds like great fun. My spouse would like to attend just the winery dinners. Is that an option and how much would that cost?
  • I've already registered. Great fun was had last year.
  • Looking forward to it!
  • Can't wait, the first one was so much fun, I'm sure this one will be even better!!!
  • I'll be there
  • Awesome. Count. Us. In!
  • Allan Wright
    Josh, not sure what you are referring to. Are you signed up to pour at one of the events?
  • Josh Smith
    Does anyone know how much wine each winery is to bring?
  • Allan Wright
    Ward and all,

    We did a poll of potential breakout session topics and have six that are firmly on the list. The Ethics discussion, as well as three others, are on the "bubble". We only want to offer topics that people will attend! We'll be finalizing the list shortly and posting on the site.
  • Hi there Allen! I believe that there's a blogger ethics panel going on during the conference and I'd like to get the name who's hosting that. I'm finishing up my blog about the conference and I'd like to get it in there. Thanks!
  • Allan Wright
    Hi Kathy,

    You definitely need to pre-register. However, you can do that for her online by going to the Register page of the site. Just put her info in and we'll sign her up and send her the confirmation.
  • Hello, My boss asked me to sign her up for this conference. Do you have to register in person or can I register her in advance? Thank you.
  • Sounds great! I can't wait to meet you all - and the timing is perfect, it comes at the end of my CA wine harvest job, just a week before I board my flight back to New Zealand, so the final tasting will serve to readjust my palate!

    See you all there

    Alex
  • Allan Wright
    We hope you can make it also, Gilberto. Please let us know if you have any questions!
  • Well,
    I see that the goal is "to gather wine bloggers from throughout North America and beyond" and I'm from "beyond".
    I'm in Venezuela and I hope I could make it to be with you!
  • Looking forward to seeing everyone this Fall! Cheers!
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