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National Restaurant Assn


Sonja

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The annual National Restaurant Association Show, and it's International Wine Spirits & Beer Event are coming up in April, held here in Chicago. The event is huge, one of the largest if not the largest restaurant shows in the world, and it attracts industry people from all over the world. I have floated the idea in the past of an ADI booth, to promote our industry, distribute information on our members around the country, and pour samples of participating spirits. Now that we have more members and more active distilleries, perhaps this is the year to explore this further.

What your involvement would likely entail is sending marketing information about your company, and samples if you want them poured, as well as contributing something toward the cost of renting & staffing the booth and printing out a master listing for distribution to buyers. A booth costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $4000, and wouldn't necessarily make sense for any of us to do on our own, given the broad scope of the audience. Together, however, we could all get some promotion from the effort.

Anyone interested?

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The annual National Restaurant Association Show, and it's International Wine Spirits & Beer Event are coming up in April, held here in Chicago. The event is huge, one of the largest if not the largest restaurant shows in the world, and it attracts industry people from all over the world. I have floated the idea in the past of an ADI booth, to promote our industry, distribute information on our members around the country, and pour samples of participating spirits. Now that we have more members and more active distilleries, perhaps this is the year to explore this further.

What your involvement would likely entail is sending marketing information about your company, and samples if you want them poured, as well as contributing something toward the cost of renting & staffing the booth and printing out a master listing for distribution to buyers. A booth costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $4000, and wouldn't necessarily make sense for any of us to do on our own, given the broad scope of the audience. Together, however, we could all get some promotion from the effort.

Anyone interested?

Sonja,

We have a booth at the NRA. You can contact Kent for information.

Don

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We would be interesting in discussing the show. Not sure if we can afford it right now but I have heard good things about the show and it is something we want to look into. If not this year I would like to know more about it so we can budget for it next year. I have actually discussed this same show with our State Dept of Ag and they say it is an excellent show with thousands of interested visitors. In fact they claim that this show is one of the best they attend. Please contact me at 970-596-3276 so we can discuss further.

I would also be interested in attending to help staff the booth. Thanks!

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Thanks all, for the interest - keep 'em coming. If just a few of us want to do it, we can evaluate if we think it's worth the fractional cost and come up with a fair way to split up the booth. If enough of us want to, perhaps we can do it under the ADI umbrella.

Todd, you're right, it's in May this year not April - my error. The IWSB (spirits/wine/beer show) is on May 17 and 18.

Don, are you interested in sharing your booth if we help share the cost, or are you planning to just have your own?

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Don't know how big these tables are, but it looks like we have 5 distilleries. Sounds like a good number to me. Don't think we could handle much more than that at a single booth. My opinion, of course.

And it sounds like it'd be a heck of a table if you like Gin! Lets do it.

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We are interested. We sell closures to the spirit and wine industry and really want to start spreading the word that natural cork is not going extinct. If you don't mind a supplier sharing your booth?

Please contact me directly at fhs@jelinek.com

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Although NRA show this spring is not on our radar screen, there are many other high-profile events like this on which I think ADI members could collaborate to make the table fee and the samples poured affordable. Many of these are region-specific, others more national in scope.

I encourage us all to post interest in such events to try to get the ball rolling. Perhaps we try to discuss this at the ADI conference in April to determine how logistics might work if we truly represent ADI and the small-batch distillation industry.

Margaret Chatey

Westford Hill Distillers

Ashford, CT

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I think this is a great idea. Also you may want to contact Bill Owens and have him put it on the discussion agenda.

Although NRA show this spring is not on our radar screen, there are many other high-profile events like this on which I think ADI members could collaborate to make the table fee and the samples poured affordable. Many of these are region-specific, others more national in scope.

I encourage us all to post interest in such events to try to get the ball rolling. Perhaps we try to discuss this at the ADI conference in April to determine how logistics might work if we truly represent ADI and the small-batch distillation industry.

Margaret Chatey

Westford Hill Distillers

Ashford, CT

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We should definitely discuss this at the conference this year. The challenge in the past has been (and will continue to be) finding funding. It would be great if the ADI could take the lead on these kinds of things, but the group hasn't had enough funding to pay for all these things.

I just sent a note to the four others who expressed interest with more information - please post here or send me a note if you are interested. I hope we can make a decision this week and get our booth reserved, while there's still time to get a good one (hopefully).

Edit: I just realized I hadn't responded to Fay at Jelinek Cork Group - apologies for that. I don't think it would make sense for a cork supplier to join in our booth, since we're otherwise marketing our spirits to the restaurateurs in attendance. Other distillers, do let me know if you disagree.

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