After finalizing the agendas months ago, we are finally ready to announce the speakers for both the Leeds and Indianapolis Beer Bloggers Conferences. We have a great lineup of beer people ranging from bloggers to print journalists to brewers to social media experts.
For a complete lineup of the speakers at each conference, see either the Indianapolis BBC Agenda or the Leeds EBBC Agenda. The content sessions are detailed on the bottom of each page. Here are bios on just a few of the speakers from each conference, presented in no particular order.
European Beer Bloggers Conference in Leeds
Liz Cable is a strategic e-learning consultant and learning technologist at Reach Further in Leeds, helping clients articulate and deliver practical strategies for adopting and embedding technology in working and learning practices. She has designed and managed IT strategy & training, e-learning and professional online communities for a variety of major companies, specialist schools and colleges. She is a Fellow of the Institute of IT Training, and a member of the Institute of Directors. Liz will be speaking on Social Media and Your Blog. @lizcable
Stuart Howe is Head Brewer at Sharp’s Brewery and will provide our keynote speech. Stuart followed his passion and changed from a career in engineering to life as a brewer by completing a Brewing and Distilling honours degree at Heriot-Watt University. In 2010 Stuart brewed 52 experimental brews in a year. His beers have been awarded more than one hundred national and international awards for quality and excellence. In 2011 Stuart was named as the All Parliamentary Beer Group Brewer of the Year.
Simon Jenkins is a self-described “beer writer, beer drinker, and beer lover”. He is the Yorkshire Evening Post’s beer columnist and was the British Guild of Beer Writers’ Beer Writer of the Year in 2010. Simon will be joining Adrian Tierney-Jones to talk about Improving Your Beer Writing. @jenkolovesbeer
Zak Avery runs the blog Are You Tasting the Pith and is jointly owns the specialist beer shop Beer-Ritz in Headingley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, as well as the wholesaler Beer Paradise and the mail order service Beer-Ritz. Talk about keeping active! Zak was the Winner of the 2008 Brains SA Gold New Media Award as well as the 2008 British Guild of Beer Writers’ Writer of the Year award. Zak will present on Taking It To the Next Level along with Marverine Cole and Mark Dredge. @ZakAvery
Beer Bloggers Conference in Indianapolis
Dan Kopman is co-founder of The St. Louis Brewery Inc., which he started 15 years ago with attorney Tom Schlafly and is better known as Schafly Beer. The company runs the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St.Louis and Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, part of St.Louis County. Dan will be speaking on The Three Tier System with Jim Schembre, General Manager of World Class Beer, and Jordan Huber, owner of the Beer Sellar retail stores.
Win Bassett is a co-founder and freelance writer at http://ncbrewing.org, and writes for All About Beer magazine’s Beer Soup blog. He’s contributed as a writer and editor to All About Beer magazine, Southern Brew News, the News & Observer and WRAL. Win is a freelance craft beer marketing consultant for SkyBound Studios, a Certified Cicerone Beer Server, and a member of the North Carolina Brewers Guild. When not writing and educating about beer, Win is an assistant district attorney for the state of North Carolina. Win will be presenting on Blog to Job along with Brady Whalen, Evan Benn, and Mike Besser. @WinBassett
Cathy Clark is author of the blog Brewtiful. She got into the craft beer scene via her charity, www.liveitbig.org. As one of the fundraisers, she created Camp Beer — a lecture series to showcase various craft beers from around the country. Camp Beer has now been run 10 times, still raising money for her charity. She is also founder of the Houston and Dallas Beer Weeks. Cathy will present on Creating a Beer Event along with Eric Steen and Becca Millette. @cathyclark
Garrett Oliver apprenticed as a brewer at Manhattan Brewery Company and it wasn’t long before he was brought on as brewmaster at The Brooklyn Brewery. He has hosted over 800 beer tastings and pairings, judged at the Great American Beer Fest for 20 years, contributed to numerous publications and periodicals, and written a few books, as well. His latest book, The Oxford Companion to Beer, is a cornucopia of knowledge from experts around the world. Forbes magazine named Oliver one of the top ten tastemasters in the country and he has also had the honor of receiving the Semper Ardens Award for Beer Culture from Denmark and the Cheers Beverage Media’s “Beverage Innovator of the Year” award. Garrett will provide one of our two keynote speeches at the BBC. @GarrettOliver