On one hand there’s this:

“I know I need help with my winery’s digital strategy, but I’m overwhelmed by all the tools and the talk of ‘getting the most out of our data.’ How do I even begin?”

On the other hand there’s this:

“Over time I’ve developed a discovery process with wineries where I start by assessing their needs and how they would best be served. We start with looking at their current situation (website, email marketing strategy, social media/PPC Ad strategy, their ecommerce platform and integrations, etc.) and determine whether it's really just specific areas where they are missing opportunities or need the most help with, or whether they need help with improving and managing their overall digital marketing and sales practices.” – Brooke Herron, Owner, Local Food & Drink Marketing

What if we put those two hands together?

That is, what if there was a way to connect more wine-focused people who need help with their digital efforts, with more data-focused people who need help finding clients? Wouldn’t that move us further toward the common goal of a savvier industry, technologically speaking, that ultimately serves today’s consumers better?

Here’s hoping.

When we asked for input from this community about a wine + data “support group,” these were two concerns that respondents said kept them up at night: wineries who are looking for help with their digital strategy, and experienced professionals who can provide that help but have trouble finding the right client fit.

We know that both of those groups of people exist, and we think it’s time to make it easier to connect.

That’s exactly where we’re starting as the Wine Data Community continues to take shape. Co-organizer Mike Smith wrote two weeks ago, “As the adoption of digital technology accelerates, there is an opportunity for a Wine Data Community to support growth in data and analytics across the global wine industry by facilitating Connections, Content, and industry Advocacy… If we can connect people looking for help with people who can provide help, we can enable more collaboration.”

We believe that collaboration is an important part of the Community moving forward, whether we’re talking about connections, education, the supply chain or any of the other concerns that keep us up at night.

That belief is shaping the development of this Community’s online presence beyond Enolytics 101, which we’re looking forward very much to sharing with you in the coming weeks. We’ll welcome your participation as we work toward making it a useful resource.

Please stay tuned, and of course be in touch with any questions or suggestions.

Thank you for reading –

Cathy