I'd been looking forward to it for weeks, and the team at Provi / SevenFifty Daily had dotted every "i" ahead of time to prepare for a smooth running of the "Trends Shaping the Bev-Alc Landscape" webinar.

I was grateful to be there, alongside those colleagues (above) in particular.
The time passed quickly, and the recording is available if you'd like to see the webinar in its entirety.

But here, in a nutshell, are four things that I'm very glad to have said.

1. Engaging with new technologies will define the industry's success - or failure - moving forward.

2. Omnichannel is here. It's happening, and we're seeing different approaches to it on several fronts. Technology is the facilitator.

3. Twice in the last week I heard the same scenario from two different clients (Smith Story Wine Cellars and Ehlers Estate) about how they're using their DTC data to meet their customers where they are, when their customers are both individual consumers and wholesale accounts. The wineries use DTC data to identify top consumer prospects in markets across the country, then leverage that data to engage local wholesale partners. It's working. Here, too, technology is the facilitator of this DTC / wholesale data collaboration.

4. One of the most important things a winery can do moving forward is identify and support their own advocate for data. That's the person who will engage with the tools every day, who will generate revenue for the winery, and who will earn themselves a seat at the decision-making table. Hint: That person will probably not look like the "data person" you imagined before.

What do you think? How do these takeaways land with you? I'd be curious to hear.

Thank you, as always, for reading and for tuning in.
Cathy