[Press release] The 7th annual Digital Wine Communications Conference (Montreux – Switzerland, October 31–November 2, 2014) will feature brand new DisruptWine talks and guest “outsider” speakers.
The organisers of the only international conference dedicated to the convergence of wine and the web are pleased to announce that this year’s DWCC will include a series of new features and guest speakers, addressing the topic of Wine in Context (this year’s conference theme).
New features and speakers
For the first time the DWCC will present the DisruptWine talks, a series of mini-presentations from six guests, including some from outside the wine industry. Taking a one-word theme, each speaker will have just eight minutes in which to inspire the audience and challenge them to look at an aspect of wine communications from a new angle.
The six DisruptWine speakers are:
- Cellartracker.com founder Eric Levine
- Qoin community currency guru Edgar Kampers
- Hamish Nicklin (Google)
- Jennifer Burke (9068Creative)
- Felicity Carter (editor, Meininger’s Wine Business International)
- Gabriella Opaz (Catavino)
Other content
Internationally-renowned wine expert Jancis Robinson MW will be a keynote speaker; as well as addressing conference delegates and attending the Gala Dinner, Robinson will be lead a tutored Grand Tasting of Swiss wines with Wine Grapes co-author Dr. José Vouillamoz, with a focus on four grape varieties: Chasselas, Petite Arvine, Merlot and Pinot Noir. This unique opportunity will be followed by a walk-around tasting with 40 of the best Swiss producers, many of them being in the Gault & Millau Top 100 Swiss Wines 2014 ranking, presenting their wines to the 300+ conference delegates, and two masterclasses highlighting rare Swiss grape varieties and iconic Swiss wines led respectively by Dr. José Vouillamoz and Paolo Basso, Best Sommelier of the World 2013.
Confirmed speakers at this year’s DWCC are detailed here http://2014.dwcc.co/speakers/ and include:
- Jancis Robinson MW
- Grape geneticist Dr. José Vouillamoz
- World’s Best Sommelier 2013 Paolo Basso
- Swiss wine grower and biochar expert Hans-Peter Schmidt
- Hamish Nicklin, Director, Agency Sales UK, Google
- Richard Siddle, editor of UK title Harpers Wine & Spirits Trade Review
- Social media guru Christian “Documentally” Payne
- SEO expert and blogger Judith Lewis
- Felicity Carter, editor of Meininger’s Wine Business International
- Wine writer and commentator Robert Joseph
- Nomacorc research scientist Maurizio Ugliano
- Marc Roisin and Faye Cardwell, co-founders, Wine Business Innovation Summit
- Content creator Sally O’Brien
- Wine writer and educator Panos Kakaviatos
- Cru Bourgeois du Médoc president Frédéric de Luze
- Fermenti Digitali co-founders Giampiero Nadali and Elisabetta Tosi
- Wine writer Simon Woolf
- Wine Mosaic co-founders Arnaud Daphy and Jean-Luc Etievent
- Stylianos Filopoulos (Wine in Moderation)
- Suzanne Mustacich (Wine Spectator)
- Damien Wilson (Burgundy Business School)
- Ronn Wiegand MW, MS
Location
The DWCC celebrates its 7th anniversary in 2014; it will be held in Montreux, a town of some 25,500 inhabitants situated on Lake Geneva. Famous for its jazz festival (held every year in July since 1967), Montreux is in the French-speaking Vaud canton and within easy travelling distance of many European locations (previous conferences have been run in Spain, Portugal, Austria, Italy and Turkey. The three-day conference will be held in the 2m2c Montreux Music and Convention Centre.
Theme and content
The theme of this year’s conference is Wine in Context, and the DWCC will be partnering with Wine In Moderation (http://www.wineinmoderation.eu/) to organise a panel debate on the subject of wine culture in context; delegates will be encouraged to reflect upon the potential of digital media to create entirely new ways to talk about and sell wine.
As in previous years, DWCC 2014 will feature a range of communications and technical workshops on the skills and information needed by wine communicators in the 21st century. These sessions are led by international experts in the field who come from around the world to share their knowledge with delegates, and thus, the conference is an excellent opportunity for anyone in the wine trade to network and learn alongside peers and leading figures.
Conference delegates will attend a wide range of educational wine tastings as well as experiencing Swiss wine and food culture and hospitality in events, tastings, winery visits and tourism opportunities within Switzerland’s six wine-producing regions, with an emphasis on native Swiss grape varieties.
Pre- and post-conference activities
A special pre-conference event on Thursday October 30th will showcase three luxury wine regions via master class tastings of Tokaji, Amarone and cru bourgeois Bordeaux wines. These limited-number events will provide the opportunity to taste aged and unique wines with commentary by experts in each field, giving attendees a fresh perspective on these wine regions.
- A pre-conference “by invitation only” discovery trip will take a small group of delegates to visit the French wine producing areas of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Tavel, for which they will be ambassadors during the DWCC (sponsored by the Fédération des Syndicats des Producteurs de Châteauneuf-du-Pape et Tavel AOC).
- Three other, “by invitation only” trips will be held after the conference, to the Valais, Ticino and Swiss German regions (sponsored by Les Vins du Valais, Ticinowines and BDW Branchenverband Deutschschweizer Wein respectively).
- Four post-conference, one-day trips are being hosted by Swiss Wine Promotion to the Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel and Valais wine regions
Sign up
Delegates can benefit from special rate bookings with conference partners, detailed on the DWCC website. The reduced-rate delegate fee for bloggers and alumni is €250; the full-rate fee is €450.
Conference sponsors
The 2014 DWCC is sponsored by Swiss Wine Promotion, the body responsible for championing Switzerland’s national wine production. It is organised by Ryan and Gabriella Opaz and Robert McIntosh of social media company Vrazon.
