In just under three weeks the second Wine Industry IMPACT Conference – this year sponsored by WINEDEPOT – will kick off in Orange, New South Wales, delivering a program to help wineries get the most out of their most profitable sales channel — the direct to consumer market.

Held for the first time in Adelaide last year, the conference will again deliver a series of presentations and breakout sessions focussed entirely on sales, marketing and tourism sales over two days, 17-18 September.

The keynote presentation will be delivered by European-based Aussie, international wine judge and editor-in-chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International Magazine, Felicity Carter, who will speak on global media trends, how wineries can make their mark and future tech. She’ll also explore the questions, “are we at peak social media?”, and “what should you be paying for?” Carter recently authored this article published in the August 2019 issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker on the global wine industry’s major challenges for the future.

The draft results of Wine Australia’s latest cellar door and direct-to-consumer survey will also be presented at the conference by Wine Australia’s Sandy Hathaway, including a comparison with last year’s results and international benchmarking.

Other presentations will include:

Geoff Krieger, Brokenwood

Building a world-class winery hospitality venue

Melissa Laurie, TripAdvisor

Insights into 2019 global trends from the world’s largest travel site and what’s really influencing the current state of travel. Learn how to connect with the modern traveller and their desire for new experiences

Lesley Berglund, WISE & Andrew Kamphuis, Commerce7

What data is driving ecommerce, club and cellar door sales and how are major US brands leveraging their data to grow their sales.

Panel Session featurng Drew Lambert, Wine Wankers; Felicity Carter, Meininger’s Wine Business Magazine; Trish Barry, Mastermind Consulting and Fabien Laine, Creative Fabien

What does ‘influence’ really mean in the context of traditional and modern media, how important are ‘influencers’, what value do they bring to the conversation and what role do brand owners play?

Matt Jones, Four Pillars Gin

The co-founder and brand director at Australia’s fastest-growing and most popular craft spirit makes the case for building your business around your craft.

Nick Bowditch, Entrepreneur, storyteller, marketer, mental health advocate

Drawing on his best-selling book, ‘Reboot your Thinking’, Nick will explore how to turn flaws into superpowers, sharing the steps he employed to overcome challenges and become fit, healthy, strong and resilient.

Breakout sessions on the following topics will also be held:

• Storytelling
• Digital marketing
• Visitor attraction strategies
• Cellar door & customer engagement
• Online review strategies
• Branding bootcamp
• Wine club and direct to consumer strategies
• Digital content creation
• Sales & marketing

For further information or to register visit www.wiic.com.au