TRAINING & EVENTS
VLB EVENTS
VLB Craft Brewing Conference Online – Afterthought After the successful launch of its series of virtual events last December, the VLB International Craft Brewing Conference Online (ICBO) was another step into the world of digitalization. The conference was attended by 210 craft brewing experts from 40 nations. The online event took place at the VLB Virtual Campus, an exclusive online platform for exchange of information, education and networking.
left: Live in the VLB studio: Kurt Mar shall and Gayatri Mehta (both VLB Berlin) are talking about Berliner Weisse right: "Add more hops!" Chris Bergthold (VLB) in discus sion with John Paul Maye (Hop steiner)
(oh) With the 1st International Craft Brewing Conference, the VLB successfully continued its new series of virtual events at the end of April. The English program was addressed at craft brewers from all over the world. 23 lectures were offered, which were presented and discussed live in the course of three days. Access to the event platform was open for a total of 10 days, so that the participants could view all the presentations and the extensive additional content afterwards. The Opening Key Note was presented by Catherine Krol, research analyst at the market research company Euromonitor International. The focus of her presentation was on the development of craft beer in the Americas. The craft beer industry, which has recently been booming in many countries in North and South America, has suffered heavily from the Covid-19 pandemic. Most of the small, independent brewers are particularly dependent on the
catering and event business (ontrade). Only the few larger ones have sales channels into the offtrade (e.g. retail, grocery, shops). Therefore, the corona-related significant slump in the on-trade business cannot be compensated for in many breweries.
ICBO Gold Sponsors:
Another development in the pandemic is an increasing reluctance among consumers in times of great uncertainty. According to Euromonitor, this particularly affects the
Photos & screenshots: oh
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Brauerei Forum International – May 2021
expensive imported and premium lager beers. Mainstream brands and low-priced beers were much more robust here. Overall, the competitive pressure and price war in the craft beer industry has increased. According to the latest statistics from the US Brewers' Association (BA), the number of closed craft breweries has increased continuously. Nevertheless, there were also notable mergers and acquisitions. Some players took the opportunity to expand in this market segment. Despite all problems, Catherine Krol also sees some new opportunities for the craft brewing industry: • Sales in e-commerce have increased significantly: This development will continue even after the pandemic. This also created new sales channels for beer and beverages. The acceptance of additional offers such as online tastings, beer subscriptions, growler refills for home consumption has
