Eastern Winery Expo
This was a great week for Harvest Ridge Winery! Three team members (Chuck, Chip, and I — Sofia) attended the expo in Lancaster, PA. This is the 2nd year for the expo that celebrates (as the name implies) Eastern wineries.
It started on Tuesday night with a welcome reception that included wines from all over the region for tasting as well as appetizers and the opportunity to meet and mingle with others in the industry. You could tell that people were excited to be there and were looking forward to the events to come in the next couple of days. We had the chance to meet a couple of the speakers for the convention including Laurie Forster (a.k.a. The Wine Coach http://thewinecoach.com/ ), and Terry Sullivan (who, along with his wife, Kathy, are the people behind http://www.winetrailtraveler.com/about2.php ) which was exciting!
Wednesday was a loooong and busy day. Chip, Chuck, and I were up early to meet for a quick breakfast before hitting the seminars. We learned about everything from Sustainability Programs, to Titrametric Analysis of TA and YAN (that was Chip’s department!), to Tools and Trends in Social Media Marketing. Wednesday was also the day that the exhibits were open allowing us to take a look at machinery, cork options, bottles, items for our retail space (you know… all that stuff you see in winery gift shops), etc. And yes, there was more wine to sample. 
Wednesday was topped off by the Industry Celebration Dinner where we shared a table with the owners of Lost Oak Winery in Texas. It was a great opportunity not only to socialize, but also to get advice from those who have been in the business for awhile.
Thursday began with a seminar that offered the opportunity to taste some sweet red wines (at 8:15 in the morning!) followed by more presentations on money management, and new event ideas for wineries, and a final spin through the exhibits.
We left thoroughly excited, exhausted, inspired with a lot of new ideas… and just a tiny bit dehydrated.