BevNET Live attendees will get one last surprise as part of their attendance at the event – a “Moment with Monster” segment that will offer a brief conversation with Mark Hall and Geoffrey Bremmer, two of the main executives behind the energy drink juggernaut owned by Hansen’s Beverage Corp. Hall, the president of the company, and Bremmer, the director of marketing for the Monster Energy brand, will provide insights on the energy drink category and their company’s approach to marketing innovative beverages.…

With two weeks to go before BevNET Live’s 2011 Winter event in Santa Monica, Calif., we thought it was time to pull up the curtain and introduce the slate of outstanding judges for BevNET Live’s signature competition, the New Beverage Showdown.
Collectively, our judges’ experience cover years of experience in brand building, retailing, investing, distribution and marketing:
Tom First, Managing Partner, First Beverage Group;
G. Scott Uzzell, VP and General Manager of Emerging Brand Incubation, VEB;
Ken Sadowsky, Senior Beverage Advisor, Verlinvest; Executive Director, Northeast Independent Distributors’ Association (NIDA);
Michael Quinones, District Manager, Ralph’s Grocery Company, West Los Angeles Area…

BevNET is pleased to announce that G. Scott Uzzell, the VP and General Manager of Emerging Brand Incubation, will give a brief presentation revealing the insights that the Venturing & Emerging Brands (VEB) unit of Coca-Cola has leaned as it looks to grow entrepreneurial brands within a company the size of VEB’s parent company. Mr. Uzzell leads a team of commercial and marketing professionals responsible for marketing, business development, and operations for the “what is new and what is next” brands for the Venturing & Emerging Brands Group.

Before there was the New Beverage Showdown at BevNET Live, there was the Live Tasting Panel. It was a place where eager beverage entrepreneurs could spotlight their products in front of the BevNET crowd — at the anticipated cost of the occasional verbal jab from some of the toughest, but most insightful, judges in the business.
It also provided an early look at products and entrepreneurs who were going to be working hard to make it in the years to come, putting distributors, investors, and retailers on notice that the folks on stage were soon going to be knocking on…

BevNET is delighted to announce that Amy Taylor, Vice President of Marketing for Red Bull North America, will be offering thoughts on brand-building from the standpoint of content creation and earned media. Ms. Taylor, who has been with Red Bull for more than 12 years, will present the ways that Red Bull has created compelling content from hundreds of sports and culture events and athlete projects globally for nearly 25 years. From the beginning, Red Bull has filmed, photographed and provided high quality stories for broadcast, print and digital media partners.…

Try to build a beverage brand, and you’re likely to hear questions about chain stores, DSD and the leap from Whole Foods into convenience and grocery. But there are plenty of viable companies that have developed exciting and profitable beverage businesses without going anywhere near those main retail channels. From Internet sales to Yoga Studios, from Multi-Level-Marketing platforms to Dollar Stores, there are many classes of trade that allow brands to reach their full potential – or at least offer other retailers key glimpses of what that potential might be.

BevNET Live has released the agenda for its Dec. 5 and 6 event at the Loew’s Santa Monica Beach Hotel.
With just a few weeks to go before the event, this is a perfect time to review the in-depth sessions that will be on offer during this exciting event. Attendees should please note that there are a few final speakers and sessions to be announced and that signups for breakout sessions will take place in the next few days. Seats are going fast. To register, please contact Jeff Hyde at jhyde@bevnet.com….

As part of its commitment to providing beverage entrepreneurs with the most current, applicable information — and connections — to help their businesses grow, BevNET Live is pleased to announce that participants on its financial panel won’t just be there to answer questions, but to share knowledge.

To that end, the three panelists, Brent Knudsen, the managing partner of Partnership Capital Growth, Mike Burgmaier, a managing director at Silverwood Partners, and Tom First, the co-managing director of The Beverage Intelligence Group and First Beverage Ventures, will provide three short talks on aspects…

At a time during which claims of beverage functionality are constantly being boosted through the use of new ingredients, scientific evidence is fast becoming a key driver in helping launch and drive the growth of new brands. But it’s tricky: just as good science can help establish brand authenticity, while “junk” science and broad, meaningless claims can destroy an entire category.…

BevNET is delighted to announce the return of a premium natural channel strategic thinker to the BevNET Live event, as well as the addition of a brand building expert who can help entrepreneurial brands think about large-scale growth plans. Rick Zimmerman, the senior VP of marketing and innovation at Sunny Delight Beverage Co., will be leading a breakout session on how brands can mix distribution and retail channels to suit their size, from small-scale operations to larger national accounts.