Both seeker and the sought, Coke’s Venturing & Emerging Brands Group (VEB) has spent the last few years getting to know an increasingly large number of entrepreneurial beverage brands, whether it’s through conferences like BevNET Live or individual meetings in Atlanta or on the road.

VEB has been clear that it understands it must be a resource for entrepreneurs as much as it is an exit strategy. In order to truly fulfill its mission to develop the next billion-dollar brands for its parent company, VEB has had to go beyond meeting companies — it had to learn from them, to exchange ideas. The group has tried hard, in other words, to listen.

Part of that listening has taken place through a group of entrepreneurs VEB pulled together called the “Founders Forum.” Comprised of a group hand-picked set of beverage — with a few food — entrepreneurs, VEB has met with the team as a way of figuring out the main challenges and concerns that entrepreneurs face on a short-term and long-term basis.

As part of BevNET Live, Rebecca Messina, the SVP of marketing and innovation for VEB, will share some of the key insights that her team and the Founders Forum group were able to determine with regard to both the internal characteristics and challenges of the companies, as well as the external operating environment affecting their development. Ms. Messina will speak about the group and its meetings, as well as talk about the thought process they used to select this round of founders.

Illustrating the findings, as well, Ms. Messina will have one of the entrepreneurs from the group — Just Chill’s Max Baumann — share a set of insights around a successful social media project that will be highly relevant to the BevNET Live audience. Together, this talk will provide an ongoing set of issues for entrepreneurs to consider and discuss going forward, and lend even more insight into one of the most active strategic groups operating in the beverage business today.

Just one week remains until BevNET Live. Register Now!

About Rebecca Messina

Ms. Messina started in her role as EVP of Marketing and Innovation for Venturing & Emerging Brands in July, 2014. She started her career at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1994 with the Worldwide Media Department. She worked in Atlanta for five years in numerous global media roles, including Worldwide Media Director.  In November 1999, Rebecca moved to Santiago, Chile and assumed the role of Marketing Services Director for the Andean Division. There she remained until 2001, managing media, promotions and marketing assets for Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. In 2001, Rebecca moved to Sydney, Australia on a one-year assignment where she worked as the Marketing Services Director for CC South Pacific Division. Following this assignment Rebecca moved to Paris, France where she first served as the Executive Assistant to the Division President and then moved into a marketing role for the European Group in November 2003.

In February 2006, Ms. Messina was transferred to Atlanta from Paris to lead The Company’s effort to develop the vision and strategy behind its approach to marketing. As the Vice President, Global Marketing Capability & Integration, this included the creation of The Coca-Cola Way of Marketing, global agency management operations, the development and delivery of integrated marketing communication programs, and numerous cross functional, global strategies.

About BevNET Live

BevNET Live takes place on June 2 and 3 at the Metropolitan West in New York City. The BevNET Live program is designed to help entrepreneurial beverage companies of all sizes explore potential strategies for growth while building community. Speakers address the problems and challenges associated with moving across channels of trade, building established organizations, and consider capital structures that can fuel long-term success. Thought leaders like investors, retailers, distributors, suppliers, marketers and entrepreneurs join in moderated conversations and case studies designed to provide executable ideas for innovative beverage companies that are trying to reach their next level, while also sharing and enjoying networking in a highly collegial environment.