BevNET Live NYC 2026 — Agenda
June 10+11, 2026
Eastern Time
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2026
- 7:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Registration Opens; Breakfast + Networking
- 7:45 AM – 9:45 AM
Beverage School
Location: Floor 2
Topics covered during Beverage School Curriculum:
The Entrepreneurial Life (Madeline Haydon, Founder, Nutpods)
Understanding Co-Packing (Brian Dworkin, CEO, Castle Co-Packers)
Route to Market (Bill Sipper, Managing Partner, Cascadia Managing Brands)
Small Format Channel Strategy (Andy Steele, Founder, Anonymous Sales Consulting)
Early Stage Investment Vehicles (Will Bernat, Partner, Nutter)
Financial Fluency and Margins (Claire Pelton, Growth Marketing Manager, BELAY)Followed by Roundtable Q&A and Networking
- 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
1:1 Meetings
Location: Floor 2
Pre-scheduled, 10-minute meetings with retailers, investors, and industry peers. Prior registration required. Check in at the One-to-One Help Desk before heading to your meeting.
- 10:00 AM – 10:05 AM
Welcome to BevNET Live Summer 2026
- 10:05 AM – 10:30 AM
State of the Market: Emerging Brands at Mid-Year
Examining the beverage marketplace for trends in consumer, retail, investment and brand performance issues from experts who are in the mix on a daily basis.
- Trent Moffat, Founder (Gotham DSD)
- Jennifer Ross, Co-Founder/Co-CEO (Swoon)
- Daniel Grubbs, Managing Director (William Hood & Company)
- John Lawson, Senior Local Forager (Whole Foods Market)
- 10:30 AM – 10:55 AM
Founder Interview: Tom First on the Challenger Mindset
Culture Pop CEO Tom First, a longtime entrepreneur, investor, and board member, shares strategies for keeping brands nimble and lean, with a focus on catching category leaders over the long term.
- Tom First, Founder & CEO (Culture Pop)
- 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Sponsored Workshop: Scrappy to Scaling - How Bero Uses AI to Fuel Hyper-Growth
Location: Floor 2
Hype around AI is everywhere, but real results are fickle. Bero's Neha Soi and Glimpse CEO Akash Raju join LA Libations' Dan Weisbach to unpack how AI is actually driving efficiency and supporting hyper-growth in the new consumer landscape.
- Dan Weisbach, Vice President (L.A. Libations)
- Neha Soi, SVP of Operations (Bero)
- Akash Raju, Co-Founder & CEO (Glimpse)
- 10:55 AM – 11:20 AM
Retailer Profile: Vitamin Shoppe
Vitamin Shoppe is one of the key stops for functional brands establishing a national footprint. Nicolletta Payne heads beverage decisions for this nutrition and supplement retailer.
- Nicolletta Payne, Senior Director of Merchandising (The Vitamin Shoppe)
- 11:20 AM – 11:40 AM
Meet the Investor 1: Elly Truesdell, New Fare Partners
Truesdell has spent her entire career building brands, first as a Whole Foods Forager, now as a CPG investor of considerable renown. She discusses the ways she recognizes and fosters breakout potential in her portfolio.
- Elly Truesdell, Managing Partner (New Fare Partners)
- 11:40 AM – 12:00 PM
Entrepreneur Interview: Catching Up With Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss, the founder of Bai, sits down for a conversation on entrepreneurship, brand building, investment, and the state of the beverage industry as he launches new brand Crooked Pop.
- Ben Weiss, Founder & CEO (Crooked Pop)
- 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Sponsored Workshop: Intelligent Formulation to Scalable Manufacturing - Bridging the Gap Between Beverage Innovation and Production Success
Location: Floor 2
- Craig Fortin, CEO (MetaBrand)
- Nick Andlinger, VP of Business Development (MetaBrand)
- Brad Nichols, Director of Business Development (MetaBrand)
- 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Lunch, Sampling & Taste Radio Studio
- 1:15 PM – 1:40 PM
Disruption at Scale: A Conversation with Athletic Brewing CEO Bill Shufelt
Athletic’s rise has reshuffled the deck of beverage categories. Shufelt will talk about building the company that powered that change, address how he's navigated explosive growth, what he’s learned about raising capital, and unpack his approach to brand positioning and category creation.
- Bill Shufelt, Co-Founder & CEO (Athletic Brewing Company)
- 1:30 PM – 2:30 PM
Sponsored Workshop: Turning AI Into Front-Line Growth and Margin Impact
Location: Floor 2
AI has created more insights across the beverage industry — but not necessarily better execution. This workshop explores how beverage organizations are using AI to reduce decision latency, identify execution gaps faster, and turn fragmented commercial data into coordinated action, front-line growth, and measurable margin impact.
- Srinivas Jagannathan, Chief Product Officer (BevGenie)
- Shyam Jayakumar, CEO (BevGenie)
- Gauri Sharma, Head of Data & Analytics (BevGenie)
- 1:40 PM – 2:05 PM
Exit Interview: How Dirty Shirley Cleaned Up
Longtime beverage marketing veteran Adam Kost will discuss his lean startup, proof-of-concept strategy, the key insight that gave Dirty Shirley the oxygen it needed to grow, and the branding ideas that created Dirty Shirley’s emotional connection to its audience.
- Adam Kost, Founder (Dirty Shirley)
- 2:05 PM – 2:25 PM
Meet the Investor 2: Hank Spring, KarpReilly
Between Kevita, Spindrift, Koia, Remedy Organics and more, growth equity investment firm KarpReilly has backed small- and medium-sized beverage brands for more than 15 years. KarpReilly Managing Director Hank Spring will discuss capital deployment and the investor/entrepreneur relationship that takes place as brands mature and scale.
- Hank Spring, Managing Partner (KarpReilly)
- 2:25 PM – 2:50 PM
Retailer Profile: Walmart and the Next Generation
How is the world's largest grocer adjusting to meet the next generation of world-changing beverage brands?
- Dee Charlemagne, Senior Director, Emerging Brands (Walmart)
- Lesley Osorio, Senior Merchant (Walmart)
- 2:50 PM – 3:15 PM
Retailer Profile: Launching and Maturing with Whole Foods
Laura Taylor, founder of Mingle, joins Samantha Fletcher, senior category merchant at Whole Foods Market, for a rare founder–buyer conversation on what makes a pitch resonate, how brands can build productive retailer relationships, and what growth actually looks like once you’re on shelf.
- Laura Taylor, Founder (Mingle)
- Samantha Fletcher, Senior Category Manager, Adult Non-Alcohol (Whole Foods Market)
- 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Sponsored Workshop: AI in Operations - How Leisure Hydration & Coaqua Scale with Automation.
Location: Floor 2
From spreadsheets to scalable systems. Learn how Coaqua and Leisure Hydration use AI to accelerate their order-to-cash cycle, gain better visibility across their operations, and stay lean as demand grows.
- Marcos Brisson, Co-Founder & CEO (Kaizntree)
- Melissa Taverse, Director of Community (BevNET CPG Media)
- Keagen Edwards, Sr. Director of Operations (Leisure Hydration)
- Anthony Cadieux II, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, (Coaqua)
- 3:15 PM – 4:30 PM
New Beverage Showdown Semifinals: The First 12 Make Their Pitch!
- 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM
BevNET Live Happy Hour
Please note that event agendas are subject to change.