BevNET Live Summer 2022 — Agenda
June 15 + 16, 2022
Eastern Time
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2022
- 7:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Registration & Breakfast Powered by OWYN
- 7:45 AM – 8:00 AM
Beverage School Presentation 1: Understanding Route to Market
- Bill Sipper, Managing Partner (Cascadia Managing Brands, LLC)
- 8:00 AM – 8:15 AM
Beverage School Presentation 2: Pitching Retailers
- Heidi Traore, Business Development Manager (National Co+op Grocers)
- 8:15 AM – 8:30 AM
Beverage School Presentation 3: Pricing & Margins: The Basics
- Bob Burke, Founder (Natural Products Consulting)
- 8:30 AM – 8:45 AM
Beverage School Presentation 4: Brand Design for Beverage Companies
- Danielle Muller, Chief Strategy Officer (The GRO Agency)
- 8:45 AM – 9:00 AM
Beverage School Presentation 5: Beverage Finance Best Practices
- Jeremy Halpern, Partner; Co-Chair Food and Beverage Group (Nutter)
- 9:00 AM – 9:45 AM
Roundtable Networking with Beverage School Experts
- Bill Sipper, Managing Partner (Cascadia Managing Brands, LLC)
- Heidi Traore, Business Development Manager (National Co+op Grocers)
- Bob Burke, Founder (Natural Products Consulting)
- Danielle Muller, Chief Strategy Officer (The GRO Agency)
- Jeremy Halpern, Partner; Co-Chair Food and Beverage Group (Nutter)
- 10:05 AM – 10:30 AM
The Beverage Business at Mid-Year
From the bodega to the boardroom, our panelists are ready to talk about the state of entrepreneurial beverage brands. We'll talk through retailer attitudes, inflationary pressures and the ongoing economic environment as they affect brand growth potential, both in terms of sales and fundraising.- Heidi Traore, Business Development Manager (National Co+op Grocers)
- Ben Settle, Director - Consumer & Retail Investment Banking (William Blair)
- Jessica Pratt, Chief Sales Officer (Pop&Bottle)
- Jerry Reda, President & COO (Big Geyser)
- 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
Growing With Orgain: Leadership Lessons with Andrew Abraham
It's hard for founders to remain in charge of their brand from startup all the way through to sale. Dr. Abraham will discuss the challenges he faced and skills he had to develop to lead the company, speaking to members of the BevNET Live audience who, in constructing their own path, now must learn how to stay on it.- Dr. Andrew Abraham, CEO/Founder (Orgain)
- 11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Networking Break, Sampling, Taste Radio Studio
- 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Innovating Amidst Uncertainty
Even without the recent global supply chain tsuris, agricultural-based brands are at a disadvantage when it comes to planning, subject to the vagaries of the weather, labor markets, and more. Yet Harmless Harvest, Ocean Spray and Uncle Matt's are among the most innovative brands in the cooler. So what lessons can they teach entrepreneurs about maintaining an innovation practice during a crisis, and the ways brands can make tough decisions about innovation as capacities fluctuate.- Ben Mand, CEO (Harmless Harvest)
- Monisha Dabek, Chief Commercial Officer & General Manager (Ocean Spray)
- Matt McLean, CEO & Founder (Uncle Matt's Organic)
- 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM
Strategy Session with Calypso: Scaling Your Business Profitably
Using the lens of Calypso, Klavsons gives a lesson in identifying, evaluating, and sequencing growth opportunities for a brand: weighing potential growth vectors in terms of a company's strengths or challenges, and figuring out how to pay for it all.- David Klavsons, Chief Executive Officer (Calypso)
- 12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Lunch, Sampling & Taste Radio Studio
- 1:45 PM – 2:15 PM
The Future of Beverage: Soda!
How did CSDs become one of the hottest emerging beverage categories again, and what are the new rules governing the growth of this venerable drink? We speak to the owners of three of the most exciting new CSD brands on the market about the ways they are building for the future, seemingly in defiance of both entrenched beverage giants and longstanding consumer trends.- Nat Noone, CEO (New Wave Soda)
- Allison Ellsworth, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer (Poppi)
- Tom First, Founder (Culture Pop)
- 2:15 PM – 2:45 PM
Non-Alc Spirits: How to Build a Category
How do categories coalesce, and what are the requirements and agreements required between brands, retailers, and consumers to create lift for all? This panel looks through the lens of the evolving non-alcoholic spirits category to explore the tradeoffs and tactics involved in building the right assortment and defining a category that can educate and grow a consumer set.- George Daines, Global Category Merchant of Beverage (Whole Foods Market)
- Morgan McLachlan, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer (AMASS Botanics)
- Marcos Salazar, CEO (Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association)
- Pauline Idogho, Founder & CEO (Mocktail Club)
- 2:45 PM – 3:15 PM
Defining the Core: Purpose, Vision, and Mission for Beverage Companies
As the beverage business rolled toward the post-pandemic era, execution has occupied the agenda of most of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. What can’t be left behind, however, are mission, purpose, and vision, the soul of a business that carries it forward across eras. Kathy Guzmán Galloway will explore the tightrope between a beverage company’s purpose and mission and the execution of its business aims.- Kathy Galloway, CEO (kgalloway consulting)
- 3:15 PM – 4:45 PM
New Beverage Showdown Semifinals
- David De La Garza, Senior Manager (Topo Chico, The Coca-Cola Co.)
- Allison Ellsworth, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer (Poppi)
- Brittany Jacobs, Senior Sales Executive, Brand Partnerships (Instacart)
- Jacqui Brugliera, Director of Marketing (BevNET / NOSH / Brewbound)
- 4:45 PM – 6:00 PM
Happy Hour Networking
Join the official BevNET Live cocktail party, also held on-site at the Metropolitan Pavilion, for some time chatting with each other about the day’s lessons over more snacks and drinks, before adjourning for the day.
Please note that event agendas are subject to change.