2013 Schedule

9th Annual Wine Industry Technology Symposium

July 15 & 16, 2013 - 9th Annual

Napa Valley Marriott

 

Day 1: Monday - July 15, 2013

1:00pm – 1:30pm     REGISTRATION OPENS

1:30pm – 3:00pm     WORKSHOP SESSION #1
                                     Workshops A or C will be presented twice depending on attendance.

A. Best Practices:  Moving your Business to the Cloud Whether Your Business is Large or Small 
We will demonstrate how to configure a medium windows EC2 instance, attach EBS storage to the instance, and log into the remote desktop and install winery tools/Microsoft NAV/etc.  We will also review the pricing model, the on/off features (only use what you pay for) and increasing computing capacity for scalable operations.  The wow factor for this is pretty awesome - you are basically launching a server through your browser and doing so in a matter of minutes.
Panelists:      

  • Jason Cutrer, Founder & President, SixNinesIt.com
  • Miles Ward, Manager, Solutions Architecture, Amazon Web Services

B.  Free and Low Cost Technologies for Wineries
Is it really possible to run your business or winery without endless software licenses fees and support agreements?  It can be.  We’ll take a look at some of the options for office productivity, graphics, building websites, project management, social media and even e-commerce.  We’ll also talk about what you can’t afford to use for free.
Panelists:    

C. Excellence in Reporting Data Management
Today’s most successful companies are very effective at using metrics to make game changing decisions about their business.  Corporate Analytics provide real time decision making, improved allocation of company resources, and a reduction in operating costs.  This session will cover how to approach a Corporate Analytics project from definition of the strategy, selection of the appropriate tools (including ones you may already own), how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to maximize benefit of the new system and processes.
Speaker:

  • Luis Colon, President, Pinnacle Vista Technology,  LLC

3:30pm – 5:00pm     WORKSHOP SESSION # 2 

                A. Repeat of Session A or C Above (depends on attendance)

B.  Free and Low Cost Technologies for Wineries
Is it really possible to run your business or winery without endless software licenses fees and support agreements?  It can be.  We’ll take a look at some of the options for office productivity, graphics, building websites, project management, social media and even e-commerce.  We’ll also talk about what you can’t afford to use for free.
Panelists:    

C. Expectations of Connected Consumers
Are you curious to what consumer’s value in social media channels and where they engage?  In this breakout session, social media expert Dave Dronkers will reveal how to play an active role in conversations that will increase your brand popularity, share ability and customer recommendations.
Speaker:      

5:00pm – 6:45pm       GRAND OPENING OF WITS TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

WELCOME WINE RECEPTION 
WineTwits Virtual Wine Tasting & Demonstration

6:45pm – 9:00pm        VIP CIO NETWORKING DINNER - Napa Marriott
                                        Wines Sponsored by Aged Cabernet Trust

9:00pm – 10:00pm      PORT & DESSERT BAR NETWORKING EVENT
 

Day 2: Tuesday - July 16, 2013

7:30am  – 8:00am     REGISTRATION & NETWORKING CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST

7:30am  – 8:00am     TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

8:00am  – 11:30am   GENERAL SESSION

Welcoming Remarks: WITS Co-Chairs – Lesley Berglund & J. Smoke Wallin

Johnathon Good headshotDeveloping a Social Relationship Management Strategy in the Wine Industry
Find out how to create a strategic social media program that will build brand awareness and buzz, drive revenue and gain the trust of your online community.  Learn social media best practices and how to manage and recruit a community of supporters who will embrace and recommend your brands through the use of social relationship management.
Jonathan Good, Senior SMR Solutions, Oracle 

 

An  Amazon Case Study
Hear about Big Data for Real World Businesses - showing tools, techniques and clear ROI for analysis in the cloud from Miles Ward who helped NASA live-stream the Mars Rover landing, helped Obama For America win the 2012 presidential campaign, and helped thousands of companies make the leap to the cloud.
Miles Ward, Solutions Architect, Amazon Web Services

 

5 Special Ops Success Strategies for Building Top Performing Teams
Imagine what would happen if you place 12 highly intelligent, Type-A personalities in a boardroom and gave them a task to perform.  The result would likely be complete pandemonium!  Yet the U.S. Military has discovered a way to turn top individual performers into unstoppable teams literally capable of toppling countries.  Award-winning serial entrepreneur, author, speaker, and former U.S. Army Green Beret Larry Broughton shares his insights on transforming ordinary teams into extraordinary ones.
Larry Broughton, Founder & CEO, broughtonHOTELS; Founder & CEO BROUGHTONadvisory

11:45pm – 1:00pm      NETWORKING SEATED LUNCH

1:00pm – 2:00pm        TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

2:00pm – 3:15pm        BREAKOUT SESSIONS I

Track A: Technology Leadership: Mobility Progress, Perceptions & Technology Implications 
The rapid adoption of mobile technologies presents both opportunities and challenges for today’s IT decision-makers.  It creates opportunities for organizations to increase mobile employee productivity and improve an organization's ability to deliver the right information to the right people in the right way.  Panel members will examine and discuss the challenges and opportunities in deploying solutions.  This session will discuss best practices.
Moderator:   

  • Geni Whitehouse, CPA, Countess of Communications, Brotemarkle Davis Co., LLP 

Panelists:    

Track B: Consumer Direct Sales: Behavioral Targeting: What is it, How is it Being Used in the Wine Industry
The session will cover best practices, do’s & don’ts, how to use Google Analytics to measure the ROI of your Behavioral Targeting initiatives and Taming the Chaos: using tag management solutions to manage your web analytics environments.
Moderator:

  • Shokie Lopez, VP, Information Technology, Wente Family Vineyards

Panelists:      

  • Ahin Thomas, President, Vintners' Alliance
  • Maigari Jinkiri, Director of Account Development , Stratigent, LLC
  • Other panelist to be announed

Track C: Trade Sales & Marketing: Pricing Systems for the Wine Industry:  Best Practices, Models and Tools
In general, pricing in beverage alcohol is managed with spreadsheets.  While not impossible, it is challenging for beverage alcohol suppliers to follow best practices for price setting and exchange with trading partners.  In addition, pricing analysis can become obsolete almost before it's completed on the shifting sands of hundreds of pricing spreadsheets as pricing in one or more pricing models is changed to meet local market requirements.  This pricing seminar will offer insight from both vendors and corporate (in-house) solutions as well as a discussion of best practices and a pricing roadmap (from Pricing Management to Price Optimization).
Moderator:     

Panelists:       

Track D: Winery Operations: Overcoming Planning Challenges in the Wine Industry 
The wine industry faces some unique challenges when it comes to effective supply chain planning.  When faced with volatile market demand, finite annual supply, and vintage specific products, the obstacles can seem overwhelming.  In her nine years in the wine industry, Trudy Reading faced many of these same challenges.  Join her as she walks through best practices and best-in-class products to support your planning journey.
Speaker:       

3:15pm – 3:30pm     NETWORKING BREAK

3:30pm – 4:45pm     BREAKOUT SESSIONS II

Track A: Technology Leadership: Five Hot Trends Shaping the Future of Business Analytics!   Information in a Whole New Light
Attend this session to learn how five mega-technology waves - big data, cloud, social media, predictive analytics, and mobile - are converging to transform the way critical business decisions are made, and opening opportunities for new services, new revenue, and new positioning.
Speaker:    

 Track B: Consumer Direct Sales: Leveraging Your Brand Through Direct-to-Consumer 
Your Direct-to-Consumer channels - tasting room, club, website & social media, phone and events - are all key touch points of communication of your brand. Leverage your brand to drive sales by strengthening your brand presence and learn how to transform it into success.
 Panelists:        

Track C: Trade Sales & Marketing: The Changing State of 3-tier Digital Marketing and Where it’s Going
A discussion about how the digital revolution has changed the way producers  communicate with distributors, trade partners and consumers to positively affect the bottom line.  Learn some new methods to gain marketing alignment, drive the sales channel and increase brand value through the line. 
Panelists:      

  • Sean P. Dunn, Owner, Groove
  • Peter Ekman, Partner, Jigsaw Advisors LLC
  • Scott Edwards, Senior VP of Sales, Foley Family Wines 
  • Alan Lundeen, Director of Talent, SWS

Track D: Operations: Operational Intelligence 
What is operational intelligence, how does it work and why do it?  How does it differ from ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems?  Real life examples will be shown of how companies / wineries have gained efficiency gains (resulting in reduced costs and higher quality) by deploying Operational Intelligence solutions.  OI is the ability to collect current operational data from bottling lines (bottle fillers, box formers, labelers etc.), storage vessels (tank level indicators etc.), motors & pumps (speeds & pressure etc.), temperature and other probes by connecting to plant floor Program Logic Controllers (each machines computer brain) and collecting data into a central location or data base.  Using this data collection in real time to allow managers to better monitor operations and make corrective / efficiency decisions...it can also allow managers to analyze operations bottlenecks to maximize labor and machine usage and quality.
Panelists:     

  •  Tom Hechtman , MES Channel Sales Engineer, Inductive Automation
  • Don Pearson, Chief Strategy Officer, Inductive Automation
     

NEW! Special Registration

Track C: Operations: Human Resources: Decoding Your Team DNA*
According to Gallup's "State of the American Workforce" Study, fully 70% of your employees are either unengaged or actively disengaged on the job!  How would you like a secret decoder ring that would show you exactly how to get the most out of every team member and allow you to hire the right person in the right job with near-flawless accuracy?  How much would that save you in management headaches and avoiding bad hires in the first place?  Emerging brain science, coupled with innovative technology applications, makes “Decoding Your Team DNA” an accessible reality that creates enormous positive impact on team synergy, productivity, engagement, and communication metrics while driving down hiring costs and reducing turnover.
Panelists:     

  •  Larry Broughton,  Founder & CEO, broughtonHOTELS; Founder & CEO BROUGHTONadvisory
  •  Phil Dyer, Chief Visionary & America’s Entrepreneur Strategist, BROUGHTONadvisory

*Note: Optional Assessment on this workshop (limited to 75 ppl) for those who are serious about taking their team’s performance to the next level. There is a nominal $60 fee to cover the assessments. These assessments - along with a complimentary pre-event teaching webinar - will significantly enhance the depth of knowledge transfer.

4:45pm – 6:30pm     WINE RECEPTION & TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE

 
Note: Program subject to change
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