On February 1st 2010 over 200 wine tourism professionals from around the world will descend on the little know Catalan village of La Beguda Baixa in the Penedès & Cava wine region of Catalonia, Spain for the 2nd edition of the Wine Pleasures International Wine Tourism Conference and Workshop which will be held over four days at the Barceló Hotel Montserrat.
The Wine Tourism conference promises to be every bit as exciting as the previous conference earlier this year. We have a number of novel attractions to entice you and plan to provide you once again with a Catalonian flavour and a memorable experience. The Conference and exhibition will take place from Monday 1st February to Wednesday 3rd February 2010. The Wine Tourism Workshop (for wine tourism providers to meet international Tour Operators and Travel Agents) will begin on Wednesday afternoon and will finish on Thursday 4th February.
The conference already boasts an international line up of world-class plenary speakers; Nic Myers (Social Media Consultant from USA), Jochen Erler (Journalist & Wine Consultant from Germany), Gloria Vallès (Can Bonastre Wine Resort, Spain), Rainer Brusis (Wine Tourism Consultant from Germany), Enric Ribera Gabandé (Journalist and writer) and Emanuela Panke (Iter Vitis from Italy). As well as being packed with over 40 talks, workshops, symposia and posters, the event offers a state of the art exhibition of wine tourism related products, as well as a rich “After Conference” social programme with a distinctly Catalan flavour. This includes wine tastings, winery visits, cultural wine related visits, wine and food matching and even a wine and mineral water matching session.
If you would like to give a presentation at the conference please complete the Speaker Proposal Form. Your contribution and experience will be warmly welcome. Deadline to receive speaker proposals is 30 November 2009
For those who want to delve further into Catalan wines, a highlight this year is drop-in Catalan taster sessions run by winemakers. These will provide an informal opportunity to learn about the great variety of wines from Catalunya. By the time they bid farewell, all delegates will have had a chance to taste wines made from local grape varieties such as Xarel.lo, Parellada, Macabeo, Carinyena, Malvasia de Sitges and Montonega.
To date 27 different countries are represented at the event, making it a truly international occasion, with delegates from Australia to USA, Norway to Italy. This is in line with the aims of the organisation of linking and supporting wine tourism professionals worldwide.
If you would like to participate as a delegate, please complete the Delegate Registration Form.
There are of course many hundreds of professionals for whom attending the conference is usually no more than a dream because of the costs involved in travel to Barcelona. This year plans are afoot to make the event accessible to many hundreds more participants from around the globe through the Wine Pleasures website where the online audience can view the speakers in the main conference room and participate. To follow the event just visit the Wine Pleasures website and we will be live from our home page. You will be able to post comments, put questions to the speakers and of course follow and see the whole event as it happens.
You can also follow the event through the Wine Pleasures twitter account @winepleasures. We will be using the #winepleasureslive hashtag to actively exchange questions and comments with the community. You’ll need to have a twitter account to participate in the twitter discussions.
This initiative builds on the groundwork laid at our previous conference. It is an exciting and truly ground-breaking innovation. It promises to be one of the biggest global wine tourism events ever.
Companies and organisations are invited to support the Wine Tourism Conference and Workshop through one of the many sponsorship opportunities available.
