More Upcoming Events

Tomorrow is looking to be quite a busy day on the road, as October is now in full motion!

First, I'll be starting my morning early, along with my coworker Laura, as we head to the Hartford Business Journal's "Social Media Summit". The agenda for the Farmington-based event looks to be a jam-packed schedule of different workshops, geared to business professionals of varying levels of experience in Social Media. The event will be capped with a Keynote on "The Power of Social Media Communities", delivered by Amanda Nelson, Community Manager for Radian6.

After that, I'll be making my way down to New York City for a not-to-be-missed spirits and wine tasting event, The Ultimate Blast! The Ultimate Blast is assembled by the team at Ultimate Beverage Challenge, an emerging set of spirits, cocktails, and wine evaluations developed by founder F. Paul Pacult. I must say, the list of participating brands and celebrity book signings appears to be never-ending; the Ultimate Blast will include over 100 cocktails prepared by esteemed mixologists, 300 spirits and 120 wines! The Dizzy Fizz herself, Selena Ricks-Good, offers this preview of the event at her column over at CBS New York online.


Some other events of note before the month is out include next week's VinItaly US Tour, where you'll find BAT's own Steve Raye sitting on a Social Media seminar during the New York tour stop. Portland Cocktail Week is also slated for October 20-23; I'm disappointed I won't be headed to the Left Coast for the event this year so you'll have to suffice with last year's preview instead. 

What other alcohol-industry events are slated on your schedule for the rest of October? Leave us a comment and let us know what you're up to in the beverage alcohol world! 

Cheers! 

First time at Tales?

There are a couple of great resources on the web providing tips for first-timers to Tales. Last year, I highlighted first-timer herself The Dizzy Fizz’s blog post. I also mentioned on Twitter a post from Tales vet Fred Yarm that offers more than enough strategy for tackling Tales (or, the "multi-ring circus" as he refers to it!).

This year, I was privileged that Geoff, editor of DrinkSpirits.com, asked for my insights to before heading to New Orleans, as this will be my first return to the city since last year’s Tales. Check out his blog post on the Tales blog for my tip, along with other fantastic advice for industry vets returning for another year of cocktail camaraderie – and perhaps debauchery – in New Orleans.Yes, I'm included among the likes of Tony Abou-Ganim - wow!

Here are a few items of note on my calendar for this week:

• Seminar – The European Bartending Perspective. I just recently wrote about this seminar sponsored by Mandarine Napoleon, so please refer to the previous blog post. Or read the great interview that Doctor Bamboo conducted with moderator Jonathan Pogash.
• Spirited Dinner – We selected a Spirited Dinner this year that I am very much looking forward to attend. Jonathan Pogash and Hal Wolin together are Exploring Whiskies in Cocktails, in collaboration with William Grant.
• Not-to-miss-party – Bartender’s Breakfast. Following the Spirited Awards ceremony on Saturday night, this Pernod Ricard event is the final hoo-rah for most of the Tales participants for the year. I unfortunately had to bail out of this party on the early side last year so am looking forward to celebrating to its fullest extent this time around and catch all the great bartenders in action!

I look forward to seeing many familiar and new faces in NOLA this week. Definitely feel free to shoot me an email so we can try to cross paths, or follow my action via Twitter at both @stephaniejerzy and at @drinks4thehouse.