Highlights from NBWA's Virtual 83rd Annual Convention and Product Showcase

Highlights from NBWA’s Virtual 83rd Annual Convention and Product Showcase

NBWA’s 83rd Annual Convention certainly looked a little different this year. Instead of meeting up with friends for a beer, we all tuned in from home to take part in the first-ever ‘virtual’ NBWA Convention.

Craig Purser, President and CEO of the NBWA, kicked off day one of the convention by praising the industry as a whole, noting the effort that went into getting beer deemed essential during the height of the pandemic, as well as calling out distributors for their applaudable responses to the challenging COVID-19 landscape amidst on-premise shutdowns. It speaks volumes to see how the industry came together and performed when compared to other industries.

On day two of the convention, CEO of Anheuser-Busch, Michel Doukeris, joined in to talk about his perspective on the current times. As some people say we’re headed towards a “new normal”, Doukeris took a different approach, noting that “we’re experiencing one of the biggest resets of all time.” He urged attendees to think about how consumer behavior will change as a result of the pandemic. Michel believes that consumers will continue to order online and stay home, as e-commerce trends will accelerate at rates that would’ve potentially taken up to ten years to happen without the impact of COVID-19.

Jake Sampson, VP of Sales & Marketing at Encompass Technologies took the stage to talk about Technology Preparedness Planning and COVID-19 Lessons. Jake began by taking a look back at the past seven months and began to highlight key learnings that distributors can come away with. He urged attendees to realize that there has never been more of a need for business tools that allow you to adapt to change quickly, work from any location, and take advantage of e-commerce.

If you missed Jake’s presentation on Technology Preparedness Planning and COVID-19 Lessons or any of the other educational seminars, be sure to log in to the virtual platform before October 31st to access them.

Although we missed sharing a beer with you this year, we hope to see you next year at NBWA’s 84th Convention in Las Vegas.