First Beverage Group:
First Beverage Group’s first annual beverage industry conference, Blue Box, took place May 17-19 at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. The conference was attended by key influencers from the beverage industry and experts from the worlds of food, technology and branding.
Blue Box brought together beverage industry leaders and emerging entrepreneurs from diverse businesses and backgrounds to encourage cross-pollination of ideas on corporate change and personal growth. The event provided a broad view of the exciting trends and technologies disrupting the US beverage industry through a series of short-format speeches and presentations.
Speakers at this year’s event covered an extensive range of themes, including New Belgium Brewing co-founder and CEO Kim Jordan’s discussion of the changing nature of the craft beer industry; speeches by Caroline Levy of CLSA and Nik Modi of RBC Capital Markets covering the decline of larger brands; an analysis by Richard McDonald of Epsilon of the third wave craft beverage consumer; Seth Goldman’s talk about Honest Tea’s successful partnership with The Coca-Cola Company; and an inspirational presentation on cultural contagion by Dr. James Rouse, founder and formulator of brands mix-1 and Skoop.
Keynote speakers included Michael Chiarello, noted chef and founder of acclaimed restaurants Bottega and Coqueta; Kavita Shukla, founder and inventor of Fenugreen FreshPaper, a spice-infused paper that keeps food fresh for longer; Sean Lewis, journalist and author of We Make Beer: Inside the Spirit and Artistry of America’s Craft Brewers; and Phill Nosworthy of Australian firm switch, inc., who delivered a dynamic presentation on how to leverage a brand to create rich and meaningful narratives that inspire people to act.
The conference also featured three panels led by First Beverage’s managing partners Tom First, Nicole Fry and Townsend Ziebold. The panels covered the power of passion and authenticity in building small brands, how to identify and execute successful beverage investments, and how to manage a successful exit strategy.
Blue Box was sponsored by RBC Capital Markets and Constellation Wealth Advisors*.
“We are thrilled with how our first beverage industry conference was received,” said William Anderson, Founder and CEO of First Beverage Group. “Blue Box was able to bring together a very exclusive mix of thought leaders. We were extremely fortunate to have such diverse and exciting speakers in a no holds barred environment, all of whom contributed to an informative and educational conference. We look forward to many more Blue Boxes in the future.”
For information on Blue Box 2016, please contact Charlotte Pitts at (310) 481-5110 or charlotte@firstbeveragegroup.com.
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About First Beverage Group
First Beverage Group advises and invests in innovative and transformational beverage brands. Through our investment bank and private equity fund, we help beverage companies grow and stand out in a dynamic and competitive industry. We form true partnerships with our clients by leveraging both our financial and intellectual capital. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Boston and New York, the First Beverage team is made up of entrepreneurial senior beverage executives with over 200 years of collective industry experience. For more information, please visit the company’s website, www.firstbeveragegroup.com.