Anna Tuschak explains the costs associated with on-premise oak barrels, the maintenance requirements and the customer benefits of oak barrel-aged wines in this informative presentation.

Established in 1998, Barrel Imports supplies Hungarian oak products (cubes, shavings and staves) to wineries and wine kit manufacturers throughout Canada. In addition, the company was the first to supply the home and on premise wine industry with small oak barrels by JK Cooperage.

Wine that the consumer enjoys is our number one priority. Learn how to make wine that your customer's will love. The key components to making the best possible wine kits - tips, tricks and hints to make, modify and master your wine kits. The whole process from yeast autolysis (sorry there are no good "z" winemaking terms) to aging the wine.

RJ Spagnols is a well-established manufacturer of wine kits and a division of Vincor Canada. Vincor is owned by Constellation, the world's largest wine business.

Bob's Sunday Luncheon Keynote Speech promises to inspire and challenge you - and it may leave you with some questions. In this follow-up session, Bob will answer as many of your questions as he can cram into this hour-long follow up session. (To fully benefit from this session, you should have attended the Sunday Luncheon)

Bob Negen, WizBang Training

Bob Negen is the founder of the Mackinaw Kite Co., a chain of specialty toy and kite shops. He opened his first store in 1981 out of a love for his product, but without all the basic retail skills and systems necessary to effectively run a retail business. As President of the company for twenty years he constantly strived to create the kind of well-run business he knew was possible.

In the beginning, Bob and his partner successfully developed some ideas, strategies, and systems on their own. However, as the business grew the problems became more complex and the solutions less evident. Profits and performance stalled; the company had hit a wall. Finally, he realized that "reinventing the wheel" was not an effective way to become a successful specialty retailer. The knowledge, skills and systems he needed had already been developed and perfected by others over many, many years.

Through attending seminars, cultivating relationships with mentors, reading articles and books, and, most importantly, hiring people with skills he did not possess, Bob learned the important skills and systems necessary to run a successful, specialty store business. It took him two decades to put all the bits and pieces of information into a usable and effective structure. Bob founded WhizBang! Training with his wife Susan so that other business people do not have to spend that same amount of time reinventing the wheel.

This seminar will show you the right processes, tools and techniques to do more work with less time, and increase your business, your bottom line … and your quality of life.

Tim Vandergrift will guide you through the seminar with his usual combination of sharp wit and useful information that you can apply in your store right away.

Tim Vandergrift, Winexpert

Tim Vandergrift is Technical Services Manager of Winexpert, based in Port Coquitlam, BC. By his own admission, Tim is obsessed about wine which is probably a good thing for someone making a presentation at this year's conference.

In this presentation, Matthias explains how understanding yeast can add complexity to your wine.

Matthias Boss, Scott Laboratories

Scott Laboratories' (then known as the "Berkeley Yeast Laboratory") roots sprung from the ashes of prohibition and the resurgence of the American wine industry. It all began with a single chemist based out of Berkeley, California, in 1933.

Today, the company is a leading supplier of products for fermentation, filtration, packaging and equipment to the wine and beer industry.

Should on premise winemaking businesses use the Internet to market their products and services? Can it be done effectively…cost efficiently?

David Foley offers his point of view on these questions and offers some "rules" for effectively combining online and offline communication to customers and prospects.

David Foley, MyWineRocks.com and Bloor West Winery

Established in September, 2001, Bloor West Winery has built its business on professional customer communication and direct-response promotion created by David Foley. In 2005, a dedicated website (www.bloorwestwinery.com) was added to the mix and it quickly began producing more new customers, at less cost, than some conventional media.

MyWineRocks.com offers other on premise winemaking businesses that are members access to proven winemaking business promotions, along with other marketing, promotional and business insights, all designed to increase sales and profits in a challenging industry.

Retailers who thrive in today's business environment are positioned at either end of a continuum - at one end, price-driven businesses like Wal-Mart or Motel 6; at the other end, experience-driven businesses, like Harry Winston's or Four Season's Hotels.

In this presentation, Dwight explains how he, his wife and their teams at Somerset Fine Wine use superb customer experience to counter low-price operators in the competitive London winemaking market.

Dwight Scudder, Somerset Fine Wines

Founded by Sandi and Dwight Scudder, Somerset Fine Wines immediately benefited from Dwight's background in retail and marketing and Sandi's design and administrative experience.

The goal of Somerset Fine wines is to present the concept of on premise winemaking - and cellaring - to an upscale audience without alienating the historic, core customer base. The Somerset Fine Wines formula skillfully blends passion, knowledge and environment. Now in its ninth year, the company has two locations in London, Ontario.

In addition to leading the business, Dwight's passion for wine shows: He is active in the Amateur Winemakers of Ontario, a Certified Canadian Amateur Wine Judge and involved in a commercial wine tasting group (just to reinforce how good on premise made wines can be).

A new demographic is emerging in the on premise winemaking business and, the good news is, she has a larger lifetime value than the industry's historical customer base. On the other hand, she is demanding and more - her media habits are different, her knowledge of wine is high and she requires that your knowledge (at minimum) matches hers, and she expects more, better and faster service.

In this seminar, Bill Booth outlines an approach to courting - and winning - this important new customer group.

Bill Booth, Booth & Associates

Bill Booth believes that the true potential for a brand - and your business is a brand - is achieved not through what it says, but how it behaves. After working with five global advertising agencies, in New York, Chicago and Toronto, Bill founded his own consultancy in 1994.

With the full measure of his experience with customer insight and marketing research and with his knowledge of the beverage alcohol industry, Bill is uniquely qualified to describe how to take the new on premise winemaking customer from skeptical prospect to enthusiastic advocate.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A DOUBLE SESSION.

Beyond discounts and T&T, your sales representatives can be valuable partners in the growth of your business.

In this dynamic two-hour presentation, David will show you how to leverage the knowledge that your sales representatives have (about your business, your local competitors and the industry) to benefit your business - and theirs.

David Carr, Carr & Associates

Since 1992, David Carr has been providing highly-effective retail training programs and broad-based consulting services to major retail clients across North America and around the world.
David custom designs, delivers and supports highly-effective training programs for clients large and small including both those with and without in-house training resources.

This is a continuation of the "roundtable tradition" that was initiated at the 2008 Conference. This session is your opportunity to inquire about the progress that the Fermenters Guild is making on its various initiatives and offer suggestions for future areas of focus for the Guild.

Paul Goldie, Fermenters Guild

In this seminar, Diane Fitzgerald and Alan Saipe will review the findings of the 2007 Consumer-Made Wine Industry in Canada. This is a benchmark study that reveals a larger industry than many imagined.

Diane Fitzgerald, CHWTA, and Alan Saipe, Supply Chain Surveys

So … how well do wine kits really compare to commercial wines from the same grape and area of origin? Sommeliers Ric Kitowski and Jocelyn Klemm tackled this question by comparing wine kit company-supplied samples with similar commercial wines. The wine kit wines were tasted "blind", meaning that the manufacturer and brand were not known to Ric and Jocelyn.

But, during this presentation, Ric and Jocelyn reveal all - the manufacturer, the brand and SKU, the commercial wine that was used in the comparison, plus tasting notes and conclusions for each.

Ric Kitowski and Jocelyn Klemm, The Wine Coaches

The Wine Coaches are dedicated to helping others discover and enjoy wine. Certified sommeliers and authors of Clueless about Wine, Richard Kitowski and Jocelyn Klemm specialize in providing customized wine-themed events to groups of all sizes. Their entertaining and informative seminars are geared to anyone wanting to know more about wine, including how to recognize great value wines in stores and on wine lists.

This informative panel discussion will explore the details of operating within a regulated business environment and will include representatives from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, the province's principal regulator of the on premise winemaking industry.

When one is selling a business, there are several valuations of it - what the seller genuinely believes that the business is worth as a result of his/her years of work, what a prospective buyer might be prepared to pay and, finally, an amount that a professional determines, based on an objective, independent, fact-based review.

In his presentation, Peter Weinstein explains the detailed process of valuing any business and, by implication at least, tells how your business may become worth more - if you do the right things!

Peter Weinstein, Stern Cohen Valuations Inc.

Peter leads Stern Cohen Valuations Inc., the firm's specialist practice, which encompasses business and intellectual property valuation and litigation support services.

He began his professional career in 1993 with an international CA firm before joining a group of specialists in 1998 where, as Vice President, he specialized in the valuations and litigation support field.

He joined Stern Cohen Valuations Inc. as Principal in 2005 and became a Partner in 2007.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario and graduated in 1993 with an MBA from the University of Toronto.

He obtained his CA designation in 1995, his certification as a Chartered Business Valuator (CBV) in 2000 and his specialist designation in Investigative and Forensic Accounting (IFA) in 2002.