We opened early registration for this year's Annual Conference back in May, and enough of you have already signed up that we're now in the part of the planning cycle where the questions coming into the office are less "should I go" and more "what do I actually need to book." The conference runs July 19 in Asheville, North Carolina, which puts us exactly one month out as of this week — close enough that a few logistics decisions are worth making now rather than the week before.
Air travel this summer has been unusually unpredictable, with several of the busiest single travel days on record happening in just the last few weeks and airlines running tighter schedules than they have in years. If you're flying in, we'd rather you book a flexible fare a little early than a cheap one that gets canceled on you two days out. Members who've been to a summer conference before know the drill: build in a buffer day if you can, especially if you're connecting through a hub rather than flying direct.
If you're driving instead, Asheville in July draws its own share of summer tourist traffic well beyond our conference, and hotel availability near the venue tightens up faster than members expect. We'd rather you book a room this week at our block rate than find yourself commuting in from thirty minutes out because the closer options filled up around us.
What's on the agenda
This year's program leans into where the membership actually is right now: a full track on affinage and cave management for members running their own aging rooms, a session on reading a milk and feed market that's moved more this year than most of us have planning models for, and the usual competition judging and awards program that closes out the second day. If you're pursuing your Competition Judge Accreditation, this is one of the few in-person opportunities each year to log observed judging hours toward it — worth checking with the Awards & Competition Committee if that's part of your plan for the year.
We're also building in more unstructured time at the vendor floor and between sessions than in past years. Feedback from our last couple of in-person events was consistent: members want the hallway conversations as much as the sessions, and a schedule packed wall-to-wall doesn't leave room for them. Several members who exhibit at the vendor floor have told us the extra breathing room last year was what finally let them have an actual conversation with a buyer instead of a thirty-second pitch between sessions.
What to do this week
If you haven't registered, do it now — hotel room blocks at our conference rate are handled separately from the registration fee and they do run out before the room itself sells out elsewhere. If you have registered but haven't picked sessions, the schedule is final as of this week, so it's a good time to map out your two days rather than deciding on the fly. And if you're bringing a staff member who's never been to one of our conferences before, point them to last year's recap post — it's still the best preview we have of what the first morning actually feels like.
Questions about the program, accommodations, or accessibility needs should go to our Events Committee, who'd rather hear from you now than field a logistics question from the registration desk in Asheville.
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