Ideas on Staffing Your Next Beer Fest

With an almost endless beer festival season back in swing, making sure you are connecting with consumers the right way can be important. It can be to either reinforce your brand upon them or introduce them to their new favorite beer.

At Mother Road, Stephanie Henderson, the Director of Arizona Craft Beer & VP of Sales for the Flagstaff company said they take pride in the robust training employees receive about the company’s culture, history, and values before hitting a beer event on their own.

“That is an important piece for event representatives,” she said, adding that employees are up to date with beers and recipes by offering weekly sensory to the entire crew to better familiarize themselves with the product.

Outlining the responsibilities are key as well.

Wild Heaven has a part-time event marketing rep who has worked for the Georgia brand since they opened and helps in coordinating the festival/event calendar with the company’s sales reps and taproom staff.

“[He] is dividing the events up between all of them so not one person is overloaded with weeknight and weekend events,” explained Wild Heaven Executive VP, Sarah Young. “They are responsible for coordinating some of the logistics leading up to the event: working with management to select beers, providing event info to marketing for cross-promotion, confirming event equipment is prepped and ready, ensuring product is picked up or delivered, and actual event execution.”

READ MORE: Finding the Best Fit for Beer Festivals for Your Brand

As in many states, reps cannot legally pour beer samples during events so their role at the event is to make sure the event staff is trained on the beers Wild Heaven is featuring while making sure that the space looks on-brand, while interacting with consumers, and answering questions about the beers and the brewery locations.

Regardless of who is sent to a beer event by Mother Road, Henderson said they want to ensure the employee is comfortable discussing both flavors and the culture of the company so the experience is both fun and educational.

“As for their responsibilities, besides assisting our distributor with set up and tear down, we expect them to operate within liquor laws and ensure to provide radical hospitality,” Henderson said.

What to Bring?

Young said a good checklist for Wild Heaven includes:

  • a branded table skirt
  • a tent if applicable
  • beer-specific spec sheets (make sure they are laminated)
  • banners
  • koozies & stickers
  • branded cornhole boards (if appropriate)
  • business cards

An EZ Up tent and corresponding table cloth are essential, Henderson pointed out.

“The bright colors and bold logos are the first impression we make on the guests,” she said. “Because our brewery is inspired by Route 66 and all those who traveled it, we like to incorporate on-theme items like our coasters that double as postcards, matchbooks, old Sinclair, or Pennzoil oil cans, and vintage Avon car bottles to name a few.”

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