Penticton, BC to Host the 2013 Wine Bloggers Conference

We are SUPER pleased to announce that Penticton, British Columbia will be hosting the 2013 Wine Bloggers Conference from June 6-8. This will be the first conference located in Canada and we think it will an outstanding location. Registration is now open.

Those of you following along might remember we tentatively announced this last year in Virginia, when we indicated the 2012 conference would be in Oregon and the 2013 conference, if certain barriers could be reduced, would be in British Columbia. The local Penticton organizers have been working extremely hard over the past year to make this happen. A special thank you goes to Allison Markin from All She Wrote, Penticton’s resident expert in wine and culinary social media who has been driving this effort for two full years.

I was recently in Penticton, scouting the area for the conference, and I was extremely impressed. The wines are excellent, really exceeding my expectations. The town itself is beautifully situated on two lakes with hills on all sides and vineyards in the background. The people were super nice and, everywhere I went, winery owners would say “We are excited to have you all coming next year.”

We have some great local support, including:

• Tourism British Columbia is hosting the Saturday dinner
• Constellation Brands owns about half a dozen local wineries and is hosting the Thursday official opening reception, including dinner
• British Columbia Wine Institute is sponsoring both the white and red Live Wine Blogging, meaning that every wine you taste during these sessions will come from British Columbia
• Penticton and Wine Country Tourism is not only our main partner but is organizing the Friday excursions into the local wine country – and you’ll be able to pick your excursion by type (wine and food pairing, wine and local markets, hike to wine, biking and bottles, geology of the wine area, etc)
• Downtown Penticton Association is sponsoring a Saturday morning “Breakfast in the Park” during their weekly farmers market
• The Oliver-Osoyoos Wineries Association, located in the heart of BC’s grape growing area, is sponsoring a Friday evening party at one of their wineries
• The Penticton Lakeside Resort, our host hotel, is a fantastic hotel located right on the water with an excellent chef and very accommodating staff

As you can tell, this is going to be an extraordinary weekend and we are super pleased to be holding the conference in Canada. The WBC Registration page is open now. The logistics of getting there are not that difficult and we have adapted our schedule to make this a Thursday evening through Saturday conference, allowing you to fly in on Thursday and out on Sunday. We’ll be providing more information about transportation, pre-conference excursions, and hotel reservations soon.