Événement

2016 IGGVA Annual Conference

Greetings Illinois Grape and Wine Industry! We are pleased to announce that we are working on another exciting and thought-provoking lineup for the 2016.

We will be kicking off the event this year with a very special tasting of Riedel glassware, where attendees will have the opportunity to experience the sensory attributes of different styles of wine in varying glass types. We will also get to experience how glassware impacts the perceived value of our products. During this session, we will taste and evaluate both traditional California varietals as well as Illinois wines in several different glass styles. Attendees will also get to keep the glasses, and try them out on their own wines after the conference.

This event is filling up quickly! Please register for the complete conference and/or the Riedel event individually by February 1 to be included. Prices will be adjusted once registration for the Riedel tasting is closed.

Additionally there will be a wide range of timely enology, viticulture, and marketing topics available during the Saturday educational sessions. These sessions are not yet complete, but if all goes well we should have another great lineup, featuring top-tier speakers covering a broad, but critical, range of information.

Significant time and effort will be devoted to encouraging dialogue within our various regions. Each region has its own unique set of challenges, and we would like the conference to serve as a means to first identify those challenges, and then collaborate on ways to collectively overcome them.

We're also working on expanding the trade show this year, adding several new vendors featuring cutting-edge products and technologies which should be of real value. As always, we hope that you'll hold off a little on your 2016 ordering of winery and vineyard supplies until the conference to help show the vendors the value of attending our state event.

Don't forget to have a little fun, too! We'll have plenty of entertaining after-hours activities to round things out, including Friday's Winter Wine Festival, and Saturday's Annual Awards Banquet! I look forward to seeing you all there!

As much of the content and speaker lineup is still in the works, we will offer a special discounted rate for early registration through January 31, 2016. Online registration is now available, and once we have the lineup finalized, a registration form will be available for you to print and send in. Thanks again for continuing to support the IGGVA annual conference! We believe it will be a great experience for all!