InnoBev US Beverage Entrepreneur Forum

On Thursday June 19th I spent the day in NYC attending the most important beverage conference of the 2008 in my opinion. The forum, held at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel, attracted ~200 serious business executives from around the world. The conference was put on by Zenith International and BevNet in association with Beverage Spectrum and Beverage Innovation Magazines. The Forum was also sponsored by Wild Flavors, Inc.

Download the full schedule for the day here.

Highlights for me included Peter van Stolk, former CEO and founder of Jones Soda Company talking about effective on-line strategies and how to target your audience. Peter is now the CEO of the Tree Fort Group, a marketing consulting firm.

Greg Steltenpohl, founder of Odwalla Inc. talked about his struggles of marketing a fresh squeezed product (with a three-day shelf life!) during the formative years and showed us many pictures of "Hippies"(his words) bottling and distributing his products on the west coast. He now runs Adena World Beat Beverages.

After lunch there was an innovator panel made up of beverage industry entreprenuers;

Bill Sipper - Senior Partner of Cascadia Consulting Group LLC

Mike Weinstein - CEO of Inov8 LLC

Tom First - CEO of O Water

James S Tonkin of Tonkin Consulting (link please)

Dr. Erik DonHowe, VP of Wild Flavors, Inc.

Each member of the panel spent 5-10 minutes talking about their unique experience and then took questions from the audience.

One of the most interesting parts of the day was the "Dragons Den" where three beverage executives got to pitch their young brands to a panel made up of major industry distributors. The distributors then had a moment to comment on each pitch and give advice.

The beverage executives were: 

Dr. Dan Ratner of Cell-Nique

TJ McIntyre, Founder and President of Pixie Maté

Brad Winter, CEO of SoNu Beverages

The beverage panelists were: 

Lewis Hershkowitz - COO of Big Geyser Inc.

Ken Davis, CFO of the Davis Beverage Group (link requested) 

Gerry Martin, VP of Marketing for Polar Beverages

Tim Sperry, President of The Sperry Group (link requested)

The process was very insightful. I applaud the three passionate officers & founders who stood in front of 200 or so people and told their story. It took fortitude and I am sure we will all be hearing more from these brands.

Finally there were some marketing briefs given about emerging growth opportunities, consumer trends and steps for securing finance. There was also plenty of new and unusual beverages to sample. If you are at all involved with the beverage industry, it would be wise to attend the InnoBev US forum next year. Make sure you log into BevNet to find out when the next one is. 

The best part of the evening for me was right at the end during cocktail hour where I had a chance to meet and talk with some of the beverage inventors and creative people. I also had the unique opportunity to watch Dr. Tzohar make "Diamond Water" or carbonated water from diamonds. This patented process involves placing a small diamond that has been heated to 2000° with a small torch into a vial of liquid oxygen.

The diamond then glows like a bright light for a minute or two and then vaporizes into carbon dioxide. The resulting gas is vented into a container of water. The Dr. claims that the resulting beverage is safe to drink. Video. The evening ended with a toast and a glass of diamond water which is the appropriate way to end a beverage entrepreneur forum. . .