One of our favorite beer festivals of the year happens each February inside The Boston Globe Travel Show. Learn about why we go to this event and how it benefits us.
The Northeast Craft Beer Pavilion inside The Boston Globe Travel Show is like an oasis for a beer lover. In one corner of the massive travel trade show sits a section reserved for people who want to travel through a world of craft beers.
Over 40 different breweries and cider producers come to the event and pour multiple different types of beers for the attendees.
The travel show is impressive enough! Inns and resorts, towns and regions, states and countries, cruise companies, and airlines come and display with booths designed to attract travelers to come and spend their travel money with them. Entry into the travel show is relatively minimal, tickets are only $10 in advance.
And for only $25 more dollars a thirsty traveler can also enjoy one of the 3 sessions of the Northeast Craft Beer Pavilion.
We have attended and displayed each of the four years that there has been a beer component. And why do we love this festival so much?
The folks attending are already interested in travel. They have spent money and have ventured to the Seaport District of Downtown Boston to attend the show. And they have demonstrated their love of craft beer by opting to attend the festival.
Our job is to talk to these folks and promote the idea of soon spending some time in Maine. Perhaps they should consider visiting the Greater Portland area, and take in some of the sights.
And just maybe when they do visit they should hop on board our bright green buses for an inside look at our craft alcohol scene.
Our booth was located on the left just inside the entrance to the festival. Many people came to talk to us before they even got their first sample!
We were able to tell folks about us, give them some material about us, and have them spin our Wheel of Brew Trivia.
Since we had just announced our plans to begin Boston Brew Bus tours, there was a lot of interest and excitement generated.
One of the first couples I talked to were Craig and Tonya. They are past guests who have followed our progress and have supported us at each development.
We have seen them at festivals in multiple states, some that they found out about through our social media. And they knew all about our Boston plans from our newsletter that broke the news on Friday. We thank them for their excitement and support!
There were plenty of other folks who were hearing about us for the very first time. This is great, we always need a steady stream of new and returning customers to keep our momentum going forward.
We staffed our booth with six people. Zach and I were in attendance, as well as Zach’s brother Spencer Poole who is heading up our Boston efforts. You will learn more about Spencer and his role with us in the coming days.
And our All-Star Road Team was there as well, with Craig Lanzillotti, Megan Halmo, and Becky Halmo handling the setup and breakdown of our booth as well as much of the direct contact with the participants. Great job team!
For the three sessions of the beer festival, there were an estimated 2,000 tickets sold. We talked to over 225 of the participants, and we were able to scan their wristbands and collect contact information for them.
They have already received a thank you e-mail and an invitation to come to Portland, along with a discount code for a future Maine Brew Bus tour. And they will be added to our Boston contacts as well.
Here are some pictures from the show itself. Some pictures (the better quality ones) are courtesy of Mike Johnson of FestPics.com. Want to see more from the show? Check out the FestPics galleries online. And also check out the Facebook page from the show .
Don Littlefield is the General Manager of The Maine Brew Bus. He enjoyed a Smuttynose Finest Kind IPA while producing this post. Twitter: @BeerinME