More than 500 grape growers, winemakers, and industry leaders have converged in Blenheim to attend the annual New Zealand Winegrowers Romeo Bragato National Conference. The conference is held at the Marlborough Convention Centre from 27-29 August.
This year, the conference theme is “new horizons”. New Zealand Winegrowers CEO Philip Gregan explained that “there is an air of optimism in the wine industry and the conference theme reflects this. The conference will identify current challenges, explore future opportunities and help arm the industry with the knowledge and skills to take us to the next level.”
Keynote speakers include the Bragato Address by Kym Anderson, Professor of Economics from University of Adelaide and Australian National University. Celebrated author and New Zealander of the Year 2010, Sir Ray Avery, will be speaking about ‘customer centric business strategies for the wine industry’ to inspire the sector to forge a profitable and sustainable path forward.
The conference programme includes technical sessions focused on quality and sustainable grape and wine production, marketing workshops, exporting and discussions regarding the latest advocacy issues. The conference features the only wine awards acknowledging the grape grower – the Romeo Bragato Wine Awards. Trophy winners of this competition will be announced at a dinner on 28 August.
The Romeo Bragato conference is named after one of the early pioneers of the wine industry whose pioneering advice on viticulture was unfortunately ignored for 60 years.
For more information see – www.bragato.org.nz
