The Wine Voyage

Table of Contents - What Makes Tequila Tequila - The Main Tequila Categories - How to Taste Tequila - Tequila Flavor Profiles by Category - What to Look For in a Tequila Tasting - Common Tequila Tasting Mistakes - How to Structure a Tequila Tasting Event - Tequila vs. Mezcal: A Quick Comparison - Bringing Tequila Tasting to a Corporate Group - Further Reading I'll admit something: I didn't take tequila seriously until I was well into my career as an event producer. It was a party spirit, the thing you shot before dancing, the booze that showed up at bachelorette parties. I was wrong, and I'm embarrassed it took me as long as it did to figure that out. The shift happened at a distillery visit in Jalisco. I watched a jimador harvest a blue agave plant — at least seven years old, close to three hundred pounds — and understood for the first time why great tequila costs what it costs. Nothing about it is fast. Nothing about it is careless. The spirit in those bottles is the resu...

Table of Contents - What Makes Tequila Tequila - The Main Tequila Categories - How to Taste Tequila - Tequila Flavor Profiles by Category - What to Look For in a Tequila Tasting - Common Tequila Tasting Mistakes - How to Structure a Tequila Tasting Event - Tequila vs. Mezcal: A Quick Comparison - Bringing Tequila Tasting to a Corporate Group - Further Reading I'll admit something: I didn't take tequila seriously until I was well into my career as an event producer. It was a party spirit, the thing you shot before dancing, the booze that showed up at bachelorette parties. I was wrong, and I'm embarrassed it took me as long as it did to figure that out. The shift happened at a distillery visit in Jalisco. I watched a jimador harvest a blue agave plant — at least seven years old, close to three hundred pounds — and understood for the first time why great tequila costs what it costs. Nothing about it is fast. Nothing about it is careless. The spirit in those bottles is the resu...

Table of Contents - Step 1 — Define Your Goal Before Anything Else - Step 2 — Know Your Audience (Really Know Them) - Step 3 — Set a Realistic Budget - Step 4 — Choose the Format for Your Goal - Step 5 — Select and Book Your Venue - Step 6 — Build the Run of Show - Step 7 — Communicate Early and Often - Step 8 — Facilitate, Don't Just Host - Step 9 — Capture and Follow Up - How The Wine Voyage Fits Into This - Further Reading I've spent fifteen years producing corporate events, and I can tell you that the most common planning mistake isn't picking the wrong venue or blowing the budget. It's starting with the activity instead of the outcome. Most people ask, "What should we do for team building?" before they've answered a more important question: "What do we need to accomplish?" Once you're clear on the goal, everything else — the format, the venue, the budget, the timeline — falls into place. That's the framework I want to walk you throug...

Table of Contents - Step 1 — Define Your Goal Before Anything Else - Step 2 — Know Your Audience (Really Know Them) - Step 3 — Set a Realistic Budget - Step 4 — Choose the Format for Your Goal - Step 5 — Select and Book Your Venue - Step 6 — Build the Run of Show - Step 7 — Communicate Early and Often - Step 8 — Facilitate, Don't Just Host - Step 9 — Capture and Follow Up - How The Wine Voyage Fits Into This - Further Reading I've spent fifteen years producing corporate events, and I can tell you that the most common planning mistake isn't picking the wrong venue or blowing the budget. It's starting with the activity instead of the outcome. Most people ask, "What should we do for team building?" before they've answered a more important question: "What do we need to accomplish?" Once you're clear on the goal, everything else — the format, the venue, the budget, the timeline — falls into place. That's the framework I want to walk you throug...

Table of Contents - Why Most Networking Events Fail - The Best Networking Event Ideas by Format - Networking Event Ideas by Group Size - Networking Event Ideas for Specific Audiences - Logistics That Make or Break a Networking Event - Making the Follow-Up Work - How The Wine Voyage Brings This to Life - Further Reading Here's the thing nobody says out loud about networking events: most people hate them. Not because they don't want to meet people — they do. They hate them because the standard format is designed to produce anxiety, not connection. You walk into a room. Everyone has a name tag. There's a cash bar and a tray of sad bruschetta. You scan the crowd and feel the pressure to approach someone you've never met and say something that isn't excruciating. Most people end up gravitating toward the two people they already know, staying for an hour, and going home wondering why they bothered. I've planned hundreds of networking events. The ones that work all sha...

Table of Contents - Why Most Networking Events Fail - The Best Networking Event Ideas by Format - Networking Event Ideas by Group Size - Networking Event Ideas for Specific Audiences - Logistics That Make or Break a Networking Event - Making the Follow-Up Work - How The Wine Voyage Brings This to Life - Further Reading Here's the thing nobody says out loud about networking events: most people hate them. Not because they don't want to meet people — they do. They hate them because the standard format is designed to produce anxiety, not connection. You walk into a room. Everyone has a name tag. There's a cash bar and a tray of sad bruschetta. You scan the crowd and feel the pressure to approach someone you've never met and say something that isn't excruciating. Most people end up gravitating toward the two people they already know, staying for an hour, and going home wondering why they bothered. I've planned hundreds of networking events. The ones that work all sha...