SANTA ROSA, Calif. (Business Wire) -- More than 150 citizen wine writers will gather in Sonoma County this coming weekend for the First ever North American Wine Bloggers Conference. As the number of wine blogs has increased from less than 50 just four years ago to upwards of 500 or more today, Wine bloggers have become increasingly important to consumer wine education and the wine industry itself.
The Wine Bloggers Conference, organized by the OpenWine Consortium and Zepher Wine Adventures, will take place at the Flamingo Hotel and Resort in Santa Rosa in Sonoma Country Friday through Sunday. The event includes keynote addresses, seminars, dinners, wine tasting and the chance for bloggers to finally meet one another as well as for industry members to meet the bloggers they've become more and more familiar with over the past few years.
"The number of wine blogs and the folks following them have increased radically just over the past two years," said Tom Wark, a wine blogger and one of the organizers of the conference. "The impact of this is that we are in the middle of a move to diversify where wine lovers get their wine education and wine news."
In addition to bloggers, a number of wine industry representatives will also be attending the conference, looking to familiarize themselves with this new paradigm for wine publishing. Sponsors of the Wine Bloggers Conference include Sebastiani Vineyards, Sonoma County Tourism Bureau, Sonoma County Vintners Association, Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission, Inertia Beverage Group, Wine.Woot, WTN Services, Cruvee, Tetra Pak, Kick Ranch Vineyard, New Zealand Wine Growers and Wine Growers of Dry Creek Valley.
"Wine Bloggers are increasing not only in numbers but in influence also," notes Wark. "That influence and the best way to wield it in the service of wine lovers will be under discussion this weekend by a very unique group of new wine publishers."
For more information on the Wine Bloggers Conference see http://www.winebloggersconference.org. For more information on the OpenWine Consortium see http://www.openwineconsortium.org.
OpenWine Consortium
Tom Wark, 707-246-6451
tom@warkcommunications.com
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