It’s just past noon on day two of #NCBShow18, and veteran attendees know what that means: the red carpet has been walked, the ribbon has been cut, and our industry-encompassing Expo Floor is open!
Day two of the Nightclub & Bar Show also means that last night we all celebrated the bar business at our Welcome Kickoff Party at Foxtail, this year’s first Party Pass bash at XS Nightclub with sounds by Diplo, and Country Night at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country. Of course, the Nightclub & Bar Show is more than networking events and partying. Yesterday was loaded with in-depth, interactive workshops addressing such topics as leadership, bar design and truly understanding your food and beverage costs.
Our informative and invaluable education sessions tackled everything from updating your outdated menu, managing Millennials, music programming, sustainability, and so much more. One of the final sessions of the day featured live consulting from Invictus Hospitality industry experts Michael Tipps and Homan Taghdiri.
Nightclub & Bar’s famous off-site training opportunities took attendees to the Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits Academy Room and OMNIA Nightclub. There truly is no better opportunity to gain the knowledge you need to survive and ultimately thrive in this fierce industry of ours. And this morning it was back to business after getting down to Diplo last night.
Donna Hood Crecca and Melissa Wilson of industry research firm Technomic took on the challenge of projecting what’s new and what’s next in the first keynote session of this year’s show. They revealed that Technomic projects consumer beverage alcohol spending to reach $109.3B this year. Of course, getting your chunk of that significant change will require you to differentiate from your fierce competitors—which increasingly include hotels—and remain relevant to your guests.
Alcohol delivery services and legal cannabis also represent competition for consumer dollars. Hood Crecca and Wilson identified them as disruptors, and rightly so. The growth of the top delivery services—DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats—has been explosive. Couple that with Gen Z’s preference for building home bars and staying in and there’s a lot to consider and keep you on your toes.
Tonight, curious attendees will have the chance to participate in the Beam Suntory-sponsored tasting event Oink & Barrel at the otheroom inside Caesars Palace. West Coast American Whiskey Ambassador Megan Breier will guide a tasting of country hams paired with a selection of Knob Creek whiskeys. From there it’s on to OMNIA for a party led by the one and only Tiësto. Tomorrow we do it all over again, but tonight we own Vegas.
Cheers!