Event Leaders Get Together for Virtual Wine Tasting & Cocktail Making Classes

H2K Partners continues to work with clients on digital strategies for event professionals who are navigating industry transformation. We were delighted to introduce our Level Up groups to partners we believe inspire and delight in areas members have been focusing on.

Level Up is an invitation-only, peer-to-peer group that connects like-minded industry executives in an intimate, confidential and curated setting. Usually, members do a deep dive into a specific industry issue during Level Up meetings. However, the most recent sessions for both the CXO and Marketing cohorts looked different.

We hosted a Virtual Wine Tasting in partnership with Grape Intentions and a Virtual Cocktail Making Class hosted by Laylow for our CXO and Marketing groups respectively. Our goal was to allow members to experience these activities in order to envision how they can be used as engaging, community building, networking experiences. We have found that virtual classes can be a driver of revenue and/or audience building and wanted to share this golden opportunity with our members.

We created these Level Up meetings to enlighten members on all of the things they can do with this type networking experience, which is a great alternative to in-person activations. Here’s how it went.

Format

The events took place in the later afternoon and were 1.5 hours in length. We started both events with a brief content presentation surrounding specific solutions our cohorts might be able to leverage, left time for quick Q&A, and then segwayed into the class. At the end of our wine tasting, we carried out a quick community building activity to showcase another mechanism through which these events can be interactive. Here is the run of show for both events.

CXO	Marketing
PT 1 - Sean McManus Rapid Fire on Best Practices for Pivoting to Virtual (5 minutes) PT 2 - Q&A with Sean (10 minutes) PT 3 - Virtual Wine Tasting with Grape Intentions (60 minutes) PT 4 - Kahoot! trivia activity (15 minutes)	PT 1 - H2K Presentation on Influencer Marketing as a Solution for the Events Industry (15 minutes) PT 2 - Q&A with H2K team (15 minutes) PT 3 - Virtual Cocktail Making Class with Laylow (60 minutes)

Highlights of Wine Tasting
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Wines we drank:

• Champagne Lanson (champagne)
• Merlin Cherrier Sancerre (white)
• Elk Cove Pinot Noir (red)

We learned… 

• How to properly open a bottle of bubbly
• The UK imports the most champagne
• When you hear the word “dry” it indicates the wine is a table wine (meaning it goes with the savory side of your meal) or it’s something you have at a cocktail party. Sweet wine is built so it pairs with dessert or it is the dessert.

• How they blend grapes in France
• The definition of a natural wine
• The effect of climate on wine vineyards

Highlights of Cocktail Making Class

Cocktails we made:

• Pipaloma
• Traditional Sour
• Tiger Style

We learned...

• There are several household items you can use in place of traditional cocktail tools - for example, some used a protein shaker bottle instead of a cocktail shaker
• When you’re making a cocktail, never put club soda or ice in the shaker, instead, add it after the drink been poured so you don’t dilute it
• If you go to a bar and order a gimlet or margarita and see the bartender reaching for Roses Lime Juice, order a beer or a glass of wine instead 
• Always make sure your tequila label says 100% agave - otherwise there might be artificial colorings and flavors 

A Successful Activation

We were thrilled that both events were a huge success. We saw tons of chat activity, engagement with polls, participation in the community building activity, and learning opportunities. The peer-to-peer interaction, connection and sharing of resources proved both events were worthwhile. See below for some of the positive feedback we received from our Level Up members:

“This was fantastic. Thanks so much for hosting and showing how enjoyable these can be!”

“This is as close as networking as we can get now, and that is the point of face to face”

“I love it. This actually seems like it offers a fun way to network that we’ve been missing since the pandemic started. I’ve done this with my book club. Didn’t even think about it for work.”

“Really well done Brett...and what you left in the package was clear for the next steps. H2K thank you for a great idea and execution!”

“Thank you H2K for inviting me and Brett, this was so fun! Lots of ideas”

“Absolutely super and another reminder that virtual has some great attributes.”

“Fun event and great to experience these virtual event engagement tools.”

“What a fun event! I really enjoyed it. Nice break from the daily grind. Thank you so much.”

“Thank you for the excellent event. It was both innovative and fun! It’s a reminder that timing and environment are important.”

“Thank you for hosting such a fun event last night - it was really well done and I really enjoyed it (I usually don't need too much excuse for wine on a Thursday night...).  Brett was great and it was good to bring an interesting group of Events professionals together.”

You’re probably wondering how to host a networking event like this. See our tips on organizing a virtual class here. 

Are you a leader in the events industry? 

​To share your experiences and learn from other CXOs, register for the H2K Level Up CXO Peer Exchange. Request your invitation below.

Level Up is a complimentary program offered by H2K Partners and Bruno Group Signature Services.

REQUEST INVITATION

Francesca Cassola

​Senior Market Development Manager, H2K Partners
Email Francesca

​A top-performing customer success and market development professional, Francesca is passionate about delivering value to her customers and key stakeholders. At H2K Partners, she  handles marketing, manages H2K's virtual discussion groups & events, and is actively working on launching a new H2K service that connects influencers to our customers to help them reach new audiences and amplify their presence on social media.