Sponsored Workshop: Brewing Up Opportunity - Leveraging Seasonal Events and Technology to Drive Year-Round Revenue

Margaret Kelly [00:10] But hey, everyone. My name is Margaret Kelly and I am here from Boston, Massachusetts, and I'm with a company called Tripleseat. Now, before I get started, how many of you know what Tripleseat is? All right, awesome. I know we got some partners in the room here. Um, and how many of you all are currently running events at your brewery? Awesome. So today we're going to talk through some things that can not only make your life easier but also bring in more revenue for your venue. So we're going to keep this interactive. I do not want to become a lecturer today, so please jump in at any time and then we'll also do some dedicated Q&A at the very end here as well. But let's start with the big picture. Why could you even care about events? Now I know that a lot of you are doing events today, but a lot of times what I hear is, why do I need the added work and stress of events when my taproom is doing great on its own. But I urge you to look at this number here, 30% more booked revenue. That's what breweries are seeing when they actively focus on their event strategy. And that's just a general increase. Now if you're going from 0 to 10 events, that's obviously going to go a lot higher. But events really give you 3 key strategies that I want to talk through today. The first one is high margin repeated repeatable revenue. When someone books a private event, you're getting food and beverage minimums, you're getting rental fees, and often higher per person spend than your average taproom traffic. And once you host a great event, those clients come back year after year. You're creating advocates for your brand. This will also make it really easy for you all to do yearly forecasting if you know exactly what your events calendar is going to look like and you already have those deposits coming in. The second is you're diversifying your revenue streams. You're no longer just relying on pint sales. We all know that some days you get a big rush coming in the doors, but other days it's a lot slower. So how do we make sure that you're still getting traffic in and you're still getting revenue even if your doors aren't opening as often? And third, you're getting long term customer loyalty. When someone hosts their wedding, their rehearsal dinner, bridal shower, any of these types of events at your brewery, you're becoming part of their story. From personal experience, my sister just got married in June and we did it at a brewery. We had her, uh, rehearsal dinner at a brewery. Those folks will never be, uh, missed on us. So Trillion Brewery, thank you very much for your support. But a quick question for the room, since a lot of you are currently doing events right now. What's the biggest challenge that you're facing right now? Is it generating leads? Is it the managing the logistics, or is it the follow-through? I have prizes for whoever answers me first. Yes. You out. OK. Some more legislation issues there. Now, do any of you currently live in spreadsheets? Yes Well, and I also, here you go, prize number one. So the great thing is for all of you is that you already have everything that you need to succeed in the events business because you have 3 massive advantages your space. Think about what a brewery has to offer. You can have industrial vibes. You can have outdoor patios. You have unique atmospheres that hotels and banquet halls can't replicate. Think about the difference of hosting a bridal shower in this very room compared to your taproom. And what that offers. Second is your team. Your staff already knows hospitality. They know how to create experiences and that translates directly into events. And lastly, of course, your beer. That's your differentiator. No one can offer what you brew. It's local. It's craft, and it's something that people want to share with their guests. We just need to allow them to know that you guys are offering that space for them. So the question isn't whether or not you can do events, it's how you systematize and scale them so that they become a revenue driver rather than an extra source of stress for you and your team. Now let's talk about one of the most powerful strategies that you can implement using public events as advertising for your private events business. And think about it this way a guest at your trivia night could be the next host for your private event. And here's how that pipeline works. Now we just passed October, so let's say you had an Oktoberfest. Hundreds of people are coming through your doors. They experience your space, they taste your beer, and they see your team in action. Somewhere in that crowd, I guarantee you, is someone saying, this would be perfect for my next company party, or I could host a birthday party here. So I'm, I'm curious from you all in the room, and again, we do have some extra prizes here. What public or ticketed events are you all currently running? Oktoberfest, yep. Trivia nights. Anyone have anything good coming up for January? Anything on the event's calendar? If nothing, that's OK because we're going to go over some strategies in a bit here as well. So the key is that you want to be intentional about your conversion from public to private events. Public events shouldn't just be a stand-alone revenue. They should be lead generation for your higher margin private events. So a quick example here, your brewery starts doing monthly beer and food pairings. You have about 50 people at each one of these events, and you add a simple call to action at the end. If you're interested in hosting your own private event here, scan this QR code. Within 3 months, you book 6 private events directly from those attendees. If that's at a $5000 minimum, that's $30,000 in extra revenue for you for making a single ask and adding a QR code. So we were just talking about seasonal calendars. So let's get tactical with your oh sorry, question. Yeah Look here Yeah, no, that's a great question. So the more that you are pitching it, even with subtle things like signs near the bathroom loving this space, did you know that you can host a private event? People aren't necessarily looking for very in-depth pieces of paper or actual collateral. What they're looking for is ease of use. So if you have QR codes, even if it's just with printer paper, the more that you're putting up, that's just opening your doors, and it's not costing you as a venue, extra money really. Right, so the more that you put out there, the better, and what we recommend at Triple Seat is put a QR code directly to your lead inquiry form. Now we know exactly where those are coming from. We can track them and we can repeat that. It's not going to require you guys to add 3 more people to your team, for example. Correct. That's what we found because when you think about it with a QR code that's opening up that lead form directly, that is the simplest way for someone to just give you their information and for you guys to collect it when you're having the info at emails, the biggest thing that makes that makes me think of is who is managing those emails, how fast does it take you to respond. And what happens if that person is on a vacation? A QR code you can automatically have a response through Triple C. Awesome. Well, keep up the participation. I love it. Um, Because really when it does come to our seasonal calendars here, we want to make sure that your seasonal calendar can be a marketing engine that runs year round. So you can think about it this way. We already talked about some great examples. So fall, football season, Oktoberfest, Halloween. Think about all these things that people are already naturally excited about. Building off of that. So, um, this is when corporate teams are looking for team building events and when couples are starting to plan their rehearsal dinners, we want to make sure that we're marketing to them. In the winter, the holidays are obvious, but you have to remember about January and February. A lot of people sleep on those, and that's when people want those cozy indoor vibes. So trivia nights, beer education classes, winter warming tastings. These keep people coming in even if it's too cold for people to come in. Yeah, question in the back. Me personally, I'm not a huge reader, but I do really, really enjoy, uh, my book club that I drink beer and wine at. Um, but no, book clubs are huge, right? So there is, that's a whole another audience of people that might not think of your guys' space as the perfect place for hosting. But when it comes to, you know, people actually in a book club, a lot of times it comes with drinks in the end, right? So that's another great way and you can even have it where it's by theme. So what books are really popular right now, let's centered around that theme. That's a great one. So all these ideas that you're seeing here, these are all things that you guys can implement really easily. And you can get really creative here. So even things like a puppy adoption patio party. I personally, I adopted my dog and I actually found the organization that I fostered from at one of these brewery parties. So it's just another way to get your name out there. And we're actually also going to have a 2026 brewery events calendar for you to download at the end of this as well. And so that's going to be filled with different ideas that you guys can implement immediately with different promotional hooks for every month of the year. But the one thing that we always do recommend for our brewery partners is to stay nimble, because yes, you want to plan your big seasonal anchors, but leave room for the new opportunities such as the book clubs or maybe a pop culture event or a sports team win. Those are all things that you can plan pretty quickly if you have a system that's gonna automate things for you. All right, so now you're running these great public events, but now how do you actually convert those attendees into private event bookings? And there's a couple of different tactics here. The first, which we've already discussed a bit here, which is adding those QR codes and signage. And my biggest advice here is don't be shy about this. Put those QR codes right on your tables that link directly to that private event inquiry form. Have signage, like I was saying, near the entrances and near the bathrooms. Just simply saying Love this space. Hot your next event here. You can also be capturing guest emails. You can even offer something in exchange for it. So a free beer at their next visit, $5 off their next purchase or an entry into a raffle. Now you have an entire list of people that you can market to, and you can send them a follow-up email after the event, which again is something that Triple C can automate for you all. But that message could say something as simple as, thanks for coming to Trivia. Did you know that you can rent out this space for your next party? Just get that idea going in people's heads because they don't know what you offer unless you let them know what you offer. The next piece is training your staff. This one is huge because your bartenders and your servers are already on the front lines. So they should be naturally mentioning events. Are you enjoying the space? We actually do host private events here, corporate gatherings, birthday parties, etc. Give them talking points, and some folks that we partner with even give a small incentive to their, uh, to their bartenders and servers for any private event leads that they get in as well. Next, you can use different floor plans and decor. This is going to be super subtle but a powerful tactic. If you're running a public event, set up the space in a way that shows its versatility. Use different table arrangements, different decor, even uplighting that really showcases what the event could have. When people see the potential, they can envision their own, their own event at your space. And then if you're hosting ticketed events or utilizing the cap the email capture strategy, you'll have all those attendees' contact information. So again, send those post you post-event thank you offers after someone attends a public event, send them a thank you email with an offer that says book your private event in the next 30 days and get 10% off. This is a super easy way to get more people in the door. Now I want to give you guys some concrete examples from some of our current partners here. So I love this example because it really encapsulates everything that we've been talking about so far today. Artisanal brewing ventures. They hosted a Yelp lite event for engaged Yelp users. They offered an incentive for attendees of the event. Book a private event before December 31st and receive a complimentary appetizer. 90% of the attendees were brand new to the taproom, and that single event resulted in 5 private event bookings. What's important here isn't that it was just a fun event. It was event marketing. It introduced their space to new people, showcased what hosting an event would look like there, and gave guests a clear and easy path to book and inquire. So that's the shift. Your public events shouldn't just fill seats, they should really fill your private events calendar. Now, here's where things start to get real though. You start to implement these strategies and guess what happens? You get more leads, more inquiries, more emails, more phone calls. Suddenly that spreadsheet system breaks down. Your sticky notes get lost. Your inbox becomes a black hole. Now, since a lot of you are already running events. Raise of hands, how many of you search through spreadsheets or emails multiple times a day for events? All right, that's what we're going to solve here. Because more leads can create a bottleneck. Now, this is a great problem to have because it means that your marketing efforts have been working, but if you can't manage the volume, you're going to lose bookings. You'll miss those follow-ups. You might even double book a space, you might forget details, but ultimately, if you can't stay organized, you're not going to deliver that great experience that's going to build those advocates for you and your brand. Now, I've talked to a lot of breweries who are really excited about running events, but they've run into issues with lost leads, double bookings, and having to turn down events because of their own organizational challenges. And that's revenue walking right out of their door. So the question becomes how do you scale without adding 3 new team members, and that's where technology comes in. Now let's talk about what a good event management system should do for you, because at its core it should deliver 4 key outcomes. First, it should help you increase leads and bookings. This means capturing every lead seamlessly with a good lead form, responding faster than your competitors, keeping clear communication. And staying organized and effective, which ultimately makes it really easy for your client to say yes. Second, it's going to enhance communication with your clients. Your clients should feel taken care of from the moment of their first inquiry to the day of their events and beyond. That means professional proposals. Again, clear communication, easy contract signing, and simple payment processing. Every touchpoint should feel seamless. Third, it should keep you organized. Like I was saying, no more sticky notes, no more scattered spreadsheets or digging through email chains at midnight. Everything should be in one place. Every lead, every conversation, every document, every payment, your whole team should be able to see where all that lies at any given moment. And lastly, it needs to save you time. Time is your most valuable resource. A good system automates the repetitive stuff. So think about acknowledgment emails, reminders, reporting. Automate all of those that you guys can focus on what really matters, which is creating that personal experience for your guests. This is what's going to separate breweries that do events occasionally from breweries that make events a core revenue driver. It's about having the right tools in your pocket that can move the needle for you. Now this is where I'm gonna speak a little bit more specifically about Triple C because that's really what we've built here. Transition you from chaos to calm when it comes to events. So Triple Seat for anyone that's not familiar, we are an all in one event management platform built by event professionals. We've worked with thousands of venues, a ton of breweries to streamline every step of the event process. And here's what that's going to look like in practice. You're going to have automatic lead capture. So earlier when we were talking about you could have the info email, but how long does it take for someone to respond to that? What if they could get a personalized email that's automated within seconds, within minutes? You're also gonna have branded documents, so your proposals, your contracts, your BEOs will all look professional and on-brand, and you can create templates that you're not starting from scratch every time. You're going to have seamless payments so clients can pay deposits and final balances online. There's no more chasing checks or running credit cards over the phone. You're also gonna have customizable automated reporting. So see exactly how your events are performing. What leads came in this month? What's your conversion rate? What events are running the smoothest, and which ones are the most profitable for you and your team? You'll also have floor plans. So how do you visualize that space, showing your clients exactly how their event will look, and you can make changes on the fly. So let me walk you through a really quick scenario here. It's a Tuesday morning. You get 3 event inquiries, a 50-percent corporate happy hour, a 30-percent birthday party, and a 100-percent nonprofit fundraiser. Without a system, you're copying and pasting emails trying to remember which spaces are available. Manually creating proposals. With Triple Seat, all 3 inquiries are automatically logged. You get notified. The client, the prospective client, also gets notified letting them know exactly when they should hear from you and what to expect. Now you're in the CCC dashboard, seeing if any of those requests are repeat guests, reviewing the calendar and checking space availability all in one place, allowing you to respond thoughtfully and effectively with professional proposals. The client can review, sign, and pay their deposit all online. So this isn't just about saving time. It's about feeling confident and at ease with the process which puts the client at ease as well. It allows you to focus on the things that are most important. Again, creating that memorable experience for your guest. Now I'm going to walk through a couple of these features specifically here and the first one is going to be the lead capture. So you can embed our inquiry form directly onto your website. When someone fills it out, it flows directly into the Triple C dashboard. You can have unlimited lead forms, so one for weddings, one for corporate events, one for small parties. And what's nice is that our system is going to track exactly where each lead is coming from. So you know which of your marketing efforts are working. Where should you be spending your energy and your time. Second is communication. Everything is going to live in one place. Every email exchange, every note from a phone call, every document. Your whole team now has visibility, so if someone's out sick, anyone can jump in and knows exactly where things stand with that event. We also have automated email templates and responses, so you can again acknowledge those inquiries instantly. And then your calendar. See your entire event calendar at a glance. It's going to be color coded by event type, filterable by space, date, status. There's no more wondering if you guys are double booking yourselves. And right from the calendar view, you can actually print out any of those documents, so your BEOs, your contracts, any of your floor plans you can view right from the calendar. Now I'm going to share a couple of more examples here. So I'm gonna go back to artisanal brewing Ventures, which is a multi-taproom business that uses Triple C to keep all their event workflows in one place. So that means communication, documents, contracts, invoices, and even floor plans. What they let us know is that this doesn't just save them time, it helps keep them, it helps them stay organized, support larger volumes of inquiries and deliver and deliver ultimately a better client experience. But the biggest one that they pointed out is that using Triple Seat's reporting features, they now track where those leads are coming from, how many actually convert, and again, which of those marketing efforts actually are producing bookings. That means they're no longer guessing which events drive revenue. They're investing in the ones that work. For them, Triple Seat isn't just an event system, it's a revenue strategy. My next example here is Lord Hobo Brewing. How many of you guys are familiar with Lord Hobo? All right, perfect. So they operate 2 locations and before TripleC they transparently were struggling. One team member was trying to manage everything, all the details, all communication, all the follow up, and as you can imagine, things were naturally falling through the cracks. Everything was stored in one person's email account, so the rest of the staff had zero visibility into what was going on with their events. They were using multiple Google Docs to track client information. There was no consistency, no branding, and a lot of human error. But here's what changed when they implemented Triple Seat. 200% increase in lead conversion. Before TriCC, they were booking 1 out of every 10 inquiries that were coming in. Now they're booking 2 to 3 out of every 10. Now I want you to think about that for a second. That means that they're getting the same amount of inquiries, but they've doubled their bookings. So that's about how can we make sure that we're using the inquiries that are coming in, we're responding effectively, and we're actually capturing that business there. They also had a 100% increase in event revenue across both locations. They literally doubled their revenue. Now the events team at Lord Hobo said that the templates and the automated tasks, automated tasks were what was the game changer for them. They're not starting from scratch with every event inquiry anymore. They have a foundation to build on, which means that they can focus on personalization and delivering great experiences rather than reinventing the wheel. They have different templates for every type of event. A Wednesday buyout is going to look a lot different than a Saturday buyout. How do we make sure that we automate that so that there's no human error? Now they also talked about how private events became a valuable marketing strategy. They said every private event they host introduces their space to new people who might not have known about Lord Hobo previously. Those guests become taproom customers. So that's the flywheel that we're talking about today. You're now having public events, private events, and more walks into your door. Now let's talk about the lifetime value of an event client. Loyalty starts with one great event, but here's the journey. They start as a guest at one of your public events. Then they become a host when they book their first private event. If you deliver an exceptional experience, they become an advocate. They're telling their friends, their colleagues, and their family. They are now officially a repeat client. Now, someone books their 30th birthday party at your brewery. Two years later, they're booking their baby shower. Three years after that, their company is doing quarterly, uh, happy hours there. And that's not including the countless times that they just want to come sip on your amazing beer on their own. That's the power of events. You're not just selling a one-time rental, you're building relationships that can span over years and decades. The key is delivering consistently great experiences and staying top of mind. Send anniversary emails. It's been a year since you hosted your event with us. Ready to do it again? Offer loyalty perks. Make them feel valued. Yeah Yeah. You've got a fan in the back too. So how many of you guys are doing a wake events? All right. Now think about it. A lot of you didn't raise your hands. We can now all be raising our hands next time at Brewbound Live next year, right? So we're all going to start doing that. That's a great idea. It's a full circle lifetime client, right from the birth all the way to the end there. I love it. And these are great ideas, right? Think about the times that your, your taprooms are slow. How can we make sure that we're getting that extra revenue in? I mean, at 2 in the afternoon, you might be super slow, but that's exactly when you're gonna have a wake. You never know. But all right, I know that we've covered a lot today and you're probably sick of me talking at you all, but I want to make sure that I give you a clear action plan. Things that you can implement as soon as you get back to your brewery. Now you can showcase your space through seasonal events. So I want you to start looking at that calendar for 2026. What events can you add? What themes make sense for your brand and your community? And again, I'll have some examples that you guys can download after this as well. Add easy inquiry touchpoints this week. Create those QR codes to link directly to your event inquiry forum. Put them on the tables. Train your staff to start mentioning these events. Add a pop-up on your website. You can also centralize leads and automate follow-ups. Stop using the spreadsheets. We all love spreadsheets, but they're very hard to be collaborative with. Now, I also want you guys to start thinking about nurturing repeat bookings year-round, creating those post-event follow-ups, send thank you emails, ask for reviews, even offer incentives. These 4 things can transform your events business. But I want to end where we started. Why do events even matter? We started our time together today talking about why events matter to your business. I want to end with why they matter in the grand scheme. Events bring people together. They build community, loyalty, and connection. I mean, think about why we're all here today, right? So as breweries you're already in the business of bringing people together. You're gathering places. You're where people celebrate, where they unwind, where they connect. Events are just an extension of that mission. So to get a little punny, if you're ready to brew up more events and take your business to the next level, I want to give you something valuable. Scan this QR code and you'll get the free brewery events toolkit. This is what includes a seasonal events calendar, email templates for event inquiries, and a slow season guide. And of course if you guys want to learn a little bit more about Triple Seat, I do have a booth right out there, and then you can also just come say hi. We have some extra time here as well, but thank you so much.