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AHA National Homebrewers Conference Planning Guide

AHA National Homebrewers Conference Planning Guide
Updated: March 2012

Section I. Local Organizing Committee

      I.      Local Organizing Committee

You should expect to need up to 20 core volunteers to cover all of the necessary tasks to successfully put on the AHA National Homebrewers Conference, with several additional volunteers to assist with specific areas of the conference.  The Local Organizing Committee should fulfill the following roles (some of these may overlap):

AHA Conference Committee

Volunteer Position Descriptions

Chair or Co-Chairs of Organizing Committee

The ultimate responsibility for the Chair or Co-Chairs is seeing that every aspect of the conference has been organized in advance and was done well. Chair/Co-Chairs need to assemble the pool of committee members to manage specific roles within the conference and will need to be the motivating force to keep the committee focused and moving forward.

At the conference Chair/Co-Chairs typically speaks briefly to all attendees at the Welcome Toast and during the Banquet and Awards Ceremony.

Project Manager (optional)

The Project Manager is responsible for making sure timelines are on track and that goals are met. The Project Manager will work closely with the Chair/Co-Chairs to ensure all committee members are fulfilling their roles as expected. This role can also be filled by the chair or co-chair.

Education Coordinator

The Education Coordinator works closely with the AHA staff to make suggestions and help confirm speakers for seminars and the keynote address. The AHA will rely on this person’s connection to the local community to find people near the host city or within the state to make this conference unique from others.

  • Work with Chair/Co-Chair and AHA staff to determine the Keynote speaker.
  • Recruit speakers and get confirmations. AHA staff can help identify potential speakers and provide contact information.
  • Work with AHA staff to determine interesting topics for conference. Avoid repeating speakers/topics from previous year. 
  • Work with the Volunteer Coordinator to ensure volunteer needs for seminars are met during the week of the conference, including pouring beer or passing around hand-outs.
  • Consider recruiting an addition person to organize poster session, if you want to have poster sessions in the halls of the host hotel.
  • Once confirmed, the AHA will assist speakers to determine A/V needs for each speaker, printed handouts, determine and arrange for any beer/food serving needs for speakers. 
  • AHA staff will plan the schedule for seminars/speakers.
  • Beer Services is responsible for delivering all beer for seminars.
  • Members of the AHA Governing Committee introduce each speaker and present the speaker with the gift at the end of the talk.
  • AHA staff will check attendees for appropriate badges to access seminars.

Hospitality Suite Coordinators

The Hospitality Suite is a showcase of homebrew clubs that have volunteered to serve their beer to conference attendees.  Clubs provide homebrew, snacks (if allowed by hotel contract) and staff/pourers during their shift.  The daytime space for the Hospitality Suite also serves as a trade show for homebrew retailers, suppliers and wholesalers.  The evening Hospitality Suite does not include the trade show, and may be located in a separate room.

Work with Club Night Coordinator to ensure clubs are aware of both opportunities to share their beer with attendees and are not being contacted multiple times by multiple different people.

  • Recruit clubs and coordinate the schedule of the hospitality suite.
  • Planning the schedule:
    • Schedule clubs before the start and after the end time of their shifts to allow for set-up and tear-down.
    • Avoid club switch-overs during seminar breaks.
    • The suite is closed during the all major conference events, including the Welcome Toast, Keynote Address, Pro-Brewers Night, Club Night, Banquet and Award Ceremony. The suite remains open during seminars.
    • Clubs are usually scheduled for 2-3 hour shifts.
    • Some clubs may volunteer for more than one shift.
    • The suite typically opens by 11 am on Thursday and 10 am on Friday and Saturday.
    • Hospitality suite must abide by state laws for “last call” and “last pour”.
  • Hospitality Suite Coordinator will instruct each club’s pouring members to check that attendees have badges and wristbands prior to serving them.
  • Hospitality Coordinators will work with the Volunteer Coordinator to provide volunteers, if needed.
  • Volunteers might be needed to help empty dump buckets and refill cups.
  • The hotel is responsible for removing trash and recycling and refilling water stations. Work with AHA staff to make these requests.
  • Obtain at least 2 beer stations (bars) with 10 or more taps each to handle demand.
  • Remember you'll have both ball and pin lock kegs so you'll need fittings for both. Coordinating with clubs to know how many of each they will be using in advance is helpful.  The AHA has a supply of ball and pin lock fittings that you can use.
  • You may need to assist clubs who wish to ship beer to host city or decide not to accept clubs that cannot bring beer themselves.
  • Evening time slots are likely to have a larger and/or thirstier crowd than daytime sessions. Assign clubs with more beer to those time slots immediately following the evening events to avoid running out of beer.
  • AHA will arrange for all aspects of the trade show in the HS. Any leads for local vendors should be forwarded to the AHA.
  • AHA staff will work with the hotel to arrange for opening and closing the HS when not in session.
  • Beer Services is responsible for delivering all beer to HS.
  • HS Kegs must be properly labeled according to standards issued by Beer Services.
  • The AHA will reimburse for CO2 used in the HS.

Pro-Brewers Night Coordinator

The conference typically features a Thursday evening event that highlights BA member breweries for a private craft beer festival. Special attention should be focused on local breweries whose beers are unavailable outside the region of the conference and are of special interest to homebrewers.

The Pro-Brewers, Pre-Conference, Commemorative Beverage Coordinator and Local Brewpub Coordinator should coordinate their efforts so that local breweries do not get multiple requests from the conference.

  • Breweries involved in pro-brewers night MUST be members of the Brewers Association.  Confirm membership with AHA staff prior to contacting breweries. Use this list for reference: www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-us-brewery . BA member breweries have a BA logo in their listing.
  • Recruit breweries and get confirmations. Work with AHA staff to get brewery contact info or use the list above.
  • Consider having a theme with decorations and costumes to support the theme. The sooner brewers know the theme the better they can plan to participate. The theme can be promoted on the conference website or in attendee emails by AHA staff.
  • Pro-Night Coordinator should work with the Volunteer Coordinator to recruit volunteers to deliver ice during Pro-Brewers Night. The number of volunteers should be determined based on the size of the venue and number of breweries.
  • Work with AHA staff prior to Pro-Brewers Night to determine how much ice is delivered to each brewery. Ice is expensive and brewery representatives frequently think they need more than they do.
  • Depending on the contract, ice will be provided by the hotel or purchased by the AHA. 
  • AHA staff will assign breweries to specific booths. 
  • AHA staff will assign sponsor booth spaces. 
  • AHA staff will work with the hotel to determine the best layout for the venue. 
  • AHA staff will handle catering.
  • AHA staff will communicate with breweries to bring their own serving equipment, how much beer to bring, when to arrive, staff for their booths and brewery rep passes.
  • If necessary, the AHA staff will arrange for a host distributor to handle beer that cannot legally be brought directly to the hotel.

Club Night Coordinator

Club Night (CN) is commonly held on Friday evening of the conference and is one of the most fun events of the week. Clubs from around the nation set up tables in the designated area to serve their homebrew and sometimes light appetizers. Many elaborately decorate their space and themselves with a club theme making this a really exciting event.

Work with Hospitality Suite Coordinator to ensure clubs are aware of both opportunities to share their beer with attendees and are not being contacted multiple times by multiple different people.

Work with Volunteer Coordinator to provide help distributing ice and helping clubs load their booths in and out.

  • Recruit and confirm clubs for Club Night. The AHA can provide an Excel file with club contact information. The same information can be found at www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-club.
  • Clubs should provide all of their own serving equipment.
  • Some clubs coming in from out of town may not be able to provide their own CO2. Request they bring a regulator and connectors for their kegs and work with local clubs to borrow equipment such as CO2 tanks, tubs, etc. 
  • Keep a master list of clubs, # of kegs on tap at one time, booth spaces, equipment needed, equipment loaned out, etc. If using a Google Doc, share with AHA.
  • Be prepared for last minute changes. Have more equipment & volunteers lined up than you need.
  • Club Night Coordinator may need to assist clubs who need/want to ship their beer to the host city. This would include finding a shipping location. Club Night Coordinator can decide not to accept clubs that cannot bring their own beer.
  • Verify with AHA that food can be served at Club Night before telling clubs they can serve food.
  • Clubs wanting to serve food will need to provide or arrange for their own serving equipment. Open flames are never allowed in a hotel.
  • In some cases, clubs may need to sign a waiver absolving the hotel from liability from food served. The AHA staff will help the Club Night Coordinator manage this, if needed.
  • AHA staff will work with hotel for additional food/snacks for Club-Night.
  • Work with AHA staff to determine if access to electricity is included in the hotel contract, how many clubs can potentially access electricity, and if there is a cost involved.
  • Volunteers are needed to deliver ice. Base the number of volunteers on the size of the venue and number of clubs. It may work best to have clubs pick up their own ice from a designated spot in the hall. Ice distributed in this manner will still need to be rationed, so clubs will need to be checked off as they pick up their ice.
  • Volunteers may be needed to help clubs break-down at the end of the night.
  • Club Night Coordinator must communicate to AHA staff how much beer is being served so AHA can place the ice order (or work with the hotel for ice needs).
  • Beer Services is responsible for delivering all beer to CN booths.
  • Volunteers may be needed to help distribute CN beer.
  • CN kegs must be properly labeled according to standards issued by Beer Services.
  • Club Night Coordinator is responsible for distributing labeling standards to CN participants.
  • AHA staff will work with the hotel to arrange the room layout based on the number of sponsors and clubs participating in CN.
  • Based on the layout provided by the hotel, the Club Night Coordinator is responsible for assigning clubs to booth spaces. Sponsors spaces are handled by the AHA.

Pre-Conference Events Coordinators (2-3)
Pub Crawls, Brewery Tours, Local Transportation, Family events, etc.

Pre-conference events are the responsibility of the local committee. The local committee and/or local clubs involved assume all responsibility for collecting registration fees and covering pre-conference event expenses. The local committee and/or local clubs assume any profits or losses associated with pre-conference events, so the events should be planned to minimize the risk of losses.

Most conferences have initial pre-conference events scheduled for Tuesday, though most will take place on Wednesday. Consider including events throughout the conference week to accommodate spouses that aren’t attending daytime seminars.

The Pro-Brewers, Pre-Conference, Commemorative Beverage Coordinator and Local Brewpub Coordinator should coordinate their efforts so that local breweries do not get multiple requests from the conference.

Possible Pre-Conference Events

  • Beer paired meals (consider working with a local culinary school)
  • Pub crawl: bus or walking tour (depending on distance from host hotel)
  • Full day bus tours: (Trips to well known craft breweries do better than scenic trips to less known breweries.)
  • Event/Entrance Discounts to conference attendees
  • Baseball game
  • Golf outing
  • Spa packages
  • All-ages event
  • Spouse events during conference

 

  • The Pre-Conference Events Coordinator manages all the individual event organizers and assistants. Each event will need an organizer and possibly assistants to help during the events.
  • Event organizers work with establishments to setup the event, establish meals or discounts, sets the activities schedule and act as host for the event.
  • Assistants will help with day-of duties like handling money, working check-in, handing out wristbands/nametags and making sure the group stays together.
  • The Pre-Conference Events Coordinator will work with the Event Organizers to schedule bus services, set-up payments, wristbands/nametags, manage registrations, refunds and cancelations and any other common needs for multiple events.
  • Don’t plan too many events; you want them to sell out.
  • Establish a drop-dead date for registration and a method for cancelations.
  • Determine how you will accept payment and distribute refunds.
  • Work with AHA to determine how pre-conference events are promoted online.
  • Establish a way to confirm registrations and provide attendees with updates about your events.

BJCP Reception Coordinator

This is a Wednesday afternoon event planned for BJCP judges. The BJCP Reception Coordinator will work directly with the BJCP board to determine the program, arrange for a speaker and any beer and food served to attendees.  If possible, the AHA will work with the hotel to arrange a space for the reception. If space can’t be set aside, locating another space is the responsibility of the Coordinator and/or BJCP. Expenses, registration and associated attendee fees for this event are the responsibility of the BJCP.

Commemorative Beverage Coordinator

Based on your region, consider the possibility of beer, mead, cider or perry as a commemorative gift to all conference attendees. Aim for one-to-two per attendee. If brewing one beverage for all attendees isn’t possible, due to the size of the batch, smaller batches of different brews might be needed.

Breweries, meaderies, cider makers, ingredients and packaging donors receive recognition for their donations on the commemorative beverage labels, on the AHAConference.org website, and in the AHA Conference Program.

The Pro-Brewers, Pre-Conference, Commemorative Beverage Coordinator and Local Brewpub Coordinator should coordinate their efforts so that local breweries do not get multiple requests from the conference.

  • Identify commercial breweries, meaderies, cider makers where the commemorative beverages will be made (preferably businesses that can also donate bottles, labels, ingredients, etc).
  • Plan for no more than two (2) bottled commemorative beverages.
  • Considering have kegs of commemorative beer to serve during the welcome toast, keynote seminar or hospitality suites.
  • Work with AHA to acquire donations for ingredients, glass, crowns, labels, etc. as necessary.
  • Secure storage for bottles.
  • Design label. Incorporate logos for businesses that donated to the project.
  • Oversee production.
  • Bottle and label. Be sure to put a call out for extra help if bottling/labeling are not to be completed on a commercial system.
  • Arrange for delivery to hotel. Keep this in mind when determining where the beverage is brewed.

800 (12 oz) bottles = 75 gal = 2.4 bbl
1600 (12 oz) bottles = 150 gal = 4.8 bbl
2000 (12 oz) bottles = 188 gal = ~ 6 bbl
Always account for loss in packaging.

    Label Requirements

  • You do not need state approved labels for beers that aren’t for sale to the public.
  • Kegs don’t require label approval.
  • It's fine to put all the logos of each donating company on every label.
  • You must include the AHA Logo (AHA staff to provide)
  • Please use official AHA conference art. The more the label like the website and/or t-shirts, the more people will associate it with the conference.  (AHA staff to provide)
  • You must include the standard US Government warning for alcohol.
    For sample purposes only. Not for resale.
    Government Warning: (1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2)   Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery and may cause health problems.
  • You must include: “2012 AHA National Homebrew Conference Commemorative Beer/Mead/Cider/Perry” on the label. The text can be broken up, so it reads like:
    2012 AHA National Homebrewers Conference
    Kate’s Amazing Porter
    Commemorative Beer
  • Please include the conference website www.AHAconference.org. Information about the commemorative beers will get posted to the site. This gives more exposure to those who donated.
  • The labels can look exactly the same, with maybe a different color as the background. This will keep the look consistent and is easier to design.
  • Labels must be proofed by AHA staff before printing.

Local Pub Coordinator (Optional)
This person works with establishments near the hotel to set up discounts for meals or events. Places to target are nearby brewpubs, beer bars or restaurants.

  • Inform local brewpubs & beer bars the dates of the conference, as well as the expected attendance. Encourage them to plan ahead with extra staff, craft beer selections and potentially late-night food options.
  • Try to arrange quick lunchtime turnaround food options for attendees. Focus on locals within walking distance to the host hotel.
  • Obey state laws when discussing discounts offered to attendees.
  • Work with AHA staff for in-house posters for the location. These can be hung for pub staff and will show the discount and images of the AHA member card.
  • Work with AHA to staff to establish a long-term relationship in the Pub Discount Program.

The Pro-Brewers, Pre-Conference, Commemorative Beverage Coordinator and Local Brewpub Coordinator should coordinate their efforts so that local breweries do not get multiple requests from the conference.

Volunteer Coordinator

The Volunteer Coordinator will work with every coordinator on the committee. This position is responsible for identifying people to help out before and during the conference to ensure everything runs smoothly.

  • Education Coordinator - Work with the Volunteer Coordinator to ensure volunteer needs for seminars are met during the week of the conference, including pouring beer or passing around hand-outs.
  • Hospitality Suite - Volunteers may be needed as extra bartenders. This will be especially helpful when smaller clubs are scheduled and during session breaks (peak times) when beer needs to flow quickly.
  • Hospitality Suite - Volunteers might be needed to help empty dump buckets and refill cups.
  • Pro-Night  - Coordinator should work with the Volunteer Coordinator to recruit volunteers to deliver ice during pro-brewers night. The number of volunteers should be determined based on the size of the venue and number of breweries.
  • Club Night - Be prepared for last minute changes. Have more equipment & volunteers lined up than you need.
  • Club Night - Volunteers may be needed to help clubs break-down at the end of the night.
  • Club Night - Volunteers may be needed to help distribute CN beer.
  • Pouring Beer - Volunteers are needed to serve beer during the Keynote Address and the Welcome Toast.

Local Information Coordinator (optional)
Consider combining this role with T-shirt Coordinator and/or Local Pub Coordinator

This coordinator will develop local information for attendees and spouses/families from out of town. Info table could host t-shirt sales and should be in a highly visible location.

  • Provide maps and transportation options for attendees or spouses.
  • Researching activities for spouses to do during the conference.
  • Contacting local tourism offices and/or venues to obtain discount coupons to hand out.
  • Coordinate with Local Brewpub Coordinator to provide information on nearby restaurants etc. for attendees, especially if providing discounts.
  • Maintain desk in registration area or near seminars to provide information to attendees and spouses.
  • Consider having 3-4 assistants during pre-con event registration, conference registration and between seminars.

Website Coordinator

The Website Coordinator is responsible for maintaining the Local Committee website, if there is one. Things the local committee might add to their own site are programs that would generate money for the local committee, promotions of local events not affiliated with the conference or information/recruitment for the members of the local committee.

  • Works with Chair/Co-Chairs to determine the name of the local committee website and purchase the domain.
  • Creates the structure of the site.
  • Works with Pre-Conference and T-shirt Sales Coordinators to add all content to the site.
  • Works with AHA staff to distribute information from the local committee for the AHAconference.org website.
  • Adds information to the local committee website.
  • Things you might find on the local committee website:
    • pre-conference schedule
    • details of pre-conference events
    • pre-conference event rsvp or ticket sales
    • spouse/family event information
    • t-shirt sales
    • call for volunteers

T-shirt Sales Coordinator (optional)

The T-shirt Sales Coordinator will produce and sell commemorative t-shirts for the local committee, if the LC wants to sell shirts. All sales, delivery of shirts, refunds and losses are the responsibility of the local committee. The AHA will handle commemorative t-shirts if the local committee opts not to produce their own shirts.

  • T-shirt Sales Coordinator works with AHA staff to obtain official conference artwork or works with a local designer to create something different.
  • T-shirt Sales Coordinator works with t-shirt company to purchase shirts.
  • T-shirt Sales Coordinator organizes how payments are received and shirts are delivered.
  • T-shirt Sales Coordinator works with Chair/Co-Chairs to ensure the profits from sales go back to the Local Committee or a designated club or charity.