Have you ever wished you could just grab your morning cup of coffee or tea or your favorite lunch and be able to listen to and interact with all sorts of experts in business, enology or viticulture, all while you stay in your warm and comfy home in your sweatpants and slippers? Seriously, which of us hasn’t thought that – am I right?
Well that’s exactly what you can do on March 3, 4 and 5 this year because B.E.V. NY is going virtual this year thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The format of this year’s conference has changed a bit from our usual. Rather than have one day each devoted to business, enology and viticulture, there will be 1½ to 2 hours of business, enology and viticulture content on each of the three days. The idea is that we didn’t want to have very large blocks of content presented at once, but break it up so that each topic is presented in smaller chunks. You can find the program for this year’s conference on the website at https://www.bevny.org/program2.
Program Highlights
One advantage of holding the conference on Zoom this year is that we can have more of a mix of speakers from near and far. For example, one of our keynote speakers will be acclaimed wine writer Jancis Robinson, who will be speaking on Friday, March 5 about New York wines’ place on the world stage. Her presentation will be in the format of an interview, led by Evan Dawson, host of ‘Connections’ on WXXI radio in Rochester, and author of Summer in a Glass: The Coming Age of Winemaking in the Finger Lakes.
Thursday’s enology session will feature a “superstar” panel of wine scientists in the US – Dr. Gavin Sacks (Cornell), Dr. Andrew Waterhouse and Dr. Pat Howe (UC-Davis) who will talk about both current and new understandings on cold stabilization. And Friday’s winemaking session will “welcome back” Nova Cadamatre (winemaker, Robert Mondavi) to B.E.V. NY, who will speak about MOSS (not the stuff growing in your car that you’ve barely driven since last March, but “material other than stainless steel”), along with Ian Barry (Barry Family Wines).
We’ll also be drawing on a mix of local and international speakers for the viticulture program this year. The viticulture session on Wednesday, March 3 will be focused on climate change impacts both local and in Europe. We’re excited to have Dr. Hans Schultz from the Hochschule Geisenheim University, one of the world’s experts on how climate change is impacting vineyards, particularly in Germany and Europe. Following Dr. Schultz, Dominik Sona, manager and winemaker at Weingut Koehler-Ruprecht, will talk about his perspective on how climate change is affecting his work as a grower and producer in the Pfalz region. Dr. Lisa Cleckner from the Finger Lakes Institute will then bring a more local perspective on how climate change is affecting the Finger Lakes themselves.
And never fear, there will be pesticide recertification credits available. Thursday’s viticulture program has been approved for 2.0 pesticide credits, with topics including downy mildew management, some updates on herbicide resistance in New York, where things stand with spotted lanternfly in New York State, and a new sustainability program that is being proposed for the New York State industry. We will send instructions to those who want to receive credits for Thursday’s program in a separate email after you register.
We’re also happy to announce that the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is combining their conference efforts with B.E.V. NY this year as well. Friday’s viticulture program has been assembled by Jenn Russo, extension viticulturist with the LERGP, and her team, and features Dr. Terry Bates speaking about a new tool for growers to start using spatial data in their operations, Joseph Amsili discussing cover crops and their various uses, and Dan Olmstead to talk about updates and improvements to the NEWA weather station network. There will be some great information on new tools that are available to growers (or will be in the near future), regardless of what kinds of grapes they grow, to help to manage their vineyard operations more efficiently and with better information to make decisions.
Registration
Registration for this year’s conference is $75 per person for all three days of the conference. How much of the conference you choose to participate in is totally up to you – it’s basically our version of the buffet plan. You can watch just one session that particularly intrigues you, or you can watch every session over all three days. It’s up to you. If you would like to have access to the recordings of the session afterwards, the registration cost is $100. The registration link is http://tinyurl.com/bevny-reg. If you plan to register for pesticide credits, be sure that the registration is in the name of the person who wants to receive the credits. We will be using the registration list as part of our proof of attendance for the DEC.
Also, don’t forget that the NY Wine & Grape Foundation is providing one free ticket to B.E.V. NY (including access to the recorded talks after the conference) for any NY winery or grower who joins or renews their membership by February 26. More information can be found on the Wine & Grape Foundation’s B.E.V. NY webpage.
Sponsorships
Sponsorship deadline is Monday, February 15!
Because B.E.V. NY will be held virtually this year, there will be no trade show to visit. So we have increased and adapted the sponsorship options for this year to allow companies who want to have a presence and support this event still have the opportunity to do so. Sponsorship benefits include advertising in the digital conference program, social media posts from the conference organizers highlighting your support of the conference, the opportunity to have a “commercial” played during the conference, and more. If you know of companies or organizations who might want to take advantage of this opportunity, please direct them to the ‘Sponsors’ page of the B.E.V. NY website (https://www.bevny.org/sponsers) for more information about the different sponsorship levels.
Even though we will miss not being able to get together in person this year, and see our colleagues and friends face to face, we are very excited about this year’s conference and hope that you will be too. If you have any questions, please contact our conference coordinator Gemma Osborn ([email protected]).
We hope to “see” you at B.E.V. NY!