The sixth annual Australian Brewers Conference (working title) and Trade Expo – formerly known as the Australian Craft Brewers Conference – will be held from 26-28 June at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney.
Presented by the Independent Brewers Association (IBA), the conference exists to build excellence and best-practice in the Australian beer industry. The IBA is currently undergoing a rebrand of all of its events. In March 2018, the events will be re-launched under a new brand.
The conference is the Australian brewing industry’s keystone event and is growing to be to be an education and trade event of international significance.
The three days of the conference is jam-packed with business, technical brewing and supply chain seminars, international speakers, brewery tours, workshops and the largest brewing trade expo seen in Australia.
While the keynote speaker for the conference is still TBA, Chair of the IBA Ben Kooyman told Beer & Brewer that he is “really excited” about some promising conversations with some “awesome” speakers.
“It’s a bit early to advertise before we get everything booked, but we just wanted to get the date in people’s diaries and hopefully get some people offering to be panel speakers as well,” he said.
The Trade Expo is the premier trade show for brewers in Australia and connects suppliers, innovators and leaders of the national and international brewing community, providing a platform for the latest and best products and services on the market and enabling the growing brewing industry in Australia to build strong networks and develop profitable businesses.
“We started in Melbourne and had it there for two years, then we took it to Brisbane which was a roaring success, and then we took it to Adelaide which was even bigger – so we’re very confident that Sydney will be the biggest and best yet,” continued Kooyman.
“We want to be the pre-eminent beer conference and expo in South-East Asia to be honest – that’s our aim.”
The conference concludes with the Independent Beer Awards (another working title); a night where the industry gets together, beer in hand, to support and celebrate the independent beer industry.
The IBA is currently calling for program submissions and registrations for the 2018 Trade Expo. Further information can be found here.