Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference coming to Richmond in 2021

Richmond will play host to next year’s Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference, Richmond Region Tourism announced Friday. The annual conference draws attendees from breweries, guilds, tour operators, marketing agencies and media from around the country.

The 2021 conference will take place Feb. 23-25, 2021, at the Omni Richmond Hotel downtown. Richmond’s craft beer profile has grown in recent years, and the state has more than 200 breweries. In a recent study by C+R Research, Virginia is among six states where craft breweries have grown the most since 2015, seeing 36% in growth.

“Richmond is a fantastic location for the Beer Marketing & Tourism Conference,” said Allan Wright, president of Zephyr United, the Montana firm that runs the conference. “It has an outstanding beer scene and is actively engaged in promoting the region as a beer tourism destination. We are excited to be heading to Richmond in 2021.”

The conference will feature a keynote talk from Greg Koch, co-founder of California-based Stone Brewing Co., which located its East Coast brewery in Richmond in 2016. Stone had the ninth-highest sales volume of U.S. craft brewers in 2018, according to the Brewers Association’s study released last March.