Homebrew Con 2024 location?

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Knkbrand

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I thought I would hear some kind of news about next years Homebrew Con, but cannot find any information. Cn anyone that is in San Diego this weekend fill us in on the location for next years Homebrew Con 2024?
 
Knkbrand said:
I thought I would hear some kind of news about next years Homebrew Con, but cannot find any information. Cn anyone that is in San Diego this weekend fill us in on the location for next years Homebrew Con 2024?
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I believe they announce the next year's location on the last day, which is tomorrow. It's got to be somewhere in the Midwest or South, since it's in CA this year and last two in person ones were RI and PA. Was thinking Nashville since they lost out in 2020 due to Covid, but was told they did not apply to host next year. My prediction is Texas or New Orleans, it has not been down south since 2002. My Master Homebrewer Program buddies who are in San Diego this year are saying unofficially the rumor out there is Denver for next year.
 
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jdauria said:
I believe they announce the next year's location on the last day, which is tomorrow. It's got to be somewhere in the Midwest or South, since it's in CA this year and last two in person ones were RI and PA. Was thinking Nashville since they lost out in 2020 due to Covid, but was told they did not apply to host next year. My prediction is Texas or New Orleans, it has not been down south since 2002. My Master Homebrewer Program buddies who are in San Diego this year are saying unofficially the rumor out there is Denver for next year.
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when I went to Portland, I thought there were ads all over the hotel saying that the next year would be in Rhode Island. Maybe I am misremembering. I hope it gets announced tomorrow!
 
I’ve been at con, and haven’t seen any hint of where next year’s is going to be.

I missed end of day talk yesterday, so maybe it was announced then.

IMG_8202.jpeg
 
From what I have found on the topic, the sponsors are playing 2024 close to the vest, with the word out that if San Diego loses as much $$$ as Pittsburg did last year, there may not be a Homebrew Con 2024 ("at least not in person")...

Cheers!
 
Knkbrand said:
I personally think this is a bad idea, and will be the beginning of the end.
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Part of me says it sucks being an adjunct to another conference. But I have had a good experience in the other direction: Oracle combined the Java dev conference with their giant Oracle one - us Java devs got double the parties.
 
Knkbrand said:
will be the beginning of the end
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For the home brewing hobby, maybe it's "the end of the beginning"
  • In the mid 2010s, there was a wealth of home brewing knowledge that was recorded in book form.
  • Brewing software embraced (and extended) that knowledge.
  • In the early 2020s, self-publishing of quality content (videos and books) is moving the hobby forward.
  • home brewers discussing creative uses of fresh ingredients will continue to move the hobby forward. Who, in 2019, would have predicted discussion in 2023 on how to make good beer quickly using fresh packages of hopped LME?
There will continue to be opportunity for the home brewing industry to serve the hobby. Services that were valuable in the past may not be as valuable in the future. And new services will be offered.

edits for typoz and such
 
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So I guess there was a reason for the delay. Will it be October 23 or 24?
 
Bummer. I'd intended to go this year combined with a family vacation but we had to change plans. I'd already said next year knowing it would likely be somewhere east. We'll have to see how their plans play out.
 
Well.... The AHA is a subsidiary of the BA. I guess it's not completely unreasonable for the AHA's conference to be an addendum to the BA's conference.

But the GABF is always in Denver, right? Does this mean Homebrew Con is now fixed in Denver, too?
 
The main benefit of moving the Con all around the country is that it gives different regions of homebrew clubs driving access. Something like 80% of clubs pouring at club night are within a few hours of driving because shipping full kegs and booth gear is unreasonably cost prohibitive. For example, my club poured at Baltimore, Philly, Providence and Pittsburg. I can't conceive of how it would work to get it all to Denver, but then maybe club night is over for everyone else too.
 
Heh, HomebrewCon joined at the hip with GABF. Economy of scale, I guess. If you're going to book a venue, might as well kill two birds while you're at it.

I'll be waiting for the ads: "Frontier Airlines, the official sponsor of HBC/GABF" :p
 
I attended an annual gaming convention in Florida that piggybacks onto a much larger wargaming convention. We’re like 25 people to their 1000+. Had it not been for the larger con taking us in, we’d never exist.

I’m sure it limits us in some ways, and it certainly causes confusion on small issues such as ticketing and games signups, but overall it is a net positive.
 
cfrazier77 said:
This is sad, but it is a result of the current decline of homebrewing. Hopefully that changes in the near future.
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In the early to mid 2020s, I suspect that these
  • annual attendance at Home Brew Con
  • annual participation in National Homebrew Competition
are not a quality measurement of the popularity of the hobby.

The conference will continue, competitions will continue, educational content will continue to be produced (but maybe not for consumption at conferences), discussion will continue (but where and how that discussion occurs will continue to evolve).

The perceived or measured decline in certain hobby activities seems to have little impact on my enjoyment of the hobby.


FWIW, I see a numer of businesses that are in the "home brewing segment" of the economy that also offer products and services to commercial craft breweries.
 
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I'm not surprised about the reports of HomebrewCon losing money.
When they had it in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, I didn't go because of the hassles and overall cost to attend.
Both locations were about 2.5 hour drive from my house. But with outrageous hotel and parking costs in both cities, as well the high crime rate in Baltimore, I decided to skip both.
There are alternatives to big city, high cost locations. Harrisburg, PA, for example, has an airport, plenty of reasonably priced hotels, an active brewery scene and I imagine would be a less costly place to stage an event. Its also a short driving distance to many population centers. I'm sure there are other small city locations around the country that would work out for HomebrewCON.
I won't be attending the 2024 event in Denver.
Organizations don't like to downsize and do anything that lowers their perceived importance.
But wouldn't a cheaper, smaller HomebrewCon that didn't didn't lose money be a more sustainable model?
 
I believe they gonna stay connected to GABF no matter what, its going to be in Denver for good, which might just work for them.
It probably doesn't cost that much more to put the two events together.
Maybe I'll eventually go, just not in 2024.
 
madscientist451 said:
But wouldn't a cheaper, smaller HomebrewCon that didn't didn't lose money be a more sustainable model?
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It would be interesting to see details of where the AHA spends money on HBC. The classes are given by volunteers. There is a ton of "free" homebrew beer. Do vendors pay a fee to be there? I only recall maybe one event with catered food. The attendance cost is not cheap and I am responsible for my food, housing and transportation costs. Clearly the venue is a big cost and it probably has been hard these past years to right size the venue for an unknown crowd size. Are there other big costs of HBC?
 
CascadesBrewer said:
It would be interesting to see details of where the AHA spends money on HBC. The classes are given by volunteers. There is a ton of "free" homebrew beer. Do vendors pay a fee to be there? I only recall maybe one event with catered food. The attendance cost is not cheap and I am responsible for my food, housing and transportation costs. Clearly the venue is a big cost and it probably has been hard these past years to right size the venue for an unknown crowd size. Are there other big costs of HBC?
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I was at this year's Con (and last year) and I spoke with some of the vendors who indicated it was VERY expensive for them to be a vendor.

It seems to me, the venue and advertising are really the only major costs I could see for the AHA (they gave us breakfast a couple days and a taco buffet at club night this year fwiw).

The judges for NHC are volunteer, volunteers man the events, the speakers are volunteer, the beers at knockout are the B/C bottles from NHC etc.

Meanwhile, vendors apparently pay an exorbitant fee (and provide the freebie swag themselves), entries for NHC have skyrocketed to $29 a pop, tickets to the events are hundreds of dollars each...we even have to pay $30 for a tee shirt if we want one!

I loved being in San Diego but found that Con overall was disappointing compared to last year. There were way less vendors, way less swag and the setup for club night and the kickoff party were poorly constructed as everyone was crammed into far too small a space.

I was disappointed to hear about Con combining with GABF, but at least they are continuining it in some fashion, for those still interested in attending.

This will be my last Con, unless there are major changes. I have been to GABF and it draws a TON of people so the logistics of adding another event seems like it will make it a nightmare to manuever (finding accomodation, flights, getting in and out of the event etc.)
 
kingmatt said:
I was disappointed to hear about Con combining with GABF, but at least they are continuining it in some fashion, for those still interested in attending.
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FWIW it's not a combined event. GABF is taking place late September with HBC about a month later.
 
I understand the cost saving benefits, but to me, my one experience with GABF, is that everyone is just trying to drink as much beer as possible as fast as they can. Homebrew Con, at least we are learning in sessions while we drink! I am curious on the logistics of this too...will they use a second location to hold the classes since most of the convention center is set up for GABF? Will it be one combined ticket for sessions in the day and GABF at night? If so how expensive is that going to be? Will they eliminate club night and pro night? I don't care that it's more than a year away, the AHA should be telling us what the plan is now. What about the competition? With it in October, does that mean the regionals switch to July/August and we ship in summer heat? Or will they stay in March/April? Or will regionals be eliminated again? I could not go to Homebrew Con this year because already spent a lot on upcoming trip to Germany for Oktoberfest. If I go next year to Denver, it will probably be my last one.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
It would be interesting to see details of where the AHA spends money on HBC. The classes are given by volunteers. There is a ton of "free" homebrew beer. Do vendors pay a fee to be there? I only recall maybe one event with catered food. The attendance cost is not cheap and I am responsible for my food, housing and transportation costs. Clearly the venue is a big cost and it probably has been hard these past years to right size the venue for an unknown crowd size. Are there other big costs of HBC?
Click to expand...

kingmatt said:
I was at this year's Con (and last year) and I spoke with some of the vendors who indicated it was VERY expensive for them to be a vendor.
Click to expand...
I paid for a 10x10 booth in Grand Rapids and it was $3500. Given inflation, I'm guessing the same booth was $5-6k this year.
kingmatt said:
It seems to me, the venue and advertising are really the only major costs I could see for the AHA (they gave us breakfast a couple days and a taco buffet at club night this year fwiw).

The judges for NHC are volunteer, volunteers man the events, the speakers are volunteer, the beers at knockout are the B/C bottles from NHC etc.

Meanwhile, vendors apparently pay an exorbitant fee (and provide the freebie swag themselves), entries for NHC have skyrocketed to $29 a pop, tickets to the events are hundreds of dollars each...we even have to pay $30 for a tee shirt if we want one!
Click to expand...
I'm not on the AHA board and never have, so this is all speculation based on the fact that I was involved in organizing smaller scale events for my previous corporate job. The facility usage fee is for sure the biggest cost. Meeting rooms, exhibit halls, paying BA staff, and then part of that contract also guarantees the associated hotel a certain number of sleeping rooms. If they are not occupied to a certain level, they have to pay additional out of pocket. A lot of facilities are also union shops, so they have to pay insane fees just to get extension cords plugged in. They pay for refrigerated trailers for the cellar staff to keep all the kegs cold.

The educational talks are volunteer, but they do get a comped conference passes.
kingmatt said:
I loved being in San Diego but found that Con overall was disappointing compared to last year. There were way less vendors, way less swag and the setup for club night and the kickoff party were poorly constructed as everyone was crammed into far too small a space.
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and last year was a pathetic compared to preCOVID cons. I've been going since Oakland. Look at these numbers...

1687815451469.png

kingmatt said:
This will be my last Con, unless there are major changes. I have been to GABF and it draws a TON of people so the logistics of adding another event seems like it will make it a nightmare to maneuver (finding accommodation, flights, getting in and out of the event etc.)
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I went to GABF once, primarily because I was already in town on business and a friend of mine comped me a ticket to the event. I basically just paid one hotel night out of pocket for the experience. I don't think I'd ever go if I had to pay all of it out of pocket. Of course, I'll consider when we all find out to what extent the Homebrewcon portion of it will retain its classic vibe, but I have my doubts. The main problem with Denver for life is that my very dedicated NJ homebrewclub is never going to be able to pour for club night again. It's one thing to sit out a couple years in a row, but you fly out to enjoy other clubs knowing that it will be our turn soon.
 
This was my first Homebrew Con, and having said that I enjoyed the experience. I’ve read what a lot of you have stated in this thread, and I have no basis of comparison.

Were there things that could have been done better? Absolutely. Have I seen worse, or been subjected to worse as an attendee? Absolutely.

There were quite a few first time attendees, at least by a show of hands in the first talk I was in. Was this due to proximity of the location in general, an increase in interest in homebrewing, a WTH it’s in San Diego so why not?, I have no idea.

I will say that I took 2 things away as they seemed to be recurring themes.

1 - Pittsburgh was a flop. I heard multiple accounts about the vendor area being tiny and not much energy at the event.

2 - AHA wants feedback. They want to make sure that all the talks are relevant, well received and of value.

IMO, but I felt like there was a certain level of frenetic’ness at the event, which fed into the high level of energy that I saw at the event. We need this to succeed, how can we do better, what are we missing, etc. etc.

A couple of things I take away from this thread.

If you attended and didn’t like the event, let them know. It doesn’t seem like they’re not receptive to hearing criticism.

If you decided to not attend, let them know why.

Take into account the nature of the economy, inflation, cost considerations, etc. E.g., they could have tried to host at the Grand Manchester Hyatt which is on the water next to the SD convention center, or at some random Motel 6, or somewhere in between like an…Embassy Suites maybe? What is actually important To You? The education, the vendors, the experience, all of the above?

Im going to try and attend next year’s event because I liked this year’s enough to go again. I’ve also never attended GABF, and I can’t go this year so maybe the timing will work out..IDK.

TL;DR Problem = Solution

If you see a problem, don’t pile on. Contribute towards providing a solution. I think in this case, as homebrewers, it is kind of our own thing to save ya?
 
Braufessor said:
So, what does that do to the National Homebrew Competition?? Curious as to how that will be set up.
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Yes. Will competition beers be due in late summer? Horrible time to be shipping entries. I’d prefer a single round competition. Doubt Id attend either but let’s see how it unfolds.
 
How many people showed up to San Diego this year? The homebrewcon website mentioned they expected 1200+ attendees? Considering how many people homebrew that's a sad expectation and it doesn't surprise me they are shifting gears to keep it going.

Edit: GABF attendence was 40k in 2022. This is down it was 60k in 2019. They also have a separate session for AHA and BA members.

Edit: This could give homebrewcon a lot of exposure they didn't have which would help to build it back up.
 
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Having HomebrewCon as a side show to GABF may expose some of the 40,000 participants to homebrewing, so that's a good thing, right?
 
Knightshade said:
1 - Pittsburgh was a flop. I heard multiple accounts about the vendor area being tiny and not much energy at the event.
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Pittsburgh was my first NHC. It is going to be hard to get reliable metrics out of that year. COVID was still lingering with a camp of people still reluctant to attend in-person events and another camp of people that were turned off by the vaccine requirements. People said the vendor section was smaller than years past (was SD even smaller?). I felt there was a good array of vendors, I came home with a decent amount of free swag, and there were some pretty solid give aways (I did not win any of them). The venue seemed too big for the crowd, and I felt like I was constantly walking back and forth between large empty areas of the conference center, though a few of the sessions were standing room only.

From the pictures I saw from SD, it looked like the venue has more open areas where people could congregate and share beers. In Pittsburg, there was the convention center where you could not bring in alcohol and there were no places to hang out and share (outside of the organized events). I was not aware of any open areas in the hotels where people gathered with homebrews. This might be mostly related to different rules about alcohol and homebrew from state to state.

I would have liked to go this year, but adding the cost of a plane flight on top of the housing and conference costs was too much for me to justify. The cost of the conference is not cheap, but it is not that bad for a few days of entertainment, lots of beers to sample, solid educational sessions, and I am sure I came home with $150 in free stuff. I will have to wait and see details about next year.

I agree with @Bobby_M's comment about moving the conference around. I would be much more likely to attend a conference that was driving distance. It reduces the cost significantly, but also makes it much easier to bring along beers to share (for club night or other times). If it was always in Denver, it would likely shift to more of just a Colorado Homebrew Con...though smaller regional conferences don't sound like a terrible idea.
 

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