MORE THAN 1000 VISITORS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD

46 · BBII 4/2004
A both efficient and spectacular venue
chosen by the WBC organisers:
The Twin Towers of the Manchester
Grand Hyatt Hotel.
MORE THAN 1000 VISITORS
FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
World Brewing Congress in San Diego
gathers international brewing industry
“Professional” is supposed to be the soonest term to occur to you spontaneously if you are asked for
the particular impressions you have taken along as a visitor to the 2nd World Brewing Congress (WBC)
from July 24 to 28 in San Diego, California. The professional organisation and the extremely
favourable price-performance ratio you are by far not used to at European congresses, induced
more than 1000 visitors from all over the world to come to San Diego. In the following, you will find
a brief assessment of the WBC 2004 and a detailed illustrated report.
Already months before brewers
from all over the world set
out for their way to San Diego,
the universal brewing community
had been optimally informed with
plenty of well designed and useful
details per e-mail. And when you
know that the organizer associations
Master Brewers Association of the
The TU-Munich-Weihenstephan
lined up with a big team in San Diego:
(left to right) front: Urs Wellhoener,
Dr. Tobias Voigt, Andreas Brandl,
Gary Luther, Wolfgang Burkart,
BREWING AND BEVERAGE
INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL; standing:
Sabine Weyermann, Thomas Kraus
Weyermann, F. Schmidt, Frithjof Thiele,
Dr. Stefan Kreisz, H. Schmidt, Marc
Kusche, Dr. Jens Voigt, Dr. Franz Oliver,
Mark Schneeberger, Dr. Christoph Tenge,
Michaela Miedl, H. Nob, Jürgen Behr,
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Vogel.

Americas (MBAA), or American
Society of Brewing Chemists
(ASBC) in St. Paul, Minnesota,
employ only quite a few people
at their offices who are responsible
for the entire administration of the
associations and the organisation
of the WBC, this is all the more
astonishing. Questions to the office
asked by interested parties as
a result of the advertisement were
answered quickly and with competence
in the run-up to the congress.
This professional approach was
continued in the preparation and
the execution of the congress in
San Diego. A first World Brewing
Congress was carried out in
Orlando, Florida in 2000. Apart
from MBAA and ASBC, the partner
organisations Brewery Convention
of Japan, European Brewery
Convention (EBC) and the Institute
& Guild of Brewing were included
in the planning of the congress.
Informal but efficient
The second congress in San
Diego was as well presented in
a casual, informal yet extremely
efficient manner, as we are
accustomed to with US Americans.
On the one hand, the dress code
can be referred to as extremely
informal and very casual, dark
suits or even neckties were hardly
ever seen. On the other hand, the
pricing is able to thrill the hearts
of the congress participants. For
five days, close-packed with poster
presentations, technical lectures,
workshops and a subcontractors´
exhibition with 133 (!) subcontractors
altogether, the organisers
charge just 650 US dollar per
person including the welcome
reception at the pool, lunch, and
final banquet. The reasons for the
success of the WBC are certainly
multifarious, but the excellent priceperformance
ratio is supposed
to have an important share in
this success. This is not meant
as a pleading for a price increase,
in fact, other associations, the
name of the EBC is often mentioned
here on the part of the brewing
industry, would be well advised
to reconsider their price policy.
If the participation fee and the
service offering differ too much,
the attendance, especially
in a phase of economic strain,
can easily collapse, a fact which,
as a consequence, is also supposed
to impair the subcontractors´
interest in congress sponsoring
dramatically.
Communication
“Seing and being seen” was the
motto already in the first evening
in San Diego when the assembled
brewing industry of the world
met at the pool of the Manchester
Grand Hyatt for informal communication.
In the background of the
unforgettable view over the San
Diego harbour, port of registry of
the US Pacific Fleet, the congress
participants who had arrived
the day before were already able
to report some interesting details.
The biggest aircraft carrier in
the world for instance, the “Ronald
Reagan”, port of registry of which
is San Diego, had already entered
port the evening before and had
been acclaimed with an unforgettable
fireworks display. The harbour
of San Diego also played a part
for numerous congress participants,
BBII 4/2004 · 47

namely when the congress had
a break on Monday afternoon
to play golf. Something which is
also all-American. Some of the
congress participants who did
not play golf were attracted by the
“Midway”, an aircraft carrier from
World War II which has been lying
at anchor in the harbour of San Diego
for several months leaving spectacular
impressions on the visitors.
Sachon Publishers
sponsor student
participation
in EBC congress
The technical lectures, workshops
and poster presentations shall
not be dealt with in detail here.
It was a noticeable fact that an
exceptionally large number of
representatives from the German
universities VLB, Berlin and Technical
University of Weihenstephan
in Freising near Munich appeared
After a working dinner in the Gaslight-Quarter: (from left)
Nancy More, Director Brewing Process & Technology, InBev;
Gero Spika, BASF Head of Global Business Management
Beverages Processing Polymers; Silvio Luiz Reichert,
R & D Manager InBev; Wolfgang Burkart BREWING AND
BEVERAGE INDUSTRY INTERNATIONAL.
48 · BBII 4/2004
No comment:
These signs can
be found at the
entrances to all
big Californian
hotels.
at San Diego. Numerous representatives
of these two institutions
also performed competently at
the poster presentations. It was
just enjoyable that not only the
professors, but also the academic
offspring took a chance to participate
in a big international congress,
getting information and making
contacts. So the WBC pricing
policy has to be mentioned again
here, many a student from abroad
wouldn´t have been able or willing
to afford his journey to San Diego
if the prices had been “European”.
Since the BREWING AND
BEVERAGE INDUSTRY INTER-
NATIONAL knows about this
problem, Sachon Publishers,
the producers of this magazine,
have decided to sponsor the
participation of some German
and foreign students at German
universities in the EBC congress
taking place in Prague from May
14 to 19, 2005.
The combination of technicalscientific
lectures and the presenta-
tion of the subcontracting industry
was as well a good solution. On
the ground floor of the hotel, more
than 130 exhibitors found suitable
conditions to make contacts with
the participants in the congress.
In order to avoid a conversation
merely taking place between competitors
due to a lack of interest
on the part of the visitors, the time
between 11.30 h a.m and 2 h p.m
was exclusively reserved for the
visit to the subcontractors´exhibition
and the poster presentations which
took place in the same hall. Not
until afterwards, or in the morning
respectively, the technical lectures
and workshops took place. Correspondingly,
the representatives
of the subcontracting industry
who, as a rule, were top quality
decision makers whose booths
were densely populated for the
most time, were perfectly satisfied.
Luck was with the organisers
also due to the fact that the idea
to choose San Diego as a venue
was more than brilliant and
many a visitor decided to spend
some additional private days in
this impressive city. Even the
wheather played a part and
San Diego showed its most
impressive part.
If the organisers do not make
any decisive mistakes, the World
Brewing Congress 2008 will become
a complete success and
will certainly draw international
visitors away from traditional
congresses which have failed
to adjust their price-performance
ratio to more ambitious visitors
and the economic spirit of the
age. (bu) �
Worried looks of EBC president Jan Vesely and his manager
Marjolein van Wijngaarden. May be, the lady is comparing
the price-performance ratios of EBC and WBC congress?!

Travelled to San Diego not only with a big team, but even
had his own booth at the congress: Dr. Josef Fontaine (second
from left), managing director of VLB-Berlin with his team.
Dr. Frank Nitsche, head of production
and quality assurance of König Brewery,
Duisburg, presented five posters
with different topics altogether.
Poster topic “barley”: Urs. Wellhoener
(right) TU-München Weihenstephan.
Dr. Jens Voigt (left)
and Marc Kusche of the
TU-Munich Weihenstephan
Voigts poster topic:
“wort boiling”.
Martin Orzinski and Oliver Meinhold
(right) of VLB-Berlin. Orzinski´s poster
was dedicated to the subject context
“gas permeability of plastic bottles
and closures.”
� Mark Schneeberger, also Weihenstephan
presented his poster with “yeast”
as a subject context.
Dr. Christoph Tenge (left), Weihenstephan meeting his colleagues:
Tobias Fischborn, Lallemand Inc., dedicated his poster to the
subject of “dry yeast”.
� TU-München Weihenstephan once again: Frithjof Thiele
presented “vitality of yeasts” as a poster subject.
BBII 4/2004 · 49

Ideal: The more than 130 subcontractors had ideal
exhibition rooms available and could privately
meet with the congress participants during 11.30 h a.m
and 2 h p.m when there were no lectures.
According to the expression of their faces, the BASF
team was also content with their contacts in San Diego
(from right.): Rolf D. Schmidt, Gero Spika, Milan Jaron,
Christian Barcan.
Elmar Janser (centre), marketing manager Novozymes,
Switzerland and his team were very busy with customer
conversation in San Diego.
50 · BBII 4/2004
Group picture
with a lady
(from left):
Huppmann
general sales
manager Roland
W. Schlenker,
his wife Graciela,
marketing leader
Dr. Thomas
Bühler,
Udo Funk, sales
Central America.
There´s always laughter with the Weyermanns: Sabine and
Thomas Weyermann had Stefan Tobler (left), chief master
brewer of Okanagan Spring Brewery as a guest whose father
was born in Kirchheim, just about 10 kms away from
Mindelburg Castle, the headquarters of our publishing house.
Best informed man of the trade: Rüdiger Selig (right)
and the Siemens team.
Ziemann business manager Joachim Gunkel (centre) and his
representative Dr. Ingo Viehweg-Klee (right) were absolutely
satisfied with the visitor frequency.
Concentration: Patrick Kern, distribution manager
of Steinecker having a conversation with a client.

Alone but very busy:
Andreas Hummer,
vice president Marketing
Danbrew, Kopenhagen.
Three of Ecolab: (from left) Ralf Loeffelholz,
Senior Marketing Manager, Jean Toohey and
John Miller.
Vera Groot Kormelinck, sales department
of Paques, Netherlands at the
US filter booth together with director
Marek Mierzejewski.
Correctly dressed: (from left) Filtrox Vice President
Ralf Brandau, project manager/sales Thomas Weigand
and the CEO of Filtrox North America Christian Rusch.
Makes good progress overseas:
Coolsystem sales manager
Gerd-Albrecht Graf (right).
Jack C. Ehmann of Gusmer helps
him with his knowledge of the market.
Managing clerk Michael Feische
and Wolfgang Klawitter (right)
attended to the clients at the
Handtmann booth.
Four men, four companies: (left to right): Lothar Pfeuffer, managing
director Pfeuffer GmbH, Johann Angres, Technik/sales Steinfurth;
sales director Georg Müller, Dr. Thiedig, all from Germany,
Ghris Nimptsch, Profamo Inc., Florida.
Brewmaxx managing director Heinrich
Junker (left) and ProLeit director
Manfred Czepl presented numerous
customer references in San Diego.
BBII 4/2004 · 51