The Brewers Association announced today that it will postpone its annual Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) and Brew Expo America until September and move the event to Denver from San Diego, where it had been planned for late March.
The 2021 edition of CBC is now slated to be held September 9-12, pending health and safety protocols.
“Shifting to September in Denver provides us with an opportunity to convene in person, making it possible to do what brewers do best — build community and learn from each other,” BA president and CEO Bob Pease said in a press release.
The 2021 iteration of CBC, which draws approximately 15,000 attendees from all over the world, was originally scheduled for March 29-April 1 in San Diego. The majority of California, where CBC was scheduled to take place this spring, is under a regional stay home order. The BA advised those who had planned to attend the San Diego event to cancel their travel reservations.
Last year’s conference, slated for mid-April in San Antonio, Texas, was shifted online after public health measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 made large-scale, in-person events unfeasible.
Registration for CBC is expected to begin in April 2021. The BA said there is a chance that the event could be held with a reduced capacity, depending on COVID-19 health and safety protocols. In its FAQ, the BA said protocols for an in-person could include “proof of vaccination, planning on sanitizing, safe distancing and masks” for attendees.
“This will evolve but expect new health and safety protocols that will be part of all events moving forward into the future,” the BA wrote.
If large events are not permitted by the fall, the conference will be held virtually, the BA said. A decision is expected to be made by Q3 2021.
Additionally, the Great American Beer Festival (GABF), the BA’s signature consumer-facing event, which takes place in Denver each fall, will be shifted so that the festival’s beer competition awards ceremony will coincide with CBC on September 10.
The organization has not yet announced dates for the festival component of GABF.
“We continue to explore options and if determined feasible, a variation of the festival may be held in conjunction with CBC during the September 9-12 timeframe,” BA marketing director Ann Obenchain told Brewbound in an email. “Time will tell.”
The BA last hosted CBC in Denver in 2019. That year, the event generated $37.9 million in spending in the city, according to the release.
In 2020, the BA was forced to cancel the in-person versions of all four of its annual events due to the pandemic. The events — which include CBC, GABF, SAVOR and HomebrewCon — accounted for 70% of the BA’s annual revenue through ticket sales, sponsorships and advertising sales. As a result, the organization was forced to eliminate the jobs of more than a third of its staff in two separate lay-offs.