When brewing, you follow a scientific process. You know what yeast characteristics will yield what flavor profiles, and how to intervene if fermentation isn’t progressing properly. Why should the people side of your business be any different? This session will serve as a crash course in evidence-based, repeatable best practices for selecting employees with the right traits, skills, attitudes, and competencies to help you meet your business objectives.

We’ll cover how to:

• Find the perfect recipe: discuss how to determine which combination of knowledge, skills, abilities, and attributes are most important in your key roles.

• Gather your equipment: review various selection methods (interviewing, assessments, etc.), and learn the strengths, limitations, and appropriate uses of each

• Take measurements: Investigate various methods and metrics for measuring and quantifying the impact of your selection strategy to your operational budget.

As a measurement strategist, Whitney Martin’s passion and expertise lies in the field of surveys and assessments. A self-professed “data nerd,” Whitney has a Master’s degree in the area of Human Resources Measurement and Evaluation and has conducted extensive research on the predictive validity of various hiring assessment strategies.

Thanks to over a decade functioning as a “vendor-agnostic” consultant, Whitney provides a unique perspective on the broad landscape of the testing and assessment industry, and employee selection strategies, in general. She is a firm believer that there are no one-size-fits-all “best” products, and that tools and vendors should be selected based on their ability to solve a specific problem. She spends much of her time studying the available tools in the marketplace, scrutinizing the science, and analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate uses for each.

Whitney has been a highly rated speaker at several National HR Conferences and has authored articles on assessments for several books and publications, including Harvard Business Review. She is a member of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and has two decades of experience working in the assessment industry.

Stay up to date with CBP: http://update.craftbeerprofessionals.org

Pilot Project was created to support talented brewers in an industry with exceptionally high barriers to entry. Modeled after the music industry, Pilot helps launch and scale start up breweries by supporting recipe development, production scaling, business operations, marketing, distribution, and more. In this live conversation, Pilot Project co-founder Dan Abel will share how this model came to life, how it continues to evolve, and how he is working to change the structure of the brewing industry while offering insight into what’s next for both Pilot and beer more broadly.

Since its inception, Pilot Project has helped launch 20 beverage brands, including nationally recognized names like women founded Luna Bay Hard Kombucha and ROVM Hard Kombucha, Black owned Funkytown Brewery, travel inspired Brewer’s Kitchen, Indian led Azadi Brewing, Donna’s Pickle Beer, and others. Pilot has also supported Mash Gang’s expansion to the US from the UK and helped bring Mexico City based Cerveceria Paracaidista stateside. Today, Pilot operates breweries and tasting rooms in Chicago and Milwaukee, including a 70,000 square foot Milwaukee facility acquired following an $8M expansion focused seed round, plus a newly opened second Chicago location in Wrigleyville. Most recently, Pilot’s non alcoholic brand Years announced a partnership with John Mulaney.

Stay up to date with CBP: http://update.craftbeerprofessionals.org

Starting or maintaining a kitchen in your brewery is challenging...and that's an understatement. But a lot of the data is showing that adding or maintaining food options ( beside a small bag of pretzels) is key to longevity and profitability. But many brewers are finding that instead of being in the brewery business, they are now in the hospitality business and they never thought they would have a restaurant or Kitchen.

We talk with Alexis & Scott from JBH Advisory about all the things that someone should be looking into before opening their kitchen. Staff, equipment, layout, menu, and more. The good news is that running a restaurant is a well worn business model and there are lot of lessons learned. The bad news, learning those lessons while operating your business can be extremely costly and end up costing you the business if you are not careful.

Dan Klasen, Founder of Beverage Federation. Years of experience now in craft beverage space, Dan has been helping breweries with their buying decisions. Dan will be asking our experts the questions he has been getting for years on when and how should I open up a kitchen in my brewery.

Scott Swiger, VP of business development and Brian Berger, principal at JBH Advisory Group. With 40 years of restaurant and food service experience between the two of them, they have been helping owners stand up kitchens for years.

The JBH Advisory Group is comprised of seasoned professionals with a deep and unique understanding of the hospitality, contract services and support services sectors. Their team experience is broad, ranging from hospital food & nutrition to restaurant transactional due diligence; from restaurant concept development to environmental services. Their specialists in their areas of expertise, including skills such as cost management, labor analysis, operational efficiencies and service excellence.

Stay up to date with CBP: http://update.craftbeerprofessionals.org