News

It goes without saying that the industry is struggling to maintain the level of sponsorship required to deliver the plethora of industry and consumer events. We all go cap in hand to the same stakeholders and so we feel that it is important to take a leadership role in this space and to conserve as many resources as possible while still delivering maximum benefit.

Events like BrewCon consume a significant amount of time, resources and money and are usually delivered by a large team or a commercial operation. We are neither, and so with 2.6 team members we must prioritise the activities that stand to benefit as many members as possible so in 2025 our focus will be on:

• Keeping our foot on the gas with state and federal advocacy efforts,
• Providing resources that help you run and efficient and effective business,
• Promotion of the Independent Seal to consumers to help them choose indie beer and;
• Coming together as a community as much as possible.

This means that we will not be running BrewCon in 2025 but instead will be taking the year to ensure its long-term sustainability and to plan for 2026. We feel very strongly that this is in best interests of the Association and its members as well as the industry overall.

Rest assured, there will be a number of other opportunities for the industry to get together to learn and to network:

To name a few that are a ‘must do’s’ – the High Country Hop Symposium in Beechworth in March, the Bintani Trade Day on 14 May in Melbourne and of course, the Western Australian Brewers Conference in July. You can find these and many more on the events page of our website.

For our supply chain partners – we know many of you have been waiting to receive these announcements so that you can fianlise your own plans. Our aim is to work cooperatively rather than adding to big the asks so if you now have a few spare dollars that you had set aside for BrewCon diverting these resources to our other programs, projects and networking activities would certainly assist us to ‘keep on keeping on’ and will support the only industry Association that is advocating for a sustainable future for Australian owned breweries each and every day.  

Early in the New Year we will be in touch with our new Partnership Program – in the meantime if you have any ideas or events that you don’t see on our list and want to discuss please get in touch: communciations@iba.org.au