Posted By: Micki Sievwright

Boulder’s high altitude is proof that Colorado beer tastes like hops from heaven

While the highlight of my craft beer infatuation is the Great American Beer Festival each September in Denver, this fall’s Beer Bloggers & Social Media Conference (BBC10) looks quite promising. One, because I’m a trained writer and, two because I love craft beer and fully support its industry growth. It will be the first-ever, international gathering of bloggers dedicated to the musings of malt, barley and hops!

From November 5-7, 2010, the BBC10 will bring together an estimated 150 beer bloggers and others involved with online and social media in the beer industry. The event brings people to Boulder, home of nine craft breweries and located in craft-beer-hungry Colorado, which boasts 100 craft breweries. Since moving here a few years ago, I can honestly say the beer culture in around town has captured me more than any other hobby.

If you’ve already read through the LOCB website, you’ve run into The Beer Wench, aka Ashley Routson. (And if you haven’t, then get a move on and read, read, read, and comment, comment, comment!) Ashley will be the Chief Blogger and Tweeter from BBC10.

For women like me who blog in their “me” time and not for a job, it’s a cost of $95. The conference organizer calls us “Citizen Beer Bloggers.” For three days, bloggers enjoy two beer dinners, four keynote speakers (one of my favs is Greg Koch of Stone), presentations from four technology companies located in Boulder, and content sessions that tackle such topics as:

• How to monetize your blog
• Using WordPress more efficiently
• How beer blogging differs in Europe versus North America
• How to increase your blog’s readership
• How social media ties in to search engine optimization
• Using video in your blog
• How to interview a beer industry subject

I recently chatted with Social Networking Nerd Michael Bussmann — seriously what his business card says — who is the in-house beer blogger at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colo. He seems pretty excited for the conference, or at least with the idea of gathering that many beer geek writers in one room.

Mike explained one exercise planned at the conference similar to that of speed dating, called Live Beer Blogging. A brewer will have about five minutes to pour, pitch and produce answers about their beers and then bloggers will have the same amount of time to write about the encounter. Better hope for some speedy spell-check!

Even if you can’t attend the conference the Live Beer Blogging is a fabulous time to follow along on Twitter via the @beerbloggers and hashtag #BBC10 — it starts at 3:30 p.m. MST on Saturday, Nov. 6.

Another chance to jump in the conversation is the Virtual Colorado Beer Tasting on September 9: “At 7 p.m. MST (9 p.m. EST, 6 p.m. PST, etc.) crack open the first beer in a resounding chorus heard around the web.”

More info

• Beer Bloggers & Social Media Conference
• On Twitter: @beerbloggers
• Twitter hashtag #BBC10
• BBC10 Keynote speakers