The Innovation Pub (Our Final Event of 2019): What are you drinking?

The Beverage space is a hotspot for Innovation in the marketplace today:  beer, wine, liquor, performance beverages, CBD and cannabis infused beverages, alcohol-alternative, local specific, and everything in-between.   The topic of "what are we drinking"  and how innovation and new ideas are changing what is in our glass...is the focus of our final Innovation event of 2019:  The Innovation Pub!

The Innovation Series is CFBN's premier event series - we host a series of morning breakfasts and complimentary specialty events that feature some of the most current trends and innovations happening!  Did you catch our Innovation Speakeasy on Cannabis + CBD?  It was our MOST popular event of 2019!

Join us for our FINAL event of 2019 - The Innovation Pub - combining networking, an amazing presentation and panel discussion on beverage innovations and trends, and your final opportunity to engage with the great CFBN network for the year!  Don't miss out - this is going to be a great night!

Opening Conversation Speakers & Moderator:

Sarah Ross, Co-Founder, Vivify Beverages

While Sarah Ross started her career in marketing working for Campbell’s Soup, it wasn’t until she joined the beer industry for Coors Brewing Company that she truly found her passion. Sarah worked her way up through Coors and MillerCoors for 11 years to build an impressive portfolio with positions including Director of New Product Innovation and Senior Director for the Coors Family of Brands. 

Sarah departed from MillerCoors to pursue the opportunity to launch Vivify Beverages in 2015. She recognized there was an increasing need in the alcohol beverage category for premium products that used real, natural ingredients, which had remained largely undeveloped in the category. She joined forces with former beer distributor Bob Walkenhorst to co-found and develop their two brands Bravazzi Hard Italian Soda and Itz Spritz. Her former MillerCoors colleague Anne Ellis joined the Vivify Beverage team ahead of the product launch in 2017.  In December 2018, Constellation Brands announced they had invested in Vivify Beverages.

Andrew Zrike, VP Beer Innovation, Constellation Brands

Andrew Zrike is a senior marketing and innovation executive who has diverse global experience at both Fortune 100 and privately funded organizations where he has been tasked with growing consumer orientated businesses through brand strategy, disruptive innovation, and cross channel execution.  Currently Andrew leads innovation for Constellation Brands beer division where he is responsible for accelerating the beer innovation portfolio both through extending the portfolios iconic brands and developing new brand platforms.    

Prior to Constellation, Andrew worked at Performance Health, a PE owned company where he was head of brand marketing and responsible for rapidly growing a portfolio of sports performance and active brands including Biofreeze, one of the fastest growing new CPG brands in the US.  Prior to Performance Health, he worked at Pepsico, leading Gatorade’s global sports hydration business. In this role he was responsible for developing the brand’s global growth strategy, integrated marketing, and innovation platforms with a focus on growing the business in Asia and Latin America.  During this time, he developed G Active, Gatorade’s expansion into active hydration and launched it into over 20 global markets. Prior to PepsiCo, Andrew worked in marketing at MillerCoors where he focused on managing iconic beer brands, integrated campaign development, and developing and launching new brand platforms.    Andrew began his career working in advertising at Ogilvy and Digitas. He has an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College. 

(Moderator) Erin Paul, Director of Design Strategy, Trinity Brand Group

Erin Paul is a strategic leader and creative problem solver with over 20 years of branding experience. She has led brand building initiatives for Constellation Brands, Coca-Cola, Albertson’s-Safeway, The Hershey Company, Campbell's and Unilever in addition to the successful launch of many new-to-world brands. Her unique background in design and strategy, together with her passion for understanding human motivation, has driven her passion for nurturing collaboration and translating insights into brands that inspire and drive engagement.  Erin is a former educator at Northwestern University and author of the "Design as a Competitive Advantage” curriculum, author of numerous journal articles and publications, and public speaker. With a creative bent and talent for imagining possibilities, Erin blurs the disciplinary lines to bring clients unique solutions for the most challenging problems.

Trinity Brand Group is an independent strategy, innovation and design consultancy helping clients across industries build powerful brands that ignite excitement, engage consumers and drive business. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Chicago and Ireland, we work with companies to realize their full potential by applying rigor and creativity across a full spectrum of services including brand and creative strategy; identity, package, collateral and web design; new product development and innovation; activation; and consumer research. For over 15 years we’ve developed over 50 brands across 25 countries on 5 continents.

Panel Speakers & Moderator:

Josh Deth, Founder, Revolution Brewing

In the summer of 1995, Josh Deth landeded a job at Golden Prairie Brewing.  At this now-defunct brewery, Josh was just a novice, where he started learning the beer business by dutifully cleaning kegs and scrubbing tanks.  A few years later, Josh dreamt up the idea for Revolution while working at Goose Island as a cellarman and brewpub brewer. After the first few tries at opening a brewery didn't work out, Josh opened Handlebar in 2003 with his wife Krista and a few friends. Always taking on more, he also held the role of Executive Director of Logan Square Chamber of Commerce, working to promote local businesses and simultaneously managing the Logan Square Farmers Market. In 2008, while working at the Chamber, he found a cool old building on Milwaukee Avenue with a nice tin ceiling. The brewery idea bubbled up again.

After a few years of raising funds, planning construction, and dealing with the zoning department, Revolution Brewing opened up in February 2010. We added our 2nd floor Brewers' Lounge in July 2011. Our production brewery and tap room opened in spring 2012, since then our brewing capacity has been continuously growing.  Revolution currently distributes in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York City, and Wisconsin.   In 2017, Revolution Brewing became the 40th largest craft brewery and 50th largest overall brewery in the country according to the Brewers Association Top 50 Brewing Companies by Sales Volume.

Lizzy Freier, Senior Managing Editor, Technomic

Lizzy Freier is a managing editor at Technomic, with a focus on menu trends. She covers trending flavors, ingredients, dishes and preparations for food and beverage at independent restaurants, emerging chains and top chain restaurant brands, as well as noncommercial operations. Freier has also analyzed global trends. She has presented at numerous conferences in the U.S. and Canada on menu trend development for restaurant operators, manufacturers and distributors. Freier has a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and currently resides in Chicago.

Aimee Harvey, Managing Editor, Technomic

As managing editor, Aimee Harvey analyzes and reports on the foodservice market for the retail segment. She also specializes in restaurant concept analysis, trend tracking and custom research in an editorial capacity, as well as contributing content for the company's Supermarket Foodservice Insights Group and Convenience Store Insights Group. Harvey is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Ilana Orlofsky, Marketing Manager, Imbibe

Since joining Imbibe more than four years ago, Ilana Orlofsky has played an integral role in expanding the marketing initiatives of the boutique Chicago-based beverage development company. Her predilection for global cuisine and affinity for dynamic flavors, partly spurred by her love of travel, has helped fuel her passion for following market trends, developing product concepts and flavor recommendations and conducting ideation sessions. In addition to traveling all over the country and Canada to present to Imbibe’s customers, ranging from startups to billion-dollar brands, she has presented on consumer behavior and demand and beverage trends at several conferences, including Flavorcon and the National Restaurant Association Annual Show. Her trend insights and articles can be found across social media platforms and in several print and online publications including Prepared Foods, Food Navigator, Beverage Industry and SmartBrief. In her spare time, you may find her contributing Yelp reviews to maintain her elite status, in a Pilates class, or researching her next travel destination. She has a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

(Moderator) Alan Reed, Executive Director, CFBN

Networking events with The Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network are an opportunity to access an inclusive network dedicated to bringing together all of the industry players of the greater Chicagoland area to develop meaningful and mutually beneficial business connections.  The event provides a great opportunity to enjoy drinks and appetizers and an opportunity to mingle - forging new connections and circling back with contacts from other events, all while experiencing the power of the CFBN network!

We are deeply appreciative of our sponsors for this event:

We appreciate the support of our partners for this event: