12:15 PM – 2:30 PM Open house on Vashon Island: Nashi Orchards & Shawnee Hill Farm 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM NW Cider Pre Party
Tuesday, March 17
Location: Greater Tacoma Convention Center, 1500 Commerce St, Tacoma, WA 98402
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Check In & Coffee in the Trade Show 8:15 AM – 8:50 AM Great NW Scion Exchange 9:00 AM – 10:50 AM Opening Session & Discussion Groups 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Workshop Sessions A 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Lunch 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM Visit the Trade Show 1:45 PM – 2:45 PM Workshop Sessions B 2:45 PM – 3:15 PM Visit the Trade Show 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM Workshop Sessions C 4:15 PM – 5:30 PM Cider Happy Hour in the Trade Show
All times are pacific time
Each workshop session (A, B, & C) will feature 3 or 4 concurrent workshops. Workshops focus on making cider, cider business, marketing, and growing apples.
During the Symposium you’ll have 3 opportunities to attend an educational breakout session. There are four tracks to choose from: Executive, Making, Growing, and Marketing.
Making Track Sessions
Speakers:
Anne Flesch Technical Sales Support Manager, Fermentis
Let’s explore esters – the aromatic compounds behind cider’s most expressive fruity and floral aromas. Through a guided tasting, participants will sharpen sensory recognition of key esters. The Fermentis team will explain how yeast choice, fermentation conditions, oxygen, and nitrogen influence ester formation. Cidermaker Adam Wargacki will share practical, production-scale techniques for enhancing and preserving desirable ester profiles. Bridging science and practice, this session provides actionable tools to intentionally shape aroma, complexity, and character in finished ciders.
Kate Pinsley, Senior Director of Cider, Innovation & Quality, Schilling Cider
This workshop offers a high-level refresher on sensory evaluation for cidermakers at all stages. Framed through competition judging and practical quality control, participants will explore how ciders are evaluated, how to judge effectively, and how to apply sensory skills to ensure consistency, identify faults, and support confident production decisions.
Dana Frank, Natural Wine Expert and Sommelier, Langbaan
Selling cider to restaurants can be complex. This moderated panel brings together respected beverage professionals to discuss where cider fits on today’s menus. Learn how to approach buyers, navigate pricing, understand restaurant expectations, and build lasting on-premise relationships.
Ramsey Cox, Media Relations and Public Affairs, Ramsey Cox PR
Earned media is a powerful way for cideries to build trust, visibility, and ultimately grow sales. Whether you have zero dollars or a robust budget there are steps you can take tomorrow to grow your brand awareness. In this session, Media and PR experts Lyndsay Dyk Founder & Principal, Field Day PR and Ramsey Cox of Ramsey Cox Media Relations and Public Affairs share step-by-step guidance on pitching journalists, crafting compelling story angles, and executing a successful interview—equipping cidery businesses with practical tools to generate press and maximize media opportunities once they are in front of you.
Discover how today’s cideries are evolving from tasting rooms into unique experiences. This session explores how to leverage agritourism to support marketing efforts, attract new visitors, and create additional revenue opportunities. Panelists will share ideas and experiences around reaching new audiences, creating meaningful visits, and turning those visits into sales.
This session explores how beverage alcohol brands can improve profitability without relying on cost-cutting or production efficiencies. Instead, the focus is on the commercial levers that most directly impact the bottom line: retail pricing strategy, distributor and retailer margins, price increases, and package format decisions. Drawing on real-world experience from today’s challenging market, the talk examines how brands can protect value, maintain healthy relationships across the three-tier system, and grow sustainable profit in an increasingly competitive and price-sensitive environment.
Drawing from over two decades of M&A advisory work across breweries, wineries, cideries, and distilleries, Tony Westfall and Joe Orlando have guided dozens of craft beverage producers through exit decisions and the selling process. In this interactive panel discussion, they’ll focus on asset sales, the most common exit path for cideries, and explain how they work, what buyers value, and how to maximize your return. They’ll use real-world case studies and live discussions with recent sellers to break down what drives valuation in asset sales, from equipment condition and facility leases to distributor relationships and brand equity. They’ll also cover strategic sales and lifestyle exits, helping cidery owners and operators understand which path makes sense for your operation and how to position yourself accordingly. Through candid conversation and audience Q&A, attendees will learn practical strategies to build value today. Whether you’re planning to exit next year or a decade from now, this discussion should help avoid the costly mistakes that derail deals.
Join us for an informative presentation on a collaborative experiment from a cidery and a grower. Kingston Black apples were harvested via two different methods, ground-fallen and tree-harvested, then fermented separately. The team will share laboratory and sensory analysis as well as harvest labor data. Attendees will taste the cider trails and evaluate which method is ideal for their production process.
You asked for deeper, more advanced content and we listened. Introducing Ask the Expert: small-group sessions where you can sit down with an industry expert to get your questions answered.
Each expert will meet with up to three attendees during Workshop Session B. Full Symposium registration and advance sign-up are required.
Expertise includes compliance, human resources, technical cider feedback, legal issues, traditional methods, pommeau production, and more.
Register by 1/31 to access Ask the Expert session sign-ups.
Discussion Groups
Tuesday morning starts with the Opening Session and three rounds of Discussion Groups. These round table discussions are designed to get attendees talking about common interests.
