New Education Programs to Debut at World Tea Expo

Las Vegas -- The World Tea Expo, which already offers the largest educational series relating to tea, has added four new programs: A New Business Boot Camp, the Executive and Technical Series, Skill-Building Workshops, and Super Workshops.

The new tracks join the 42 sessions and tastings making up the event's Core Conference Program. The World Tea Expo will take place May 30 to June 1, 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev.

"World Tea Expo's attendance has grown an average of nearly 40 percent per year since our inception in 2003, and the educational needs of the attendees has changed significantly," explained World Tea Expo v.p. of sales & marketing Kim Jage in a statement. "Whether the attendee is a new tea room owner or a research scientist from a Fortune 500 company, the Expo is committed to providing the most relevant, exciting and useful educational tools to ensure their professional success."

The Core Conference Program consists of 36 sessions and six focused tastings from important growing regions in the world, including -- for the first time ever -- Hawaii.

The three individual Skill-Building Workshops offered are Blending, Cupping and Brewing/Serving Tea, each a three-hour, intensive, hands-on training session led by industry professionals. According to director of education Stacie Woods, "The limited class size and team-teaching environment created will help aspiring tea professionals hone their mastery of these core skills."

The Super Workshops will be "Tea & Chocolate Pairing," led by Pearl Dexter, publisher of TEA A Magazine; and "The Way of Tea," featuring the grand master of the Ura Senke Foundation from Japan, who will demonstrate the art and practice of the famed Japanese tea ceremony.

The New Business Boot Camp (NBBC), held the two days before to the expo (May 28 to May 29) will include 16 hours of sessions designed especially for new and aspiring tea room owners, as well as unique and exciting micro-networking opportunities. With small class sizes to maximize student-teacher interaction, the program will cover such key topics as Tea 101, Strategic Planning, Marketing & Building Your Customer Base, and Using Technology to Manage Your Tea Room.

Designed for executives, research scientists, product formulators and ingredient managers of major consumer-products companies, the Executive & Technical Series (ETS) will start with a never-seen-before Super Data Session replete with stats, forecasts, and trend-analyses from Mintel, SPINS, U.K.-based Canadean, and the International Tea Committee.

Also taking part in the two-day ETS will be natural products-industry veterans and experts Loren Israelsen, executive director of the United Natural Products Association; Rob McCaleb, president of the Herb Research Foundation; and Mark Blumenthal, founder of the American Botanical Council.

As the first and fastest-growing North American trade show dedicated solely to the tea industry, the World Tea Expo attracts over 4,500 leading tea professionals, merchandisers, R&D executives, scientists and entrepreneurs yearly. The event is produced by Las Vegas-based SFG Group, LLC.

Registration opens online at www.worldteaexpo.com today.
X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds