Welcome to the first installment of The Friday Five, a new weekly web post where we ask a local craft beer industry member 5 questions. Today we hear from Melani Gordon, CEO and co-founder of TapHunter.com
What’s on the top of your to-do list right now?
Right now we’re in heavy planning mode for GABF. We’re managing relationships in Denver to help get the word out about some after parties we’re throwing. As for San Diego, we are planning a series of cigar & beer pairings, and we’re in the middle of launching a new sweepstakes, which you’ll see here in a bit.
You were one of the organizers of last week’s Beer-Con. How’d it go?
Amazing. It far exceeded any of our expectations. I think the overall buzz and the way that Anat kicked off the keynote really helped set the tone – she posed some really great, controversial questions about the craft beer industry.
You’re on the team that’s redesigning the San Diego Brewers Guild website. What can you tell us about that?
The new site is ready to go, we’re just waiting for the green light from the board. With this site we’re highlighting the breweries in a more meaningful and modern way – they’ll be able to add their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the brewers themselves will now be on the brewery page. The guild site has been managed by Colby (Chandler) and he has an insane amount of archives that will make its way over there too. But I think the biggest change, which is coming soon, has to do with guild membership. The board created a committee to iron out how the different memberships will work, especially since the amount of affiliate membership requests has been crazy. So we are helping create a structure for that as the guild recognizes the revenue stream potential from those who want to support the industry.
San Diego Beer Week is coming up. Any events you’re already looking forward to?
Neva Parker owns the Guild Festival. In the previous years with a small group of volunteers she has single-handedly pulled that off. It’s the second year the festival will be at Liberty Station, and it’s already gearing up to be fabulous. The ticketing will done soon – I just saw the test link come through this morning. So, the guild fest will be another great event to look forward to.
Your favorite local brewery of the moment? If you had to pick one today…
I would say Iron Fist because Brandon Siemienski is my new comedic friend. I would love to do a stand-up comedy show with him. I had a chance to spend some time with him at an event and I told him, “You seriously were the highlight of my day” – just the sarcastic, comedic personality that he brings is great, very light-hearted. Let’s just say recently I’ve had some very memorable experiences with him.