Brandtoberfest is coming back to Green Bay Distillery on Friday, September 25, from 1:00 to 6:00 PM, and this year there are even more reasons to make room for it on your calendar.
Along with premium promotional merchandise, food, drinks, music and marketing ideas, Brandtoberfest gives local business professionals a chance to meet people they can actually learn from, work with and stay connected to after the event.
You will be able to talk directly with suppliers, meet other marketers and business leaders, exchange ideas and get inspired by what other companies are doing. We will also have free professional headshots available, so you can leave with a fresh LinkedIn profile photo while you are at it.
If you have been looking for an event that gives you something useful to bring back to the office, Brandtoberfest is a good place to start.
Meet People Outside Your Usual Circle
It is easy to spend most of the workweek talking to the same coworkers, vendors and clients.
Brandtoberfest gives you a chance to widen that circle.
The event brings together business owners, marketing professionals, organizational leaders, vendors and other people responsible for helping their companies grow. That creates opportunities for conversations that might not happen during a typical workday.
You might meet someone who has already solved a challenge your team is currently dealing with. You could discover a local company that complements the services you offer. You may simply end up having a good conversation with another marketer who understands exactly why one “quick website update” somehow turned into a three-week project.
Networking does not have to mean standing in a circle handing out business cards and hoping someone calls you six months later. Sometimes the most valuable connection starts with talking about a product, comparing notes on a campaign or asking someone what they have been working on lately.
Brandtoberfest creates plenty of room for those conversations to happen naturally.
Talk Directly With Promotional Product Suppliers
One of the biggest advantages of Brandtoberfest is having suppliers onsite.
Instead of looking through another online catalog, attendees can speak directly with people who know the products, understand what is trending and can explain the differences between options.
That matters when you are trying to make smarter decisions about branded merchandise.
You can ask which apparel brands tend to fit best, what decoration methods work well on certain materials, which products are gaining traction and what options might fit an upcoming event, employee program or customer campaign.
You will also have the chance to see and handle products in person. That makes it much easier to understand quality, compare materials and decide whether something genuinely represents your brand well.
Those supplier conversations can also lead to ideas you would never find by typing “promotional products” into a search bar.
A supplier may know about a product category you had not considered. They might suggest a decoration technique that changes how you approach a design. They may show you something new that immediately makes sense for an event you have coming up six months from now.
That kind of firsthand access is one of the best reasons to attend.
Leave With a New Professional Headshot
While you are making connections, you can also update the picture that goes along with them.
We will be offering free professional headshots during Brandtoberfest.
For anyone who has been using the same LinkedIn profile picture since 2019, this may be the excuse you have been waiting for.
A strong headshot gives your LinkedIn profile, company bio, email signature and other professional materials a more polished and current look. Getting one normally means scheduling a separate photography appointment, finding time in the workday and remembering to actually book it in the first place.
At Brandtoberfest, you can take care of it while you are already there.
Come explore the event, connect with other professionals and walk away with a new image you can put to work right away.
Good Ideas Usually Start With Other Good Ideas
One of our favorite parts of events like Brandtoberfest is seeing where conversations lead.
A promotional product might spark an idea for an employee campaign. A conversation with another attendee could change how you approach an upcoming event.
Inspiration does not always arrive in a scheduled brainstorming meeting.
Sometimes it comes from seeing what another business is doing, asking a vendor an unexpected question or noticing a product that makes you think about your own audience differently.
Brandtoberfest gives you an afternoon to get out of the normal routine and expose yourself to some new inputs.
That can be valuable whether you are planning a large campaign or simply looking for a better way to handle your next customer gift.
You do not need to arrive with a specific shopping list or project in mind. Spend some time looking around, talk to people and see where the afternoon takes you.
Bring a Coworker and Compare Notes
Brandtoberfest can also be a useful outing for a small team.
Bring someone from marketing, sales, HR or leadership and you may notice completely different things.
Your marketing person may gravitate toward campaign ideas. HR might immediately start thinking about employee recognition. Sales could spot something that would make a strong client gift. Leadership may see an opportunity to improve how the brand presents itself at events.
Those different perspectives can turn one afternoon into the beginning of a much larger idea.
You can also compare notes while everything is still fresh. Instead of sending product links back and forth a week later, you can stand in front of the same display and talk through the possibilities together.
Sometimes that makes it much easier to move a good idea forward.
Make the Afternoon Count
Brandtoberfest is designed to give you plenty to explore without making the experience feel overly structured.
You can talk with suppliers, meet local professionals, get a new headshot, and spend some time finding ideas that could be useful for your organization.
Then stick around for food, drinks, music and more conversations at Green Bay Distillery.
The second annual Brandtoberfest takes place Friday, September 25, from 1:00 to 6:00 PM. If you want to make some new connections, meet the people behind the products and come back to the office with a few fresh ideas, get yourself registered.
We will see you at Green Bay Distillery.
