Too much to say for one article on the Tweet-Up, so I broke it in two…the “Tweet-Up Thank You” article can be found today on the Chattanooga Tweet-Up website.
Last year after the Chattanooga Tweet-Up, I published a “wrap-up” article that one friend told me read more like a “debriefing.” So I decided that was what I would call the article this time around. This is not meant to be a detailed “event report”…if you want to know all of what happens at a Chattanooga Tweet-Up, you really just have to be there…
This was the fourth annual Chattanooga Tweet-Up and Cigar Festival. The last two years, our attendance increased from the year before. We were not so fortunate this time around, but we did have plenty of people and they reported having plenty of good times.
Final count for tickets sold was somewhere around 200, which includes 75 VIP tickets.
This was the first Tweet-Up with Burns Tobacconist under new ownership. We wrapped up the majority of the store remodel on Thursday morning, just hours before the Kickoff Party was scheduled to start.
Customer remarks on the remodel were uniformly positive. People were especially thrilled with the unified humidor (as opposed to the two-humidor layout we had previously). On an “Inside Baseball” note, Burns stock specialist, Jason Bean, told me that he wasn’t happy with the way everything was in the humidor, but it would do. “Give me two weeks to finish organizing everything and I will be happy.” Hard to see how it could be much better, but we will see soon.
Despite ticket sales being slightly down, cigar sales were up over last year. Friday set a “daily sales” record at Burns…a number that had stood since Pete Johnson’s appearance when Burns was an Unlucky 13 store for The Face. Part of the reason could have been that we had a better selection of new cigars than we had last year.
Why did we have a better selection of new cigars? Last year we had the Tweet-Up very close to the end of the IPCPR show. This year, we opted to push back the Tweet-Up an extra week. Everyone got a little more rest between the trade show and our event…and more of the new blends shipped in time.
We also had some fantastic deals on cigar brands we were closing out. Not bad cigars, mind you, but there were some cigars that just had trouble getting and/or keeping traction in our market. We invested heavily in them and they didn’t meet our sales expectations, so it was time to let go and move on.
Vendor participation started off slower than normal this year, but really picked up during the final two weeks. It seems like a lot of vendors didn’t make up their minds to be part of our event until very close to it. Because of this, we ended up running out of “Vendor” ID badges.
In previous years, something always went “wrong.” Whether it was the “no smoking” section in the outfield stands of the Lookouts game (seated right next to the Children’s Allergy Foundation) or the lackluster food of the riverboat, it seemed we always had something fairly glaring that was a problem. I have solicited feedback (specifically asking for anything negative) from a few people and haven’t heard anything bad so far.
One of my mantras with this event has long been, “Don’t make the same mistakes as last year…make new ones!” Not everything went as smoothly as it could have this year…BUT…all the hiccups were pretty well concealed “behind the scenes” and disrupted the good times only minimally. I’m proud of that fact.
So, what did go wrong? Biggest thing: cigars showed up Thursday, Friday and even Saturday. These were sticks for the grab bags, which were made up and sealed on Wednesday. Obviously that made it impossible to put them in. We decided to instead hand the cigars back to company reps and brand owners and let them hand them out to people as they liked. This increased the interaction to some degree…hey, it might have helped increase sales for some brands!
Friday night’s liquor tasting schedule got decimated. We were going to have a seating while the VIP dinner was ongoing, but there was a problem at the distillery. The owner left Nashville late and ran into Friday night traffic. Bottom line, we went with a single seating after the VIP dinner was done and no one complained (that I heard, anyway). Charlie Nelson from Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery told his family’s story and gave us all a taste of Belle Meade Bourbon. Tom Lazuka paired it up with an Asylum Straight Jacket…and everyone seemed happy in the end.
Speaking of the VIP dinner…our original chef had a death in the family and was unable to make it. We got a last-minute replacement and dinner was spectacular. Drew Estate sponsored the dinner, give out 3 “regular” sticks to everyone in attendance…a Joya de Nicaragua Cabinetta Lancero, an Undercrown, and a Herrera Esteli. Then everyone got to try the newest thing from the mind of Willy Herrera, Drew Estate’s new master blender: Norteño. Having tried one or two early versions of this cigar, I have to say the final release is better than those and excellent overall.
We should have tons of pictures starting to come in during the next couple weeks. Those will be posted on the Tweet-Up website as sets become available.
And, finally, you heard it here first (or second, if you read the “Thank You” article on the Tweet-Up website first)…we are planning on doing it all over again next year. We should have an official date in the next couple months. #CHAtweetup2015
Sounds like a good time. I wish we had something like this in DFW.
I would love to make one of these sometime.. thanks for the “Debriefing”
Sounds like a great time. One of these years I hope to make it!