Blog

For the second consecutive year during the Vino 2011 Italian wine conference, the Italian Trade Commission will integrate “Virtual Vino,” a social media initiative aimed at opening dialogue with wine enthusiasts, trade, and media as the wine world converges upon New York’s Waldorf=Astoria hotel for Italian Wine Week. This year’s “Virtual Vino” program will move the conversations on Italian wine tastings, wine education and wine marketing to a virtual realm – via Twitter, Facebook, an Official Vino 2011 Blog and LiveStream video – that is easily accessed by participants of Vino 2011 as well as spectators throughout the country. The Vino 2011 initiative follows the successful 2010 “Virtual Vino” experiment, where leading wine bloggers, journalists and trade live-blogged panel discussions, wine tastings and other events, Tweeting in reactions, questions for speakers, and observations and contributing to an online dialogue that touched nearly 500,000 wine and food enthusiasts.

Bloggers, journalists and trade professionals attending Vino 2011 will be encouraged to share their experiences interacting with over 300 Italian wine producers and importers, and tasting over 400 wines imported to the US for the first time in 2011. The “Virtual Vino” seminar, “What Emily Post Can Teach About Social Media, Millennial App-titude and Geo-Marketing,” will be live-streamed on the Vino 2011 official website and will continue the conversation begun in 2010. The 2010 discussion proved that protocol and standard practices can help create a climate for informative, courteous and productive sharing, and that straightforward, targeted social media initiatives can create lasting relationships between users, brands and consumers and other participants.

This year, panel moderator Tom Wark (Wark Communications) will lead the panel’s discussion on how etiquette, cogent messaging and editorial and marketed targeting can help create meaningful exposure for brands and other voices in the wine world. He will be joined by Gregory dal Piaz, editor in chief of Snooth.com, Talia Baiocchi, founding editor of WineChap.com (US) and wine columnist for Eater.com (NY and national), Jeff Lefevere, editor in chief of GoodGrape.com, a blog on the business of wine, Amy Cao, Director of Social Media for Foodspotting.net, a geo-integrated social media service, and Kent Wilhelm, Senior Manager of New Media Design & Marketing for Astor Center.

Anthony Giglio, well-known Italian wine expert and educator, Contributing Editor to La Cucina Italiana, and television personality, will guide the “Virtual Vino” conversation as Official Blogger and emcee of the conference. Throughout Vino 2011, he will download his reactions to panel discussions, tastings and more on the Official Vino 2011 Blog, and will engage participants and spectators through Vino 2011’s Twitter account, answering questions, sharing photos and encouraging conversation. Participants’ Tweets tagged with #virtualvino will be aggregated in a live Twitter feed showcased on the Vino 2011 homepage. Throughout the week, Giglio will be broadcast on the “Virtual Vino” live video feed, also appearing on the Vino 2011 homepage, bringing the flavors, personalities, and experiences of Vino 2011 to enthusiasts’ computer screens nationwide.

Follow Official Blogger Anthony Giglio (@winewiseguy), and join the conversation at @Vino2011NY, tagging all Tweets with #virtualvino.