World Tea Expo, here I come again!

Has it been five years already? 

I’ll be off to Las Vegas next week for the World Tea Expo (June 13-15).  It’s gonna be tea, tea, and MORE TEA for three days straight!  Woohoo!  Or even more if you’re going to attend the pre-conferences programs such as the Tea Business Boot Camp.  I can't this year.

The World Tea Expo is an industry only B2B (business to business) conference. It's comprised of Core Conference Seminars, Skill Building Sessions, Focused Tasting and Workshops in expertise levels from beginners to advanced. 

The last time I went was five years ago! I look forward to checking new products, making new contacts, seeing old friends, and meeting new tea friends while I'm learning more about tea!

Still working on my agenda but here is a sampling of sessions and activities that I am looking forward to so far:

Dan Bolton’s What Moves the Needle in Retail: New innovation /Trends. 

Dan is very knowledgeable and experienced in the tea and coffee industry. He’s also the editor and publisher of the Tea Journey Magazine to which I have contributed and am helping with their social media marketing. So of course, I will be there to share cool tidbits from his talk. He looks serious here, but Dan can be a lot of fun...

Photo from Tea Journey Magazine Facebook page

Hawaii- a New Frontier for Tea Farmers.  I’ve never been to Hawaii but a trip is planned for the fall, so I am curious to hear more about tea in Hawaii.

Panel Discussion about Public Tea Festivals (since I am on the organizing team of the Toronto Tea Festival, it’ll be great to get some pro tips from other tea festival organizers)

Kevin Gascoyne’s "Take it to the Field? The Tea Studio Project".  Kevin is a great speaker! 

There will be a networking cocktail reception on opening night and then the World Tea Awards the next day. Some learning, some fun, why not! Might as well make something happen in Las Vegas while I'm there!

There are off-shoot conferences that take place during the expo such as the Tea Bloggers Round table where writers and bloggers will gather, share and learn from each other.

Look closer at the poster, do you see me? I’m on the panel!

I hope to make some time to go check out the Strip, have a really awesome meal or two, not sure if I can fit in a show, though.   

So, excuse me as I need to finish selecting seminars to attend, check out which vendors will be there and start packing!  

See you in Vegas!

Smart Networking: to a Tea!

Entrepreneurship is not a lone pursuit.  It's important for an entrepreneur to network to create a powerful assembly of advisors, suppliers, and customers, etc.   

When a budding entrepreneur hears this they may think ok, I'll sign up for all the major networking events in my industry, have a bunch of business cards to pass out and grab as many business cards as I can, the more cards the better, that's the ticket to successful networking!  Or I will get LinkedIn and Follow every big player in my industry!  

Whoa, not necessarily... when you network, like everything else, you need to set goals so you know what your desired target will be from the start or you'll end up wasting time.  You want to create real relationships.  Social networking does not replace good old face to face networking in creating lasting and useful relationships. But it's not a bad place to start.

Your goals need to be "SMART" ones too.  You know, as in Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.  

If I'm going to represent a product it has to be a good one and if I'm going to have someone mentor me, they have to be someone I can respect for the way they do what I'd like to be doing.   And networking and meeting industry people can be great fun!

Last summer when my fiance (Drew) and I made plans for a road trip to Washington State from Vancouver, I plotted a course to check out a new tea shop that I had spotted on one of my social media connections that would be along the way.  A Facebook tea friend, Jeffrey McIntosh had started sharing posts about Smacha Tea Company on Facebook.  Jeff had lived in China and studied tea, especially puerh teas.  

Tea Master Jason Chen's Smacha Tea Shop is an amazing place where one can learn about and enjoy exquisite fine teas.  Integrity doesn't get much more complete.  Drew commented on the unity of the shop and the staff.  Everyone who works there is inspired by the product and really knows their stuff.

Drew went from indifferent coffee drinker to avid tea aficionado when he was served so graciously by Master Chen.  (ok, maybe not quite avid but I'm working on him...)

Tea Master Jason Chen serving us a few of his many beautiful teas using his signature teaware designed to avoid over steeping.

I was struck by the quality of the tea and service.  As it turned out, the tea was from one of Master Chen's own plantations.

Beautiful large oolong tea leaf. 

On site roasting and packaging! Wow!

Photo: Drew Taylor

Master Chen has written two books, one of which I'd already bought before I visited his store.

Me, Jeffrey McIntosh and Master Chen (Photo: Drew Taylor)

After purchasing some fine tea we were given a pretty pink iced tea - Taiwanese herbal was slightly sweet, floral and full flavoured, perfect for a hot day!

So let's recap:  I planned a great road trip with a tea shop I'd heard about through a social media contact, found a mentor I respect and got to know him building a solid connection for further communication.  Two to three hours was a smart amount of time for the visit.  (We still took in the local chocolate factory afterwards...had to keep Drew happy).

I made some purchases (tea products and the second book), and received an unexpected gift in the delicious iced tea.

Whether I decide to import some of his quality teas, or emulate his book writing model, I'm inspired and I know I can learn greatly from his 32  years in the business.

As I learn more about entrepreneurship, I realize I have many of the skills necessary to have a successful business.  I'm excited that I can do things I enjoy (meet people online then in person, write and take pictures, and drink tea!), and look forward to building a business as well!

Follow #StartUpEdu, @rfongtea, @entrepreneurSCS on Twitter to join in on the entrepreneurship conversation.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Entrepreneurship program; however, the opinions provided are my own.

#digitaledu, #Tea…#What?!

Just as the first ever Toronto Tea Festival was coming down the home stretch, I started my Foundations in Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media course at the University of Toronto.  I think I first read about this new Certificate in Digital Strategy & Communications Management in the local Metro Daily one morning.  First of its kind!  Social media sounds simple enough, should be fun, right?  I went on the U of T continuing education website to examine it closer.  Looked very interesting, major component was blogging which I had wanted to improve, and learn more about social media, maybe finally open a Twitter account in the process too.

The program was developed and taught by a group of experienced social media and PR experts: Martin Waxman, Marcus Daniels, Diane Begin, Cyrus Mavalwala and Eden Spodek.

Once again I went “back to school”, but this was way more fun, in fact tweeting was encouraged in class.  I opened my Twitter account and started learning the ropes, forcing myself to send my messages out within the required 140 characters and so on. 

Every Wednesday night, classmates and instructors were live tweeting during lectures with #digitaledu. Social media is “social” so interaction in class, online and offline was also encouraged.  There’s a LinkedIn group for the class, a group project to create a wiki, learning new technology, book reports, and class presentations.  Learning about social media advertising and RTB (Real Time Bidding, mind boggling!) 

There were fun and informative nights with guest speakers like Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks via Skype.  Pro- blogger panel with Alison Garwood-Jones, Andrew Dobson, Zach Bussey, and Kathy Buckworth some of the classmates were very social media savvy and I learned quite a bit from them as well.  We even had a Genie Award-winning documentary film maker, Maureen Judge who spoke in class!

I went in thinking this would be fairly easy, light and fun.  Doable, you know…but when you toss in the minor detail that January to April is THE busiest time for my full time job in the Financial Services, RRSP and tax season, anyone?  But hey, how much work can a class on social media entail?

As it turns out, lots! This course was really intensive, especially if you are new to a lot of the content.  My synapses sizzled during and after Marcus’ class on social media advertising.  I had a mini panic attack while learning how to use the PBWork platform to create our group wiki project.  It was only the next week during class when Martin and Eden took a look, did we all realize it had changed so much that they, yes the teachers, even encouraged us to move to Google platform.  Way easier! Thank you! 

With this much work, we’re talking a whole new level of busy! 

Oh yes, and I agreed to help be a moderator  for a new online forum called Teatalk and help with a local tea organization with their Facebook page! 

And to top it off, as the class is winding down, I am preparing for a trip to China!  We’re off to visit the land of TEA in a couple of days!  Whoa, couple of days!  I still need to pack, finish my group wiki, finish up my required blog postings for class, and, oh yeah, work… whew!  Tired just thinking of this, hmm, need some good strong tea to keep me going through the home stretch, actually maybe something stronger like yerba mate or… perhaps…coffee?!  Nah, tea’s better, don’t need more jitters…  

Photo: Jennifer Hamill