Why Attend
The Lo & No Beverage Summit brings together the large multinationals, the mid tier independent brands and the disruptive start ups in one room to learn how to formulate and commercialise premium soft drinks to market at speed. In a time where development cycles are shortening, and consumer health demands are increasing we will be discussing how to fortify drinks with the sensory and social experience for consumer buy in. The event will address the barriers such as creating a successful branding story to educate the market on this new sector, perfecting the taste portfolio whilst managing the expectations of a clean label. With new mocktail concoctions in the space this is a chance to learn how to innovate product development strengthen communication and boost distribution channels to safeguard the successful launch.
Who Will Be There
The Speakers

Kamila Sitwell
Kamila has an in-depth industry and beverage category knowledge which she acquired while managing bars in London and then working for leading food and drinks companies such as Britvic, where she led market insight and category strategy for OOH channels. She is also a leading hospitality blogger with thousands of followers, at the top 1% of industry influencers.

Ben Branson
Ben is the Founder of Seedlip and Æcorn Aperitifs, the world’s first distilled non-alcoholic spirits and aperitifs. His mission is two fold: Solve the dilemma of ‘what to drink when you’re not drinking’ and continue his family’s 300 years of farming heritage.
With offices in the Chilterns, Los Angeles and Sydney, Seedlip is now available in 25x cities including New York, Barcelona, Shanghai & Singapore and served in many of the world’s most awarded bars, restaurants and hotels including 350x Michelin * Restaurants & 9/10 of the world’s best cocktail bars.
Ben was named as one of the Top 50 most influential people in food and drink by The Telegraph and awarded Young Achiever of The Year by The Drinks Business. He continues to pioneer the non-alcoholic category forward with the launch of Æcorn Aperitifs in Selfridges and The Savoy in May 2019.

Paul Thomas

Craig Hutchison

William Fugard

Bill Gamelli
As an innovator in the No/Lo alcohol adult beverage industry, Bill and his family are proud to be exporting their premium drinks, made in the U.K., to 3 Continents. Bill brings his 15 years of finance experience at the global investment banks where his practice focused on post IPO and M&A liquidity for Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Start-up Company clients. Bill earned his undergraduate degree with double majors in economics and political science from Boston University, where he met his roommate, friend, and co-founder, Jim Dowla and, lucky for him, his wife Tracy. She turned out to be the inspiration for creating Mocktails, along with other family members among the Founders, Jim Dowla ad Mark Guthrie. Once Bill discovered that Mark and Jim were also starting a No/Lo alcohol beverage company, and they realized that 3 of 6 adults in their families were non-drinkers, it was an easy decision to pool their resources, and Mocktails was born.

Shilen Patel
After leading a team at Guinness that turned around 20 years of brand decline, and over 10 years consulting in which he helped dozens of founders realise their potential, Shilen started Distill Ventures with his Co-founder, Frank Lampen, in 2013.
As the world’s first drinks accelerator, the company helps entrepreneurs scale their business in three ways: providing cash investment, mentoring partners to help them become better business leaders, and tapping into an extensive and experienced network of drinks experts. While Distill Ventures’ approach is unique to each entrepreneur, the goal is always to give founders the tools to make better decisions and fewer mistakes while allowing them to remain fully in control of their business. To date, Distill Ventures has committed in excess of £60 million to more than 15 founder-led drinks brands around the world.
Shilen’s passions lie in providing start-up entrepreneurs with the guidance and expertise to launch into markets disruptively, and developing the non-alc drinks category. Distill Ventures has played a pivotal role in the acceleration of leading non-alc spirit, Seedlip, and Shilen cites his career highlight as meeting Ben Branson back in 2014, after which he helped turn Seedlip into what it is today, while creating an entirely new drinks category.

David Begg

Claire Warner

Stephen Dillon
Stephen Dillon is the founder of Dublin based drinks innovation company RTM Beverages - The RTM portfolio is heavily focused on the No-Lo categories - Noki & Co. The Alcohol Free Gin & Tonic flavoured drink was launched in November 2018 and Loki & Co. Europe's first 'Hard Seltzer' was launched in 2017. A serial entrepreneur in the drinks industry Stephen has previously established a number of brands and businesses, he most recently worked as European Sales Director for the craft & speciality division of Ab-InBev. Stephen is a qualified beer sommelier and holds a WSET diploma in wines & spirits - he specialises in spotting trends in the drinks industry and bring innovative products to market at pace.

Rob Fink
Rob Fink is CEO of Big Drop, a company he founded with zero brewing experience less than three years ago. And there wasn’t even anyone he could emulate… Rob was the first ever brewer to focus exclusively on Alcohol Free beer and the first to apply left-field fermenting techniques that meant no alcohol needed to be artificially extracted from the end product after brewing. Big Drop’s range of 0.5% ABV craft beers are available in supermarkets (Tesco, Ocado, Morrisons) with on-trade listings including: All Bar One, The Ivy Group, Barworks and Draft House. It has won numerous awards including No/Lo Champion at the 2019 International Brewing Awards and - the ‘Holy Grail’ of any non-alcoholic drink - winning against full-strength competitors (eg at the World Beer Awards and King of Craft at the Casual Dining show). Now with exports shortly to account for half of sales, Big Drop is also becoming a big name overseas too.

Eric Dimter
From the conservative shipping industry into troubled waters of the Start-Up world. JoyBräu – the world’s first non-alcoholic Protein Beer was founded by Erik Dimter and Tristan Brümmer in 2016.
It took two years of research until JoyBräu was introduced to the market in 2018 – with a remarkable success. JoyBräu, the substitute of a protein shake, is now available in 12 countries.

Andy Crossan

James Grundy

Felix James

Ad van Etten
Ad is senior manager commercial development in Chr. Hansen’s food culture and enzyme division. He has a strong commercial background and a track record of working successfully with clients all over the world. With a marketing degree and educated at a.o. INSEAD and Cranfield University he specialises in managing complex commercial projects with large account and distributors. He now turned his focus to the world of fermented beverages where he uses his extensive business experience to develop and manage Chr. Hansen’s Smartbev brand, a range of innovative fermentation concepts.

Matthew Birkenshaw

Ellie Webb
Ellie is the creator and founder of Caleño, a tropical non-alcoholic free spirit. On a night out dancing a couple of years ago, she became frustrated with the lack of adventurous non-alcoholic options. After talking with friends, she realised there was an opportunity to make those options more joyful. She flew to Colombia where she visited family and was inspired by the vibrant, colourful culture, and tropical flavours. Two months after launching, Ellie landed a listing with major UK retailer, Sainsbury’s and Caleño is now stocked in around 500 of their stores.
Before launching Caleño, Ellie had a background in drinks, working for the UK’s largest drinks distributor. This taught her about the spirits making process and the hospitality industry where she was able to work closely with pubs, bars and restaurants. She also spent time at a Shopper Marketing agency, where she worked on exciting activations for brands such as Nestlé, GSK, and Estee Lauder.

Rose Cottingham

Rebekah Hall
Renowned for its cold-pressed Performance Juices, non-dairy Grown Up Milkshakes, first-to-market adaptogenic Hotshots and the UK’s first Cannabidiol (CBD) soft drink Dutch Courage, Botanic Lab products are unapologetically taking over the shelves of Waitrose, Selfridges, Holland & Barrett, Ocado, Co-Op and EAT.
Since 2014, Rebekah’s strategic vision and business acumen have been the driving force behind Botanic Lab, rewriting the rulebook on stereotypical ‘health drinks’ and catapulting the business to success in a very competitive landscape.
Rebekah followed her studies in economics with a successful 10-year career as a city corporate financier. She has a tough and pragmatic approach to business, developed and fine tuned in a challenging and sometimes ruthless environment. She is a firm believer that one of the key personality traits required in a successful entrepreneur is an abundance of resilience, preferably accompanied by a sense of humour. Rebekah is a regular speaker at female focused and entrepreneurship events, providing an honest and refreshing insight into the process of launching and building a brand. Like her drinks, what you see is what you get.
As a somewhat unexpected counter to this, Rebekah is also an experienced yoga teacher, having practiced traditional ashtanga yoga for many years. She knows the health and wellbeing sector inside
out, both as a consumer and also a business owner, but is unashamedly cynical about it.
She says, “I’m no health pin up. Our products were developed for someone just like me. Yes, I’m health aware, but with the best will in the world I drink, never restrict what I eat and don’t have time to devote
my existence to food prep and gym selfies. I won’t feel guilty about that. I am also a stickler for quality. I want the best that my money can buy and I want it to be convenient, taste good and if it looks great
as well, that’s a bonus. Life is too short for bad drinks, whatever your lifestyle choices. That’s why we create drinks that use ancient botanicals in a new way. Drinks that look to the future. Drinks that do
something.”

Fabien Gross
The wine house ‘Pierre Chavin’ was founded by Fabien Gross
and Mathilde Boulachin. Fabien Gross is a specialist of the art
of wine-blending and wine innovation.
Originally from Alsace, is grandfather, with whom he grew up,
had a wine estate and taught him the first tricks of the trade.
Fabien became passionate about viticulture and wanted to
delve into the scientific and biological aspects of the job.
For this, Fabien went to study agronomy, oenology in
Burgundy and WSET Diploma (starting the Master of Wine).
After successfully completing this, he started a blitz career in
the French wine industry and in California.
After several top jobs at large French wineries, Fabien wanted
to develop his own wine estate. In 2010, his dream became
reality and he founded the Villa Noria domain, where he
focused on the production of organic, environmentallyfriendly
wines.
There, our winegrower met Mathilde Boulachin, a marketing
specialist, and they founded wine estate Pierre Chavin
together.
At Pierre Chavin, Fabien is the chief winemaker and in charge
of R&D, innovation. He creating since 2011 the new line of
alcohol free wine.
Pierre Chavin is now the first French producer of premium
alcohol free wines.

Tom Elliott
Tom is a founding member of the Future Brands Team at Sainsbury’s, tasked with spearheading the growth of new & distinctive brands across food and drink. He has been responsible for some of the biggest NPD launches in Sainsbury’s this year. Prior to this, he led Sainsbury’s expansion into Hong Kong & Singapore, the first time in its 150-year history, as well as holding a number of commercial and strategic roles, with a background in Strategy Consulting.

Catherine Salway
Catherine Salway is the founder and CEO of Redemption, London’s healthiest restaurants with the ethos, ‘spoil yourself without spoiling yourself’ – alcohol-free, vegan, wheat-free and sugar-free. Described by The Sunday Times as a ‘cool new vegan place’, and according to Time Out, ‘worth staying sober for’.
Catherine studied economics at university then joined Virgin for 17 years where she worked her way up to Virgin Group Brand Director.
Twitter @CatherineSalway

Gerry Stopps
Gerry Stopps, Sales and Marketing Director at Omega Ingredients is a self-motivated sales professional with a solid technical background with 30 years’ experience with international flavour companies. His clients includes some of the world’s best known blue-chip companies along with some of the fastest growing young ventures in the Food and Beverage sector.

Richard Maryniak

Fiona Davies
Fiona previously worked in the wine industry within Aldi’s award-winning buying team. She moved into category management at Holland & Barrett in October 2018 and spearheaded the alcohol free proposition, sourcing new and innovative suppliers with the intention of offering customers an exciting mix of quality alcohol free options on the high street. The range launched in July 2019 and is growing in success, accounting for 50% of the total ‘free from’ category sales.

Eugenio Muraro
He has over 15 years of work experience in Sales & Marketing, first in the mechanical sector and then in the renewable energy sector. It was a period, during which he has achieved a mixture of skills and a knowledge of the international scene through frequent business trips abroad. His
passion for the world of cocktails led him in 2002 to successfully attend a professional bartending course. Later he participated in the 2015-2017 MBA Executive of the MIP Politecnico di Milano. The Master Degree program included the presentation of a business plan for the creation of a startup company and his project was awarded in July 2017. This project is called MeMento.
Confirmed Companies
Gold Partner
Black Swan Data
Website: https://www.blackswan.com/
Black Swan delivers precise, data-driven consumer trend predictions by combining social data with AI. Our data science based solutions enable brands to distinguish between what is a fad versus a sustainable trend, when they should action the trend, and how to communicate it effectively to consumers.
Mocktails
Website: https://www.mocktails.com
Our three families discovered that we were all searching for fun alcohol-free drinks without the artificial ingredients, preservatives or high fructose corn syrup when not drinking craft beer, wine, or cocktails. Sodas of any kind were clearly out. Water is healthy, but boring when you’re with colleagues, friends and family. Born out of our own need for a better experience, we started making small batch mixology inspired drinks that had taste worthy of the adult pallet without the hassle, calories, or chemicals. Today, we uniquely craft our alcohol-free cocktails in the UK, and distribute them on 3 Continents. Because we believe in doing well by doing good, we donate 10% of our profits to worthy causes. To learn more, visit www.mocktails.com.
Silver Sponsor
Omega Ingredients
Website: https://www.omegaingredients.co.uk/home
Omega Ingredients is a highly specialized and award winning creator, manufacturer and supplier of high quality, provenance driven, natural flavors and ingredients for the worldwide beverage industry. Omega will be joined by their exclusive partner Destilla.
As a Platinum Sponsor, we look forward to presenting SigNATURE® Natural Flavors, HiPure® concentrated spinning cone distillates with maximum flavor capture, 100% Pure and Natural kiiNote® ‘From the Named Source’ Extracts, and ΩMegaSweet® Natural Flavor Technology for sugar reduction.
Our extensive portfolio provides that point of difference in creating the next successful Low & No Brand. From everyday conventional to the unusual, we bring you natural taste solutions and flavors from ‘Source to Sip’.
Event Partner
Blue Sky Botanics
Website: http://www.blueskybotanics.com
Please visit our website for more information.Media Partners
Inside Drinks
Website: https://www.nridigital.com/inside-drinks/
Please visit our website for more information.British Soft Drinks Association
Website: http://www.britishsoftdrinks.com/
The British Soft Drinks Association represents UK producers of soft drinks, including carbonated drinks, still and dilutable drinks, fruit juices and bottled waters. Membership includes the majority of Britain’s soft drinks manufacturers as well as franchisors, importers and suppliers to the UK soft drinks industry.
DrinkPreneur
Website: https://www.drinkpreneur.com/
DrinkPreneur is a unique community of drink entrepreneurs. Our main purpose is to guide and inspire future and current beverage entrepreneurs by providing necessary information about beverage industry.
At the same time to create easier communication between raw material producers, contract manufacturers, packaging producers, marketing specialist, designers and everyone that is involved in beverage industry all over the world.
DrinkPreneur is giving you space to communicate, share experience and ideas, find solutions for new business and to discover ways how to upgrade already existing ones.
British Beer and Pub Association
Website: https://beerandpub.com/
Please visit our website for more information.Soft Drinks International
Website: http://www.softdrinksinternational.com/
Please visit our website for more information.Inside the Cask
Website: http://insidethecask.com/
A Blog about Drinks, Retail and Travel by a Drinks Industry 'Insider'.
The Agenda
Fill in your details to view the full agenda for the inaugural Lo & No Beverage Summit.
Watch highlights from the Personlised Nutrition Summit 2018:
Download the Agenda
Become a Sponsor
Kisaco Research provides the much-needed platform on which industry executives can network, connect and learn from each other as well as meet potential industry partners.
Far from the typical ‘meet-and-greet’ exhibition experience, you – as a sponsor or exhibitor – will be positioned as a partner of the event with a focus on the benefits of your product and brand, rather than just a name on an exhibition list.
With our extensive marketing experience and strategy, your partnership with Kisaco Research will grant you a sponsorship package that is an extension and enhancement of your current marketing and branding efforts. We value your ROI and will work with you directly on your specific goals and targets – that’s why we take special care in finding the most relevant end-users to attend, so that your financial and resource investment is smartly allocated.
Find out more by calling us at +44 (0)20 3696 2920 or email us at [email protected].
Venue
Millenium Hotel London Knightsbridge, 17 Sloane St, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 9NU
The inaugural Lo & No Beverage Summit will be taking place in the cosmopolitan capital of London.
Join us in the Millenium Hotel London Knightsbridge, 17 Sloane St, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 9NU.
With a prestigious location on Sloane Street, in the heart of fashionable Knightsbridge, the 4-star Millennium Hotel is just 150 yards from Knightsbridge Underground Station.
We are pleased to offer a special rate for our attendees:
Rate: £192.00 includes vat and breakfast, single occupancy
To book a room telephone hotel reservations on + 44 (0)207 201 6325
Email : [email protected]
Always quote block code GA1L141019 when booking.
Book by 14 September 2019 - after this date rates are subject to availability.
Conference Packages
Sending Your Team? Group Discounts Available!
Applicable for Primary Market, Service Provider and Industry Rates Only. Not available for Academic or ‘Start-Up’ rates
Book a Team of 3+ - Save an Additional 10% Off
Book a Team of 5+ - Save an Additional 15% Off
If you would like to register a team of 3 or more, please email [email protected] for your discount coupon code before registering. PLEASE NOTE: Discounts cannot be combined with Early Bird Pricing or any other discount or offer. If you have any questions about your registration, please call us on +44 (0)20 3696 2920
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