Tristan Chan, Founder

PorchDrinking.com

Tristan Chan is the Founder of PorchDrinking.com, a national beer publication focused on telling great stories within the craft beer industry. Over the past nine years, PorchDrinking.com has taken the approach of reporting the news, serving as a resource for the industry, showcasing positivity within the industry, and telling great stories in beer through the context of people and pop culture. During that time they've grown a community of over 100 writers and staff members across the country. Tristan also recently launched his own marketing consulting firm, The Porch Collective, to help breweries and hospitality brands share their stories through public relations, social media, partnerships, and overall marketing strategies.

Julia Herz, Executive Director

American Homebrewers Association

Julia Herz is the Executive Director of the American Homebrewers Association. Prior to that Herz was the Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association (BA) and Publisher of CraftBeer.com (2007-2020).

As one of the main advocates behind U.S. craft breweries, she has been a source to thousands of media outlets, including the Food Network, National Public Radio, American Public Media's Splendid Table, Sirius/XM, CNBC Squawk Box and Closing Bell, Fox News, and GMA Live.

Herz is a Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) certified beer judge, an award-winning homebrewer, Advanced Cicerone^®, a lead architect of the BA national beer holidays, the Independent Craft Brewer Seal, BA diversity and inclusion efforts, and more. Herz is the co-author of Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros (Voyageur Press 2015).

A graduate of the University of South Florida with a degree in Broadcast Journalism, she worked at CNN in Washington D.C early in her career. She is married, has two children, and lives in Lyons, Colorado.

Laura Lodge, Owner & Strategic Advisor

Customized Craft Beer Programs

Laura Lodge is the owner of Customized Craft Beer Programs, a consulting business offering insight and assistance with all things craft beer. In addition to developing craft beer programs for destination resorts, she enjoys designing and hosting creative educational events including the well-known Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival.

Laura entered the craft beer industry working in the distribution tier, and consults for breweries and wholesalers about the complexities of distribution. She shares strategic advice and guidance as author of Distribution Insight for the Craft Brewer, striving to unveil the mysteries of the middle tier and create partnerships between breweries and distributors.

Most recently, Laura collaborated with Candace L. Moon, The Craft Beer Attorney, to create Start A Brewery, LLC, a business designed to help dreamers, breweries in planning, and growing breweries by pulling together educational resources with savvy professionals across the brewing industry. Free to the public, StartABrewery.com divides the daunting process into phases and breaks it down by category, further augmented by a library of information and educational resources submitted by contributors.

A frequent event organizer, contributor, and educational speaker in a multitude of platforms, programs, and conferences, Laura is recognized as a veteran in the craft beer industry and resides in the Colorado Rocky Mountains where she enjoys the outdoor lifestyle.

Ren Navarro, Owner & Operator

Beer. Diversity.

With nearly a decade of experience in the alcohol industry, a passion for encouraging personal and professional growth, and her trademark wit, Ren Navarro is here to educate, enlighten, and engage.

Since launching Beer. Diversity. in 2018, Ren has become a known name at breweries, wineries, distilleries, and beyond. She has given talks on diversity and inclusion at several colleges and countless festivals, panels, radio shows, and podcasts around the world. In addition to being a diversity educator, she is a craft beer consultant for bars and restaurants in Ontario and an educator for countless businesses throughout the country.

Beer. Diversity. is more than just a company that educates. It's a resource built from the passion and love of the industry to do better and be better. Navarro's experience in public speaking and history in the drinks world, alongside her perspective as a queer Black woman makes her an essential voice in the work and outreach involved in creating a welcoming and diverse environment for beverage producers and imbibers of all backgrounds.

Taking steps. Wanting change. Having the desire and the tools to put in the work to be an agent of change. That's what Beer. Diversity. is about. Together we can do better. Together we can be better.

Julie Rhodes, Owner, Strategic Business Consultant

Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions

With over two decades of experience in the food and beverage industry, Julie Rhodes is an authority on beverage sales, digital marketing, leadership, and distributor partnership management. She is the owner of Not Your Hobby Marketing Solutions, an educational services, and strategic business consulting company built specifically for growing craft beverage brands, where she teaches small to medium-sized alcoholic beverage companies how to work smarter, not harder, in order to achieve long term growth. In addition to being an educator and strategic advisor, she is also a freelance business writer for multiple industry publications, public speaker, is Cicerone Certified, a national committee chair and local chapter leader within Pink Boots Society, and a member of the Brewers Association (BA), the Marketing and Communications Subcommittee of the BA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, the North American Guild of Beer Writers, the American Cider Association, Women of the Vine & Spirits, and multiple state brewery guilds. She is also a founding organizer of the Safe Bars P.A.C.T. Initiative. When not working, you can find her spending time with her husband and two boys in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, on the couch watching sci-fi movies, or at a local bar shooting pool.