Wine consumption in the United States is up and anyone who steps into a wine shop can tell that the industry is hopping. I've heard several people say that they just can't believe the number of wines available. If you are intrigued by the wine industry and you're in the greater Washington, D.C. area, you might want to check out a seminar being held this friday, January 25, 2008, by Laurent Guinand, the president of GiraMondo Wine Ventures (a wine business consulting firm). The seminar is called "The Business of Wine"and will take place at the GiraMondo Wine Ventures headquarter in Wheaton, MD from 9:30am to 5:00 pm.

According to the press release:

In this seminar, Laurent Guinand will present and discuss about the most important business trends in the wine industry:
- Consolidation of both wineries and wine distributors
- Understanding the evolution and developing sophistication of the American wine consumer
- Increasing importance of wine marketing (with business cases such as Yellow Tail, Fat Bastard or Red Bicyclette)
- Consequences of disruptive technologies such as internet, telecom or RFID
- Challenges of importing and marketing imported wines in the United States
- Areas of the industry that are recruiting and the profiles they are looking for

This seminar utilizes business cases from Harvard Business School and materials from other graduate school specializing in the wine industry as well as a number of articles from trade publications. It is an interactive seminar with no prerequisite, but requiring reading to prepare for the seminar as well as team work during the seminar.

The price of this seminar is $395/person (including lunch and coffee service).

For more information, contact GiraMondo Wine Ventures at (301) 841-7609 or visit www.giramondowine.com/events