A note from OWB Education Manager Bree Stock MW:
While it’s currently hard to imagine welcoming visitors in our tasting rooms, there will be a time when we are back to offering tasting experiences on-site. It is also likely that international travel will continue to be limited and we should expect an influx of local and U.S. domestic visitation in late summer.
Wine is the great connector and it will be essential that our tasting rooms respond with the exceptional hospitality offerings that we are renowned for delivering and extend an open welcome to all. OWB is currently developing tasting room and wine industry-specific workshops to ensure our tasting rooms are as welcoming as ever. With that in mind, and with this slower period in our businesses, it is the prime opportunity to have our tasting room staff reflect on what it truly means to be welcoming to all, by understanding each other.
The hospitality leaders at Starbucks have worked with experts at Arizona State University to create a 15-course curriculum, designed to address bias through understanding the human experience and are offering this program to all at no charge. This is a great opportunity to learn to better understand others and deepen our connections to all our visitors so that as an industry we return stronger than ever with our hospitality when social distancing ends we can again welcome visitors to our great wine regions.
These short courses, together called “To Be Welcoming,” are great tool to educate your staff ahead of our specific tasting room training programs.
