Since 2008, I navigate in two worlds all the time. On the one hand, I am the academic and technical guy who works in the environmental studies and policy fields. On the other hand, I’m the blogger and social media guy who writes about Vancouver and the stuff that happens around his life in the city. Molson’s Brew 2.0 Vancouver gave me a great opportunity to enjoy both worlds to the maximum.

As properly indicated by Colleen, I tried REALLY hard not to nerd out during my visit and tour to the Molson Brewery in Vancouver. Given my entirely technical background (chemical engineering, graduate degrees in environmental studies), I was fully prepared to ask questions regarding the specifical details of plant operation, safety and risk management, the issue of being an industrial plant in a growingly residential zone (Kitsilano), the history of beer production, what environmental measures had Molson implemented and
all sorts of other technical things.

On the other hand, and as noted above, I was also fully prepared to ask the tough questions on the campaign design, blogger relations, the outreach and community strategy at Molson. I *am* both people, the social media and the environmental guy. And I love it. Had a great chat with Tonia Hammer and Adam Moffat, from the Molson’s Community Outreach team and with Meghan Warby and David Jones from Hill and Knowlton, who helped Molson create this fantastic event.

I would like to think that I didn’t nerd out a lot, because I was really positively impressed with the technical details, with the chance to actually see the brewing process from the inside, and with the environmental consciousness of Molson. Did you know that they reduced 75% of the water consumption they were exerting when they first started producing in Vancouver? On the social media and outreach side, I absolutely enjoyed the company of everyone involved in the campaign. Tonia, Adam, Meghan and David made us really feel at home. It was also simply outstanding to be poured a drink and given a full tour by the designer of the Rickards brew himself! Moreover, as I told Geoff Molson, the 7th generation heir of John Molson, for me, the definition of Canadian was always Molson (truthfully, because when I moved to Canada, the VERY first beer I drank was Molson Canadian).

I would like to believe that I do good event recaps, but so far I’ve read some that I think will give you a lot of insight into what transpired, so I’ll let my friends give you the full 411.

- Arieanna
- Tanya
- Ryan
- Tris
- Rebecca

I will be updating this post with recaps from all my friends (so feel free to drop me a comment if I haven’t linked to yours yet!).

My head had been spinning with lots of ideas and thoughts about all the right things that I think Molson and Hill and Knowlton did on this campaign. It’s going to sound like I am gushing, even though everything I say is very true and very well deserved. Here are some highlights:

- We are bloggers and we love that you make our job easy. Give us swag that (a) we will appreciate and (b) helps us write awesome reviews of your event.
- We appreciate kindness and elegance. It was VERY classy to give us a “thank you for coming and hanging out with us” gift (beer glass, USB key and a case of beer with a HANDWRITTEN thank you note).
- We appreciate personalized invites. I loved that my invite mentioned several posts I had been writing. I also appreciated the editorial freedom of “you don’t even need to write about it“. I had a great time, OF COURSE I’m going to write about it.
- We appreciate personalized attention. The tour, the pairings of beer and food, the presence of Mr. Rickard and Mr. Molson, the conversation with the Molson and H&K teams. Everything hit the right note.

I would have filled this post with many, many more photos but you can enjoy them all on my Flickr set.

Related posts:

1. Brew 2.0 – The Burrard Molson Brewery social media event
2. Third Tuesday on a Monday, Vancouver, David Jones, September 2008
3. On my Vancouver 2010 Olympic experience

Credit: SnowRunner on Flickr

Well, lucky for me, all of us (Rebecca and John Bollwitt, Duane Storey, Ryan Cousineau and myself) have been invited by Molson to Brew 2.0, an evening of beers, bloggers AND a tour of the Burrard Street Brewery (I know that the lovely Monica Hamburg AND Dave Thorvald Olson are going too, which increases my happiness substantially!).

Credit: Liesa Billings

I have to say that not only do I appreciate the fact that I’m being invited to continue with my formal education on how to drink beer, but also, as a chemical engineer, I am *ecstatic* to FINALLY! tour the Burrard Street Brewery. You’ll see… when I was in undergraduate, my favorite class was Distillation (I took individual courses on each one of the separation processes). I could calculate the number of plates needed to distill X amount of alcohol from a mixture of Y and Z percentages. Now, I get to see brewing processes from the inside!

Furthermore, as a specialist in industrial and urban transformation, I am always delighted to see an industrial plant still within the confines of the urban core. I am VERY curious to know about the sustainability and water-saving measures implemented at Molson, so you can rest assured I’ll be asking questions throughout.

Credit: Matt Musselman

Finally, two particular elements worth highlighting. As Rebecca mentioned, it’s great that Molson is reaching out to us, social media folks. But it’s also very interesting how they are also embracing Web 2.0 from within the company! I found the Molson Community Blog, and one of the authors, Tonia Hammer, is on Twitter! So I am really looking forward to learning more about how Molson will reach out to the community. Maybe they should be a corporate sponsor to our Blogathon 2009 efforts! (*hint hint nudge nudge*)

Related posts:

1. Molson’s Brew 2.0 Vancouver: An unbelievable experience
2. Molson Rickards Dark Launch
3. Granville Island Brewery Pumpkin Ale launch party