2014 TEXSOM Conference Registration Open

TEXSOM, the most prominent and influential wine education conference in the United States, is celebrating its tenth year, has announced that registration is now open for TEXSOM 2014. TEXSOM 2014 will take place August 9 -11, 2014 at the Four Seasons Resort & Club in Las Colinas, Texas.

TEXSOM 2014 will include presentations by 39 Master Sommeliers, six Masters of Wine, and eight Certified Wine Educators. Seminars will include regional spotlights, variety intensives, sales instruction, and industry/sommelier roundtable discussions. The conference is expected to draw a total of 800 attendees, of which 600 will be sommeliers and other beverage industry professionals.

“We’ve worked hard over the past decade to build TEXSOM into the largest and best wine education conference in the country,” says James Tidwell, who along with Drew Hendricks is one of the conference founders. “There is no other time when you will find more influential wine professionals in one place, than at TEXSOM. In fact, we’ve seen such great demand to participate that our sponsorship opportunities sold out without us announcing that they were open.”

TEXSOM is the only conference to offer as presenters four of the major wine education and certification organizations in the world: Court of Master Sommeliers – Americas, Guild of Sommeliers Education Foundation, Society of Wine Educators, and Wine and Spirits Education Trust. In fact, in an unprecedented move, TEXSOM will offer eight pre-conference certification opportunities from three of the above organizations and the Specialty Tea Institute.

“When we started out, we saw a need for high-level wine education for local sommeliers,” says Drew Hendricks. “Interest was immediately evident, and in each subsequent year we grew bigger and word spread beyond the Texas border. Today, we have presenters and attendees from all over the country, each bringing their own unique experience and knowledge to the conference. It truly is something special.”

TEXSOM 2014 will offer participants a chance to attend 23 different seminars, each featuring up to eight beverages. In addition, attendees have the opportunity to taste more than 200 wines for evaluation at the Grand Tasting and Awards Reception, which is sponsored by the Wine and Food Foundation of Texas.

In addition, the conference will once again host the Texas Monthly Texas’ Best Sommelier Competition, which is a challenge to young Texas sommeliers to pit their knowledge and expertise against their peers. The winners of the contest will be announced at the Grand Tasting and Awards Reception on the closing night.

Registration for TEXSOM 2014 is $395 and includes lunches, access to hospitality suites, and admittance to the Grand Tasting and Awards Reception. Rooms are available (while supply lasts) at the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas for $160 per night.

To register, interested parties should visit http://www.texsom.com.

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On a personal note, please join me at TEXSOM this year. I will be taking the Level 1 Introductory Sommelier Course and Exam on Friday and Saturday. I look forward to meeting the people I have met before and meeting new people this year!