ACSA Convention & Expo

General Registration (Feb 2 – March 9) 

• Members: $660
• Additional Members: $460
• Non-Members: $915
• Additional Non-Members: $680

Members must register using the main account holder’s email address to receive the member rate.

Late Registration (March 10 – April 3)

• Members: $700
• Non-Members: $945

Distribution Workshop 

In this five-hour workshop, you’ll learn how to negotiate distribution contracts, strengthen distributor relationships, and build a growth-focused sales strategy. The day wraps with a Q&A and breakout discussions so you leave with clear, actionable steps tailored to your brand.

• Members: $199
• Non-Members: $325

Distillery Tours

We’re excited to offer three unique distillery tour experiences during the 2026 Convention & Expo—one full-day Sacramento–area tour and two optional half-day excursions.

Sacramento & Surrounding Area Distillery Tour

A full-day, guided exploration of some of the region’s standout craft producers, including Dao Distillery, Midtown Spirits, Sabbatical Distillery, and the UC Davis Teaching and Research Winery.

• Member: $139
• Non-Member: $189

Half-Day Tours

Perfect for attendees who want a shorter, more focused experience.

St. George Spirits (Half-Day Tour)

• Rate: $175

Hinterhaus Distilling (Half-Day Tour)

• Rate: $175

Convention activities will take place at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J St, Sacramento, CA 95814. Please note: This event is designed for trade professionals across the craft spirits and beverage industry, and you must be 21 years of age or older to attend. The nearest airport is the Sacramento International Airport . 

• Cancel February 2 – March 9, 2026 = 50% refund
• Cancel after March 9, 2026 = No refund

Note: To receive your ACSA member discount, you must enter the email address you use for your membership login upon registration. Questions? Contact membership@americancraftspirits.org.

The American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) does not sell attendee lists or share attendee information with third parties. Additionally, we do not work with third-party organizations to book hotel blocks. Any communication from groups claiming otherwise is unauthorized and fraudulent. Your security and trust are our priority. If you are contacted by someone offering attendee lists or hotel booking services on behalf of ACSA, or if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Stephanie Sadri directly at stephanie@americancraftspirits.org.

Caitlin Bartlemay, Master Distiller, Clear Creek Distillery

Caitlin Bartlemay started her career at Clear Creek Distillery in 2010 after finishing her degree in Food Science. She is Clear Creek Distillery’s Master Distiller and passionate and devoted to educating the world on why the story and quality of the spirits in their glass is worth celebrating.

Session: Barrel Care and Repair

Reese Benton, Founder, Posh Green Cannabis Boutique

Reese Benton is a San Francisco–based entrepreneur and the founder of Posh Green Cannabis Boutique, a social-equity cannabis retail brand known for its elevated, community-first approach. She is recognized for her leadership in building inclusive businesses and for bringing luxury, culture, and purpose together within emerging markets.

Session: Cannabis at the Crossroads: Blazing a Trail for Craft Spirits

Dr. Gregory Canillas, CEO, Canillas-King

Dr. Gregory Canillas (“Doc”) is the CEO of Canillas-King and a participant in the Long Beach Cannabis Social Equity Program. His work sits at the intersection of consumer behavior, hospitality, and emerging beverage trends, including zero-proof and cannabis-infused drinks. He consults on signature beverage experiences for private, corporate, and hospitality clients, with a focus on cultural storytelling and shifting social rituals around drinking. Dr. Canillas is an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology, where he teaches clinical marriage and family therapy master’s students, and at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (Los Angeles), where he teaches master’s- and doctoral-level courses in clinical forensic psychology. He has presented at Tales of the Cocktail, moderated industry panels, and spoken at Portland Cocktail Week and other national beverage conferences.

Session: Cannabis at the Crossroads: Blazing a Trail for Craft Spirits

Christian Deakin, Product Development Manager, BevZero

Christian Deakin grew up on a vineyard in western New York and went on to graduate from Cornell University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and a minor in Enology. He then moved to California where he spent the next eight years working for Gallo; the first four as a research enologist and the next four as a production microbiologist. He joined the BevZero team in 2023 as the product development manager where he now works with clients to bring their custom formulas from concept to bottle, while also developing No & Low alcohol products for BevZero’s White Label program.

Session: No & Low Alcohol Technical Production, Chemistry, and Regulation

Rawnica Dillingham, Chief Sales Officer, New Riff Distilling,  Founder & Chief Visionary Officer,  Fallow Collective

Rawnica Dillingham (she/her) is an executive, entrepreneur, and thought leader whose career spans more than 30 years across the spirits and hospitality industries. At New Riff Distilling, she oversees all aspects of global sales strategy, including distributor relationships, forecasting, pricing, and market expansion across domestic and international territories. Her leadership emphasizes collaboration, clarity, and a culture-first mindset, ensuring growth aligns with both the company’s independent vision and its people-centered values.As founder of Fallow Collective, Rawnica leads a purpose-driven ecosystem of brands rooted in hospitality, leadership, and purpose.

Session: Scaling Without Overhead: How Fractional Sales Teams Can Power Craft Spirits Growth

Ryan Malkin, Managing Partner, Malkin Law

Ryan Malkin is managing partner at Malkin Law, a Miami-based firm focusing on beverage and cannabis law. He has extensive experience providing guidance to suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, agencies, and third parties within these regulated industries. Malkin Law is also counsel to the American Craft Spirits Association, Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association, the New York State Distillers Guild and Florida Craft Spirits Association.

Session: Beyond Bankruptcy: Practical Options for Financially Distressed Beverage Businesses

Stuart Maxwell, Chief Operating Officer, Proof 8

Stuart Maxwell is the Chief Operating Officer at Proof 8, where his role is to lead the company’s global expansion and ensure its platform continues to solve the most critical operational challenges facing modern distilleries and warehouses today. A former Head of Product, Stuart has been instrumental in shaping the platform to date, with tools like Real-Time Liquid Summaries, Smart Scheduling and Digital Deeds, all of which enable spirits businesses to scale with confidence, reduce compliance risk and improve transparency across every stage of spirits production. Stuart joined Proof 8 from William Grant & Sons, where he spent over a decade mastering all aspects of operations from technical process innovation and liquid supply to maturation.

Session: Efficiency, Transparency, Growth: The Case for Digital Transformation in Distilling and Maturation

Jeremy Murrell, Founder, Morpheus

Jeremy Murrell founded Morpheus to help brand stop guessing about marketing and start growing. With over 25 years of experience in marketing, market research and behavioral science – including two decades of shaping some of the world’s most iconic spirits brands – I’ve seen firsthand how a clear marketing strategy can transform a brand’s growth trajectory. At Brown-Forman I worked on brands that include Jack Daniel’s, Woodford Reserve, Old Forester, Herradura tequila and a variety of RTDs to define brand positioning, craft marketing strategies and uncover opportunities for growth. I believe in an approach that combines the science of research with the art of creative storytelling that helps brands uncover what makes them unique, how to connect with consumers more deeply, and ultimately grow
with confidence

Session: Beyond Demographics: Connecting with Consumers

Martin Pazzani, CO-CEO, Unbound Spirits Brands

Martin Pazzani is a former corporate Chairman & CEO, a TED Speaker, a mountaineer and explorer with summits on all seven continents, a serial entrepreneur and author, who has worked in the spirits industry since 1979.  At Heublein (now Diageo), he rose from entry-level Senior Marketing Analyst through Strategic Planning roles and then to the top marketing spot in the company over 14 years, managing brands and leading brand management for Smirnoff Vodka, Jose Cuervo Tequila, Black Velvet Canadian Whisky, Inglenook and Almaden wines, Famous Grouse and Highland Park Scotch, Yukon Jack, and many others. More recently he’s the Co-Founder of a celebrated, luxury craft tequila brand — extra anejo Tears of Llorona — which was Beverage Testing Institute Tequila of the Year in 2025. And now he owns several small batch, craft brands through the newly founded Unbound Spirits Brands in Wisconsin, where their super-premium offerings — The Maelstrom Bourbon, Hooligan Soup Irish Whiskey, Icebound Vodka, HoldFast Bourbon,and Les Terribles Bourbon — are all award-winning and scaling into broader distribution.

Session: Competing As David In A World of Goliaths: Rules for Underdogs, Upstarts, and Challenger Brands

Maria Pearman, CPA,  Food and Beverage Practice Leader, GHJ

Maria is an expert in the beverage alcohol industry, who provides accounting and advisory services to clients. She specializes in internal accounting processes, financial reviews, budgeting, cash flow forecasting, financial strategy and succession planning.​ Prior to joining GHJ in 2021, Maria built a national practice focused on beverage alcohol. She helped clients improve financial results and maximize efficiency of operations, guiding them through ownership transitions.​

Session: The Competitive Edge: What the Best Craft Distilleries do Differently

Rox Tiburolobo, Technical Sales Manager, Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits

Rox Tiburolobo is an award-winning brewer and distiller who has spent over a decade in the alcohol production industry. With an education in bioscience microscopy and molecular toxicology, they originally worked in biotech before making the jump to craft brewing that eventually transitioned into a career in distilled spirits production. While predominantly specializing in whiskey and grain spirits, they have experience in producing a wide range of products from their time in the contract distillation sector. In their current role as a Technical Sales Manager with the Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits team they provide technical expertise in fermentation and mash house optimization for craft distilleries throughout the Western United States and Canada.

Session: Squeeze Every Drop: Building Efficiency and Profitability into Craft Distilling

Jonathan Yaffe, Cofounder and CEO, AnyRoad

Jonathan Yaffe, the cofounder and CEO of AnyRoad, believes in the power of leveraging data to scale transformative experiences. He founded AnyRoad, the first AI-powered Consumer Engagement platform after working for Red Bull, where his team strategically invested billions of dollars in experiential initiatives, without any direct insight into analytics or ROI. Today, AnyRoad powers consumer engagement in tours, tastings, events, clubs, and premium memberships for over 700 distilleries both craft and massive.

Session: Best Practices for Tasting Rooms: Driving Visits, Repeat Engagement, and On-Site Retail Sales

Austin Yurt, HSE Manager, ISTS Inc

Experienced Environmental Health & Safety Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the safety industry. Skilled in OSHA compliance training such as Hazwoper , Confined Space Entry & Rescue, Respiratory Protection & Emergency Management. Strong understanding of safety policies & procedures with a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health & Environmental Health & Safety from Western Kentucky University.

Session: From Compliance to Culture: Best Practices in Distillery Safety

Heather Wibbels, Mixologist and Whiskey Educator

Heather Wibbels is a whiskey educator, award-winning mixologist, and Executive Bourbon Steward based in Louisville, Kentucky. Known as the Cocktail Contessa, she is the author of Bourbon Is My Comfort Food: The Bourbon Women Guide to Fantastic Cocktails at Home, which was featured in Forbes and praised for its approachable education and creativity. Heather is a former Managing Director and Board Chair of Bourbon Women and has judged for major spirits competitions including ASCOT, ADI, World Whiskies Awards, and ACSA. Her work focuses on helping both consumers and brands build deeper connections through guided sensory experiences, flight design, and story-driven whiskey education. Her writing and cocktail creations appear in publications such as American Whiskey Magazine, The Bourbon Review, Bourbon+, Drinkhacker, and Food & Dining, where she is a regular columnist.Through her brands Cocktail Contessa and Bourbon Fluent, Heather creates educational content, sensory programming, and cocktail strategy for distilleries, tourism organizations, and whiskey enthusiasts across the country. She believes every whiskey tells a story—and when education and flavor align, consumers build loyalty one sip at a time.

Session: Make Them Taste the Why: Anchor Perception, Build Trust, and Move Bottles

Kelly Woodcock, Consultant

Kelly Woodcock serves as a consultant for the spirits industry focusing on bringing direct paths to consumers for spirits companies previously not done in the industry. Previously, she worked at Westward Whiskey for over 13 years as Vice President and Oregon General Manager. In her role, Kelly oversaw direct to consumer (DtC) programs while also leading Westward’s hospitality operations at three locations: the Westward Whiskey Distillery tasting room and the two Westward Whiskey outlets at Portland International Airport (PDX). She concepted and launched the Westward Whiskey Club, the first-ever U.S. distillery subscription club that offered four exclusive distillery releases per year. Kelly and her team managed inventory, hiring, training, staffing, and customer service for guests and club members. For over a decade,. Kelly led the development and execution of the company’s immersive brand experience at Portland International Airport concourse C, the world’s first craft distillery airport tasting room when it opened to the public in 2016.

Session: Starting Your Club: A Guide to Consistent Revenue

Hyatt Regency Sacramento

• Rate: $249/night
• Cutoff Date: March 24, 2026
• Booking Link: Book Hyatt Regency Here

Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel

• Rate: $249/night
• Cutoff Date: March 24, 2026
• Booking Link: Book Sheraton Grand Here

Complimentary media credentials are available to qualified members of the trade and business press, spirits writers, and podcasters. Media registration is subject to review and approval.We look forward to partnering with trade media to amplify the stories, challenges, and innovations shaping the future of American craft spirits.