Tuesday, February 24, 2009

PBW 2009: The Schedule of Events...One More Time

We're now two weeks away from the kickoff of PBW 2009. This is (probably) the last update I'll be doing to the spreadsheet calendar (updated: 3/5/09). I'm figuring that nothing noteworthy has yet to be planned and announced....which is only setting me up to be surprised and, well, wrong (that's what happens when using a definitive like 'nothing'). I'm happy that so many of you (over 2200 at last count) have downloaded this spreadsheet, found it useful, and commented back to me as such. I hope that you all enjoy Philly Beer Week in your own way and that I stumble across at least a few of you along the way. Cheers to the Best Beer Drinking City/Region! There's a new column that I added to the spreadsheet. It's my attempt to categorize the types of events being undertaken during this year's Philly Beer Week. Keep in mind, that this is just my approach with no guidance from the PBW committee. Just a way to try and get my head around just exactly what PBW is all about and share with you. Here are some of the "rules" that I applied to come up with categorizations. In a few cases, it was strictly subjective and majority ruled ;-) > Almost anything that says "Meet the..." got tagged as a 'Tasting/Meeting' > Any description that contained "...Tasting..." where the details contained someone's name is tagged as a 'Tasting/Meeting' > All other tastings are labeled simply as 'Tastings' (though, keep in mind that 'tastings' can either be Free or PAYG) > All brunches are 'Food/Beer Pairings' since none are of the other dining type, which I labeled 'Timed, Sit-down Meals' if they had a fixed time and price > Anything that comes across as classroom-like, instructional, or otherwise educational, it has been tagged 'educational' > Now to get a bit controversial that I'm sure to take a little heat for...anything that isn't a festival, an obvious event (had to be obvious to me), a meet & greet with some level of rep from a brewery, a meal, featuring a brewery or beer that isn't overly difficult to come by, or anything along those lines was tagged as a 'Advertisement'. Once again, keep in mind that I'm thrilled to see so many places doing so many things...thing is, not everything is as "something" as the next thing. And according to Bryan's Rules, that'd be not much more than an advertisement. And, just one man's opinion at that. Here's what I found: 189 Tastings/Meetings; 96 Tastings; 77 Advertisements/Promotions; 61 Food/Beer Pairings; 34 Fun & Games; 28 Timed/Sit-Down Meals; 17 Educational; 10 Music; 7 Festivals; 1 Homebrewing

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