Non-alcoholic options for an inclusive event experience with Marcos Salazar

Marcos Salazar [00:00:00]:

At the end of the day, you really want to create the best event possible. And that's not just from a programmatic standpoint, that's not just kind of from the flow and logistics. Food and Beverage is such an integral part in event because, and depending on the event that you do, but if it's a content-based event, people come for the content, but they stay for the community.

Alyssa Peltier [00:00:20]:

Great events create great brands, but pulling off an event that engages, excites and connects audiences well, that takes a village. And we're that village. My name is Alyssa.

Rachel Andrews [00:00:32]:

I'm Rachel.

Felicia Asiedu [00:00:33]:

And I'm Felicia.

Alyssa Peltier [00:00:35]:

And you are listening to Great Events, the podcast for all event enthusiasts, creators, and innovators in the world of events and marketing.

Rachel Andrews [00:00:46]:

What is up everyone? What is going on in this wide, wide world of events? My name is Rachel and I am today's host for today's episode. Today we have Marcos Salazar, who is the CEO of Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association or otherwise ANBA. Excited to have you today, Marcos. Welcome.

Marcos Salazar [00:01:07]:

Thanks so much for having me, Rachel. Very excited to chat today.

Rachel Andrews [00:01:10]:

Yeah, so today's episode we're going to focus on thinking inclusivity about your non-alcoholic options at your events and within your event design. Originally, we were going to talk about mocktails, but I was talking to the team and I said, "I think there's a little bit more behind it than just mocktails." And so we wanted to go a little deeper and I thought Marcos would be the perfect person to bring on because he is representing a great association of so many different choices of the non-alcoholic brand. But before we get into that topic, I just want our listeners to learn a little bit more about you, Marcos. Would you mind just sharing your background? How you got where you are, your relation to events, because most of our listeners are in the meetings and events and hospitality industry. So just give us a little bit of your journey.

Marcos Salazar [00:02:01]:

Yeah, absolutely. Thanks... Again, thanks so much for having me here, and thanks for broadening the topic. I think it's much more, like you said, than mocktails. It's actually a fundamental shift in how people are consuming adult beverages, but also how people are connecting and socializing, and we'll definitely get into that. But just as you pointed out, I never thought that I would be an events professional and I accidentally became one. My background is by day I was a non-profiteer. I worked for the American Psychological Association.

Marcos Salazar [00:02:31]:

 I used to work for Girl Scouts as a tech strategist, and I used to be a Girl Scout. I promised in a candlelight ceremony to be a sister to all my sisters of Girl Scouts, as well as had access to as many Thin Mints and Samoas as I could ever want, and then worked for a number of other non-profits.

And by day I was always an entrepreneur building and creating lots of different things. And around 2011, I started to see there was this emerging social impact sector. People wanting to make a positive impact through their work or their lifestyles. So I created an organization, a meetup called Be Social Change, and we launched a meetup to connect all different groups of people in the social impact space in New York City, and it just exploded. 

Marcos Salazar [00:03:09]:

So for over a decade, we grew it to over a 30,000 plus community and we used to host anywhere from two to four networking and panel events every month, as well as professional development workshops around six to 10 a month. And at all our events, one of the things we were always thinking about is how do you create an experience and think about all the different elements to ensure everybody, one, has a fantastic time but feels included, and some of that sometimes is anything from those meetup badges to connecting people, but also to the food and drinks, making sure that whether you were vegan, a vegetarian, gluten free, that there was something for you. And this was also the case for beverages. So we used to always make sure that we would serve wine and sometimes spirit our events, but we would make sure someone always had an option that was interesting, that was a non-alcoholic, whether that was kombucha, Harmless Harvest. We were one of the event companies that helped at the beginning, recess, which was kind of a CBD beverage. 

Marcos Salazar [00:04:07]:

So always making sure everybody felt included. Around 2019, I started reevaluating my relationship with alcohol. As an entrepreneur, I would go to a bar after five, six o'clock, and drink some beers while doing some more work. And it just started affecting my sleep and just kind of impacting my energy. So I decided to pull back, but I love making cocktails for people. I love going into parties, raiding the fridge and making concoctions. I started to see there was these adult non-alcoholic beverages that were emerging. So I decided to launch another company, an group events

Marcos Salazar [00:04:40]:

company called For All Drinks, and it was going to create pop-up speakeasies and dance parties, karaoke, all alcohol free. And then Covid hit. So transitioned all of that to a virtual company, launched the first podcast on non-alcoholic beverages, did tons of virtual events, and started to get to know all these interesting founders that were creating these innovative non-alcoholic beverages that tasted amazing. In some cases, you couldn't tell the difference between a non-alcoholic beer versus beer and realized there were some business challenges that they were facing. And that was really the idea of where the association emerged from. So recruited 11 amazing board members, worked with them to launch the first ever Adult Non-alcoholic Beverage trade association. And the last thing I'll say is the adult is very, very intentional.

Marcos Salazar [00:05:28]:

So it's not coffee, tea, or water. It's products that are marketed towards adults of legal drinking age that are alternatives to alcohol and that are 0.5 ABV or alcohol by volume below. Just to give you, most non-alcoholic beers are below that, but orange juice has more alcohol than an non-alcoholic beer in it. La Croix has alcohol in it, trace amounts of alcohol. Coca Cola does. So all these products are pretty safe because they have the 0.5 ABV or below.

Rachel Andrews [00:05:56]:

That's quite a journey, and I feel like good for you. Kudos to creating this safe space, but also just a whole different branch of events and then bringing all these groups of people together. I mean, I've tried a lot of non-alcoholic beers and different beverages that you would never be able to tell the difference. I love these adaptogen drinks that are coming out. There's so many that are broadening our horizon for what we can do to enjoy those. I'd love, just before we get into event design, I'd love to understand how does your association work?

Marcos Salazar [00:06:29]:

Great question. So we're a nonprofit trade association. So our members are a combination of producers, so those that are producing these non-alcoholic beverages, and that's really the main focus of the organization. But then we also have industry partners. Those could be service providers like Cvent that might be providing survey or software to kind of help businesses grow. Law firms or sometimes ingredients companies, flavor companies, those that are helping to support the growth of the category. And really the purpose of it is a combination of a couple things. Really advocating for the industry

Marcos Salazar [00:07:04]:

since these are new products and sometimes people think that they should be regulated like alcohol, but in many cases reality, they're food products. Again, as I mentioned, they're lower ABV than orange juice or ripe banana. To making sure that brands understand how to navigate regulations and also ensuring that the environment, regulatory, and market environment is really promoting the growth of the category. We create business resources, networking and really just helping to raise awareness about the category. That's kind of on the industry side. We help retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods start growing and carrying these products.

But then we also have a yearly event called the Mindful Drinking Fest, and that is the largest non-alcoholic tasting and programmatic event in the world.

Marcos Salazar [00:07:53]:

Last year we had close to a thousand people for Dry January, and we're going to have even more this year, I think mid-January in Washington. So we do a combination of helping to grow the infrastructure... the business infrastructure for the category, but also raise awareness to make sure that people understand and know that there's these delicious options available.

Rachel Andrews [00:08:14]:

That's awesome. Okay, I'm going into events now just because I'm an event design nerd and I want to nerd out on how do we, as event producers, make sure that we're not alienating a whole culture of people. And I also want to caveat. There's a couple things here. I think when old school, let's call it old school planning, people are like, "Oh, we just focus everything around drinking happy hours." Big parties where there's lots of drinking. You're pushing drink machines and shots in some cases and pushing alcohol everywhere that you look. 

Rachel Andrews [00:08:52]:

And then they're like, "Ah, we need to add a mocktail to this to make sure that people feel included." And I feel like for years and years when you do pass drinks at a party, it's only sparkling water. And I think for us, it's sometimes the caterer that we're working with. It's sometimes you forget and don't cater to that side of things. There could be a whole myriad of factors and going into event design. Maybe you can't afford it. Maybe you just didn't think about it. For us, when we think about event planning or event designing, I think one of the things that maybe people are thinking about more is maybe they're sober curious. Maybe they just don't want to drink as much.

Rachel Andrews [00:09:31]:

 Maybe they just are a little bit more introverted and don't want to go wild, but they want to still want to network and be included. So I think we talked earlier on a call about shifting the mindset. Let's talk about that mindset shift and then talk about maybe some of the design options that we could incorporate into our events to make people that don't want to feel inundated by alcohol all the time feel more included.

Marcos Salazar [00:09:57]:

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think to your point, for so long, people that didn't want to drink were treated like second class citizens. It was an afterthought. There was just some water, sparkling water, maybe. High sugary drinks, whether it was soda or if you go for a mocktail, they were very sugary. So it was just never really thought about in an intentional way. And I think in the past, if you decided not to drink, there was this stigma that something was wrong with you or you had a problem with drinking or you might've been pregnant or something. And there was a specific reason. Now, most people aren't drinking by the simple fact that they're recognizing the harmful effects of alcohol or they don't want to feel a hangover the next day

Marcos Salazar [00:10:38]:

and I think there's much more information available so people can make those informed decisions first and foremost. The second is that there also weren't really great tasting alcohol alternatives that were similar to their alcohol counterparts till the past five years. And then I think the other thing that's really shifting is that since people... Many more people are deciding not to drink, for whatever reason that they are, that's actually who's driving the adult non-alcoholic beverage category. So 94% of the people who purchase non-alcoholic beverages still drink. They may just not want to drink at a particular occasion or a particular night. So they are mixing and matching or people are taking months off, whatever that is. So the idea that you are not including this is really alienating a good chunk of your audience who may not be drinking for at any particular reason. And the idea that you can't afford it, I think, is kind of an excuse.

Marcos Salazar [00:11:33]:

It's not a great excuse. You should be thinking about this and integrating it into your event budget. And you can always provide non-alcoholic beer or now there's a huge number of ready-to-drink cocktails. So you don't have to think about making your own mocktail, similar to anything that you'd be getting, whether it's beer or wine or anything else, you can still get those type of products and integrate them into your events and making sure that everybody's included.

I'll give you one example. I got married a couple years ago in New Mexico and I had a full alcohol bar and a full non-alcoholic bar, and it was great. We had friends who were pregnant, who were able to drink champagne and cocktails and beer.

Marcos Salazar [00:12:14]:

Because it was in New Mexico, the elevation was 7,000 feet, so we had a margarita station, but we were telling people to also drink non-alcoholic margaritas because the elevation is going to have a greater impact of the alcohol affecting you. So everybody felt included and were part of the celebration.

Rachel Andrews [00:12:34]:

I love that stat. I just want to highlight that. 94% of people are not necessarily sober only, but just want the diversity for health reasons or just because. It could be for any reason. You might not feel it that day.

Marcos Salazar [00:12:48]:

And I would say probably 30% to 40%, if not more, percent of your attendees are not drinking for that particular day. So if you're just providing a really bland, boring beverage option, you're really alienating... One, alienating those people. Two, not creating the best experience and definitely hurting your brand if you're not really helping to cater to these people having a great experience.

Rachel Andrews [00:13:15]:

I think it's kind of outdated to just assume that everybody has fun if you only serve alcohol. I think we need to normalize that a little bit more. And I've seen it done with the non-alcoholic beers, but I think there's so many other options now, like you mentioned, that we should be... And maybe even including it in your pre-event survey, did we provide... Or post-event survey. "Did we provide enough options for you?" Because not everybody wants to drink a soda or just... out of a Gatorade water cooler and send them to the back of the room, like you said, second class citizens. That's so bad.

Marcos Salazar [00:13:53]:

I know. It is. It is. It is. And I think there really isn't an excuse in the sense because there's such a plethora of options available that can really connect with your audience.

Rachel Andrews [00:14:04]:

Yeah. Something you said on our initial call was interesting to me and I think something we should highlight is there's been, in the past, and I've been in the industry a few decades now, but in the past, there's been this event design approach of let's create a separate event or let's create an area for non-alcoholic people to go and network with each other. And maybe that was the stigma of, "Oh, everybody that doesn't drink must be an AA or part of the Friends of Bill movement." Not that there's anything wrong with that, but you made a great point about that that I would love to highlight to the podcast listeners. It's just like that is the opposite of inclusivity. Pushing them off to a different group area.

Marcos Salazar [00:14:52]:

Exactly, exactly. I think there's this unintentional exclusion by not including beverages, and then if you're creating something separate, then you're excluding them in a very intentional way and people want to feel part of the socializing, networking, celebration, whatever that is, and being able to include those beverages. And I see it more and more in so many different contexts or situations at conferences, at events, or even you're seeing entrepreneurs who are starting to... I've heard on podcasts where they end up talking about networking with VCs and they'll say, "Order a club soda, but put a lime in it to pretend you're drinking." But that person still has to pretend, and we want to remove that. We want people to feel great about what they're drinking.

Marcos Salazar [00:15:39]:

And now that stigma is going away, where if someone says, "Oh, what are you drinking?" It's like, "Oh, this is non-alcoholic gin," someone's like, "Oh, that's really interesting. What does it taste like?" You get... And it's actually a conversation starter. So I think now since more and more people are starting to think about ordering non-alcoholic beverages when they're out, it's less of someone being an odd person out and more of an opportunity to be able to create a discussion around it.

Rachel Andrews [00:16:04]:

Yeah, that's great. I think it was harmless at the beginning. We wanted to create safe spaces for people, but I love your idea of at your wedding that you had two separate areas so that people knew... I mean you can incorporate it into the current bar, but you can also have a non-alcoholic only bar as well. But can you think of some other examples like that of how to incorporate it into your event design?

Marcos Salazar [00:16:26]:

Yeah, I mean, I think one of the things, and when I think about an event design, I think about the moment from someone going and going onto the ticket page to registering and that flow and then eventually coming into the actual event. One of the things that we end up doing at some of our events at Be Social Change is we let people know that there's going to be non-alcoholic options so that they don't have to worry. It's a wear for anybody. And we serve really great tasting N/A beer or cocktails. We had a recent event, the social change event in New York City where we had Spicy Piñoritas as well as Prickly Pear-a-palomas as well as beer. So people had an option to be able to try these different products. If someone for some reason doesn't drink or they don't want to drink, they know that they're going to be welcome there. And then when you end up having these products at an event, you want to clearly label it.

Marcos Salazar [00:17:17]:

I think the reality is that these products look like alcohol because they are alcohol alternatives. So we do is we just make sure that people are aware that there's options. We announce them and we let people know if we have volunteers registering and directing people to the food and beverage, we let them know that there's both a alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages as well. So you also want to be able to call it out.

You also... Again, it's not also just one thing to be able to just have them there and then they're just kind of off to the side, in the same way that you would want to think about glasses. If you're drinking wine or anything like that, you want to put in the same amount of effort into highlighting the non-alcoholic beverages as well.

Rachel Andrews [00:17:57]:

Yeah, I always hated that when you ask for a glass of water and it comes in a different glass than everybody else's glass, and it's like, "Why can't I have the fancy glass? I want to feel fancy."

Marcos Salazar [00:18:06]:

And you just nailed it right there because if someone... If you're at an event and it's maybe it's a panel event and people are talking beforehand and three people have a fancy glass and you just have a can of soda, that person is not going to feel that great. They're going to feel odd. So you want to be able to eliminate that. And as event professionals, our job is to create the best experience we can for attendees, and then if we have sponsors or if you're selling something or highlighting something, you want to create a positive emotional connection with that topic, with that sponsor. 

Marcos Salazar [00:18:41]:

And if you're not putting that intention of all the food and beverage as part of that, you're not going to really be able to achieve that positive emotional connection that you want.

Rachel Andrews [00:18:52]:

Yeah, for sure. That's amazing. So I think we covered a lot of the things. I have a lot to implement into our future events. I think just from labeling it, maybe it's in the pre-event email that goes out or a mobile app if you have one for your event or just putting it right on the bar, labeling it for folks. I think it was interesting that you said we should highlight it before people go, so that they know that there's an inclusive element to the menu, similar to vegan, vegetarian options.

Rachel Andrews [00:19:22]:

If you share the menu, both from a food and beverage standpoint before the event, people might be more likely to go if they know that they have the options there, that it's going to be a better experience than putting a non-alcoholic quiet room in the corner because that's the opposite of inclusivity.

Marcos Salazar [00:19:41]:

Absolutely. And I'd like to also get into a little couple more logistics and tactical things. So what's unique about these products is that unlike alcohol, where you may have to go through a caterer or you may have to go through some other stuff, you can get these products... Depending on where you're located. Obviously they're at some stores. We're starting to work with retailers to get more and more. Definitely non-alcoholic beers. Sometimes wine and others are a little harder to do, although Target and Walmart and Whole Foods and many of those are carrying more. But the other great thing about these, and unlike alcohol, you can get them shipped to you. So you can actually buy them directly from the actual company. Or there's online marketplaces that you can go. 

Marcos Salazar [00:20:19]:

If you type in non-alcoholic spirits online, you can get them not only from Amazon, but there's specialty non-alcoholic marketplaces where you can get all of the best non-alcoholic beverages and you can get them shipped to your event or shipped to you. So that's one of the great things about being able to do it as well. So depending on your event, sometimes you may have to go through a caterer, but that's one option as well.

Rachel Andrews [00:20:41]:

That's great to know. Well, Marcos, any final pieces of advice or key action items people can implement right away? What would you, as a final takeaway, you'd give to our listeners?

Marcos Salazar [00:20:52]:

Yeah, absolutely. At the end of the day, you really want to create the best event possible. And that's not just from a programmatic standpoint. That's not just from the flow and logistics. Food and beverage is such an integral part of an event because... And depending on the event that you do, but if it's a content-based event, people come for the content, but they stay for the community. And that is what's going to really reinforce and support your brand. And the way that people end up building community is through food and through drink. And that's one integral way of connecting. 

Marcos Salazar [00:21:24]:

And if you're having a huge chunk of your audience or your attendees not feeling connected or being able to connect because there's a barrier, because you haven't brought in a great non-alcoholic beverage for them, because they decided not to drink for that particular night, you're not only kind of doing a disservice to them, but you're having a negative impact on your business or your event as well. So you really want to be thoughtful and intentional. It's really that time to be able to do that, especially since there's so many delicious non-alcoholic beverages available today.

Rachel Andrews [00:21:55]:

Yeah, awesome. Great points. Love it. Well, I will definitely be taking notes and using this. We've gotten feedback in the past, so I am awake to it. I am paying attention, and we will definitely do better for our attendees, and I hope our listeners do as well, and I hope this was beneficial for them. Where can our listeners find you, my friend?

Marcos Salazar [00:22:17]:

So you can go to... If you want to find out more about the association, you can go to NAbeverages.org. We're about to transition to ANBA.org, A-N-B-A. But on that link you'll be able to find our members. Click on members, and you'll see some of the best non-alcoholic beverages available in the US and kind of in the world. That's a great place to start thinking about, "Do I want a beer? Do I want wine? Do I want a ready to drink cocktail?" And then always reach out to me on LinkedIn. It's just Marcos Salazar. You can search that. Would love to connect as well as happy to support. Send me a message and happy to answer any questions or make any recommendations from an event design standpoint as well as integration of adult non-alcoholic beverages.

Rachel Andrews [00:22:58]:

Awesome. Well, thank you, Marcos, so much for joining Great Events Podcast. We really appreciate it and I know our listeners do too.

Marcos Salazar [00:23:05]:

Awesome. Thanks so much Rachel, and good luck everybody. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Rachel Andrews [00:23:10]:

Amazing. All right, listeners, thanks for listening. See you next time.

Alyssa Peltier [00:23:16]:

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