We’ve lined up some great speakers for the 2021 #NCWine Digital Media Summit! Check out the bios below to find out more. If these topics interest you, we highly suggest you sign up now while tickets are still on sale.
Our Speakers
Bob Aycock: Social Media Analytics & Insights
@bobaycock has over 11 years of digital marketing experience and currently works full-time as a Social Media Marketing Manager. Bob is a native North Carolinian. He and his wife, Jen, live in Matthews with their four children, two rescued dogs, and a flock of backyard chickens.
Bob loves the charm of small towns and enjoys exploring all that the Carolinas have to offer with his family. He serves as 2nd Vice President for the Matthews Historical Foundation and also maintains their websites and social media channels.
In 2017, Bob and Jen started Wine Carolinas, taking their appreciation of wine and setting out to explore the variety of wines in North and South Carolina. Bob and Jen have been attending the #NCWine Digital Media Summit since its inaugural year, and Bob was a speaker in 2019 and 2020.
When Bob isn’t sipping on Rosé or Traminette in a vineyard, he enjoys lavender lattes and traveling the Carolinas in the family’s #WINECAR.
Frank Morgan: Virginia Wine from the Inside
Frank Morgan is the wine columnist for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper and author of the DrinkWhatYouLike.com wine blog, started over a decade ago to chronicle his wine travel experiences and to share stories of the wines, wineries, and winegrowers of Virginia.
Frank is the wine columnist for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper and contributor for Piedmont Virginian Magazine, Savor Virginia Magazine, Dine, Wine & Stein Magazine,edibleDC magazine, the wine site Snooth, and the founder of the monthly virtual wine tasting series Virginia Wine Chat (started in 2013).
Kathy Hester: 5 Reasons Why You Need to Start Doing Live Video Now!
Kathy Hester is passionate about making healthy eating accessible and delicious. Her recipes are plant based and vegan, plus she can help you with your dietary restrictions or allergies with recipe alternatives. She runs the food blogs https://plantbasedinstantpot.com, https://healthyslowcooking.com, and talks about live video at https://kathyhester.com.
In addition to being a blogger, she is a recipe developer, food photographer, and author of 10 cookbooks. She’s sold over 150,000 books to date and has worked as a cookbook PR person for publishers and authors.
Kathy started doing live Facebook videos a few years ago and noticed it forged a strong connection with her audience. She took those skills and started doing live online cooking classes twice a month, in addition to working with brands on live social media video.
Dave Nershi: Elevate Your Wine Writing For Digital Media
Dave Nershi is the publisher of the Vino-Sphere wine blog. A former newspaper and magazine editor, Dave is an award-winning writer with a focus on wines, wineries, and related travel.
Currently based in North Carolina, he travels extensively for stories (South Africa, British Columbia, Spain, and even locations closer to home). He has authored more than 2,300 blog posts. Vino-Sphere was selected as a 2020 Top 100 wine blog by Feedspot and Dave was named one of the Top 101 Wine Writers in the world by Corking Wines.
He is a Certified Specialist of Wine and has served as a wine judge at several competitions including being a guest judge for the Indianapolis International Wine Competition. He is a board member ofthe International Food, Wine & Travel Writers Association. A certified specialist of wines from South Africa and Argentina, he is also a member of the Wine Century Club. When not writing, taking photos, or traveling, Dave enjoys playing tennis.
Natalie Hampton: Email Marketing and E-newsletters: Best Practices for Reaching Your Audiences
Natalie Hampton has been blogging since 2012 at Tarheel Taps & Corks, where she writes about North Carolina wine and beer. Professionally, she was a reporter for three daily newspapers in North Carolina and recently retired as a communications director at NC State University, where she worked for more than 26 years.
In her last role at NC State, she developed both an e-newsletter for graduate students and a digital magazine for alumni. In her next life, she wants to offer wine and beer tours at Taps & Corks Tours
Jenni Field: Using Your Own Data to Make Content Decisions
Jenni Field is a former special education teacher and pastry chef who marries those two skillsets to write the dessert-oriented blog Pastry Chef Online.
Along with developing, photographing, and writing recipes and how-to posts, she also uses her data, available in Google’s Search Console, to help her make strategic blogging decisions.
She has worked extensively with other bloggers to introduce them to their data and help them learn to interpret it so they can write targeted content with the best chances of ranking high in search results.
