Australian National Homebrewing Conference

People have been wondering what the future holds for the ANHC, so it's probably time to break our silence.

Firstly, thank you to everyone who supported last year's event. It was really great to see the national community come together under the one roof. We're really looking forward to the next time we can all get together.

There will be no ANHC in 2009. Sorry if that disappoints anyone, but here's the rationale...

• with a relatively small community, we don't want people to start thinking the conference program was becomming "stale"
• at the conference, most people we spoke with indicated that once every 2 or 4 years would be best
• when the survey results came back in, the majority of people indicated that every 2 years would be preferred

So, although we're not going to promise anything at this stage, I'd start saving up for 2010.

Next up - where?

Although we're not opposed to the idea of moving the conference around the country, the 2010 will be in Melbourne again. Why?

• having run the event only once, we would like to take what we've learned locally and get that established as a package that we are comfortable can be easily moved around the country where feasible
• again from conversations at the conference, almost everyone we spoke with indicated that we should run the event in Melbourne again, based on the facilities and the presence of an established organisation to run it. We appreciate that others may want to have a shot at it, and that may be possible down the track
• also again, the respondents to the survey indicated that we would get the best numbers by holding the event in Melbourne

Now, if you're still with us, that's not necessarily the end of things for 2009... We had a meeting the other night and we may still have a few tricks up our sleeves for this year. Stay tuned, and we may be able to find other ways to help you get that ANHC fix this year!

Oh, and if you're interested in being involved with the conference in future - particularly if you have any accountancy skills, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it - we're looking for people who are passionate about their beer and can dedicate some (lots of!) time and skill towards yet another fantastic conference in 2010!

Thanks again to everyone who backed the event without knowing how it would turn out - it was a blast putting it on for you, and we can't wait to do it all again!