Enoforum Web: the first virtual congress of the wine world

7 May 2020 saw the conclusion of Enoforum Web, the first technical-scientific conference for the wine sector to be held entirely online, with 30 speakers connected via Internet from Spain, Italy, France, USA, Australia, Argentina, Chile and South Africa.

Enoforum is a conference format conceived 20 years ago that has seen progressive growth in its Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish editions to become Europe’s largest technical and scientific wine congress.
At the latest Italian edition, held in Vicenza, Italy in May 2019, more than 1,200 wine technicians attended 120 presentations of recent results from 40 viticultural and oenological research groups from around the world.

The Spanish edition of Enoforum 2020 was supposed to take place in Zaragoza on May 7-8, but the COVID emergency forced the cancellation of the physical conference. However, thanks to the experience in webinar management gained by our team in past years, it was possible to transfer almost all the originally planned content into 12 hours of digital event, giving up only the tastings and exhibition spaces.

Thanks to the collaboration of the Laboratorios Excell Iberica and the sponsorship of the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine) and numerous Spanish wine associations, Enoforum Web resonated widely among the Spanish-speaking technicians it was aimed at and was a great success in terms of participation with more than 2,000 registrants from Spain (60%), South America (23%), the rest of Europe (7%) and North America (4%). The Internet environment, unusual for many speakers and conference participants, did not prevent perfect adherence to the scheduled timetable, the presentation of top-notch scientific content along with that of practical and application relevance, and an unexpected level of interaction with the audience through written questions and surveys.

According to Gianni Trioli, creator of Enoforum and president of Vinidea, “Enoforum Web represents a milestone in technical and scientific outreach for the wine world. New digital technologies, while not user-friendly, offer tremendous opportunities for interaction between internationally renowned experts and technicians from around the world.Enoforum web involved technicians from 40 countries around the world, many of whom would probably never have had the opportunity to attend a high-level physical conference. .