A recent survey completed by Benchmark and featured in a recent article in PCMA, found several surprising trends in F&B for 2020.  They are:  

• CBD Products - Coffee shops, cafes and restaurants are incorporating CBD oil into their dining menus.  
• Plant Based Menus - Benchmark sees this trend growing rapidly in 2020, especially after years of research to make flavorful meat substitutes.  
• Healthy Snacks - Chickpeas, beets, quinoa and kale will enter more as the healthier snack of choice at refreshment breaks.  
• Jackfruit - The Southeast Asian fruit — packed with iron, calcium, and B vitamins — will become “a force in the food industry as a meat alternative.”
• Oat Milk - Has joined almond and soy milk as another option for those seeking a dairy alternative, and many cafes already are using it exclusively.

You can read the full article that contain more items that made the list here.

Photo credit: PCMA/Benchmark

Lambeau Field, Home of the Green Bay Packers is not only a phenomenal stadium for watching football, it also has amazing event space for your next corporate meeting or team building activity. Your attendees will enjoy learning when you are in a Facility that has so much history. The Atrium floor is a great place to hold a trade show or gala seating with 39,000 sq. ft of space. The Legends Club Room can hold 400 people for a banquet.  The Indoor Club room, the North Balcony and the MVP Box all have floor to ceiling windows overlooking the field.  And then you have the Suites, offering a more private gathering for your attendees.  The Iconic Lombardi Boardroom for seating up to 26 people. There is a stand alone building - Johnsonville Tailgate Village which can accommodate 300+ guests. If you're looking for something different, take that to TitleTown, the newest development around Lambeau Field.  Rockwood Terrace offers a modern industrial yet rustic feel. You can dine on the top of Ariens Hill or hold a teambuilding exercise on the Playground Lawn. You have a lot of options at Lambeau Field for meetings, events, galas or a fun team building program.  
Right across the street is Lodge Kohler which offers a very upscale hotel experience for your attendees and has meeting space as well.  
For those die hard fans that want to try their luck at the Lambeau Leap, you can do so just outside of the stadium at the American Family gate.  
#greenbaypackers  #eventsatLambeauField  #visitgreenbay   #dncmke  #eventprofs

Hats off to everyone who helped make the Engage the Event at the Wisconsin Center District yesterday a huge success.   We started out in the Foyer with a general theater style setting and then progressed inside the ballroom and were greeted with mocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres and then while visiting with other event planners and WCD Staff, we had a video presentation on a sheer curtain wall that was pulled down and behind that curtain was several lunch stations and a different feel and vibe to the room.  Drums were heard and after lunch an announcement was made and another wall opened up and we walked into a foggy nightclub atmosphere.   The staff used all different senses to hi-light the experience:  
Sight - The entire experience was very visual with laser light shows, fog and a great overall AV presentation from Conference Technologies - the in-house AV provider. 
Hearing - The music played in each room was in tune with the vibe they were trying to create.  The drums during lunch were wonderful!  
Smell- The aroma food, coffee and other fun appetizer offerings were amazing!
Taste -  Levy Restaurants provided some amazing new food and cuisine types for us to try.  
Touch - At the end of presentation they had several give-aways and attendees had to look under the lounge furniture for the prizes.  We were all able to touch the very comfortable furniture supplied for the event by Kehoe Designs. 
The Be Bold, Be Proud and Be Experience Obsessed certainly was true at yesterday's event.  Congratulations WCD for engaging our senses!  
#WCD  #LevyRestaurants  #CTI  #VisitMilwaukee  #KehoeDesigns
​

I also toured Ivy House which is also located in the Walkers Point area on a quiet street (just off of 1st street & Barclay).  The venue has been open for just over a year and it's becoming a popular place for weddings. However, it would make a great place for a corporate group to hold a meeting.  The owners added lots of skylights for natural lighting, ivy is found growing on their plant wall and around the space. The bar area has old wooden bleacher seating that was re-purposed, you can still see the numbers on the bleachers.  It holds up to 250 seated for a meeting.  The biggest surprise was the concrete/brick patio space out back.  It's surrounded by a high wall, so you really don't know it's there.  It's a little slice of heaven with a huge bar area built in, patio furniture and beautiful flowers located around the patio. Overhead globe lighting along with perimeter lights provide great ambiance to an evening party.   It was quiet and serene and would hold up to 400 for  reception outside.   
​#ivyhouse   #visitmilwaukee   #dncmke  #dmconnectionandevents

 I had the opportunity to attend the opening of North^South Club in the Walkers Point area and found the new venue, bright, airy and warm with cream city brick and wood/stone furniture paired with soft comfortable seating areas.   We tried our hand at shuffleboard (first timers) and then axe throwing.  It's not as hard as it looks, our Axe Master provided many tips on how to perfect the throw and score!  This venue has capacity for up to 299 guests.  It would be great for a corporate retreat with team building or just a great place to unwind.   It features 16 axe-throwing lanes and 7 deck shuffleboard lanes.  The North is the axe throwing and the South is the beachy vibe with very colorful furniture tucked around the shuffleboard decks.  
#beersbladesandbiscuits  #northsouthclub  #visitmilwaukee  #dncmke  #dmconnectionandevents

I attended a meeting early this week at the Pfister that featured Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell as the speaker. He shared Philadelphia's experiences hosting the Democratic National Convention in 2016 and hoped Milwaukee could use some of the information. He shared some interesting statistics: 
*$129 million spent in Philadelphia by the local host committee.
*67% went to minorities in the neighborhoods.
$230.9 million was the economic impact in the city.
19,250 press were credentialed
26.2 million media impressions
6,600 Airbnb reservations were made - most locals didn't leave town.   
Opportunities for Milwaukee::
*Restaurants can offer discounts during off peak hours from 7:00-11:00 pm to draw in people while the convention goes are at Fiserv Forum.
*Have a watch party outside of Fiserv Forum for the public during the DNC.
*Give attendees something to explore our city, making it fun and instagramable. Philadelphia placed donkeys around the city, visitors made a point of finding the different donkeys while discovering the city.
*Legacy projects that will help spruce up Milwaukee and when the DNC is gone, it will continue to help improve the city.
*Make sure transportation runs smoothly.   

Another Milwaukee venue recently renovated their meeting space and restaurant along Milwaukee's Lakefront. It's Coast Restaurant and the Miller Room, operated by Zilli Hospitality Group. I took a tour recently and found both places to be bright, airy and have outstanding outdoor patio space overlooking Lake Michigan. Coast restaurant can accommodate 150 for a seated dinner and The Miller Room can hold 200 seated (8 per 60'' round). Both venues have extensive lounge furniture that is available for an outdoor reception. Coast Restaurant also has a small meeting space behind the bar with AV. Groups have brought in giant sized checkers or Jenga games and played them on the green space immediately adjacent from both venues. They offer all inclusive pricing and have packages to meet all budgets.
#zillihospitalitygroup  

The Dm-connection & Events team had the pleasure of assisting another corporate client June 18-21 in Milwaukee. 
We handled: Opening reception at a very special venue downtown, nine customized tours over two days ranging from: Brady street walking tour - attendees were able to make a Milwaukee Mule and hear about Italian wines, Beer-Bike-Brats - a tour wouldn't be complete without a tour at Harley-Davidson museum, Maders to sample beer, brats and pretzels and ended at Lakefront Brewery; Milwaukee History Tour - where attendees toured Northwestern Mutual's new tower, Milwaukee Art Museum, Pfister Hotel history and ended at Twisted Path Distillery to make a Milwaukee Mule; Milwaukee Sports tour - a hands on hoops clinic at Fiserv forum with a complete behind the scenes tour and a trip to Miller Park complete with Brewers celebrity bartenders; Somethings Blooming - a tour at Boerner Botanical Gardens and then attendees made their own floral arrangement at a local florist shop; What's Cooking and Just Desserts - attendees cooked at Braise's Culinary kitchen and then paired wine, cheese and chocolate at Indulgence Chocolatier. The attendees had a biking and golf outing as well to complete the customized tours. 
Then it was on to the West Bend Fairgrounds for a private concert by Milwaukee's own BoDeans and Steve Miller Band, fireworks completed the spectacular evening.
​The final night closing banquet was held at the Pfister Hotel complete with fresh floral.  It was an exciting week for our team to be part of bringing this program to life.     

For those avid golfers that would like to practice their swing year round, Topgolf will be available Fall 2019 with two Topgolf Swing Suite bays.   Each bay can accommodate up to eight people and will include lounge seating, high-definition televisions and food and beverage service.   The suites are the first of it's kind in Wisconsin.   
#PotawatomiHotelCasino   #VisitMilwaukee   #golf 

 Well, now you can, Stone Creek Coffee located at 422 N. 5th Street in the heart of Milwaukee and across from the Intermodal station offers free factory tours for those coffee lovers that would like to learn everything about the coffee process. They also offer private classes in their quaint coffee lab with large garage doors that roll up. The classes offered are:
-Home Brewing Methods- Learn the importance of brew ratio, grind type, water quality and optimum conditions for brewing perfectly at home.  
-Espresso 101 - Be a barista for a day, learn how to pull espresso and create perfectly steamed milk.  
Latte Art - for those who are very creative, learn how to improve your artistic abilities drawing latte art.   
Stone Creek Coffee offers private event space for 30 people comfortably (upstairs) and can arrange for a coffee tasting class that will educate the group on the farm to cup model which includes a factory tour. The coffee house has the cream city brick, wood floors and benches made from the original building after they remodeled. It's a charming place to get your coffee knowledge on!   
#corporateevents   #baristaforaday   #stonecreekcoffee