Vegas Seven
by Grace Bascos
Sometimes it’s better when wine drinking is a group effort. But how to track down these gatherings? More than a decade ago, Eric V. Orange began the calendar for every event having to do with wine around the country. Today, Local Wine Events is an incredibly useful tool not only for those who are looking for like-minded souls to discuss their favorite grapes, but also for restaurants and shops who use it as a way to reach new clients. At first, Orange thought he would have to beg wine buyers to persuade wholesalers to post events, but instead it was enthusiastic restaurants that helped boost the popularity of the site. After launching initially in 50 cities, the site now lists wine and food events in more than 500 cities worldwide, and some 1,500 events are posted every week, making Local Wine Events the largest online calendar of such things. Despite his being based just outside Philadelphia, the Las Vegas listings are ever on-point. Orange recently brokered a partnership with Google’s deal service, Google Offers. So in addition to telling fans about some of the most exclusive culinary events in bigger cities, he can sell discounted tickets to them. He’s also launched a Wine Events app so oenophiles can get their wine-gathering events on the go. Ultimately, Orange’s purpose is to continue to make enjoying wine more accessible to the world, and Local Wine Events has become the go-to site for people who want to seek out these experiences. “It’s been interesting watching the wine industry evolve and how the Internet is being used,” he says. “The overall effect should increase general wine knowledge to a wider audience. I like that.”
Localwineevents.com
by Lee Romano Sequeira
Malvern, PA – January 31, 2012 – LocalWineEvents.com, the world’s largest online calendar of food and wine related events, has announced its premium partnership with Google’s deal service, Google Offers. Discounted tickets to exclusive wine and food event offerings in the metro areas of San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, DC will be featured on the Google Offers platform through LocalWineEvents.com. CEO Eric V. Orange states, “We’ve enjoyed a great relationship with Google over the past eleven years, and we’re very pleased they have selected LocalWineEvents.com as one of their Google Offers partners”. Launched in 2000, LocalWineEvents.com now receives over 1,500 new food, wine, beer and spirits event postings a week. To date, over 360,000 events have been posted, and the websites free newsletter, The Juice -- featuring city-by city listings of wine, food, beer and spirits events in cities across the world -- currently has over 168,000 subscribers. “To be able to bring these amazing offers using the Google platform is very exciting for us. I’m sure our audience will be pleased with the variety of exclusive deal selections – and the savings,” Orange says. > For further information, please visit www.Google.com/offers or www.LocalWineEvents.com. You can join LocalWineEvents on Facebook at www.facebook.com/localwineeventsIf you have an upcoming event and are able to offer a discount or early bird pricing on tickets, then you will definitely want to consider using LocalWineEvents.com to offer a ticket deal. Select deals in the larger metro areas will be submitted to the Google Offers platform, exposing your event to a huge audience. If you are interested in our deal system, go here for more information
Chicago Tribune
by Bill St. John
..... > Seasonal fairs, wine schools and winery tasting rooms offer wine tastings. But perhaps the best chance to taste several wines is at for-fee tastings held by a fundraising or affinity group at a restaurant or other venue. (The best place to find out about such tastings, all over the world, is at localwineevents.com, the most comprehensive listing of such events.) ......
The New York Times
by Bob Tedeschi
Thursday’s App Smart column covered the apps that wine lovers should use when they buy a new bottle or dust one off from their wine cellars. But mobile apps can benefit oenophiles in other ways too. Wine Events ($4 on iOS and Android) is a bit pricey, but the service is useful. It is produced by the publishers of LocalWineEvents.com, which manages a big database of events like tastings (for wine, spirits and beer) and festivals.
The Brass Ring
by Gina Ghioldi
Podcast: Eric Orange Eric V. Orange and his well-known wine & food site LocalWineEvents. Eric found his brass ring — or shall we say, glass, when he started LocalWineEvents.com, which is worldwide site with over 300,000 events posted and nearly a million page views a month! Eric is set to discuss the web sites and stats, launching an internet info/web business, the wine business in general, his past wine experience working at a vineyard, and his worldwide event site, the largest collection of wine and food events all in one place! The site also receives over a million page views a month.
Flying Kite
by Sue Spolan
It's happy hour somewhere, and LocalWineEvents.com wants to help you get your prosecco on. The Valley Forge-based service offers free wine event listings in 500 cities around the world, including the greater Philadelphia area. Eric Orange, LocalWineEvents.com CEO, used to sell wine for Paterno Imports. He was living in Denver, Colorado, where he presented the Paterno product line to restaurants, retailers and ski resorts. Setting up tastings and dinners was part of the marketing plan, but getting the word out was the big challenge. After commiserating with fellow wine merchants about a dinner where only six people showed up, Orange realized two things: one, that he was not alone in needing a powerful wine promotional tool, and two, that the world wide web was the perfect way to connect wine enthusiasts with wine sellers. Today, The Juice, LocalWineEvents.com's twice-a-week newsletter, goes out to 136,000 subscribers worldwide. The service has just launched location-based mobile apps for iPhone and Android, and a mobile friendly site for other smartphone users. LocalWineEvent's Facebook page boasts 30,000 fans. The LocalWineEvents.com listings provide details on event theme, date, time and location, and include a fairly large radius. For example, Philadelphia oenophiles get event information for New York City and Wilmington in addition to home town happenings. While listing and searching are free, and the privately held LocalWineEvents.com relies on multiple revenue streams, from fees for featured listings to banner ads. "In my view, I have created the perfect Internet business model," Orange says, citing a cycle of consumer generated input and constant updates generating perpetual return traffic.
Westword
by Kendra Anderson
.... Taste to win: Part of being able to drink more great wine is about having the ability to taste one. But developing a trusty palate takes work. Make it easier on your tastebuds (and your wallet) by planning to attend at least one wine tasting a month in 2011. There is absolutely no reason you can't do this -- you can literally find a free wine tasting just about every single weeknight somewhere in Denver. Just Google "free wine tasting Denver" and take your pick. Want something a bit more organized (and are willing to cough up some cash for a more in-depth experience)? LocalWineEvents.com will get you hooked up. ....
The Coast News
by Frank Mangio
This website is my favorite for finding out about wine events around the nation. It is the world’s largest calendar of food and wine places to go. Yet you can pick your locations and focus in on exactly where you are or where you are going. The information is free. And if you are an owner wanting to get your event out there, it is also a free posting, including a map on how to get to your event, with a link to your website. So no sending of press releases or phoning in information. What a concept! Eric Orange is the genius who has the site. He also includes wine information and columns that I have been featured on. Last I checked he had more than 4 million events tickets that his service had sold to users. The website is localwineevents.com. For questions, call Eric at (610) 647-4888, ext. 2.
Mashable
by Jeana Lee Tahnk
Drinking wine is a highly social activity that can exponentially increase in enjoyment in the company of others. If you like to frequent wine tastings and want to stay apprised of events in your area, Wine Events is useful to have. It is a simple app, yet it provides numerous listings of tastings for wine and spirits in your location or any location you choose. Within each listing, Wine Events provides the who/what/where and also gives you the option of posting the event to Facebook. Come one, come all!
Penn-trafford Star
by Erin Faulk
...... Eric Orange of Philadelphia has studied wine for more than 20 years and said its increased popularity is evident in venues ranging from restaurants to the Internet. Orange holds a certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers and a Master of Wine Education certification from the International Wine Guild. He is the founder of Local Wine Events, a website that serves as a calendar for wine, beer and food events around the world. The website is 10 years old, and, Orange said, postings for wine events have increased between 30 and 35 percent each year. "Without a doubt, it's been on a pretty steady climb," he said. Orange said a recent abundance of wine magazines and television shows could be a contributing factor in getting people interested in the drink. "Celebrity chefs are almost like movie stars these days," Orange said. "The channels running their shows have food and wine galore, and obviously, there's a market for it." ........more
