Ep. 2077 Jessica Dupuy interviews James Tidwell | TexSom 2024

We still try to to make sure that people are included where they want to be. So we still have speakers who show up for our polishing events because they like to interact with everybody, and those are pretty fun. So people do show up for that. It's funny you mentioned that. I just wanna pause on that really quick because the polishing event. I love what that we're calling it that, but just for everyone listening, after a day of tasting wines at these different seminars for Texom, there are a lot of dirty glasses. And so you guys there's a couple pieces to this that I wanna break down. So you guys make sure that all of those glasses have been run through a cleaner. I mean, you've got your Hobarts or whatever the Urban Convention Center has. So the glasses are clean. But you guys take the extra step to make sure that they're polished, which shows something meticulous and shows something I'm gonna ask you in a second. Tell y'all, I'm Jessica Duppuis. Guest host for a special Texom series covering the twenty twenty four Texom wine Conference from Dallas, Texas. Join me in the heart of the Lone Star State as we delve into the experiences and insights of key speakers and attendees. Exploring career paths, challenges, and the latest trends in the wine industry. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and rate our show wherever you get your podcasts. Alright. Well, welcome James Tidwell. We are excited to have you here on the Italian wine podcast. I am thinking we might just jump in here. You have quite a history with the Texom Conference, and I'll let you explain exactly how. But maybe you could kinda give us the story. Take us back to two thousand and five. What is techsom and how did it all start? Well, first, thank you for having me. Wonderful to be here. I do have a lot of history with techsom. Was co founded in two thousand five. And the original time frame we're talking about was very different from what it is now. So I can give you an idea of that through my experience, which is I did the WSTT diploma The there was only one provider in the whole country, and that was the international line center in New York. So if you wanted to do the WST diploma, you either had to be in New York, or you had to take it correspondence. And by correspondence, I mean, the mail, not through the internet at the time. In addition to that with the quartermaster Solmierge, I flew across the country to take my intro to the quartermaster, Solmierge, and the same thing with the society wide educator. So the major certification bodies were not established in the way they are now and didn't have the presence. In addition to that, things like trips, which many people consider to just be a normal part of our business now, were not a thing at the time. So really what we had was this lag between information getting to the people who needed it and wanted it. And so TexOM in a way acted like an early version, live version of the internet we tried to narrow that gap between what was happening in the wine world and how people found out about it. So the Texas Solmier conference, as it was originally known, was founded for people in the state of Texas who were in the hospitality beverage industries so that they could learn directly from the people who were making these decisions who had been to these places and could really learn directly from them, but also speak to them on a one to one basis and see them. Vice versa, we also had the issue in Texas that at the time, a lot of importers wouldn't send their wines to Texas because there was a stereotype about what kind of wines were being consumed in Texas. So this also allowed TexOM to show these importers that there was interest in various types of wines that may not be in the state yet. So that's really how TexOM started. I was working for four seasons, hotels, and resorts at the time. And had wanted to do a four seasons wine and spirits professionals weekend, and it sort of derived from that and the idea of doing a soulmate competition, which we did in the early years. Well, it's interesting you say that because, like, fast forward twenty years. And now Texas does have the opportunity to take the diploma in the state, yay, because that's what I've been able to do. I was waiting and waiting. Society of wine educators, you can take the exams here. And then, obviously, I mean, the Court of Master sommeliers for many years after Texom launched ended up being at the four seasons where you were working. Correct. And now the IMW is doing a lot in the US as well. So We really have a very different landscape now, but TexOM hasn't really changed that much in those terms. We still bring in experts in their fields to talk about what's happening. We still want to narrow that gap. We want to provide personal interaction. Which is why we request that all of our speakers stay for the entire conference rather than flying in to present and flying out. We wanna make sure that people have the chance to interact with them. I love that that angle, and that's not something you hear off Right? I mean, everybody's got busy schedules. These are important people. But when you're at Tex, you feel that. You're like, hey, this person gave a presentation two hours ago, but now he's walking around at the expo and tasting wines, and I get to talk to him or her. In that sense, it professional, but it's a casual environment and can be, you can interact with everyone. Yeah. And it was engineered to be that way. In the early days, when it was a smaller conference, we had master solmays, master's of wine, speakers, everybody, involved in setting up rooms, polishing glasses, you know, everybody contributed. It really was a community effort. And so it is carried through even though now as we've grown, we've had to put some duties into silos or responsibilities into silos a little bit, we still try to to make sure that people are included where they want to be. So we still have speakers who show up for our polishing events because they like to interact with everybody, and those are pretty fun. So people do show up for that. It's funny you mentioned that. I just wanna pause on that really quick because the polishing event, I love what that we're calling it that, but just to for everyone listening, after a day of tasting wines at these different seminars for TexOM, There are a lot of dirty glasses. And so you guys there's a couple pieces to this that I wanna break down. So you guys make sure that all of those glasses have been run through a cleaner. I mean, you've got your Hobarts or whatever the Urban Convention Center has. So the glasses are clean, but you guys take the extra step to make sure that they're polished, which shows something meticulous and shows something I'm gonna ask you in a second. Second of all, not only are you asking that those glasses get polished, but it's a lot of glasses. So over the years, you've managed to make this a super fun experience because you have volunteers who are, you know, aspiring, sommeliers or wine professionals in some way. These are people who are moving forward in the industry. But then, yes, you allow your speakers and so different master songs and masters of wine, etcetera, etcetera. They're all hanging out at, like, ten o'clock at night or later after a long day, polishing glasses and listening to music and drinking great wines, and having a good time. And I'm amazed at the many levels that that brings. I don't know if you wanna comment on that, but it it's pretty cool. I've participated myself. So I have a lot of fun when I do it. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. And when we first talk about it. People think, well, how is that fun? But the way that came about was that we didn't need to have glasses polish. So we would do that late in the evening, and winemaker started figuring out that's where all the volunteers and summer camp people were. Some of the speakers were down there. And so they would start wandering down with their wines. One of the principles of TexOM is there's no pouring wine from under the table. There's no you get this and you don't everything's out there for everybody. And so one of the things we didn't want to do was to become a click. And so what we decided to do was make it a sponsorship. And the first couple of years was a rough sell on that because people just couldn't wrap their heads around it. And then it became our most popular by far sponsorship because Yep. Somebody sponsors, they come in, they present their wines for a few minutes. They hang out with us. They have their wines available. People wander over, talk, interact, taste the wines. In addition to that, there's music. Sometimes there's some dancing going on. It just depends. But in the midst of all that, we get several thousand glasses polished as well. So it's a great time to interact with others to have some fun And when else are you gonna be standing next to a master of wine or master Solmay or, you know, a diploma holder, whoever, or Laura Catana, or, you know, Kathy Corrison, and polishing glasses chatting about the wine industry. Some of the best connections I think at Texom from what I've heard have been made over stacks of glasses while you're polishing them because it's a real opportunity to interact in a way that you don't normally interact. It's a more casual and fun way to interact, but a lot of serious conversations happen about things like, well, what wines are selling in your area, or how do you get this particular type of wine into your store, into your restaurant, and things like that? So It is a multifaceted concept. We were actually offered the opportunity to have polishing machines at one point, and we turned it down because it actually destroys one of the core items of TexOM that makes it what it is and really allows people to interact with each other. Which is funny because it's not like you planned it that way. It just is kind of organically evolved. Well, so many things in TexOM have organically evolved. And, you know, that's the same way with our awards that we have with the TexOM Awards, which is a beverage competition. It derived from the Dallas Morning News, wine competition. And the volunteers there have have made that what it is because they come up with solutions. They come up with new programs for us. So it is still a community effort. I love that. And I think it transitions into something that I feel like, you know, we've talked about education being an important part of TexOM. But one of the things, you know, I've been going to TexOM for a number of years and in many different capacities, right, either as media or speaking or helping whatever I can do. I'm a fan. And, you know, one of the things you always talk about and people who have been going forever have always talked about is that hospitality is the key to what y'all are doing. So it's great if you know all the things about wine. And it's great if you can sell the wine. And it's great. Like, all of those are important pieces, but you guys have really driven home the concept of hospitality, which is my thing, almost an art that's getting lost. Sometimes in our culture right now. So can you maybe talk about why that's important to kind of the essence of TexOM? What's important to the essence of our roles as Son liaison retailers, I think, as much as it is to TexOM and you know, TexOM is just a reflection of the industry. There is no Solmier or wine retailer that's smarter than anyone who owns a smartphone. Anyone who owns a smartphone can stump you with a question. That's not that hard to do. Actually, if you know which questions to ask, The other part about that is I've been working with some people who are into generative AI. There will come a point at which someone will create a food and wine pairing app that actually is relevant and works consistently. How far that is down the road. I don't know, but it is in the future, I think. And once you say, well, what's a Solmier's role, especially a a Solmier able to retailer? This could apply to as well. What is their role? If you say, well, it's knowing about wine and being able to talk about what's on the list. Well, that may be less relevant soon. If you say it's matching food and wine, that could be less relevant soon. So what does that leave us with? It really leaves us with hospitality and service. And so to me, the core, the essence of what we do as professionals, is hospitality and service. It's not really knowing everything about wine. You can't. It's knowing what's important to your guests, and part of that is hospitality and service. And so, really, the wine knowledge and all these other things come in service to hospitality. And that's what we tried to emphasize at TexOM. I love that. I love that. You know, we made a lot of changes in how we do things over the years in tried to emphasize our own hospitality for those helping and for those attending. Yeah. That's a good point. I'm also curious. I think this is one of the things I admire most about Texom, and that is the way in which speakers are invited to come. The topics that are selected and, you know, once you start with the people that are going to be speaking about them, obviously, they might evolve a little bit. But in general, can you kind of break down how you go about selecting your topic, selecting your speakers, and I'll just go ahead and put it out there. But, you know, having come from the journalism industry, having come from magazine publishing where the importance of separation of church and state, so editorial and advertising never mix and aren't supposed to cross the line. Can you talk to me about how the speakers are selected, how the topics are selected, and how separation of church and state kind of falls into TexOM? One of the foundational principles of TexOM that has not changed we don't take solicitations. We don't take formal proposals. You know, I I think that a lot of times there can be some self interest in those, and we also want to ensure that we're giving unbiased education. So we do separate marketing or advertising from our educational content. There are no sponsored seminars at TexOM. Sponsored seminars are not something that we do. Other organizations do that, and that's fine. It's a different business model. Ours is not to do that. The reason is that Once somebody buys a seminar, the content is theirs to create. We want a more holistic version of the conference where we have a better round this to the conference in terms of the subject matter involved. So we don't take solicitations or proposals and we don't allow sponsored seminars. What we do is canvas a lot of the wine world. We are constantly in talks with people about wine, about beverages, what's going on in the business side of things, I keep up with a lot of magazines that actually don't have to do with wine. I read a lot of magazines that are about sociology or about philosophy or other things that really don't directly relate to wine, but inform what happens at the conference. Likewise, we pay attention to social media, but it's not the numbers on social media that we're paying attention to. It's who's putting out good content that is accurate that is unbiased. It may be analytical and critical, but it's not biased in terms of marketing. So we do the same thing with the conference by canvassing the industry, and then we create our own plot of seminars and the map for the conference. From there, we commission the speakers to speak at the conference. So all of the speakers at TexOM have been invited by TexOM to speak rather than soliciting TexOM to speak. I think this is super important, and I think it's a thing, an area in which we're losing our way, not necessarily in terms of it's hard to know what's bought information and what's not bought information. And I think for me as someone who's attended for so many years, it's one of the things I always stand by. And why I mean, I speak to people all over the country where I'm like, have you been the techs mom yet? Like, this is the place to go because whatever you're hearing there has been vetted out, has been researched. These are people who are presenting based on their expert knowledge, not based on someone telling them to do it and giving them a check at the end. Anyway, so it's something I definitely appreciate. I know it's something a lot of other people appreciate. There definitely are sponsored opportunities at techs. I don't wanna give the idea that we don't take sponsorship. We certainly do, but to your point, we make clear what's a sponsored opportunity and what's not. And the conference seminars themselves are not sponsored opportunities. Having said that, in those sponsored opportunities, which are polishing events, their meals of all types, and the expos, we encourage our sponsors to make those educational as well. So you get two different viewpoints at TexOM. You get one from the marketing standpoint of the companies themselves and their education, but then you also get a second version of that education through the TexOM seminars that aren't related to what's happening in terms of sponsorship. So there are really two different versions of education going on at TexOM. I like that mix. I like those opportunities to do both. And we really have some great people presenting at a lot of those sponsored opportunities. I mean, you've got, you know, Lisa Granick talking about Georgia or Mark Davidson talking about Australia or, you know, many others who are highly respected in their fields, and they will be talking at lunches or dinners or other places, but those are very clearly marked as sponsored opportunities. Exactly. No. I love that, and I think that's just a very clear way to do things. So, you know, you mentioned something about AI and that kind of is a great way to lead into, you know, as you look ahead, as you mentioned, you're constantly reading things other than the topics of wine. You're looking, you're talking to people, networking, traveling, all of these things to stay up on trends, what are some of the things the kind of pressing educational needs for wine professionals as you see it and kind of how do you see tech sum addressing those things? I think there are a couple of areas. One of them is our ability to talk about wine in a way that's engaging to the general wine consumer. And so we've got a couple of seminars related to that this year. Sherry Moreno is going to be talking about basically nonalcoholic products, but other things and what their role is in our industry. In addition to that, we are talking about the state of the industry in general and what's happening in the broader industry right now. So we do address those topics. But coming up, I would say AI is going to be a topic some point, I want to find the right people to present it, but I think that AI is going to be a topic because we can't ignore it in the wine world. I think we will continue to talk about how to talk about wine to consumers because I think we've lost the thread a little bit on how to talk to people about wine then in a way that's not intimidating. You know, I have recently gotten into fountain pens, and I joined a fountain pen group on Facebook. And they're so encouraging of each other. You know, it's amazing that somebody will post that they've just bought their first fountain pen, and it may be a ten or twenty dollar fountain pen, and people are excited for them because they're getting into the industry. And too many times in our forums on wine, we tend to make fun of people who are just entering the industry or we we don't encourage them as we should. And so I feel like that, you know, how to talk to people about wine is going to be one of the big topics in the future because we really need to learn how to market wine better than what we've done in the past few years, I think, or in different ways. In different ways. I think that's really great with, you know, you touch on two points. It's how to speak to the consumer, but also the importance of mentorship and welcoming people into the fold who wanna do wine professional jobs, you know, like, whether that is on the floor or in retail or importing distribution, the encouragement is important. That's what brings people in. And we hope that's what Texom accomplishes as well is it provides a base for people where they can meet other people in the industry and be encouraged and be sustained in their roles and, you know, help them move forward in a way that's positive for them because we do have a lot of people who are up and coming in the wine world who come to TexOM, especially in our summer camp volunteer group. There are people who became master Solmese or masters of wine or did the WCT diploma after participating in some of Texama's events. And I think that's what we want to do is encourage people in their path and moving along in their career. So, you know, I hope that that is one of the things that happens at TexOM is that kind of encouragement. Yeah. Can you actually define what the summer camp is? We've dropped the name of it a couple of times, and it's something that has evolved, but it's something that is super it really speaks to all of what we're talking about here. So what is summer camp? Yeah. Well, it's the volunteer experience at TexOM, and it was named by the volunteers as summer camp, a number of years ago. And so we just stuck with the name and let it be the official name. But it's the volunteer experience at TexOM. And when most people hear volunteer, they think you work and then, you know, you go sleep and you get up the next day and you work again for whatever this event is. And this is to some extent true. At the same time, we really run two events. When we do the Texom conference, we do a public facing side that's for attendees, and then we have a whole other set of meals, opportunities for tasting, summer camp chats as we call them. They're not as long as seminars, but they're relevant to the topics that people want to hear. And we do all of that for the summer camp volunteer group in addition to doing the public facing attendee side. Of TexOM. So the summer camp group really gets their own version of TexOM, which I think to me is a beautiful version of TexOM. I love it. I love that we are able to put together those opportunities. And I think people appreciate them, but they're all geared towards the, specifically, to the volunteers. And we get a lot of interest in that. Yeah. And people have to apply to be accepted into it. But I've always seen it as, like, the incubator. You know what I mean? It's like, you're helping give so many opportunities within a very short period of time, not only to learn service and the hard parts of cleaning and, you know, setting up and all that stuff, but, you know, so you're cutting your, what is it, rolling up your sleeves, paying your due all that stuff. Right. But then also being exposed to a lot of great networking opportunities and fun. You're tired and excited at the same time. And great wines. I mean, they get wines. The regular attendees don't get Likewise, the attendees get some wines that the volunteers don't get. So it all evens out, but everybody has their own experience. And, you know, I I think that is one of the areas in of which I am most proud for TexOM is the mentorship and the encouragement that comes out of the volunteer group. You know, we've had groups from Saint Louis who banded together and came down to TexOM. We've had groups from Denver. We now have the Mississippi delegation that comes in every year, you know. And so I think of all the things that I'm proud of for TexOM. That is probably peak for me. Closely followed by the fact that I think TexOM helped open up the middle of the country as a valid place to sell wine. It's not strictly TexOM. There were a lot of people involved in that, but I do believe TexOM helped with that. Absolutely. And I think that's been one of the big benefits of TexOM to the middle of the country is that people in Saint Louis and Denver and other places, you know, can now get wines that they possibly couldn't get before. Yeah. The access is much greater. Yeah. You could also say something about the extension of Texom, which is that you, you know, you mentioned that the Dallas Morning News had a a pretty well known wine awards that Texom has since been able to kind of acquire through over the years. And I just I thought it'd be worth mentioning, you know, what that's about. Yeah. Well, Rebecca Murphy, who was the first female, Solmayer in Texas, started the Dallas Morning News wine competition in nineteen eighty five. Dallas morning news had naming rights to it. Rebecca did all the work for the competition and really took care of it all those years. So we've transitioned that from Rebecca to Texom in twenty fifteen, and we have renamed it a couple of times since then. Right now, we're calling it the TexOM Awards because TexOM Beverage Awards TBA seems kind of an odd name to me, but, really, it's all beverages. We will take almost any beverages at this point. We've been less able to do beer because beer has shipping and quality control specs that are hard to meet for us because of the refrigeration required all the way through the process. But in terms of, you know, mixers, spirits, sake, cider, wine, of course. We take all of those. And so it's grown over the years. It has its moments where it really I think we get great selection of wines into that event that I haven't seen some of them before, and I've been in the business many, many years and have fortunately managed to see a lot of wine, but I'm constantly discovering new things through that competition. That's fantastic. I I love it. And it's, you know, it happens at a different part of the year, but it it really is In terms of the people that come together for that, the judges are top quality, you know, we've mentioned master songs and masters of wine, but also people who are just experts in their field regardless of certification. And so it's a really impressive collection of people that come together to evaluate these beverages. You know, I think of like Monica Daniels for sake, for instance. So it's not just wine, you said. Yeah. Yeah. It's not just wine. And and the people who do come in for that, as you said, are chosen very much like our speakers for our conference. I mean, they're literally the people who've written the books or who, you know, have been recognized as the experts in their area. Sarah Jane Evans is a good example. She's written a book on Northern Spain. She's about to turn in a book, I think, on Southern Spain, So she has done Southern Spain as a seminar at Texom this year because I knew she was writing the book on it. So those are some of the people, you know, that I could point out specifically. There are many of them who are good examples of why we invite people for certain positions at TexOM. I love that. Well, James, this has been really fantastic. I want to say, like, shamelessly that I selfishly wanted to do this because my career, my entire interest in wine began at Texom, and I owe you and Texom so much to who I am and what I do today because I've been coming for so long and it piqued my interest. It gave me opportunity to learn. I've taken exams through TexOM, you know, through the different organizations that have been partnered with you. And then over the years, it's just been part of my growth, an integral part of my growth. So Thank you for doing it. Thank you for not giving up on it. Thank you. I think from a lot of people who've been able to benefit from it. So I just hope that you keep going. Yeah. I well, you know, we're almost at twenty years. So we'll see, but, you know, no plans to stop right now. Of course, you're catching me right around techs on time. So there's always the idea in the back of the head. Do we do this again? I think that's been since number one and will probably continue to be that way. Anybody who's gone through a big event knows that, but I I just wanna say, you're saying that. And I've heard this from a few other people too, Jonathan. I Coles recently Yep. Made the comment that he wouldn't be a master's only a, except for TechSOM because he met his entire cohort that he studied with through TexOM, and hearing those things really well, one is very emotional for me. I I really hope that that's what people are getting out of it. And, you know, to hear that is very special. So thank you. Thank you for thank you for all your contributions. You know, as I tell people, TexOM is not one person. It's not two people. Amy Hendricksson currently works with us and, you know, she does a lot of the work, but at the same time, TechSOM is everybody that contributes, and that's what makes TexOM what it is. It's still a community event. A hundred percent hundred percent. Well, I'm looking forward to going. We're recording this right before it starts. So I'm also gonna wish you the best of luck Thank you. Yeah. Usually during text time, I don't talk to you very much because you're kinda, like, just in focus mode. So I'm gonna, like, hug you before, and I'll I'll hug you after. I'm looking forward to it. No. I we are too. And, you know, it's It's always a fun event for us as well. It's a lot of work, but it's a fun event. It's great to see everybody. I constantly tell people, let's catch up at tech's home. And then I have to just say, hi. How are you doing and sort of buy, unfortunately, because there's so many people. But We do enjoy seeing everybody there. I enjoy catching up with friends, and we'll look forward to catching up with you there. But thank you for doing this. We really appreciate it. Absolutely. We'll talk to you soon. Bye bye. Alright. Thanks much. Bye bye. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and break the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time, Cheaching.