GoTab at the 2022 Tampa Craft Beer Fest
Transforming the Guest Experience & Brewers Hideout with GoTab’s Commerce Platform
With more than 90 breweries gathering for the 2022 Craft Beer Fest in Tampa, FL, Florida Brewers Guild Executive Director Sean Nordquist tapped into GoTab to retool his signature annual event held on March 5 at the Perry Harvey Sr. Park.
Contactless Food Ordering at Brewers’ Hideout
As 400+ attendees descended upon downtown Tampa to sample more than 300 different craft beers, GoTab worked closely with Florida Brewers Guild Executive Director Sean Nordquist to create an exciting Brewers’ Hideout - a space reserved for the breweries and their staff to gather, take a break from the crowds, share food and drinks and network. Located steps away from the booths, the unique setup got an upgrade from the usual tent, with old shipping containers rearranged to provide a top deck looking out over the entire event. Brewers could order food from the various food trucks on site via the special GoTab QR code set up for them.
Using their mobile devices and with GoTab’s zero-dollar ordering feature used for catered events, they could easily and seamlessly order their food and receive a text when their food was ready for pickup, all the while enjoying the various beers on tap at the hideout. “GoTab went above and beyond to create an incredible space for our brewers to mingle, enjoy some respite from the event and easily have access to delicious food and beers,” said Nordquist. “I’m so grateful for GoTab’s fantastic customer service, which truly set our team up for an amazingly successful Craft Beer Fest.”
Merchandise Sales via GoTab
The Guild also used GoTab’s features for its own booth, leveraging the cloud-based solution as a POS to sell merchandise. Equipped with lightweight tablets and handheld payment terminals, Sean and his team of volunteers enjoyed how intuitive and easy to use GoTab is, and how very little training/setup was needed for everything and everyone to be up and running. With transaction rates lower than previously used payment processing solutions, it made sense financially to leverage the platform to sell t-shirts and other branded gear to attendees. GoTab’s inventory features came in handy throughout the day as volunteers could easily check on product and size availability before each sale. After the event, the team was able to run reports and analyze sales, saving them time to tally up revenue and helping them assess merchandise production needs for next year. With GoTab easily and seamlessly working on any tablets, the team set up a mobile hotspot and was able to run all tablets and payment terminals through the hotspot, freeing up their personal mobile devices and tablets for their own communications needs.
Convenience and Savings via GoTab-Powered Digital Brochure
A key component of the Craft Beer Fest is the brochure that contains information on all 90 breweries present on-site, the beers they’re serving and where to find them throughout the Perry Harvey Sr. Park. Typically, Nordquist spends upwards of $3,000 to get the brochure printed, knowing that as soon as the festival starts, it quickly becomes outdated as brewers run out of certain specialty beers or alter the selection of craft brews they pour at the event. This year, Nordquist chose to go digital and leveraged GoTab’s menu features to present an updated catalog accessible via QR code. Small QR code posters were displayed at each booth for guests to access the list of brewers and craft beers available. The team updated the online catalog in real-time, and saved thousands of dollars in printing costs via the GoTab-powered digital brochure. “Being able to provide up-to-date information to our attendees thanks to GoTab’s platform was key in transforming and improving the guest experience,” added Nordquist. “I’m so thankful to the GoTab team for lending their innovative technology to make the 2022 Craft Beer Fest a fantastic experience for all.”
GoTab went above and beyond to create an incredible space for our brewers to mingle, enjoy some respite from the event and easily have access to delicious food and beers. I’m so grateful for GoTab’s fantastic customer service, which truly set our team up for an amazingly successful Craft Beer Fest.
–Sean Nordquist, Florida Brewers Guild Executive Director
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