A presenter demonstrates nonalcoholic happy hour setups and talks about bringing NA options to corporate events, showcasing ready-to-drink choices, mocktails and a curated NA menu while exploring how alcohol-free options support social connection.
Shannon: Happy hour to me has always meant having non alcoholic options. Corporate events in America, many of them still have alcohol. How does that change the experience of a corporate gathering?
There's more options wherever I go, which is really encouraging. Let's send people out into their evening at 6:30 on a Tuesday without alcohol. I've got a ton of suggestions and I just want to make happy hours easy and more accessible for everyone.
Hi everyone. Welcome. I am at a very cool new studio called Improving in Central Minneapolis and I am just going live because I'm showing you guys what I do for happy hours. I bring non alcoholic options in and I am today serving three different options and I'm going to share with you guys what it's all about. So happy hour to me has always meant having non alcoholic options. I'm going to give you guys a little preview of what we have today. So we have an NA menu here and we have like this great ready to drink option called Abstinence which is a favorite of mine.
Some proxies and also some cool mocks which is a local maker. And if you can hear all the buzz in the background, everybody is also getting ready by setting up an alcohol bar. So we're going to have NA options and alcoholic options today. Woo. It's bright and sunny in here. Not complaining, but yeah, it's a marketers community event. And Laura, Laura King, as the founder, has always believed in bringing us the best of NA options. So we are here. We have got. Oh, hi Luke. Hi, Shannon. We have 80 some people joining this event today.
So what I wanted to touch on today is a little bit about what it looks like to have these great options at events. Last week we talked about what happy hours look like and this is a transition time during the day. Corporate events in America, many of them still have alcohol. In fact, over January and February with Ditch the Drink, Heather Lowe out of Chicago, we did a livestream LinkedIn series on drinking culture in corporate America. One of the things that I don't know if you guys know about this, but 88% of people at holiday parties will drink alcohol and up to two to four glasses per party.
So how does that change the experience of a corporate gathering? So we talked a lot about that and we encouraged companies to be thinking about what they're offering. One of the cool things about what we're doing is just giving people this really great experience for N A. And I would say Laura King and Abby Kelsey are my favorite NA advocates because I've been serving NA options here for two years at various events. And I'm just posing a question to you all today about when you're navigating corporate events with alcohol.
What's your plan? How do you come into the space? What do you think about the options that are currently being offered? Do you see more NA offerings? Do you notice them? And one of the things that I'm noticing is that there's more options wherever I go, which is really encouraging. Do you guys see that too? I love that. Sorry, I'm shifting around here. There's a lot of buzz going on already. So as soon as I start serving the NA options and people are coming into the space, I'm noticing that connection is happening.
So connection is not needed through alcohol. And what we sometimes think is that alcohol is the connecting piece of everything, when in reality it's just people coming together, having the space to connect and share common interests. I mean, we're all here to hear from an amazing speaker. The energy is high. So let's send people out into their evening at 6:30 on a Tuesday without alcohol. So I applaud those that are doing it in the workplace tonight. There is alcohol also being served and so we will see how that all mixes.
And that's very typical of where the spaces that I'm in right now. But yeah, what kind of choices do you want? I'm gonna pull some just to show you what I have because it's super fun. We've got a cool mocks which is Danielle Goss. She's local and I showed you abstinence earlier. This is one of my favorites. Isn't that pretty? Botanical, Sparkling botanical. And then we also have a proxy. Ooh, so good. And that is a non alcoholic wine alternative. You guys, this is so easy to do. So if you in your corporate experiences are not finding their options, please reach out.
I've got a ton of suggestions and I just want to make happy hours easy and more accessible for everyone. So thanks for hanging with me on this live call. It's been wild and a lot of noise and things going on, but I did want to just show you what's possible at a happy hour. So I hope you have a great evening and enjoy your commute home or wherever you're at this Tuesday. Talk to you later. Bye.
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