We’re excited to share with you details of this year’s Dec. 5 Future Smarts conference. The 2022 event will take place live and in person in New York City. The program features accomplished and knowledgeable experts in the world's most profitable beverage market. We’ve designed an outstanding program and speaker lineup to help shed light on this unprecedented time in the beverage industry - both the challenges and opportunities.

Through a series of fast-paced speaker interviews, we review the year to understand what mattered most and break new ground on what to expect next. We identify urgent trends and market forces that will drive business performance during the next three to five years – or longer.  Here’s a look at what to expect.

Bottling executives within the US Coke and Pepsi soft drink systems have experienced a business environment during the past three years like no other in their tenures. A global pandemic shut down most fountain sales and drove consumers to retail, where a sudden sales spike stretched infrastructure and workforces. Then supply chain disruptions forced bottlers to...

Darren Rovell, the journalist, investor, and social media influencer who wrote the literal book on Gatorade, is bringing heat to the fast-growing canned cocktail market. Rovell, who has 2 million Twitter followers and is credited with introducing the late Kobe Bryant to BodyArmor co-founder Mike Repole, had his lightbulb moment 10 months ago while drinking spicy cocktails. That inspiration has since led to a brand called KickStand Cocktails and a newly landed $2 million investment round. The ready-to-drink cocktail blends vodka and fruit juice with artisanal spice, which Rovell says is the key differentiator. KickStand enters a canned cocktail market that is expected to grow by an average of +11.6% through 2032, according to researcher Future Market Insights. As consumers move on from the hard seltzer craze to...

Argo Tea Co-founder Arsen Avakian was struck by how often consumers in store aisles pulled out a cell phone while browsing a drink cooler. When he asked why, he learned they were researching brands to understand everything from ingredients to provenance. With a background in technology, Avakian had a...