Sigma Iota Hospitality Association

Vendor and Donor Information

Greetings from WSU

Sigma Iota Hospitality Association of Washington State University would like to cordially invite your winery to join us at our 25th Annual Winefest. This year, our popular wine-tasting event will be held on Friday April 3, at the Schweitzer Event Center in Pullman, Washington. Winefest will be kicking off a very exciting Mom’s Weekend at WSU, which is traditionally one of the biggest weekends of the year on the Palouse.

Our names are Lindsey Hoffman, Abbie Driggs, and Nik Enquist, and we are coordinating Winefest this year. We are excited to work with you to make this event a success. This year we are planning to accommodate approximately 600 guests. Winefest 2009 will feature wine tasting from some of the finest wineries throughout the Northwest, catering by the School of Hospitality Business Management, an exciting silent auction, and live music. We will be hosting two sessions: the first session running from 5:00–7:00 p.m. and the second session from 8:00–10:00 p.m.

We would be delighted to have your winery attend this fund-raising event. This is a great opportunity for you to market your wine to the WSU community with over 20,000 students, parents, and active alumni, as well as enthusiasts from around the Northwest. We recommend that you provide three different types of wine. We ask that you bring enough to serve 600 one-ounce tasting pours, and additional for wine sales if you choose to sell wines.

We strongly encourage you to send a representative from your winery. We feel this will benefit all parties, as the representatives will be able to provide guests with the finest and most accurate information regarding your wine. This is also a great opportunity to increase your business throughout the Northwest, since many of our guests live outside the Palouse. Hospitality students will be on hand to assist in pouring the wine, to ensure your representative has ample time to answer any questions the guests may have for them.

Winefest is a student fund-raiser, and all wineries are being offered the opportunity to donate their tasting wines. If you are interested in donating but do not wish to donate wine services, items such as gift baskets, gift certificates, specialty wines, or wine-tasting tours of your location would make excellent contributions to our silent auction. Wineries that do choose to donate will be given special acknowledgement in our Winefest 2009 program and on our Web site to publicize their generosity and support for Sigma Iota.

Sigma Iota Hospitality Association is dedicated to providing its members with opportunities that will help them further their careers in the hospitality and business fields. All funds generated by this event help support our members through scholarships, industry experience, and educational opportunities.
    
Thank you for your time and consideration, and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at Winefest 2009!
       
Sincerely,

Lindsey Hoffman
Winefest Coordinator
206-349-2663 

Abbie Driggs
Winery Representative
509-528-8946

Nik Enquist
Winery Representative
425-330-2289        

winefest2009@hotmail.com

School of Hospitality Business Management, PO Box 644742, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-4742 USA 509-335-5766