Big Rig Brewery appointed as Official Craft Beer of the Shaw Centre in a two-year supply contract commencing September 2018.
The Shaw Centre and Big Rig Brewery have announced a two-year partnership that will provide conference attendees at the convention centre with a selection of local craft beer. The six-year old brewery was appointed following a competitive tender process with the Centre. With this partnership Big Rig becomes the Official Craft Beer of the world-class meeting facility, with a presence at over 400 annual conferences, conventions, meetings and events, in front of almost 700,000 annual attendees and facility visitors. The local Ottawa brewery will also receive in-venue branding and advertising opportunities while actively leveraging the partnership throughout the facility and National Capital Region.
“We’re delighted to welcome Big Rig Brewery to the Shaw Centre team as an Official Partner and excited by the opportunity to offer our guests a unique selection of Ottawa-brewed, high-quality craft beer,” said Shaw Centre’s Director of Marketing and Partnerships, Julia Forbes. “Our ultimate goal is to help deliver an extraordinary event experience and Big Rig Brewery shares that commitment to excellence by connecting with consumers, engaging with the community, and delivering a variety of tastes and experiences.”
According to Big Rig Brewery, the unprecedented Shaw Centre agreement represents a product exposure opportunity to the facility’s highly sought after and international demographic and is expected to accelerate sales growth through the brewer’s existing sales channels.
“Big Rig Brewery is proud to be awarded this contract. The exciting new partnership allows our brewery to share its passion for quality craft beer, ultimately engaging an even wider audience,” said Chris Phillips, Co-Founder at Big Rig Brewery. “We are very excited that the Shaw Centre is continuing to support Ottawa businesses.”
Big Rig’s offerings at the Shaw Centre will include its light, crisp and refreshing Premium Pilsner, a malty and low hop Canadian Amber, an Alpha Bomb IPA unfiltered and loaded with hops, and a fresh and vibrant Bongo Grapefruit Radler. Clients will also have the ability to experience and request seasonal brews throughout the year.
This marks the first official partnership with a local craft brewery for the world-class meeting facility, complimenting the Shaw Centre’s locally-sourced, globally inspired culinary offering as well as domestic and import beer offerings from the facility’s primary beer supplier, and Official Beer Partner, Molson-Coors.
About the Shaw Centre
Shaw Centre, previously known as the Ottawa Congress Centre was founded in 1983. The Centre was redeveloped into a new, larger facility with project funding from the Province of Ontario, the City of Ottawa and the Government of Canada which opened its doors in April 2011 as the Ottawa Convention Centre (OCC). In October 2014, the OCC entered into a 10-year partnership with Shaw Communications, rebranding the facility as the Shaw Centre. The state-of-the-art convention centre is a spectacular venue that induces economic impact by hosting conventions, conferences, meetings, and events. Recently named runner-up as the 2014 world’s best convention centre by the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC). The Shaw Centre welcomes over 700,000 guests annually to its facility and has hosted over 3,500 events since re-opening directly boosting Ottawa’s economy by over $500M in direct spending. The Centre is governed by a board of directors, managed by an expert team of professionals and operationally driven by inspired colleagues and selected suppliers whose main goal is to create extraordinary events. shaw-centre.com
About Big Rig Brewery
Founded in 2012 Big Rig Brewery is dedicated to producing the best beer possible. Using only fantastic ingredients and time honoured traditional brewing methods Big Rig Brewery is proud of its numerous brewing awards and winning ” Best new Brewery in Ontario” in 2013. Although the awards are great, sharing a good beer with good friends is what really drives the passion – they’re doing it for the love of beer. bigrigbrew.com
For More Information
Julia Forbes
Director, Marketing and Partnerships
Shaw Centre
613-290-7177
jforbes@rogers-centre.ca
