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The 2012 Miami Rum Renaissance Festival was:  Our recent Rum Renaissance Festival at the Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach surpassed all expectations and served to reinforce our message that rum is enjoying a notable resurgence in popularity. Here's a short recap of the events that made Miami Rum Renaissance Festival 2012 a great success. Attendance exceeded our goals. Every year, attendance has doubled (more than 8,000 this year), which is a great sign that the popularity of rum is continuing to increase at a rapid pace.
6,121
443
Trade VIP Passes
872
Exhibitor Passes
249
Press Passes
91
Total at Grand Tasting
7,776
VIP Party attendees
eleven parties over six evenings
1,180
Weekly Total
8,956
Media coverage was extensive. More than 47,221,001 media impressions went out over more than 261 media outlets, benefitting the entire rum category and all participanting rum brands at our events. Ads in the Miami Herald Weekend and Tropical Life sections along with a robust campaign online with Miami.com raised a lot of attention with more than 2 million impressions. A full week campaign in the Sun Sentinel in print and online generated more than 1.5 milllion impressions. Multiple articles in Miami New Times generated more than one million impressions. WLRN underwriting delivered the message to 19,100 sophisticated listeners over ten days with multiple impressions daily. Television coverage exceeded two million viewers. Once again, partnerships with Chilled Magazine and more than three dozen trade and consumer publications created broad awareness. Online presence was overwhelming. The overwhelming quantity and quality of blog entries, online articles far surpassed our previous years. About.com and numerous other high-profile media channels praised the events and provided timely coverage. Our email blasts reached more than 44,000 targeted consumers. Rum bloggers came from as far away as London, Rome, Scotland, Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Sydney, Paris, Jamaica, California, Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans and New York. Local media was completely saturated with event coverage as the word spread throughout the social media networking community in South Florida. VIPs were delighted. More than 1315 very important rum persons and trade VIPs came to Miami Rum Renaissance from all over the world to enjoy eight outstanding VIP Parties around town at some of the finest bars, restaurants and nightclubs in South Florida. Mixologists, bartenders, store owners, managers and buyers were among those discovering more than 145 fine cane spirit products at the show. The master blenders and distillers, the brand ambassadors, the judges and pundits rubbed shoulders with rum enthusiasts from near and far. Competitions empowered great exposure. The RumXP International Tasting brought two dozen of the world's most respected rum experts to the festival for a prestigious blind tasting competition where the best rums were richly rewarded and recognized. The International Tiki Team Competition pitted the best bartenders in the UK against the best in the US, generating a tremendous amount of positive publicity for rum brands, tropical tiki cocktails and the venues represented by these renowned mixologists. Rum variety was astounding. More than 145 spirits from virtually every rum producing country in the Western Hemisphere were savored -- from the most notable birthplaces of classic cane spirits -- inspired by their unique cultures, tropical locations and exotic influences. Celebrity Seminars were informative. Attendees enjoyed presentations by famous rum legends like Ian Burrell on the history of the Pina Colada. Ian Williams, noted scholar and historian offered a factual and entertaining perspective on the role of rum in the American Revolution. The setting was ideal. The Deauville Beach Resort, the perfect context for reflecting the easy-going, fun-loving nature of our rum enthusiast lifestyle. The Island Lifestyle Exhibits offered rum enthusiasts a great opportunity a discover a treasure trove of cool island fashions, arts and crafts, tiki collectables, home furnishings, travel opportunities, cocktail books and more. Truly, rum is enjoying a renaissance. Thousands of people left the Rum Renaissance events with a new-found enthusiasm and understanding of the noble spirit of the new world. They are proclaiming their discovery and delight to their friends and family far and wide, as newly appointed rum ambassadors, set off on their own further discovery of the fascinating world of rums. Our message of rum resergence went out far and wide across the globe, positively benefitting all the products participating in Miami Rum Renaissance Festival, as well as the entire category of rum worldwide. For photos of Miami Rum Renaissance 2012 please visit our Flickr page. The Next Rum Renaissance is already in the planning stages for April 15 to 21, 2013. We're working closely with our valued exhibitors and our partners around the globe to bring a greater spotlight on the emergence of fine quality rums -- from the Caribbean and beyond -- to the attention of consumers around the world. We'll keep you informed on this mailing list of our progress, as well as the many fine rum tasting events we host all year long here in South Florida.
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