When Alcohol Regulators and the Industry Meet Inertia Calls the Shots

On lost opportunity at the Annual Meeting of the National Conference of State liquor Administrators

There is no better place to remind oneself of the conservative nature of the alcohol business than at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators.

This meeting, attended by state liquor administrators and regulators from various states and by primarily the attorneys that work in the alcohol industry as well as the legal counsels for the larger wholesalers and producers, is currently ongoing in Oklahoma City. Having now sat through panels a number of panels with provocative-sounding names, it is striking just how unprovocative the content of these panels really is.

It’s not quite a game of “bait and switch” because if you’ve been to this conference before you can almost be guaranteed that you’ll hear little or nothing that is controversial. Still, one is reminded that the content of this conference is a reflection of the extraordinarily conservative nature of this industry.

There are a number of topics of significance that really are best discussed at a conference that has both state regulators and the industry under one roof: