De macht van social media en de broederschap onder bartenders kan niet beter worden aangetoond dan het sneeuwbal effect dat op Facebook is ontstaan nadat Roman Milostivy een Russische bartender het volgende postte op Facebook; “I was really disappointed to not have received a chance to take part in this great event alongside with many more bartenders in Russia”. Niet alleen werd deze post overspoeld met commentaar van bartenders wereldwijd maar ook vragen doken op met wat er nou precies aan de hand was. Voor degenen die Roman niet kennen, hij verkreeg in 2008 de titel Bols Cocktail Master.

Diageo World Class

World Class is een wereldwijde competitie georganiseerd door Diageo Reserve Brands die op zoek is naar ’s werelds beste bartender. Vorig jaar deden er 6000 bartenders mee in 24 landen om de titel ‘World Class Bartender of the Year’ the bemachtigen. Deze competitie wordt ook wel gezien als de meest prestigieuze en meest uitdagende competitie wereldwijd. Iedere bartender droomt er dan ook van om deze titel een keer te winnen.

Punt 1

Volgens Roman maakte Diageo Rusland zelf de beslissing om 5 tot 7 verschillende restaurants/nachtclus te selecteren die meedoen aan World Class beoordeeld door de ‘premium-ness’ van de venue. Waarvan veel van dit soort venues nog nooit gehoord hebben van de World Class Competitie, kwamen ook veel niet opdagen tijdens de eerste ronde. Ook waren er alleen restaurants en nachtclubs geselecteerd in Moscow waardoor de rest van het land al meteen niet meer kon meedoen. Roman wijst hier dan ook op een grote issue: hoe kan een bedrijf oordelen op een venue en niet op de bartender of eerlijke regels zoals: Reserve Brands in het menu, kennis van de engelse taal of het aantal jaren achter de bar. Hierdoor kon de barcommunity in Rusland zich aanmelden door middel van hun profiel voor zulke wedstrijden, als ze er überhaupt van afwisten.

Punt 2

99% van de bartenders in Rusland wisten niet eens dat de competitie bestond of was begonnen. Roman kreeg het pas te horen nadat de eerste ronde voorbij was. De enigen die wisten van de wedstrijd waren de barren die Diageo Rusland persoonlijk heeft benaderd.

De vraag die Roman zichzelf stelt is dan ook of het de juiste manier is om te handelen, uiteraard mag de lokale tak van een bedrijf zijn eigen regels maken, maar is dit de juiste manier? En als de lokale tak van een bedrijf niet genoeg ervaring heeft of begrip met de soort competitie, is het dan niet hun taak om advies te vragen van de lokale of wereldwijde bar community?

Wel benadrukt Roman dat hij persoonlijk zeker geen geschil wilt beginnen tegen de grootste ‘spirit company’ in de wereld of zal stoppen met de verkoop van hun producten, wel wilt hij ervoor zorgen dat dit soort dingen niet meer gebeuren.

Andere bartenders in Rusland zijn helaas niet zo schappelijk als Roman zij halen namelijk de Diageo producten uit de schappen en weigeren deze te verkopen. Ook zijn er bartenders die uit de competitie stappen omdat ze het niet eens zijn met de gang van zeken.

Reacties

Nadat Roman privé al wat berichten had gestuurd via Facebook zag ik ook wat respons voorbijkomen vanuit de internationale barindustrie. Zo zag ik bijvoorbeeld dat Diageo Duitsland, vorig jaar World Class heeft gelanceerd via Mixology.eu door middel van een open platform, alles online en elke bartender uit Oostenrijk, Zwitserland of Duitsland zijn recept kon insturen. Klinkt in mijn oren als een zeer goed initiatief.

Naast deze informatie postte ook Joerg Meyer op zijn Blog een open brief naar Diageo, zeer interessant mag ik wel zeggen. Benieuwd? Kijk zelf maar even op JRGMYR.

Waar ik eigenlijk heel benieuwd naar ben is hoe jullie erover denken… so let me know!

De originele post van Roman is hieronder te lezen:

Dear All,

I’m writing all this down because during last week I’ve received a lot of questions from many bartenders from different parts of the world asking “please tell us more, what really happened to Diageo World Class Competition in Russia”. This has turned back to me as a huge snow ball of comments after I posted on the Facebook that “I was really disappointed to not have received a chance to take part in this great event alongside with many more bartenders in Russia”. The number of comments, I think, only proves a high status of this competition worldwide and the attention it draws. I still think so and let me share with you what is going on. 

First of all, please keep in mind that it’s only my very humble point of view – and I don’t want to discredit the event and offend either the bartenders who are taking part in the event this year or previously did nor the judges but I personally think that when such things take place we should express our attitude somehow. And by the number of messages and comments I can now say that these things happen from time to time in many parts of the world. So please consider this message as just an attempt to bring some certain things to the public in effort to make this competition and our small bartenders’ world a little bit better. 

Putting all this down here and saying it’s only my point of view you can be sure that the total majority of local bartenders, bar managers, bar owners, and bar professionals who daily put their effort in “Raising the bar” scene in Russia share these feeling and point of view completely. Their words could be only more straightforward and less polite. 

So, first of all, I should once again mention that Diageo World Class Competition has a very high (not to say the highest) image and status among the bartenders competitions in Russia. Every professional behind the bar here dreams to get the chance to participate in the Global Finals stepping up on the same mark with the brightest bartenders from around the world. We could only thank the local office that Russia was included in the World Class this year.

I also have to mention that alongside with the World Class there’s another activity for the bartenders in Russia – Diageo Bar Academy – annual program / competition with great presentations from the best trainers brought to Russia (Ian Burrel, Alex Kratena…) and great prizes to win (travels to distilleries and many more) – and this event is widely covered and anyone from any city in Russia can enter. Great! But nothing like a Global Finals of the World Class… 

And now we’re moving to the point – it’s all about how the World Class was organized. 

Point N1.

Local office made their own decision which venues (not bartenders) could take part in the World Class – judging on the “premium-ness” of those. So there was probably a list of 5-7 different bars / restaurants / nightclubs and of course some bartenders from such places have never heard of the World Class and even didn’t show up for the first round. It was only city of Moscow chosen leaving the rest of Russia out immediately. 

The biggest question here – is how a company could judge by the venue, not the bartender or fair rules for all the bartenders (such as “Reserve brands in the menu”, “Knowledge of English language”, “years of experience behind the bar” even maybe)… This immediately could separate the community if… the community only knew! about it and possessed all the necessary information for possible participation in it. 

so we’re moving the point N2 – 

Point N2.

99% of the bartenders in Moscow (or Saint-Petersburg or Russia) – didn’t even know about the competition and the chance to apply! I personally found out about it from a friend after the first round was over! And to say more I can suspect that the local office did that on purpose – so to keep it a “small circle of bars” event”. (remember? the best competition in the world?) The only people who knew about the dates and the rules were only the participants from the bars that the company personally contacted… 

Even if the local office in each market have the power to slightly change / adjust the rules – is it really the proper way? And if the local office don’t have enough experience or understanding of “what kind of competition it is” – don’t these people ask for advice from the local (or global) bar community?

After “we” (“we” – a big group of bar professionals including bar association, independent consultancy agencies, those who run bar websites, respected and well-know bar names in Moscow, Saint-Pete and many more cities in Russia) just found out about this event (the first round was already over!!!) – of course we all felt we should have done something about it and express what we think. We didn’t want to “start up a war” immediately and just wanted to receive an explanation from the company why they did it in such a way not giving a fair chance for everybody to participate. We all agreed that if the company did some certain steps towards the community and let those who wanted to participate join the competition it could be the best solution for everybody. 

As the bartenders we don’t want to “start up a war”, break any connections with one of the biggest spirits company and stop selling their products – it’s probably not the best way to react but we had to react somehow so these things would not happen again.   

Today I still can’t tell you how it will all end but one thing is certain – many bartenders who already entered and took part in the first round are ready to leave the competition now as the sign of their non-agreement with the rules and on the other hand many of those who wanted to enter or join really have lost this strong feeling and wish to do it. 

I personally hope I won’t have to stop any activities and work with Diageo because of such things but for a bartender it seems on of the few things to do to show the attitude to the big company. I still respect the brands and like the World Class Competition but these small things on the local market just make me sad sometimes. 

And I also still think that bartenders should not keep it as “closed stories on the local scene” but express and share with colleagues. How else we can improve our small “bartenders world”? 

roman milostivy