“This is going to be such an amazing couple hours of our day, and I’m already charged up,” said Eileen Wayner, Tales of the Cocktail’s CEO, as she took to the podium for the opening of this year’s Tales Catalyst at The Ritz-Carlton on July 23, in the midst of the annual New Orleans conference. She laid the groundwork for what would be a deeply moving event.
“We want to focus on what the goal of this program is,” continued Wayner. “To really make sure that we’re honoring individuals that are reshaping this industry—reshaping it to be more equitable, to be more inclusive, folding in new voices, and really taking this industry where we want it to go.”
And this year’s honorees—Tales Catalyst U.S. Honoree Keyatta Mincey Parker, the executive director of A Sip of Paradise Garden; and the Tales Catalyst International Honoree Becky Paskin, the founder of OurWhisky Foundation—have done just that.
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Tales Catalyst—formerly the Catalyst Luncheon—was originally founded in 2012 as the Dame Hall of Fame to recognize women in the industry who were often overlooked by male-dominated bar awards. Then last year, Dame reimagined itself as the Catalyst Luncheon to broaden its remit to all genders, and in doing so expanded on its mission to be both a collective of diverse changemakers and a catalyst for the industry’s continued growth.
Previous inductees have included Monica Berg, the founder of P(our) Foundation, Chris Cabrera, who received the Pioneer Award as the national LGBTQ+ ambassador for Bacardi, and Tiffanie Barriere, known as the Drinking Coach, a 2020 inductee who has served as Tales Catalyst co-chair since 2022.
Barriere returned this year to kick off the celebrations: “I just want to say thank you so much for letting me be in this space,” said Barriere. “And for letting me be emotional and vulnerable.” Barriere paid tribute to Mincey Parker during her introduction for being not only an inspiration to the industry but also a friend. “She’s just so chill, and so to see her get what she wants and move in the spaces she’s moving is our dream come true.”
When Mincey Parker took to the podium she started with the statement: “I deserve this,” and the whole room exploded with applause. And she’s right: Mincey Parker’s contribution to the drinks industry is wide-reaching; but beyond being a prominent bartender, she founded A Sip of Paradise Garden, a nonprofit community garden for bartenders and hospitality professionals in Atlanta—and soon New Orleans, too.
“Just because I made this look easy doesn’t mean this isn’t hard—it is hard,” she said. Once a month she feels like quitting, she continued, but what drives her to keep pushing for change in the industry is all of the people that have—and continue to—lift her up. “This industry raised me as well as my kids … My community is everything.”
Robin Nance, the co-chair and events and strategy director for Speed Rack, stepped up next to introduce Paskin. “There’s a pretty heavy group of amazing women in this room that have a lot of love for you and your work,” she said.
When it was Paskin’s turn to speak, her words moved the crowd to tears sharing her journey to this moment. “You know, it’s amazing to have all of your faces looking at me,” Paskin said. “The first talk I gave was in London, and half the room stood up and walked out when I took to the stage.” A lot has changed for Paskin since that moment: OurWhisky Foundation is the first nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, recognising and empowering professional women in whisky across the globe.
Paskin said she always felt like whatever she achieved as a woman in the industry was never enough, even while being the only journalist in the world with a General Certificate of Distilling. “There was no one else to look up to and writing this speech really made me reflect, because I realized I had to forge my own path,” she said. “It hasn’t been easy in a male-dominated industry, as you can imagine … [but] we’re in this together. This is all our fight and we are just getting started.”
SevenFifty Daily and Beverage Media were media sponsors of the Tales Catalyst.
Dispatch
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