The Campari Academy is a first-of-its-kind educational platform for the international bartending community, underpinned by an ambition to educate, inspire, and connect leading drinks industry talent. Having built a strong network of Campari Academy education hubs around the world over the past ten years, from Sao Paolo to Sydney, and cultivated an accessible digital space during the pandemic and beyond – this new presence in the UK marks Campari Academy’s largest global expansion to date.

The celebrations brought together bartenders, hospitality professionals, trade media and influencers from across the UK with an event that demonstrated the cutting-edge docuseries, Perspectives, the brain-child of Campari Academy’s Creative Director, Monica Berg, along with snippets from our local Campari Academy team’s upcoming series of seminars and an amazing array of drinks from the team from the Artesian Bar inspired by our collaborative Artesian Atelier program.

The evening was overseen by Campari Academy UK’s Jono Mayes, who along with Monica explored the first three episodes of Perspectives to a captive audience to understand the topics of Community & Culture, Design & Technology and Raw Materials and Flavour.

Down in our state-of-the-art Campari Academy space, our team took some lucky participants through aspects of our 2023 seminar program; making these individuals the first to experience what being in a Campari Academy UK session is truly about.

Loris Contro (Italian Icons Ambassador – UK) started off his introduction to The Art of Hospitality with the phrase; “The art of hospitality as we know it is dead”, a direct yet honest understanding of the current hospitality crisis not just enveloping the UK, but the rest of the world.

The Art of Hospitality is Loris’ love-letter to the industry, but he is not the only one wanting it to succeed, with our esteemed collaborators Ago Perrone & Giorgio Bargiani of The Connaught Hotel (#8 50 Best Bars 2022), Art of Hospitality will deliver on the three key pillars of Authenticity, Teamwork & Empathy to inspire and equip the future leaders of our industry.

The Story of Spirits was brought to life by Chris Dennis (Rum & Whiskies Ambassador – UK) which is a series of seminars that is challenging the norms of how spirits, history, drinks and culture are communicated from a perspective that looks outside the bartender universe.

Chris is working with esteemed writers Matt Parker & Reid Mitenbuler to bring a new way of connecting the people and cultural journey of a spirit with bartenders, allowing for these stories that could be lost in the hallways of history to be told by bartenders for years to come.

To finish off the night, we had UK Prestige Ambassador Tristram Lilburne-Fini bring an immersive experience to life from the Drink Hacking Series.
Drink Hacking is a series dedicated to uncovering how experiences can be shaped through our Senses, with Techniques and Approaches within the bar world that brings science into the hospitality art form.

We want to thank every person that attended the event and the team are excited to welcome you into your Campari Academy space in the near future.