We are always working behind the scenes of Bartender Atlas on our own Bartender Atlas activations and events, as well as with companies and spirit brands. We have skills! And we love working with companies and brands to use them!
Who We Are
There are officially two of us behind Bartender Atlas (Jessica Blaine Smith and Josh Lindley). The two of us are located in Toronto, Canada but our passports are always ready to jump on a plane (and bonus, we are married so only require one hotel room!). Jess is a professional photographer who has been running her own business since 2003. Her camera has taken her all over the globe from New Zealand to Trinidad to Miami photographing literally thousands of people, events, cocktails and everything else in between. She works with all kinds of clients from multi-million dollar corporations to individual entrepreneurs. She also has skills in technology to do things like build this website, track analytics and run our social media streams. She is knowledgeable in this ever changing world of social media and stays on top of what is current. Josh has a background in broadcasting and before becoming a bartender, he was on air at a pretty big radio station. From there he toured with bands across Canada and the USA with bands before settling in Toronto in 2005 to focus on becoming a bartender. He has worked as a Canadian National Brand Ambassador and has been featured as a cocktail specialist on various TV programs and in many magazine features. He has also guest bartended all over the world, including Mexico City, Ottawa and Melbourne, Australia.
In 2017 we partnered with Gord Hannah and Jonathan Humphrey to create, organise and execute Toronto Cocktail Conference, an annual education-focused three day conference aimed at industry professionals. For 2018’s TOCC we ran twenty seminars with speakers traveling from places like Shanghai, Bogota, San Diego and New Orleans along with multiple activations and parties to the 300+ ticket holders who traveled from all over the continent to attend. The event sold out ten days prior to the start date which showed the desire for this type of conference for the community. In 2019 we great TOCC even further and in 2020, we created a webinar series in place of the conference due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Featured Posts
One thing that we love to do on the Bartender Atlas website is feature brands and companies that care. We love telling the story of who you are and what it is that you do and we do so in a meaningful and personable way. For alcohol brand focused posts, we can create custom cocktails using your product and custom photography to supplement the feature and you would have access to these images as well. These posts are then shared on all of our social media streams reaching a wide audience and that featured post lives on the Bartender Atlas website for the entirety of its existence (we are going with: “until the end of time!”).
Events
We know that not every brand has big budgets for marketing and putting on big events. We are happy to work with your brand to help execute your event in a way that surprises and delights your guests but doesn’t require you to hire a full time marketing team or a PR firm that doesn’t share your vision. Due to our continued on the ground involvement in the bartending community (we go out and taste a lot of cocktails and we meet a lot of great bartenders and industry members along the way!), we have great insight into what is happening in the bartending/cocktail community. Our promotion and coverage of your event is valued higher than a firm that also works with car companies or big box stores.
We have worked with various brands to help facilitate tastings, cocktail competitions and master classes. Between Josh’s skills with working behind many different bars and Jess’ skills working at various events for the past 15 years, we are able to help facilitate events that run smoothly and on-time. We are able to organise the entire event that could include things like securing venues, organising details with the venue, promoting the event to get people in the door, setting up for the event, collecting tickets, documenting the event through still photography, posting live stories on Instagram and being there throughout to ensure that everything runs well. We will be at your event, interacting with participants and attendees in a meaningful way. Josh is also available to host, MC or “teach” a class (we like to call it “Story Time with Josh”!). Basically, we can do it all and we can be as hands-on or hands-off as you need. All we want is everyone enjoying themselves and that your goals for the event are met.
Photography & Image Consulting
Jess is available for all of your photography needs whether that be product shots of your new spirit, beauty cocktail images or documenting any event that you may be hosting. After the event, you would be provided with all of the final high resolution images to use for all of your promotional and marketing needs. She also helps brands and bars/restaurants build their vision so that they can communicate with their clients and customers what their message is. Through photography, Jess is also able to assist you with the aesthetics of your brand. She can help you create and plan content for your social media streams. (That BFA in Photography really comes in handy!)
Cocktail Creation
As mentioned we have a lot of Bartenders signed up on this site. A lot of them are excited about working with new and interesting products (including Josh). If you want some signature serves developed, we almost certainly have someone that would want to work with you.
Consulting & Bar Staff Training
Josh has worked in venues ranging from night clubs to 30 seat restaurants to hotel lobby bars. He can use that experience to help you design and execute a cocktail program you can be proud of. Whether you are interested in having a prohibition era cocktail list or a something more modern and culinary focused, he will work with you to get what you are going for and to help your staff understand and care about what it is they are serving.
Besides Us…
Besides the two of us behind Bartender Atlas, we have over 2000 bartenders located in more than 250 cities around the world hanging out in this community (Hi friends!). While we are the two official humans working behind it all, we have great relationships with many of these bartenders located in literally every corner of the globe. Should you require a bartender for any of the above and don’t have the budget to bring us to you, we are happy to recommend some of our bartenders who we know can assist you. This is what our community is all about!
Brands we have worked with
We have had the great pleasure of working with the following brands.