Alpana Singh’s road to the top of her field was a whirlwind so it’s no surprise she is highly sought after as a dynamic and engaging speaker with a fascinating story to tell. As the daughter of Fijian-Indian immigrants she beat the odds and achieved her goal of becoming a Master Sommelier (there are only 274 Master Sommeliers worldwide) at the tender age of 26, the youngest woman and the only South Asian in the world ever to do so. She conducts a series of discussions about the life of wine, its cultural importance, and how anyone can become an expert. Alpana will take you on a journey to connect whatever message you are looking to convey – whether it’s wines made by women, selections that celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship or bottles that highlight global diversity, Alpana will customize a tasting, keynote or dinner to really personalize and bring home the theme of your event.
SPEAKING TOPICS
VIRTUAL WINE TASTINGS
Alpana is available to curate and host a wine tasting experience customized to your group via Zoom or your preferred platform. Whether you want to host a fun wine happy hour with friends, learn how to taste wine like an expert or dive deep into a particular region, this is a fun and immersive activity that can be done together while remaining apart. View FAQ’s here.
HOW TO TASTE WINES LIKE A PRO
In this interactive tasting of two wines, participants will learn quick and easy tips to improve their everyday wine enjoyment by learning how to taste and describe wines like a pro!
Host to select 2 wines (white and red wine) for participants to purchase/taste
Experience runs 60 minutes (45 minutes of instruction with 15 min Q&A)
HOW TO TASTE WINES LIKE A PRO + SENSORY EXPERIENCE
The How to Taste Wines Like a Pro Seminar with an added food and wine pairing sensory component. This multi-sensory experience will guide participants through a series of tasting exercises with common foods items such as cheese, lemon juice, sugar and nuts to better understand and assess a wine’s acidity, alcohol, structure and body. Participants will also learn why these components are the secret to creating memorable food and wine pairings.
Host to select 2 wines for participants to purchase
Alpana will provide list of pantry ingredients for participants to have on hand for the tasting
Experience runs 60 minutes (45 minutes of instruction with 15 min Q&A)
30 MINUTE WINE EXPERT
Condensed version of How to Taste Wines Like A Pro. Ideal for shorter breakout sessions. Participants will learn the essentials of what is needed to taste and describe wine like an expert.
Host to select 1-2 wines for participants to purchase/taste
Experience runs 30 minutes
Can also be combined with a 30 minute keynote address for 60 minutes total
SECRETS OF A SOMMELIER
Go behind the scenes and learn how to taste wines “blind” like a Sommelier. With this entertaining crash course, you’ll learn quick and easy tips to improve your everyday wine enjoyment by learning how to taste and describe wines like pro, purchase wines for your cellar and learn how to pair wines for any feast or occasion. Being a unique member of her industry’s elite group of specialists, she also uses anecdotes and personal stories about becoming the first South Asian woman to vault to the status of Master Sommelier. She conducts classes, provides post-event mixers and instructional wine bars for attendees, and creates exceptional experiences that are the ideal pairing of the informative and the entertaining. And everyone walks away with a greater knowledge about not only wine, but about the surprising depth of their personal taste.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
Alpana shares her story of how she overcame her modest and humble beginnings as the daughter of Fijian immigrant parents to becoming a successful restaurateur, Master Sommelier and Television personality. The valuable lessons she learned from the immigrant experience that helped her develop the grit, determination, and tenacity to achieve her high level of success. She shares stories of her childhood, navigating the expectations of her parents to become a doctor with wanting to pursue her passion for wine and why diversity and her role on television today is so important.
MENTORSHIP & PAYING IT FORWARD
Alpana knows the value of mentorship, she wouldn't have achieved what she did without it. She has mentored dozens of wine professionals who have gone on to achieve their own success. She offers her insights on how micro-mentoring can be just as effective as macro-mentoring, how companies can recognize, cultivate and retain talent in today's competitive job market and why a pay-it-forward culture is the key to creating a lasting legacy.
CRUSHING THE GLASS CEILING
Alpana shares her motivating and inspiring story of going from the daughter of Fijian immigrants to becoming a successful entrepreneur and the youngest woman to pass the Master Sommelier exam and being just one of 27 women to ever do so. She shares her wit and wisdom of how she overcame adversities and navigated a male dominated profession and also went on to have a successful television career and own three restaurants. She inspires women to show up in the ring and the importance of knowing that we are worthy and that we are enough.
PAST CLIENTS INCLUDE
BOOKING INQUIRIES
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CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
“Our event was a smashing success. Alpana’s talk was inspiring and pitch perfect. We dramatically moved our inclusive culture agenda forward with this event. Thank you for all your support and partnership.”
“The feedback we are receiving is extremely positive and everyone enjoyed the session. We appreciate your time, talents and sharing of your personal story to create a high quality PLUS Foundation event. Again, thank you for making this a successful Women Leadership Networking event”
“She was exceptional and terrific!”
“She is a pro! Alpana is spectacular. She has such a presence about her - she was perfect! It was like she belonged to our organization.”
“Alpana was absolutely amazing. The best speaker ratings of the year so far. She nailed it across the board and the members have been raving about her all day. The entrepreneurial story, brilliant knowledge and worked the storytelling angle throughout. Could not be more pleased with Alpana.”