(Wines&Vines) - Everyone in the wine business knows how rigid federal, state and local laws discourage innovation, but that hasn’t totally stifled entrepreneurs.

Last week the first annual World Open Innovation conference met at Silverado Resort in Napa Valley, and though most of the meeting dealt with other market segments, they took advantage of the location to talk about new business models in the wine industry, too. 

The session was titled “Open Oenology: Envisioning the Future of the Wine Industry” and moderated by Dr. Sohyeong Kim, a post-doctoral student at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. 

It featured three people from the wine business to discuss innovation:

• Andrew Brome, sommelier for Gary Danko restaurants, discussed how new wealth in Asia is impacting the high end of the wine market as Asian investors foster new collaborations with winemakers.

• Benoit Vialle and Ryan O’Connell from Naked Wines.

• “Wine designer” Cecil Rose practices open innovation by reaching out to consumers and wine connoisseurs to create their own blends of wine by mixing and matching varietals and bottling their own blends on the spot. 

The conference was organized by professor Henry Chesbrough, who is known as the “father of open innovation.” He is the director of the Garwood Center for Open Innovation at the Haas School of Business.