Speakers
Paul Voge
Co-Founder & CEO
Aura Bora

Paul Voge is the co-founder and CEO of Aura Bora, a beverage company in San Francisco. Since the company's founding in 2019, Paul has expanded the brand’s craft sparkling waters into more than 8,000 stores across the country including Sprouts, Whole Foods, Walmart, Publix, and Wegmans.

Aura Bora’s best-selling retail varieties include Lavender Cucumber, Ginger Meyer Lemon, and Strawberry Basil. Every month Paul and his team formulate and release online-exclusive flavors for sparkling water aficionados like Guava Eucalyptus, Mango Chili, and the infamous Green Bean Casserole. Aura Bora prides itself on being sugar-free, calorie-free, non-GMO, Whole30 certified, and made with real herbal extracts. Read more in VICE, AdWeek, Forbes, Dieline, Food Network, and Fortune.

Paul’s entrepreneurial journey started with t-shirts, socks, concrete curbs, and even Christmas trees. As a Forbes “30 Under 30” awardee and Shark Tank success story, he has turned Aura Bora into one of the fastest growing beverages in the world.

He has appeared as an industry speaker for the Techstars and SKU accelerators as well as New Hope Network’s Business School for natural products. Paul also enjoys speaking with universities. Aura Bora has been a case study for students at Cornell, the University of Texas, University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, Texas A&M, and UCLA Anderson School of Management.

When not selling sparkling water, you can find Paul somewhere deep in the woods, away from his phone, but well-hydrated.

Event Introduction
Drink Talks
 · 06/26 (Day 2)
Wow, Drink It Up!
4.2H - Hall C1
Category Innovation
In the ultra-competitive beverage sector, innovation in product, brand, or channel is like beating around the bush when it comes to occupying consumers' mind space. Perhaps we need a more comprehensive approach to drive long-term category innovation as consumers' perceptions are formed by category.
Faced with numerous beverage categories, FBIF2024 will break down the issue into two dimensions. 1. For categories that are slowing down, like carbonated drinks, fruit and vegetable juices and so on, where to seek new growth amid coexistence of consumption upgrading and downgrading? 2. For fast-growing smaller categories, like sports drinks, instant coffee, zero-sugar tea and so on, how to seize opportunities in category substitution and become the next-gen star categories?
15:30
Herbal Drinks Prevail the World

As the health trend gains momentum, herbs appear more widely in new beverage products around the world. Over 300 million bottles of Yakan no Mugicha by Coca-Cola Japan since its launch less than one year ago. Aura Bora, a sparkling water made from real herbs, fruits, and flowers, is one of the fastest growing brands in the sparkling water category in the U.S. Xian Tea by CHI FOREST grew 10 times year on year with more than RMB 100 million sales achieved in the first eight months of 2022.

How can the potential of herbs be unleashed to the maximum by leveraging culinary cultures in the eastern and western worlds?

 

Link to agenda