On Friday, 4 September 2026, hospitality professionals from across Ubud came together at Taman Dedari Ubud for Learn, Shake, Create, an Advanced Mixology Training organised by the Ubud Hotels Association (UHA) in collaboration with the Ubud Food & Beverage Community (UFBC).

Designed specifically for professionals at Bar Manager level, the training went beyond cocktail techniques. It explored the foundations of becoming a stronger bartender, the process of developing an individual style, and the leadership and management skills required to build a successful bar team.

At the centre of the training was Bili Wirawan, whose career reflects the possibilities that come with continuous learning and professional development. With experience across international and luxury hospitality environments including The St. Regis Aspen, Bulgari Hotels & Resorts, and Mozaic Restaurant Gastronomic Bali.  Bili has developed an approach to mixology that combines technical precision, creativity, and a strong connection to local ingredients.

In 2024, Bili became the first recipient of Best Restaurant Mixologist of the Year by Les Grandes Tables du Monde, marking an important milestone for Indonesia's beverage industry and placing the work of an Indonesian mixologist on an international stage.

For participants, learning directly from an award-winning professional offered more than technical instruction. It provided an opportunity to understand the mindset behind excellence, how curiosity, discipline, creativity, and consistency can shape a long-term career behind the bar.

Building a Strong Foundation

Every strong bartender begins with the fundamentals.

Technical knowledge, consistency, attention to detail, understanding ingredients, and the ability to deliver quality service are essential foundations of the craft. But becoming a great bartender is not simply about knowing how to make a drink. It is also about understanding why certain techniques work, developing awareness of the guest experience, and continuously looking for ways to improve.

As professionals progress in their careers, these fundamentals become the foundation for something more personal: their own style.

Finding Your Own Style

Developing a personal style does not happen overnight. It comes from experience, experimentation, observation, and a willingness to learn from others.

For bartenders, finding that identity can mean understanding what they naturally gravitate towards, what inspires them, and how they can translate their knowledge and creativity into an experience that feels authentic.

Rather than simply following trends, professional growth comes from learning the principles behind the craft and then using that knowledge to create something personal.

That process of discovery is an important part of becoming a more confident professional—and eventually, a stronger leader.

The Management Behind the Bar

Stepping into a Bar Manager role means stepping into a much broader responsibility.

The focus is no longer only on what happens at the bar counter. Bar Managers are responsible for guiding their teams, maintaining service standards, managing daily operations, supporting consistency, and often contributing to the creative direction of their beverage programmes.

This requires a different set of skills.

A strong Bar Manager needs to understand people as well as processes: how to communicate expectations, identify strengths within a team, solve problems, maintain standards under pressure, and create an environment where people can perform at their best.

Professional development at this stage is therefore not only about becoming better at the craft. It is about learning how to make the people around you better too.

Building the Best Team

Behind every successful bar is a team that works together.

Building that team requires more than finding people with strong technical skills. It means understanding different personalities, recognising individual strengths, creating clear expectations, and establishing a culture where team members can learn from one another.

Leadership also means knowing when to step back and allow others to grow.

For a Bar Manager transitioning from bartender to leader, one of the biggest shifts is moving from being the person who does everything well to becoming the person who helps the entire team perform well.

That transition requires trust, communication, consistency, and the ability to lead by example.

Investing in Bar Leadership

For Ubud Hotels Association (UHA), creating opportunities for professionals to strengthen these skills forms part of a broader commitment to developing the people behind Bali's hospitality industry.

Under the leadership of Putu Surya Arysoma, Chairman of UHA, the association continues to emphasise collaboration, knowledge sharing, and professional development as important elements in strengthening Ubud's hospitality community.

Learn, Shake, Create reflects this vision in practice: bringing professionals together not simply to learn a technique, but to exchange knowledge, strengthen leadership capabilities, and take new ideas back to their respective teams and properties.

Growing Together Through UHA and UFBC

The training also demonstrated the value of collaboration between hospitality communities.

Through the partnership between UHA and the Ubud Food & Beverage Community (UFBC), professionals from across the food and beverage sector were brought together around a shared goal: strengthening skills, encouraging knowledge exchange, and creating opportunities for industry professionals to learn from one another.

UFBC is chaired by Rai Wibawa, Director of Food & Beverage at Soulshine Bali, whose experience includes senior F&B roles across Bali's hospitality industry.

The collaboration demonstrates how industry communities can create more meaningful professional development opportunities when knowledge is shared beyond individual hotels, restaurants, and departments.

When professionals come together, experience becomes a collective resource. Ideas can move between properties, teams can learn from different approaches, and individuals can gain perspectives they may not encounter within their own workplace.

A Collaborative Industry Effort

The training was also supported by partners from across the beverage and professional bar industry, contributing to the hands-on nature of the session. Hatten, Squeeze, Giffard France, CV Indo Makmur Asia, Jose Cuervo, Planteray, Bushmills, and Bar Essentials supported the programme with products and professional bar essentials.

Beyond the practical support, the collaboration highlighted the role industry partners can play in professional development.

Hospitality is built on connections between hotels, restaurants, bars, suppliers, brands, and the professionals working within them. When these different parts of the industry come together around education and skills development, they create opportunities for people to learn, experiment, exchange ideas, and continue raising standards.

Bringing the Learning Back Behind the Bar

Set within the surroundings of Taman Dedari Ubud, the training created a space for participants to step away from their daily routines and focus on their craft, leadership, and professional development.

Ultimately, the day demonstrated that elevating the bar experience starts with investing in the people behind it.

For the participants of Learn, Shake, Create, the experience was an opportunity to refine familiar skills, discover new approaches, and explore the balance between precision and creativity. More importantly, it encouraged them to think about what comes next—not only as bartenders, but as professionals responsible for leading teams and shaping the future of their bars.

With Bili Wirawan sharing his expertise and experience, and with UHA and UFBC creating a space for professional exchange, the training reinforced an important message: excellence behind the bar is an ongoing process.

It requires curiosity, discipline, creativity, consistency, and a willingness to keep learning.

Looking Ahead

The hope is that Learn, Shake, Create will be more than a one-day learning experience, but the beginning of continued opportunities for professional development within Bali's hospitality industry.

Through initiatives like this, UHA hopes to encourage more knowledge-sharing sessions, practical training, and collaborations that support hospitality professionals at different stages of their careers.

The collaboration with UFBC also opens the door for future programmes that bring together the wider food and beverage community—creating more opportunities for professionals to connect, learn from industry leaders, exchange ideas, and strengthen hospitality standards across Bali.

As UHA continues to foster collaboration among its members and industry partners, the vision is simple: to create a hospitality community where people continue to learn, share, and grow together.

From learning the fundamentals, to mastering the shake, to creating with intention, Learn, Shake, Create showed that every great cocktail begins long before it reaches the guest.

It begins with the people who make it—and with an industry willing to invest in their growth.