Renata Pankova: World Cup expectations are going to be disappointing

Personally, it intrudes like some malign growth into my whole world but more importantly I find the amount of promotional effort and budget that so many people in our UK drinks business have staked on this event frightening.

Obviously they saw it as an engine which was going to drive sluggish beer sales but, like attendances at the event itself, I predict, despite all the media noise, expectations are going to be disappointing.

If ever there was a case of marketing-overload then this is it. It has certainly revealed an unexpected side of the English character to me, one where, as former Czech Republic president Vaclav Havel wrote "hope always triumphs over experience".

I refer, of course, to expectations of increased sales in the pub! I guess to some extent they are also dependent on the performance of England's squad, but as I'm no lover of the beautiful game I'm not qualified to comment on that. Did the English really invent it? (Yes. Ed)

And even if all this promotional activity does pay off through the next few weeks it's still only a flash in the pan. It would be much better to engage with events specifically

developed by local communities that could take root and be developed as destinations over the long term.

I am thinking of the kind of activities that would involve local pubs and craft beers of whatever style, providing a background for artistic, literary, sporting or recreational goings-on.

A splendid example of this was the Stoke Newington Literary Festival in London launched on an unsuspecting world by ace Publican​ columnist Pete Brown and his wife Liz Vater earlier this month.

It enjoyed the involvement of a number of local pubs, like the gardening demos at the White Hart and on its first outing has been hailed by the national media as a rival to the long-established Hay event.

Attracting the celebs as well as the local community means it has, as they say, got legs and I am already looking forward to next year's event. It's local, honest and real - as opposed to global, glitzy and meretricious - and will sell lots of beer this year, next year and forever.

Renata Pankova is chairwoman of Budvar UK