Yesterday, the Specialty Coffee Association of America’s 26th annual conference—“the biggest coffee event on the planet”—wrapped up after five full days of lectures and workshops, barista championship competitions, tastings, roastery tours, social events throughout the city and a massive 700-booth exposition. Now industry professionals from around the world are headed home but not for too terribly long.
This year’s convention, known in the specialty coffee world as “The Event,” is the first half of the SCAA’s first-ever two-year exposition, which means that approximately 10,000 attendees will be back in Seattle next April. The Event will also be returning to Seattle for 2017 and 2018, with tentative plans here for 2020 and 2021.
Though the exposition has been held in Seattle several times previously, it has also been held in cities from New Orleans (host of the first SCAA Event, in 1989) to Portland to Boston. The upcoming series of Seattle shows is thanks to the choice of the city as a more permanent home for the gathering.
Walking through the Washington State Convention Center, registrants’ nametags read like a parade of nations, with more than 75 represented in total. The scope of the event is such that an app was created to help participants navigate the jam-packed schedule. For everyone from growers to importers to roasters to baristas, it is a chance to make international connections, see the latest in coffee technology, have a little fun at after-parties around the city, and watch national coffee championships including the United States Barista Championship, United States Brewers Cup and the United States Latte Art Competition. The winners of each competition, crowned yesterday, will go on to represent the U.S. at their corresponding world championships.
For Northwesterners, the more permanent move of the SCAA Event to Seattle is a chance to demonstrate leadership in the industry, and will continue to be a yearly catalyst for ever-better specialty coffee. As the SCAA slogan reminded attendees, “because great coffee doesn’t just happen.” We look forward to seeing the world of specialty coffee return to the heart of the Pacific Northwest in 2015.
