Ever get the sense that cutting-edge coffee attracts innovators and artists? So did Rip Pruisken, founder of Dutch-style coffee wafel company Rip van Wafels. So he created an event to draw the coffee, technology and arts communities together on purpose, just to see what would happen.
The first iteration of Pruisken’s event, called Mandala, was held last year in San Francisco where Rip van Wafels is headquartered, and brought 400 luminaries from the three disparate fields together. When the San Francisco event proved fruitful, Pruisken turned his attention toward the similarities in innovation between Seattle and Portland, and set his sights on bringing them together in 2014. With a guest list of 500 and an unfinished warehouse space rented out in SoDo, the event, this time called Convergence, hit Seattle on Saturday night.
As per its mission statement, “Convergence is a night to discover what can happen when major thought leaders from the coffee, tech and art communities are united under one roof.” No end goal, no expectation. Just a sense that something could transpire. As conversations and espresso machines began buzzing around 8pm, they fed into a sense of energy that only escalated as the warehouse filled.
By 10pm, attendees from up and down the West Coast were spilling out of the soaring garage doorway into the lot behind the building, slipping in and out again for espresso shots and pours from the likes of out-of-towners Marley Coffee and Blue Bottle and locals Victrola and event co-host Slate, or refills on specialty cocktails (Captive Spirits, Westland, Sound Spirits and more were in attendance). Between shiny silver and bright white espresso machines, beside shelves of recently completed pottery, and below industrial yellow high-ceiling beams (“2-Ton Limit”) and chains of empty Rip van Wafel boxes strung like garlands overhead, small groups formed and separated to a soundtrack of colorful lights and local beats that lasted until 1. For an event based simply on bringing people together, Convergence 2014 can already be declared a success. But as an event hoping to catalyze future innovation, we only look forward to its continued reverberations.
