Hall B-1 will be the 40,000 square foot home for the inaugural NOLA Coffee Festival in 2023. This space will allow for more than 100 exhibitor booths to be created and organized into the largest coffee event in the deep south. This is the first major coffee industry trade show in the Gulf South.

“We considered approaching hotels to host a smaller exhibitor area show for the first year”, explains co-found Jim Currie, “but we really didn’t want to limit where the trade show aspect could go. There seems to be a lot of pent-up demand for this type of an industry event. Baristas and coffee shop owners in the south haven’t had access to vendors and suppliers on this level. There is genuine excitement about what this trade show can provide in terms of education and professional interaction.”

“We also felt the need for extra space in the exhibit hall. This will give us the freedom to do larger latte art demonstrations and barista competition areas. It also gives our planning team the freedom to think larger in terms of dynamic or static displays that we can build. The festival will grow in future years – but the convention center space gives us room the dream bigger even in year one.”

Another key factor in the selection process was the Convention Centers excellent track record in green sustainability performance standards.

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center was selected as the 2023 event location. Convention Center President Michael J. Sawaya explained, “The event planners selected us in part because we can accommodate their large crowds, but Kevin and Jim were especially thrilled that our convention center is very green. Last month, we achieved our first Gold certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). This official certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) makes the NOENMCC the largest LEED-certified project in Louisiana, the largest convention center project in the U.S. certified under LEED v4.1 Operations and Maintenance and the first convention center in the world to be awarded initial certification under LEED v4.1 O+M. This is a high honor for the city and recognizes the hard work we did to meet those high certification standards. We think many conventions will now select New Orleans because of our smarter operations which better protect the environment.”

Exhibitor packages are available now. The Exhibitor Prospectus may be downloaded from the website.

Tickets for industry professionals (Friday Sept 15) and for epicurious/coffee fan consumers (Saturday Sept 16) go on sale in a few weeks.