Description
The majority of issues with maintaining coffee equipment are related to water. Tap water is full of particulates that add wear and tear on all machines…not to mention affecting the taste and quality of your coffee!  This discussion panel will talk to cafe owners about the basics of Maintenance plans and how addressing water quality WILL save trouble and money in the long run. To filter or not to filter? How often should a cafe test water quality? What are the early warning signs that a TECH service call is soon needed. This short class could create long savings in your operating budget.

Speaker Bios
Panel
1) Sean Price (Seeds Coffee)
Coming Soon

2) Mark Kennedy (Gruppo Cimbali)
Coming Soon

3) Robbie Mahner (Perfect Shot Espresso)
Coming Soon

Day/Time/Location:
Friday 9/15, 1:00 – 1:45pm, Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
Cold brew. iced coffee. nitro coffee. cold coffee. flash brew. What is the difference and where are we going with this exploding category? Whatever you call it, we’ve seen the cold brew category grow at staggering rates over the past ten years and it’s becoming more and more impossible to overlook. What was initially heralded as a coffee trend has proven that it’s here to stay and has amazing potential for growth. in this class, we will host a panel of industry leaders to understand their approach to cold brew as well as discuss the future of this innovative category and how you can best be a part!

Speaker Bio
Trey Malone is the CEO of Northshore Specialty Coffee in Covington, LA. He’s also a founding member of Common Collabs in orange county, california which leads the industry in extraction innovation for coffee and tea. Common Collabs operates as a private label, co-packing solution for coffee and tea brands across the US implementing proprietary extraction technology and shelf stability innovations to offer high-quality coffee extracts in ready-to-drink formats.

Description
Your customers eat, drink, and buy with their eyes. In this session we will go over how you can set up your menu to be the perfect representation of your brand, help your customers decide what they want more efficiently, help your baristas sell more things, and ultimately make you more money.

Speaker Bio
Anna Gutierrez Beginning her coffee career in 1997 as a barista, Anna currently manages the Barista 22 line of syrups, sauces, powders, and fruit beverage bases. Having extensive experience working with distributors and national coffee chains, she’s an expert in product selection, marketing and branding, R + D of specialty coffee products, and training, and has a consistent passion for beverage development. Anna has presented at Coffee shows since 2005, has been a certified United States Barista Championships and former Coffee Fest latte art judge, can be seen emceeing a variety of coffee events nationally, and holds several Signature Drink Competition titles. She has also authored multiple coffee publication articles, is a Barista Guild of America member, is an SCA Level 1 Certified barista, and was also co-featured on Barista Magazine’s April 2012 cover.

Description
We aim to educate and excite across the board covering coffee as it relates to Black History, product innovations, and ways to bring your business to life. With so many options at every turn, we want to make sure you stand out in a premium way!

Speaker Bio
Deniseea Taylor AKA Chicken and Champagne wears many hats as a Social Media Influencer, Story Teller, and Cocktail Connoisseur pairing Black History with mixology. From her website, “I create cocktails that pair with Black history. I use libations & knowledge to create cool products to share around the world. In addition to the dope products my interactive classes that cover mixology & history will change your life.”

Day/Time/Location:
Friday 9/15, 3:00 – 3:30pm Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
The specialty coffee world is experiencing a micro-roasting revolution. New technologies like the Bellwether Series 2 roaster are enabling roasters to roast coffee in smaller batches with greater precision and flexibility. This seminar will explore the micro-roastery movement and how it is changing the game for roasters and cafes. We’ll discuss the benefits of micro-roasting 100% single origin coffees in small batches, using coffee as a promotional tool with special menu pairings, empowering chefs to roast coffee in-house, and enabling hub-and-spoke models where micro-roasters supply coffee to other businesses. By the end of this seminar, attendees will have an appreciation for the innovations in micro-roasting and how they can implement fresh ideas in their own businesses. The future looks bright for specialty coffee as the micro-roasting trend unlocks new levels of quality, freshness, and creativity.

Speaker Bio
Justin Bravo, Bellwether Coffee’s Digital Marketing Manager, directs digital media and creative services for the company that builds the all-electric, automatic, and ventless Bellwether Series 2 coffee roaster that enables precision micro-roasting.

Day/Time/Location:
Friday 9/15, 3:30 – 4:00pm Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
Running a business is hard. Running a small business is even harder. Running a small business in a small town, almost impossible to keep sustainable for a long period of time. Today we’ll be looking at ways to “make it” as a coffee shop in a small town. Things like overhead, opportunities, and opposition to the less seen things like work/personal life balance, low income, and how to stay physically/mentally healthy.

Speaker Bio
Preston Quillen has owned a Coffee Roastery / Shop in Lower Alabama for over 5 years now. His love for coffee originated in Haiti while he was on a mission trip and came back with a passion to partner with farmers all across the globe in order to support their families and showcase their coffees. Bigbee Coffee is focused on serving great coffee, bringing the community together, all to see a small change in lives around the world.

Day/Time/Location:
Saturday 9/16, 12:30 – 1:00pm, Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
Running a business is hard. Running a small business is even harder. Running a small business in a small town, almost impossible to keep sustainable for a long period of time. Today we’ll be looking at ways to “make it” as a coffee shop in a small town. Things like overhead, opportunities, and opposition to the less seen things like work/personal life balance, low income, and how to stay physically/mentally healthy.

Speaker Bio
Preston Quillen has owned a Coffee Roastery / Shop in Lower Alabama for over 5 years now. His love for coffee originated in Haiti while he was on a mission trip and came back with a passion to partner with farmers all across the globe in order to support their families and showcase their coffees. Bigbee Coffee is focused on serving great coffee, bringing the community together, all to see a small change in lives around the world.

Day/Time/Location:
Saturday 9/16, 1:00 – 1:30pm, Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
Red Bull’s product communications team will demystify caffeine, break down what ingredients are in a Red Bull and the history of the company. This session can help answer common questions or objections of caffeine and sugar to best educate consumers.

Speaker Bios
Crystal Mireles is Red Bull’s Senior Product Communication Manager and Dezi Abeyta is a registered dietician at Red Bull.

Day/Time/Location:
Satruday 9/16, 2:00 – 2:45pm, Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
Having an All-Star staff of properly-trained baristas can make or break the success of your business. We’ll walk through how to put together a stellar training program, including the importance of training, instructor selection, necessary beverage-building techniques as well as enforcement of consistency and quality control.

Speaker Bio
Anna Gutierrez
Beginning her coffee career in 1997 as a barista, Anna currently manages the Barista 22 line of syrups, sauces, powders, and fruit beverage bases. Having extensive experience working with distributors and national coffee chains, she’s an expert in product selection, marketing and branding, R + D of specialty coffee products, and training, and has a consistent passion for beverage development. Anna has presented at Coffee shows since 2005, has been a certified United States Barista Championships and former Coffee Fest latte art judge, can be seen emceeing a variety of coffee events nationally, and holds several Signature Drink Competition titles. She has also authored multiple coffee publication articles, is a Barista Guild of America member, is an SCA Level 1 Certified barista, and was also co-featured on Barista Magazine’s April 2012 cover.

Day/Time/Location:
Saturday 9/16, 2:45 – 3:30pm, Cafe Owners/Managers Classroom

Description
There’s a noticeable shift happening in the coffee culture landscape, and operators are challenged with revitalizing their offerings. Join Monin to explore 2023 beverage trends to help you create flavorful, signature beverages for your menu. Not only will this help increase your beverage profits, but it will also help your coffee shop become a unique beverage destination. You will leave feeling inspired!

Speaker Bio
Ryan Divis has been with Monin since 2013. She is on the field sales marketing team and works closely with the sales team in planning conferences, tradeshows, customer events and supporting customers’ needs. She is also part of a team that researches and presents beverage and flavor trends to customers both in office and out in the field.

Description
What are Americans drinking? Which specialty coffee beverages are currently the most popular? Do U.S. coffee consumers want highly caffeinated coffee or lower caffeine, functional coffees, espresso-based, cold brew or RTD coffee? How do coffee consumers feel about sustainability? This session will provide an overview of the U.S. coffee market offering insight into consumption and growth trends, changing consumer preferences (among various demographic groups and regions as well as the different types of coffees being consumed, ingredients, flavors, and formats, etc.), cold brew’s surge in popularity, innovations in RTD, and prospects and challenges in the U.S. coffee market.

Speaker Bio
Vanessa L. Facenda has been editor of Tea & Coffee Trade Journal since 2012. Founded in 1901, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal (T&CTJ) is the oldest international business-to-business publication covering the global coffee and tea industries from origin through the supply chain. Vanessa is responsible for the editorial direction and all editorial content for the publication, website and newsletter, including writing a weekly blog and a column for each print edition, as well as writing articles for and multiple sections of the magazine. She is the public face of T&CTJ, travelling to conferences, conventions, trade shows and events around the world. Within the coffee and tea industries, Vanessa has presented at multiple United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization events, the National Coffee Association Convention, ECRM: Coffee, Tea, Coffee & Cocoa, and multiple World Tea Expos. She has also appeared on CNBC and Fox Business News programs. Vanessa has spent most of her career in publishing with magazines such as Brandweek and Retail Merchandiser – where she also served as editor – covering food and beverages, consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, branding, advertising, licensing, and health and beauty, among several other categories. Her articles have appeared in consumer and business-to-business publications including Consumer Digest, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek, Specialty Food Magazine and Beverage World. She resides in New York.