This page is - The Full Story : Caffe Culture

The story:

The visitor figure for the Caffe Culture show was a quite immense 11,363 – however, the really important story of the show is that not all exhibitors were prepared for the different kind of audience which the barista championships attracted.

CAFFE CULTURE CONTROVERSY -

- will the trade's shows be better for it?

August 2010

 *

This year’s Caffe Culture show was not just the biggest in the show’s history, but the biggest coffee-related exhibition in the world – the attendance figure was 11,363, more than double the previous highest attendance.  However, the coffee industry has not been entirely pleased with the event – but it is widely expected that next year’s show will be considerably better as a result.

The controversy which has arisen over this year’s event is all based on the decision to use Caffe Culture as the venue for the World Barista Championships. To accommodate this, the show was moved back from its usual date, and an extremely large theatre/arena was built at one end of the main Olympia hall, specifically to hold the championship.

The drawing-power of the event among the barista community was unquestionable – however, it produced an uncomfortable mix between those who wanted a ‘hip’ and ‘happening’ event in accord with the modern barista culture, and those who wanted a serious professional exhibition at which they could talk business with a primarily British trade audience.

Both the audience and the exhibitors were sharply divided.

Exhibitors this year fell into two distinct camps:

* Those who realised what razzamatazz was going to surround the WBC, and what kind of people follow barista championships, and who prepared their show accordingly.  Many of this kind of exhibitor devoted their stands to hands-on machine demonstrations and tastings, and seem fairly satisfied. Many roaster exhibitors had increased the opportunity for visitors to taste and try different coffees.

*  Those who didn’t foresee the type of audience, and who now say that they had too many foreign visitors, when they wanted British ones; that they had too many sample-collecting WBC fans instead of serious customers; and that the noise from the WBC arena drowned a lot of what serious conversations they had.

Many exhibitors complained about the noise from the competition arena, which was generally agreed to be extreme and made conversation difficult. When one exhibitor was told: 'you're at a happening, hip, vibrant top international show!', he replied: 'I don't want to be cool, I want to be able to talk to people'.

*

What did exhibitors say?

Linda Grey, Anfim Roasters / Capital Coffee Roasters (one of the very few to have a bi-lingual appearance to her stand.)  -   “We did realise it was going to be more of an international exhibition which is why we were there as Anfim (with Mario Monfrini) and as SV Italia (with Mr Nebuloni) rather than as Capital Coffee alone – but some people were upset about the number of irrelevant visitors.”

Steve Mooring, Caffe Society (showing Brasilia machines) – “We had a reasonable show, because we knew exactly what was going to happen. The visitor numbers were on the one hand fantastic, but I think the increase was due to baristas – having spoken to several of our competitors, I find that many of us are agreed that serious buyer numbers were down. Having said that, we did achieve a number of very good leads.

“We had built a bigger stand to cater for the extra visitors – we had a ‘geek space’, which we knew to do from previous experience. But we know that a lot of these people won’t be in the market for an espresso machine for five years, so much of this was a brand-building exercise.

“Will exhibitors be stirred into activity next year? Will this experience make for a better show next year? In that the UK is becoming more aware of the specialist barista, yes. Even for the average exhibitor, yes, the experience should help in the long term… the 2010 experience can only be a good thing.”

An anonymous exhibitor (but one who has been the buyer of very large stands since the show began)  - 

“The noise was no help at all – it was an appalling experience.  From a commercial point of view, to have more exhibitors and the same number of commercially-minded visitors, meant that nobody could possibly get to see everybody.

“However, Caffe Culture are much better at getting exhibitor feedback than any other show, so I expect they will work on it.  I think it will change slightly, for the better, and I think overall this year’s experience will endorse it’s ‘must-do’ status.”

Single Source – this company said they had too many foreign visitors, and that had they appreciated the likely international attendance, they would have drawn in colleagues from Europe. “We think the WBC added more than it took away – but we can imagine how stands near the WBC suffered, because the noise was extreme even far away, where we were.”

Lina Chiodo, Bunn – “A great show and huge success”. (Bunn divided its interest with two stands, on both of which its new Trifecta machine was clearly open for inspection; one was a tasting stand for single-origin coffees).

Ian Balmforth, Grumpy Mule - “The show was poor. I knew what to expect but, from the pre-show hype, I was expecting far more serious UK trade buyers. I think it shows that the vast majority of the UK coffee buying trade doesn't have a clue about the so called 'elite' end of the market, probably because they cannot see how to make money out of it.

“It will be some years before we return, although this does not mean that Grumpy Mule will give up the fight for great coffee - we will continue to strive to promote fantastic coffee in both the retail and catering markets!”

Matt Tuffee, La Cimbali – “The experience was better for PR than sales – but it certainly got our name seen.”

Jeremy Torz, Union Hand-Roasted – “Those who are shell-shocked by Caffe Culture this year are those who haven’t worked out that this industry is changing!

“In the mid-90s, even five years ago, you wouldn’t have had the kinds of conversations with trade customers that we do now. But what have some suppliers been doing to change with their customers during the years since? The industry has become very lazy.”

Another anonymous one, who has exhibited with a big stand once or twice, but not this year:  “I’m glad I saved my money this year. I don't think the show can be two things - it can be a businesslike trade show in the traditional sense, or it can be one massive barista jam, but not both.”

Simon Law, Handmade Cake Company - “Very mixed views. A bit of a lack of serious customers.”

James Sweeting, Lincoln and York - “We enjoyed it. It was good showcase - but not enough quality people there.”

*

What did visitors say?

The barista community was not entirely complimentary, although some of the criticisms may be thought to be not entirely fair.

“I certainly think a lot of people hadn't really understood who the extra attendees would be, and what their interests would be,” agreed James Hoffmann of Square Mile Coffee, who was speaking at the seminar programme. “So a lot of companies that would have had good shows in the previous years may have felt very differently this year. This year, some had a terrible show, while others were pleasantly over-run.”

An Irish barista blogger wrote:  “It was an odd few days, a very different WBC to last year’s. The atmosphere at the show was simultaneously wonderfully convivial and at times disconcertingly surreal. I found my mind switching between awe at the assembled talent and resources, and reeling against what I hope most will forgive me for calling the sometimes borderline absurdity of this subculture.”

(That is, we think, a wonderful description of the barista community!)

However, on one blog was the comment: “It seems odd that they seemed to show such annoyance and hostility towards the event that was a sufficient draw to double the size of their exhibition.  If anyone can explain it, I’m all ears….” 

Another wrote: “The event organisers seemed to being doing everything in their power to make life difficult for us. The security at the event ridiculously pushy, forcing out booth-dwellers and schlock peddlers abruptly at 6pm sharp. We personally spent twenty minutes begging security to let us back in to the show room floor, after accidentally leaving our blog bag backstage. Security forces refused to let us in past 6pm, even though events were still taking place inside.

“Can anyone explain this? SCAE? Caffé Culture Security Goons? The WBC ‘Chang Gang’?”

There are, of course, several interesting references in that. The dismissive reference to ‘shlock-peddlers’ does rather suggest that the barista community considered the commercial show to be secondary to the barista championships.  The ‘Chang Gang’ is clearly a reference to Cindy Chang, the chief executive of the World Barista Championships.   An equally interesting aspect with regard to the security men is that, particularly with the rise of the blog culture, many more people apply for all kinds of events under the flag of  ‘press’ than ever before – in many cases, it is not a legitimate description.   By contrast, we on Coffee House magazine have one personal experience of this year's Caffe Culture security being quite extremely helpful outside show hours – and, notably, making the remark: ‘you’re the first polite press person we’ve had’, which is a shocking but telling phrase.

*

What did the organisers say?

Did the organisers leap at the chance to take on something which would double the size of their exhibition,  but without the expectation that the WBC would end up dominating the whole event, so that the result was great for those who wanted to be into the whole ‘hip barista vibe’ thing, but fairly annoying for many others?

“It’s no secret we were delighted to land the WBC as it fulfilled a number of our strategic objectives - we ambitiously wanted to put on the biggest coffee trade exhibition in the world this year, and I believe that we delivered that,” said organiser Elliot Gard.

“However, managing this within the often frustrating and limiting health & safety and venue regulations, coupled with competition times running over schedule, this does raise issues that our visitors and competitors are completely unaware of, which mean we have to implement certain measures to ensure that no one is put at any risk. Not everyone likes being told they have to leave a party, particularly a good one!

“We wouldn’t expect our visitors/competitors to know all this but we, as the organisers, have to follow strict guidelines to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.”

“All the exhibitors were sold into the fact that we would be hosting the WBC and that this year’s show would be very much a ‘one-off’. We were very clear from the outset as to the international element but also the type of visitor we were expecting. We knew we had to ensure that we provided an increase in the number of core visitors to ensure our exhibitors generated enough business to justify the additional spend most exhibitors allocated to Caffe Culture this year.

“Without full analysis of the figures, I’ve seen a report that shows we had a 25 per cent  increase in UK visitors, which is a huge increase. I truly believe that because the show nearly tripled in size (in terms of the square metres of stands sold) the concentration of visitors was diluted, which gave the misconception that core visitor numbers were down.”

(The increase in international visitors was significant – up 687 per cent. However, the organisers do not yet know exactly who these people were, and whether they were barista fans or serious buyers.)

Did the WBC fail to warn the organisers that their event followers would be somewhere between a 1970s teenybop concert audience and a football crowd?  Had they done so, would the organisers have shifted the WBC to the smaller hall and left the big hall for those who wanted to do business?

“To be honest, I wouldn’t have,” replied Elliot Gard. “I specifically designed the floor plan so that the noise and atmosphere generated on the stages created ‘buzz’ within both halls. The exhibitors had the choice of being in the vicinity of the stages or not, so maybe the ones who were disturbed by the competitions should have known there would be noise, and picked a quieter location in the hall.”

Some exhibitors have said that the show can’t be two things - it can be a businesslike trade show in the traditional sense, or it can be one massive barista jam, but not both.  

“I couldn’t agree more,” said Elliot Gard. “This year was a one-off, and the WBC coming to this year’s Caffe Culture provided a fantastic opportunity to shine a spotlight on the UK’s coffee scene – if we hadn’t have supported it, I feel we would have been letting our industry down.

“Caffe Culture 2011 will definitely go back to being a more traditional type show next year, although I am looking at a few ideas to counteract the loss of the competitions.”

With regard to the matter of his security staff, the organiser was more sympathetic towards them than some of his customers.

 “Due to the nature of the event and its strict regulations, the security staff had a very difficult job within a very stressful environment,” Elliot Gard told us. “Security staff were all briefed and told not to let people in without the correct badges.

“This was a major problem throughout the show. We were given lists every day as to who we were supposed to let into the venue in the morning - these were provided by the WBC and SCAE, and anyone whose names were not on the list were refused entry, which evidently caused friction.

“At times, the security staff had to make split-second judgments about whether to let bona-fide visitors in, if they did not have the correct badges. If they got this wrong at times, it wasn’t the fault of the security staff - they were following the directives we gave them.” 

*

The conclusion appears to be a general belief that the experience of the 2010 show will have a beneficial effect on the 2011 event, which will be held on 18^th-20^th May. Even without the debatable benefit of a world barista event, this magazine has found a body of opinion which believes that those exhibitors who were not prepared for this event will be inspired to produce less passive presentations next year, and to think more carefully about the mix of people who make up the modern coffee-house trade.

**