Connect with Fellow Coffee Technicians at Local Community Events
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By Hylan Joseph
One of the keystone goals of the Coffee Technicians Guild is to build a program of community-driven and community-led events. Since the inception of the guild, we have put on 9 local events in our community. They have ranged from casually getting together for beverages to more formal and logistically-heavy tech-based events. For one event, we were able to tour the first Bellwether facility and see early versions of the unit (Thanks Arno!).
In January of this year, we had two events. The first was at The Crown in Oakland for part three of our Barista Basics service seminar. It was small – we had six attendees – but it was a great event because we were able to work with people unfamiliar with the service aspects of our industry. We showed them the framework of what we do as service technicians and how important communication between the barista and the tech is. This event led to a second gathering led by myself and Jessie Llarinas from Red Bay coffee, where we were able to go the subject matter in detail of how and why an espresso machine works and barista basics.
On March 7, 2020, we will have our first all-day community-driven event in Richmond, VA hosted by Leadership Council member Cat Foley from Homage Coffee and Blanchard’s Coffee. We will offer several technical classes and I will be leading the Barista Basics. More information to come!
We would like to see these types of events influence the future of the guild. We will still have our two annual Coffee Technicians Guild Summits, but we want to continue to conversation and camaraderie outside of these events, providing the tools and support for members to create and host their own event.
Do you have an event that you’d like to share with us? Head over to our Events Calendar to view upcoming events and submit your own.