No time to slow down this summer

So much for summer being the leisurely time of year—Tea & Coffee Trade Journal has been going nonstop since May following its acquisition by Bell Publishing. First up was World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, Nev. (June 15-17), where I participated in a media panel entitled, “Working with the Media: Learn from Top Tea Editors.” The session was designed to educate small tea/tea-related companies that may not have public relations or marketing departments on how to work with various print and online media to gain exposure for their companies and how to cultivate relationships with the media. We were thrilled to see the room fill to near-capacity, yet surprised to learn that a majority of attendees were not from tea companies at all, but were bloggers and aspiring writers who were eager to begin pitching us story ideas!

The next stop was SCAE’s World of Coffee event in Dublin, Ireland—my first since the 2013 show in Nice, France. World of Coffee Dublin grew in both the number of exhibitors and attendees, was more dynamic and there was great energy on the show floor. While there were conversations about the proposed SCAA and SCAE merger, talk of Brexit (the vote took place on the opening day of the show) dominated all three days. Although the same two questions could be heard repeatedly throughout the show: “What do you think will happen?” before the vote and “Can you believe what happened?” following the vote, attendees, who hailed from around the globe, were more concerned about how trade and doing business with the United Kingdom and the European Union would be affected now that the UK had voted to leave the EU.

After World of Coffee Dublin, I headed to Gravesend, England, to visit Bell’s offices, meet my new colleagues, and discuss a strategy for revamping T&CTJ, not just giving it a make-over, but improving its entire look, services and reputation. In July, we debuted our new website (I’d say refurbished or remodeled but the site has been completely overhauled so it’s truly new). Our new website enables us to offer expanded industry coverage because news is updated daily and there are more opportunities to work with companies on stories within the various sections of the website such as research and white papers, product profiles and videos. I encourage you to visit www.teaandcoffee.net and let us know what you think.

If this July/August issue of T&CTJ looks different, your eyes are not deceiving you—the magazine is a new size. T&CTJ is adopting an A4 (European) format now that it is being published in the UK and we are unveiling our redesign with this issue. We hope you like the new look and feel of T&CTJ. As always, I welcome your feedback so please feel free to email me. Enjoy the remainder of the summer as we gear up for another busy fall season!

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