Registration opens for Specialty Coffee Expo & Re:co Symposium 2023

Image: Specialty Coffee Association
Registration is now open for both 2023 Specialty Coffee Expo and Re:co Symposium, taking place in Portland, Oregon, USA this April. Expo is North America’s largest gathering of specialty coffee professionals and is set to take place at the Oregon Convention Center from 21-23 April, 2023. Re:co Symposium precedes Expo, running 19-20 April. Re:co addresses the pressing topics facing our industry today, with expert speakers, sensory experiences, live discussion, networking, and engagement opportunities.
Specialty Coffee Expo
Specialty Coffee Expo is the largest specialty coffee event in North America, featuring the latest industry products, exciting industry trends, and provides exclusive access to the newest companies in coffee.
Features at Expo
Over 450 exhibitors showcase their most innovative products and services at Expo with many competing for Best New Product and Coffee Design Awards. On the Expo show floor, visitors can network with professionals from across the industry, including roasters, retailers, producers, importers, and baristas. The Green Coffee Buyers and Sellers Program returns for its second year, facilitating business relationships for the purchase and sale of green coffee. The Cupping Exchange will provide the opportunity to sample coffees from a variety of regions, while the Roaster Village is a bustling meeting point on the show floor to talk to small roasters and boutique green coffee importers. Those seeking education experiences will find dozens of lectures by industry experts as well as workshops covering a wide array of topics of interest to coffee professionals, and the latest coffee research highlighted during the Coffee Science Foundation Scientific Poster Session.
Roaster Village
The Roaster Village serves as a key meeting point at SCA trade shows for attendees to talk to smaller roasters and boutique green coffee importers who showcase the latest trends in coffee sourcing, handling, roasting, brewing and distribution. This year the Roaster Village is moving to a prominent area on the main show floor.
Best New Product Competition and Display
The Best New Product Competition recognises the latest innovations in the specialty coffee industry. Recent winners include Littorary, Fellow, Plant Tap/Numilk, and many others.
All submissions will be placed on permanent digital display on the New in Coffee platform. Submissions are open to 2023 Specialty Coffee Expo exhibitors from 17 January and close 17 March, 2023.
Competition categories include:
• Coffee accessories
• Commercial coffee preparation and serving equipment
• Consumer coffee preparation and serving equipment
• Open class
• Specialty coffee beverage flavour additive
• Specialty non-coffee beverage stand alone
More information about Best New Product is available on the event website.
Coffee Design Awards
Great design serves an important function in distinguishing specialty coffee. The Coffee Design Awards celebrate innovation in design in four categories: coffee spaces, branding, packaging, and
vessels. All submissions to the Coffee Design Awards will be placed on permanent display on the Design in Coffee platform. Submissions are open from 17 January to 17 March, 2023.
More information about the Coffee Design Awards is available on the event website.
US Coffee Championships
The 2023 Specialty Coffee Expo will host the six US Coffee Championships organised by the staff and volunteers of the SCA US Chapter. Coffee professionals from across the United States will compete in Portland in the US Barista, US Brewers Cup, US Coffee in Good Spirits, US Latte Art, US Cup Tasters and US Roaster Championships.
Registration and Hotels
Registration is now open at coffeeexpo.org, with several discount levels available—including an early bird discount until 10 March, 2023. Visitors may take advantage of special hotel rates by booking their rooms through the Expo reservations webpage.
Re:co Symposium
Re:co is a unique, experiential gathering of the specialty coffee industry designed to explore the emerging future so that we may effectively–and collectively–respond to its opportunities. Taking place prior to the Specialty Coffee Expo, 19-20 April, at the Oregon Convention Center, Re:co is an immersive in-person experience featuring plenary talks, seminars, sensory experiences, and networking opportunities, that will spark intellectual & personal connections to help you respond to specialty coffee’s emerging future.
Re:co 2022 offered a glimpse of the many possibilities that exist if we let go of a singular narrative of “coffee’s next wave.” This year, we explore what it means to progress within this new paradigm: How does a market deliver diverse experiences to a community that has diverse tastes? Reflective of Re:co’s diverse participants, this year’s programming continues with serial plenary sessions as well as simultaneous seminar sessions in order to allow participants to curate an experience that is most relevant to them.
Day one of Re:co 2023 will feature plenary talks: short, polished presentations that explore the current landscape, before adjusting to sense what the future might hold. From how the next generation(s) might engage with coffee to how we might crack open the important question of a green coffee identity standard, we’ll explore the substantial change facing the industry. The second day of the event will be focused around the seminar program, offering a chance for longer, intimate, and interactive sessions. Offered across four simultaneous rooms, this year’s seminars are designed to help participants engage with the existential questions facing coffee’s future, highlight case studies and modes of thinking valuable to coffee businesses, and proffer updates on the latest coffee research.
Plenary speakers and seminar presenters include Cheryl Hung (vice president, Insights – Dig Insights), Dr. Fabiana Carvalho (University of Campinas), Ian Williams (owner and founder – Deadstock Coffee), Miranda Caldwell (founder – The Coffee MBA), Ted Fischer (professor – Vanderbilt University), and Vaughn Tan (assistant professor of Strategy – University College London School of Management).
Across both days, the signature Re:co sensory experiences will give attendees the opportunity to taste things directly connected to the plenary and seminar sessions, with opportunities for attendees to connect across coffee breaks and mealtimes. Intentional connections built between the program’s plenary, seminar, and sensory sessions make this year’s event best experienced over the full two days.
Registration is now open at recosymposium.org, with several discount levels available—including an early bird discount until 10 March. A two-day badge offers the full, immersive Re:co experience (base price: US$1425); with a one-day badge giving access to the Re:co seminars & sensory experiences on 20 April (base price: US$750). Both ticket options include complimentary access to the Specialty Coffee Expo, including access to the Exhibit Hall, Competitions Hall, show features, SCA Lectures series, and public cuppings in the Cupping Exchange.