SERBC: not here. or anywhere near here.
August 23, 2007 – 12:46 amthis blog assumes the informal word is true, and the 2007 southeast regional barista competition will be held in clearwater, fla.
forgetting for a moment the extreme nether location for what is a 10-state competition region — on a peninsula! that juts into the sea! — the most burning question just might be: who will fill the seats without the usual hometown crowd from counter culture coffee?
it always seemed to this blog that a huge portion of the attendees at the past three chapel hill iterations came from north carolina’s triangle area, including a dozen or so from the east coast’s genial, talent-snarfing, durham-based roasting juggernaut alone. (no wonder the third wave crowd seemed so clubby!) it’s a safe bet they won’t all be carpooling the 11-hour trip south. and if you thought consumers didn’t show in chapel hill (there was basically this blog and uh … uh), just wait until the interested parties price plane tickets to tampa! of all the potentially eager s.c. attendees — competitors and enthusiasts — it’s hard to conjure one likely to go. atlanta, yes. clearwater, no.
which leaves the excitement-generating duties to … clearwater-based ambex roasters. is this an optimal scenario for advancement of the movement? just askin’!
UPDATE: telling verbage: “Hosting a Regional Barista Competition can give your company valuable exposure and connect you to coffee enthusiasts in your area.” (emphasis added) … which would make this the west central florida ambex barista jam!
UPDATE: ok, so it’s not such an informal rumor. strangely, we glanced earlier at this web site and quickly concluded, “naaah. that can’t be an official site.” but it is. the official date is oct. 19-21.
UPDATE: we haven’t even popped open the ol’ economic disadvantage argument. what were we thinking. it’s been, oh, at least a month since we’ve conjured the pitiful plight of the aspirational, shift-working barista effectively barred from from the rejuvenating camraderie of competition by the three deadly d’s — distance, duty and a dearth of corporate lard!
UPDATE: wait. there’s evening softball? we take it all back!
14 Responses to “SERBC: not here. or anywhere near here.”
Two questions:
What purpose does having it there serve and who is benefiting?
I guess you won’t be riding the scooter down to that event.
By Jaime on Aug 23, 2007
The South East region is a poor unfortunate soul itself.
As far as geography and (specialty coffee) population goes, it’s pretty much the largest region of the ten. That said, with the competition having been held all four times in North Carolina, the Floridians have felt a little geographically disenfranchised themselves.
No matter. murky coffee’s competition team, with all fresh-faces, will be in Clearwater, as will representatives from Counter Culture, Octane, etc.
Ambex will do a GREAT job with the SERBC, and we’re looking forward to the sand betwixt our toes come mid-October!!!
By Nick Cho on Aug 23, 2007
agreed. wouldn’t that place somewhat of a premium on locating events in optimal locations for drawing fans? generating excitement?
i’m not knocking ambex. but why not atlanta?
By bz on Aug 23, 2007
the point, again, is that i can think of a half-dozen south carolinians who would attend a show in atlanta. but not florida.
you gotta believe that the (admittedly small) handful of enthusiasts and potential competitors in alabama, mississippi, tennessee, n.c. and other adjacent states could also be swayed by proximity. isn’t that a logical way to build a movement in the wasteland?
By bz on Aug 23, 2007
I’ve got no problem with Clearwater as a locale for the SERBC but I grew up there too and could be biased.
If I can manage it I’ll be down there with my barista, Alex. Hell, I’m even toying with competing myself.
And here’s the website, so this can stop being a rumor: http://serbc.net/
By Shannon on Aug 23, 2007
definitely wouldn’t want to rain on that.
obviously, you’re the exception that proves the rule. and yet, surely it would be much more of a slam dunk for you AND alex to leave for a weekend if the thing was in atlanta, right? the travel, the logistics, the details involved with leaving a small shop … suddenly you’re better able to “manage it.”
no?
By bz on Aug 24, 2007
There’s not much in the way of interesting coffee in the Clearwater/St. Pete/Tampa region, so I don’t see how there’s going to much of local representation. Still… you have to start somewhere. If you look at the pdfs of the requirements for hosting, Atlanta would (I’d expect) be expensive enough that it would scare off most from hosting it there. Also, there is a growing scene in the rest of the florida that needs to be encouraged. Miami/Ft. Lauderdale are as far from Clearwater as Raleigh is from Atlanta. Keeping events in NC/ATL will prevent a lot of people from ever getting involved in the first place.
By true on Aug 24, 2007
good points. thank you. the question of reaching all corners of the southeast may be an impossible one.
which reminds me of this concept, where a grassroots farm system of smaller sanctioned jams/competitions might feed larger regional competitions, lowering the barriers of entry and widening the scope of competitions’ impact. it’s an excellent idea.
without such a system in place, though, what’s the next best thing? to me, it’s a central location that draws on as many of those pockets of interest as possible. atlanta might not be perfect either, but it definitely allows low-budget participants to easily enter from birmingham, s.c., north florida, tennessee, etc.
i’m glad for what this year’s serbc will (hopefully) do for the florida nexus. i’m frustrated that it has to come at the expense of the rest of the region.
from greenville, driving to clearwater is the same as driving to st. louis and almost as far as chicago. and we’re fairly central to the region.
By bz on Aug 24, 2007
Distance is always going to be a problem in the South– Miami to Pensacola, within florida, is the about the same drive time as Jacksonville FL to Washington DC. At least Tampa and St. Pete have airports with budget airlines that would allow many people to fly in for less than it costs to drive. Greenville to PIE (Clearwater/St. Pete airport) on Allegiant Air is $49 each way, and the airport is about 20 minutes away from Terry’s shop.
I’m in north Florida, so I’m excited to see anything happen that might kick-start the scene down here. My concern is that without serious outreach before the event you might as well hold the event in the Bahamas– those attending would fly in to have a nice tropical vacation in addition to the competition, but the event itself will not have any impact locally.
There’s so much potential here, but where do you start? Personally, I think you are dead on with the idea of a grassroots/farm system. (full disclosure– I’m overthinking all of this because I’m hoping that I’ll be able to help out in the near future. I’m about to sign a lease to start my own shop, and supporting/encouraging staff participation in competition is part of the business plan.)
By true on Aug 24, 2007
interesting stuff. where will this shop be? i’m especially intrigued by what value you may see in the competitions for your business, and what the hangups might be.
note: there was a massive debate on this issue here after last year’s serbc.
also, what kind of “serious outreach” would you like to see in advance of the bash?
as far as plane tickets go, i was initially excited by the direct budget flight. turns out the tix are $49 going and $79 coming. for us, it would be $577, not counting lodging or car rental. and the flights go only thursday, saturday and tuesday, which means that to catch the whole thing i’d need to burn three work vacation days.
gulp.
By bz on Aug 24, 2007
As someone is is approaching this whole coffee/barista thing from well outside of the industry, my interest as a owner/barista is in empowering anyone interested in developing their skills by providing every educational opportunity possible. I want the shop to compete in the marketplace on quality, not price. I want to develop a business where my fellow barista (baristi? baristas? i’m still not sure on usage with that one) are as passionate about their work as I am, to the point of building the foundations of employee ownership via equity positions based on longevity and quality of work. Competition is one way to kickstart interest (in some people, at least) in building skill sets. We’ll work out other options for people not interested in that route. Downside would be that I’d be diverting working capital from a start-up, but I’d just assume invest in people than things (not that I’m interesting in selling quality short by using anything but the best in ingredients/brewing/grinding).
re: serious outreach– As I see it, there are two ways to go about promoting something like the SERBC: you either have a set group of people who are going to attend no matter where it is, so the location doesn’t really matter (my Bahamas analogy) or else you work your ass off to bring people through the door who wouldn’t attend otherwise. The first is easy. you send word out through the relevant professional associations and you have enough people who attend out of habit that you know you’ll meet your goals to be successful as long as the venue is solid. (for example, I helped to organize an annual long distance mountain bike ride/fund raiser. we had to promote the crap out of it for the first two years, but since then it has reached capacity within a week of sending out announcements to the previous year’s attendees.) The second is difficult. You have to go outside of existing professional mailing lists to directly appeal to people (in the industry but outside of the active lists and boards) that there is a compelling reason to attend. Not rocket science, but it tends to take organization, cash, time, and strategy– and isn’t something you can easily pull off in a month’s time.
Check flights for TPA (Tampa, about 45 minutes away); one advantage of a tourist destination is that there are almost always cheap flights, rentals, and rooms (although the event location is directly adjacent to Scientology world headquarters and almost all of the adjacent budget hotels in downtown Clearwater have long been bought up by the church to house OTs-in-training).
By true on Aug 24, 2007
&@(#&$&*%^(@)! (
By true on Aug 24, 2007
(that’s the sound of my head exploding from reading the “massive debate” thread following last’ september’s SERBC.)
By true on Aug 24, 2007
you remind me of michael m, the ‘outsider’ in that thread who had some of the freshest, most meaningful insights into the importance and pitfalls of competitions.
which is why i keep bringing it up. i’m an outsider too, and deeply conflicted about these things. competitions are endless fun for nerds like myself who are easily wowed by the craft some people practice every day, for work. on the other hand, the opportunities for outreach that the current system misses are just … staggering.
your bush-beating exhortation is a good one. i doubt the scaa has the staff to do it well. and the lack of outreach to consumers and ‘real people’ is a long-running and well-known beef. i increasingly suspect that it will take some seriously motivated outsiders to alter the system (organizing independently the farm system, say, and forcing the competition circuit to deal with it). i’ve seriously considered some attempts for some time. i also have a different day job, which hampers things.
in any case, kudos to you for wading through that debate.
i can vivdly recall the day when, while i was at work, it erupted. like a flaming corpuscle.
By bz on Aug 24, 2007