Sean Edwards – Publisher, Café Culture Magazine
The cafe industry is a fast-moving business and baristas are often the frontline face.
Being a barista is a complicated position that involves having high level skills, an engaging personality and a fast-thinking brain. Many baristas I have spoken to love the feeling of being under the pump, with a full rack of coffee orders and an adrenalin filled work area, it is like no other hospitality role.
One of the questions I’m often asked from baristas is, what’s next in my career development? The answer is, there are lots of directions you can pursue in a coffee and cafe career path.
This topic has led us to run a practical workshop where baristas can hear the stories from successful coffee professionals about their personal journeys. We have chosen six industry speakers; Phillip Di Bella – The Coffee Commune, Sam Taylor – Soul Origin, Justin Metcalf – Aurigin Coffee, David Makin – Axil Coffee, Paul Asquith – Josie Coffee and Janice Elsley – The Coffee Commune. Our event sponsor, The Alternative Dairy Company, loved the idea and concept of the workshops which was very different from other barista events, like latte art and barista skills events. Barista comps are great, but the format has changed a lot since Covid space restrictions. The Alternative Dairy Co have a very strong sustainable workplace culture for its employees and knew this type of positive workshop was ideal to put their name against.
I personally have been to some similar barista workshops around the world and was disappointed with organisers creating barriers between employee and employer. My background in Human Resource Management was always focused on happy team environments and I believe most workplaces don’t want division and disharmony.
Barista Engage, I promise, will give baristas some positive and clear career path options.
We will also be extending the event for four lucky entrants to use our team of speakers as mentors for a few months after the workshop to help them achieve some positive directions. Mentoring has been a tool that often gets overlooked in hospitality and we believe this methodology will be ideal for career development.
We still have a few positions left for next Thursday 17th of June’s event at The Coffee Commune Brisbane and the below link will lock in your booking. If you can’t attend, please become part of the event via our live steam.
On the day we have a complimentary lunch and drinks. We will have lots of fun, ADC Merchandise and a lucky door prize of a Barista Max home coffee machine, donated by Sunbeam.
Our team can’t wait to have a few fun days in Brisbane and catch up with some coffee people.
Cheers Sean
