On April 3, 2023, The Barista League announced the return of High Density, an online coffee conference that is free and open to all. This year’s High Density event, which will take place November 16, 2023, will feature 50+ speakers giving presentations and lectures on the theme “Not Just Origin.” According to a press release, the goal is “to celebrate the unique cultures, challenges, expertise, and people that get ignored when we use one word to define 70+ coffee-producing countries and their people.”
Why It Matters: High Density is a free conference put on by The Barista League that offers hours of content and educational resources. “The twice Sprudgie award-nominated conference was born of necessity after Covid put a stop to IRL events and has since grown as a means to bring the entire global coffee community together each year at one time and in one place.”
The conference returns for its third year and will center around the theme ‘Not Just Origin,’ an idea from Ana Luiza Pellicer, High Density’s 2023 Creative Producer. Pellicer comes from a family of producers and is the COO for International Business at Mió, her family’s coffee company in Monte Santo de Minas, Brazil. “The use of the term ‘Origin’ in the context of coffee doesn’t accurately capture the entire truth but rather reduces a third of the globe, with all its complexities, into one single concept or entity which serves to push apart those who consume coffee from those who grow it. Where we should be cherishing the differences, it offers only uniformity.”
The Full Extraction: Over 50 speakers are slated to give talks and demonstrations, including:
Morgan Eckroth of Onyx Coffee Roasters
Mario Fernández of the SCA
Mikael Jassin of CATUR Coffee Company
Sabine Parrish of the Centre for Food Policy, University of London
Karl Wienhold of the University of Lisbon
Sara Morrocchi of Vuna Origin Consulting
Lucia Solis of Luxia Coffee
Smayah Uwajenza of Elevate Through Coffee Initiative
What’s More: High Density has always been about making information easy to access for all. “With an emphasis on accessibility, it is totally free to register and tune in to watch High Density, nor do you have to spend all day glued to the screen for fear of missing anything – High Density is always available to stream online even after the conference has ended, with last year’s content having amassed 21K views and still counting!”
“The full program will be offered with multiple language subtitles and released for free on YouTube,” the press release continues. “As with previous years, proceeds from High Density – collected through an optional donation – will benefit Grounds for Health, a non-profit organization focused on providing cervical cancer prevention in coffee-producing countries.”
You can learn more at their website and view past High Density talks here.
