Coffee Expos

The Coffee circuit, mapped

Coffee events split between two rhythms: the specialty-coffee circuit and the coffee-shop operator circuit. On the specialty side, World of Coffee anchors the calendar abroad, and its US counterpart, World of Coffee USA (formerly Specialty Coffee Expo), heads to New Orleans. On the retail and food-service side, the Coffee Fest series runs regional stops, including Los Angeles and Chicago.

Season and geography

Listed dates cluster in August, with single events scattered across April, June, and October. That spread means there is rarely a single "coffee season" — roasters and cafe owners can find a relevant show in most quarters. Geographically, the calendar in our catalog currently favors Los Angeles, which hosts two of the tracked events, alongside single stops in New Orleans, Chicago, and Panama City.

Choosing a show

Roasters, importers, and equipment makers exhibiting to a trade audience tend toward the Specialty Coffee Expo and World of Coffee events, which draw the supply side of the industry and put buyers and sellers from across the supply chain in the same hall. Cafe and shop operators looking for barista training, equipment demos, and vendor sourcing closer to home are usually better served by a regional Coffee Fest stop, since that series repeats across multiple cities rather than concentrating attendees in one location on one weekend a year.

Because the calendar mixes an international series with a regional one, it is worth checking whether a listing is the flagship event or a satellite stop before booking travel — the city and date attached to each show below reflect the specific event, not the series as a whole.