We are gearing up for our Las Vegas show in early June and hope to see you there. If you attended the Chicago show in mid-February, you took part in a show that exceeded all of our expectations. Although, like most businesses, we aren’t breaking records, our booths were filled and the trade floor was bustling. Our attendee and exhibitor surveys reported successful business transactions and reflected an optimism in the specialty coffee industry that is not being reported in mainstream media where doom and gloom reign.

As always, we push forward and nudge our retailers to continue to reach for higher profits and solvent business models. To that end, we have done some bolstering to our educational program. We are happy to introduce the Executive Summit one day prior to our Vegas show, on Thursday, June 11, 2009. The full-day program, entitled “Surviving and Thriving in Coffee Today,” is designed to inspire and inform owners, executives and managers within the specialty coffee, tea and related industries. Please read more about it by clicking "Attend" above, under "Thursday Executive Summit".

In addition, we are bulking up our gold standard educational program with one-day sessions of Coffee Retailer Ultimate Profitability Seminar. Available each day of the show, the seminar culls the best of specialty coffee industry professionals to help retailers hone in on what they need to do to make their profits soar regardless of the economic climate. The cost of this session is $345. For more information click "Attend" above, under "Coffee Fest Las Vegas, click "Classes and Workshops" and click "Ultimate Profitability in Hard Times for your Retail Coffee Operation".