MILAN – The Specialty Coffee Association announced Tuesday the cancellation of the 2020 Expo and Re:co due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. The announcement was made by the CEO of SCA Yannis Apostolopoulos in a press release posted on the event’s website.
“After many weeks of discussions with our partners regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on SCA events, today we are sad to announce that the 2020 Re:co Symposium and Specialty Coffee Expo scheduled to take place in Portland in April is now canceled, says Apostolopoulos in the release.
Unfortunately, no other viable dates were available for the show to take place in Portland in 2020. We will be working with the SCA USA Chapter to explore options to hold the final US Coffee Championships of the year at a later date as appropriate. Re:co and Expo will return in April 2021 in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
If you registered to attend or exhibit at Expo 2020, please check your inbox for an email with important information. If you have not received an email, please get in touch with us at 2020reg@sca.coffee (for attendees) or exhibit@sca.coffee (for exhibitors).
2021 Dates:
- Re:co Symposium: April 21-22, 2021
- Specialty Coffee Expo: April 23-25, 2021
I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to every single one of our sponsors, exhibitors, attendees, and volunteers for your patience and understanding over the past few weeks while we negotiated the future of these two events with our partners.
Many of you have gotten in touch with us, wondering why it has taken so long to announce the cancellation of these two events. As you may know, the Specialty Coffee Expo is the largest specialty coffee event in North America, and in order to make it happen, we engage in contracts with the venue and with over two dozen other partners, including hotels and other local businesses.
When it became clear that it would not be possible to find new dates for later in the year in Portland, our negotiations with these partners focused on ending these contracts without putting the SCA, a nonprofit association, in danger of legal retribution from these businesses, who are also experiencing similar difficulties amid this crisis.
The SCA staff and volunteers who gather at Expo every year are heartbroken that we will not be able to see you in Portland this year, but we look forward to seeing you in New Orleans in April 2021.
Stay safe and please remember to take a look at the various resources we have been compiling related to the impact of COVID-19 on the coffee industry by visiting sca.coffee/covid19.”
