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22 barista magazine P U L L : E V E N T S MANE AT EIGHT The Mid-Atlantic Northeast Coffee Conference (MANE) has grown by leaps and bounds over its eight year run. What started off as a small-scale event of for- ty-some coffee folks hosted by Cosmic Cup Coffee in Easton, Pa. has grown to be one of the highlights of year for a lot of East Coast coffee professionals. In fact, to accommodate the ever-increasing number of attendees, this year, the event moved into a new home, the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, R.I. New Harvest Coffee's Rik Kleinfelt explained that while he loved hosting MANE at the company's roastery, as had been the case the last couple of years, the space simply wasn't big enough anymore to house all of the people, presenters, panels, and training sessions that go into the two- day event. "I felt like it was time to let event professionals take over," he said. "I had my doubts about moving into a facility like the convention center. But I really love being in downtown Providence, and it's a lot of fun to have everybody staying right here!" "Everybody" at this year's event includ- ed some 250 coffee professionals, who came from every state in New England plus Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York. And more, add in the sponsors, volunteers, and presenters and the total number of people at MANE goes up to 350! Attendees paid $125 each, a price, Rik explained, that the organizers calculated to cover the expenses of hosting MANE while keeping the cost as low as possible, and tickets sold out in a flash. "We could have had 500 people here," Rik said. He added that without question it cost more to hold the event at the convention center but that MANE's sponsors stepped up their support to make it happen anyway. MANE is not affiliated with any trade shows, exhibitions, or competitions. Instead it really is a conference of people who take coffee seriously as a subject, are interested in learning more about it, and want to meet other people who feel the same way they do. It doesn't feel like someone is trying to sell you something at MANE, instead it's clearly an effort to build, and support, a vibrant coffee community. The success of MANE, Rik said, "really speaks about the growth of specialty coffee in general but especially in this region. We [coffee roasters] are competitors but this is a collaborative process, and we all have to get the word out about specialty coffee." When they registered, the attend- ees were able to choose from a number of different classes, trainings, panels, Now in its eighth year, the Mid-Atlantic/ Northeast Coffee Conference (MANE) has grown to be one of the most highly anticipated and hands-on educational summits for specialty- coffee professionals of all backgrounds in the world. From its start as a small, grassroots gathering in Pennsylvania in 2006, MANE has become so popular that it took place in a convention center for the first time this year in order to allow more participants. Still, it sold out well in advance of the event.