BSA/Eurobev Convention
Wednesday and Thursday, 19 and 20 OCTOBER 2005
Northampton County Cricket Club
This year’s Convention was the biggest yet!
The 2 days of the Convention were packed full of events, including
an exhibition of over 45 companies, visitors from all sectors of the
industry and a very full Seminar programme and a wide selection of
Demonstrations. See the Event Programme for full information.
Awards made at the show:
Best Stand : La Spaziale
Best New Product : Filter Coffee and Tea Pods from Mantaya
Best New Beverage : Hot Spring Apple Drink from The Italian Beverage
Company
An Industry first was the unique training session of UK Barista Judges
run by David Cooper of Coopers Coffee, as the only fully-accredited
UK Barista Judge. David was anxious to train more Judges in readiness
for the National Barista Championship to be held at Hotelympia in February
2006.
David
received applications from 16 would-be Judges, who participated in
a full day’s training on the Wednesday and were able to put their
newly-developed skills to the test with some actually test judging
at the Convention. Four contestants, Agnes Fisk & Helen Cahill
of The Coffee House, Skipton and Jenny Bailey & Meg May of Montideli
took part in the BSA Barista Challenge 2005, with the overall winner
being Helen Cahill of The Coffee House, Skipton.
During the day Anglia TV came to record an interview and news item,
when the whole class was shown, and both David Cooper and Simon Robertson
- the several times UK Barista Champion - were interviewed. The piece
was shown several times the next day (Thursday) on ITV Anglia News,
which covers Northampton. Included in the news clip was a ‘vox
pop’ piece when Charlotte had asked members of the public just
what ‘Barista’ meant. The answers varied from a Fruit to
a Car! Clearly, a lot more education of the public is still needed!
Overall, this TV appearance was another FIRST for the BSA!
The Convention Dinner was held on the Wednesday evening,
at the Northampton Hilton, when the audience heard from Tim West, Chairman
of Avenance, speaking on ‘Beverage Bonanza’. Click
here for a transcript.
David
Veal, of Coffee Exchange was presented with an Award by Executive Director,
Jim Devlin, in appreciation of his work on the Convention during the
years 1998 – 2004.
After Dinner, came the Bev-e ’05 Awards, when presentations to
the already-announced 6 Regional Winners were made by the Chairman
of the Bev-e Sub Committee, Simon Martin of Quickfire Tableware. Then,
highlighting the record number of nominations received in this, only
the 2nd year of the Awards, and the difficult task that the Judges
had in making the winning selections, Simon announced the National
Winner :-
The
Lakeside Café, Roundhay Park, Leeds
For more information Bev-e click here
Charity Draw - during the Dinner – when a short
address was given by Tricia HOWARD from Dr Bs, the traditional charity
draw in aid of Dr Bs was held, and a total of £1,300 was raised
for this most deserving cause.
