Originally started as the East Coast coffee community’s answer to the many throwdowns and barista jams taking place on the West Coast almost a decade ago, the MANE Conference has grown into one of the best ”in many folks’ opinion THE best ”coffee event of the year.
Now, that doesn’t mean that MANE ”which stands for Mid-Atlantic/Northeast ”is literally big. Part of the reason this event, which took place in Providence, R.I., November 3 “5, is so special is that it started small and it’s going to stay small. Of course, it’s not as small as it was in its very first year, when Jon Lewis was the keynote and the whole event took place in one big room. This year’s MANE drew around 300 people, and took place throughout the historic Providence Biltmore Hotel and the nearby Convention Center.
Those 300 people though ”they registered the day tickets went on sale. Was it because chief organizer Rik Kleinfeldt took a well-deserved break from planning the event in 2015, giving MANE a one-year hiatus? Perhaps. But more than anything, it’s because this event that is as community and education focused as they get, is just that awesome.
Some history: Rik ”who owns and operates New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Providence with his wife, Paula Anderson ”and then-New Harvest employee, Gerra Harrigan, teamed with friend Troy Reynard to host the first MANE event in Easton, Penn., the home of Troy’s company Cosmic Cup. The team imagined it would bounce back and forth between Easton and Providence for years to come. As these things go, the event grew and morphed based on the whims of its supporters, and soon found its permanent annual home in Providence. Gerra left New Harvest for a trader job at InterAmerican, but she remains a huge part of the organizing committee that puts on MANE (almost) every year.
The 2016 MANE was, attendees agreed, the best one yet. It began on the evening of November 3 with a Coffeewoman event, which was widely attended by the hundreds of folks visiting Providence for MANE. Keynote speaker Aida Batlle gave an on stage interview, and panel discussions on customer service and women in coffee leadership followed.
The next morning, MANE was off and running, with countless hands-on workshops, educational lectures, panel discussions, and community-building events scheduled for the full day and the next, with awesome parties on the evenings in between.
I’ll say it once and again a thousand times: It was the best. MANE. Ever. Rik: We’re gonna need a bigger boat.
