[Music]
our story begins at the London coffee
festival in 2018 I'll take four which is
why I sound like this and right now
everything's still getting set up and it
is the quiet the fourth storm
[Music]
this weekend just gone was the London
coffee festival and as you can tell from
my voice I am in recovery mode right now
and in attending it in participating in
it I learned three things I learnt
something about filmmaking I learned
something about the festival itself I
learned something about business now I
plan when I went was just to go take my
camera shoot a bunch of video and trying
to capture what's new and interesting at
the festival in truth there wasn't very
much it's a big show there is a lot
going on there's all sorts of kind of
coffee equipment and technology there's
obviously an enormous number of coffee
experiences there or Roasters and other
people just serving amazing cups of
coffee and then also around the show
this just kind of all sorts of
everything kind of connected to the show
as well as big coffee competitions going
on which is the UK roaster Championships
and the coffee masters what I learned
was that's not enough for plan for a
film there wasn't really anything there
a couple of exceptions to talk about you
know my plan fell to pieces pretty
quickly I learned that you really need
to plan a little bit better than that
and you can't just kind of wing these
things and end up with something
interesting during the show have worked
out something kind of important about
exhibiting at these kind of very popular
very busy shows if you're a business
coming here I think it's a pretty bad
place now to try and grow your business
through new customers I think a lot of
people you're going to meet and interact
with here probably already know you your
brand your company and they want to come
and see you and have that decision to be
a customer reaffirm right it's a great
place to meet
the chaos and amongst the endless good
great of the experiences I think it's a
really terrible place try and win new
business to develop new customers
because this simple too much competition
from our point of view at the show we've
seen loads of people who already buy
from us we won't even talk to us but a
face to a name just just you know make
it a little bit more real but we are
people and we're passionate that we're
excited and I think deepening
relationships is a much better and more
possible outcome I'm sure like this then
creating a whole bunch of new ones is
the festival this year kind of erect my
head it caused me some mental anguish
because I just I just couldn't
understand it anymore
it was so big so unwieldy that it was
just unapproachable so I can drink maybe
maybe 10 12 coffees at an event like
that I can taste a few things I can
finish some drinks but I'm gonna tap out
pretty quickly because I'm gonna feel
sick there were probably 200 maybe maybe
more coffee experiences available at
that show as an attendee you're supposed
to go on a half-day ticket now I have no
idea how you're supposed to get the best
out of that show sure you should
probably plan if you've done these
things before then you know the planning
is a good thing and going to that thing
I met a bunch of people actually who had
a plan and they executed it and they saw
what they wanted to see in their left
but it doesn't leave much room for
discovery and I feel like the show got
there in a very normal way and this is
the lesson for me because it started out
as a concentration of an interesting
thing coffee in London and there was an
industry that wanted to do it and a
consumer or a bunch of consumers that
wanted to go and see it they sold a few
thousand tickets and so next year it got
bigger and every year it got bigger more
tickets more stands more space more
tickets more stands more tickets more
stands more tickets more stands and
suddenly you're at this point where
you're at now where it's too big and the
lesson is I think you have to be at
all times your own customer I think the
people who organized the festival don't
really think about what it's like to
attend the festival they should go out
they should line up in the street they
should you know have that ticket stamp
they should come in for half a day and
see what they get done see what they see
see if they felt like they missed out in
a way that maybe wasn't very satisfying
because even as someone exhibiting their
like we can speak to a few thousand
people over the 3-4 days that were there
but 30,000 plus people came through we
can barely scratch the surface will
barely speak to one in ten who attend so
I don't need there to be more people I
can't deal with more people nor can
anyone with a booth there and so that's
the lesson growth is good but as you
grow you have to go back to being your
own customer again if you're a coffee
shop you have to go and line up in your
own line or a coffee wait get it drink
it sit down find a seat see if the
tables are dirty see if they're clean
see what the service is like see if your
seats are comfortable all these little
things matter if you're a roaster you
should really buy a bag of your own
coffee on line often regularly is it a
fun experience is a good experience we
should always be our own customers I
think that for me was a great lesson and
a great reminder from the show so that's
it that's what I learned this year at
the London coffee festival as kind of
amazed at how many people came up and
said they're enjoying the videos so
that's very very motivating so thank you
for that thanks for watching subscribe
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along and I hope you have a great day