UNITED STATES 14th July 2010

The Specialty Coffee Association of America has announced that it is in final negotiations to move its annual Event to Seattle for several years, citing many benefits to the Association.

Under the proposed arrangements, the SCAA Event (which normally moves from one US city to another from one year to the next) would regularly return to Seattle's Washington State Convention Center for the Association's annual Conference, Exhibition and Symposium.

The SCAA said that after its board and staff had decided in 2009 to locate the Event in a regular home, an attractive offer from convention and city officials in Seattle had resulted in plans to hold the Event there in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018. Space is being held in the Seattle facility for 2020 and 2021 as well.

For 2016 and 2019, the SCAA said, the Event would be held in a suitable venue in the eastern half of the US.

The regular return to Seattle, according to the SCAA, would bring "huge savings" to the Association, allowing the SCAA to devote more of its funds to its work and to making the Event itself more accessible and less expensive for participants.