What to look for on the Coffee Fest floor this August

Coffee Fest is not a festival, whatever the name suggests. It is a working trade show, and the people walking it are mostly buying: café owners, roasters, multi-unit operators and the occasional hotel F&B director with a refit budget.

The floor splits three ways

Green coffee and roasters occupy one end, equipment the other, and everything else — packaging, syrups, alternative milks, POS software, cups and lids — fills the middle. The middle is where the margin conversations happen, and it is the part first-time attendees under-walk.

Equipment demos are the real programming

Espresso machine and grinder manufacturers run continuous demos, and unlike most trade-show theatre these are genuinely useful. You can pull shots on hardware you are considering, with a technician standing next to you. If you are specifying equipment this year, build your route around the demo schedule rather than the aisles.

For exhibitors: the two-day problem

A compressed format punishes booths that need explaining. The exhibitors who convert are the ones with a single clear proposition and something in the visitor’s hand within thirty seconds — a cup, a sample bag, a spec sheet with a price on it.

Coffee Fest runs 21–22 August 2026 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.