On Sunday, Atlanta was supposed to be hit by a big storm system.  My parents decided to start their drive back to the Coffee Bean Corral in Mississippi that morning.  I had to pack my bag and take to the GWCC to be checked while I attended the SCAA's final day of events. On of the things that the SCAA offers at the expo is lectures.  They educate members about various topics like roasting, running a coffee shop, training staff, producing coffee and various industry related topics.  I had not attended the lectures on Friday and Saturday, but was excited to attended two on Sunday.  The two lectures I attended were "Technical Assistance for Farmers: The Role of NGO's in the Specialty Coffee Value Chain" and "Penning the Perfect Cup: Writing About Coffee". The "Technical Assistance for Farmers: The Role of NGO's in the Specialty Coffee Value Chain" lecture was done by a panel made of Carolina Aguilar from Luther World Relief, Dr. Christopher Bacon from UC Berkeley and Ben Corey-Moran.  The topic discussed the need for organizations to work with coffee farmers to provide training.  Dr. Bacon covered some of the research he has been studying showing how academic research can help coffee farmers and NGOs develop effective programs for helping coffee farmers.  Carolina Aguilar discussed the Luther World Relief's work in Nicaragua.  Ben Corey-Moran is a roaster in California who worked with several farmers in Uganda to help provide them training.  Ben discussed the difficulty of providing training to farmers with no help.  He enlisted the help of the Luther World Relief who had experience working with famers to develop business plans, farmer strategies and environmental impact plans. When picking this lecture, I wasn't sure how interesting the topic would be.  On a very surface level, I know that as consumers and retailers of coffee we need to be concerned about the substantiality of coffee famers.  This lecture helped to expand my understanding of the importance of education of both the coffee farmers to develop quality and training end users (coffee drinkers) to help them connect to the coffee they are consuming.  Due to my work with Hope 4 Kids International, I particularly enjoyed Ben's work in Uganda.  H4KI works in Uganda with similar efforts of helping local people provide a sustainable income for themselves with education, job training, farmer development, sponsoring orphans and building medical facilities. My second lecture of the day was called, "Penning the Perfect Cup: Writing About Coffee".  The lecture was a panel discussion with three coffee authors.  They discussed the reasons why they decided to write a book, plus a discussion of how to get a book published.  They offered a number of suggestion for inspiring writers.  The authors were Susan Zimmer, Mark Pendergrast and Tim Castle.  Each had a fascinating and very personal story about their coffee books.  As a reader, I forget how personal books are to the authors.  Below are some of the thoughts from my notes from the lecture. Susan Zimmer - I Love Coffee Quote from book: "When a cup of coffee becomes masterful art, thirst is perfectly optional." Lot of experience in coffee and food industry. Susan took a year and a half to writer her book.  She self published and in four years sold forty thousand copies. Enjoys the recipes and art of coffee. Plugged the WBC and the baristas.  Sammy Piccolo from Canada helped her with the book Mark Pendergast - Uncommon Grounds Quote from book: "A good cup of coffee can turn the worst day tolerable, provide an all important moment of contemplation, rekindle a romance." Not a coffee lover - set out to write a history - became an accidental coffee snob. Met a lot of the influential people in coffee.  Traveled to producing countries. Spent a lot of time at the Library of Congress researching back issues of magazines. Tim Castle - The Perfect Cup Quote from book: "A coffee remembers where it came from and how it was raised, the soil, the weather, the processing and the roasting are all recorded in the bean." Took 5 years to write.  Didn't like title or cover art.  Publisher chose and he had little say. Tim loves words.  Poetry, fiction, coffee. There is no perfect cup.  Coffee is a process of imperfections. Compared coffee to wine. We should look at coffee like wine.  There are many varieties, nuisances, processes, roasters. Quality is the true link between the farmers and coffee drinkers. Coffee is packed with information like a cd rom.  The "reader" is our tongues. Words help us catalog our drinking experiences. This lecture was great.  The authors all showed personality and humility.  They truly enjoy coffee, the coffee industry and writing.  I was inspired by the stories of the authors to write my own "coffee history".  You can look for it soon on my blog.