NCA Coffee Gives Back at Convention

Dos thank you

At the NCA Convention, Coffee Gives Back. Make a difference in Austin and the broader coffee community while connecting with fellow Convention attendees.

Day of Service

$35 - Advance registration required. Off property.

Roll up your sleeves alongside your colleagues on a volunteer project benefiting a local Austin nonprofit. Details forthcoming.

International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA) Breakfast

$150 - Advance registration required. Breakfast benefiting IWCA’s mission to empower women in the global coffee community.

From Crop to Cup: What AI Means for the Coffee Industry

Presenter: Balaji Padmanabhan, University of Maryland

The coffee supply chain is a global, weather-driven, and sometimes even politically influenced process that has to address customer preferences for both consistency and variety. Given the complexity of the global supply chain, how can AI help ensure the best-quality coffee to meet consumer needs? Dr. Padmanabhan will highlight modern AI's capabilities and opportunities across the coffee supply chain and offer some guidelines for leaders regarding capital investment, governance, and managing human capital.

Carbon Offset Project

In partnership with ClimeCo, NCA will contribute offsets to the Yacumama Forest Carbon Project to help mitigate the Convention's carbon footprint.

The Yacumama Forest Conservation Project protects tropical rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon Basin, on land threatened by conversion to agriculture and logging for timber. Carbon financing pays for that protection, including regular patrols from the project's main lodge to stop illegal logging and other incursions. Over its 30-year life (2012–2041), it is expected to avoid an average of about 22,700 tCO2e per year.

The project also benefits nearby communities. It supports the health clinic in Puerto Miguel and helps maintain forest cover, water quality, and fish habitat along the Rio Yarapa. The landowner, a former ecotourism lodge, shifted its mission to ecological research, education, and conservation.