The Second Annual Development Stage

Article Summary:

Royal Coffee will host its Second Annual Development Stage Symposium on September 12–13, 2025, at The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room in Oakland, CA. This multi-day event brings together innovators from across the coffee industry and beyond. The 2025 theme centers on the future of specialty coffee, blending utopian envisioning, ancestral knowledge, and hands-on workshops with traditional coffee ceremonies and experimental pairings.

The Second Annual Development Stage – a Multi-day Coffee Symposium

September 12-13, 2025

Royal Coffee’s second “Development Stage” event, featuring coffee-related conversations and tastings, has been announced for Friday the 12th and Saturday the13th of September at The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room in Oakland, California. 

Featured speakers and collaborators include famed coffee producer Edwin Noreña of Finca Campo Hermoso, agrivoltaics systems specialist Juli Burden of the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, head distiller Dave Smith of St. George Spirits, Chef Oumar Diouf of The Damel, journalist Paulo Bicchieri of Eater, “Roaster Kat” Melheim, and many more yet to be announced.  

This year’s theme is focused on the future, and features sessions on utopian envisioning and ancestral knowledge (paired with traditional coffee service including the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony) in addition to the coffee-centric lectures and tastings that were the hallmark of 2024’s event. 

The event website states: “2025 is a year of exploration, reflecting, and learning from the past to envision a new future for ourselves. Innovators and legends from the coffee world and beyond join The Crown team on the stage to discuss, collaborate, and explore what specialty coffee’s future might look like. Our goal is to unite coffee makers and drinkers in unconventional coffee tastings and pairings, engaging conversations, and meaningful workshops to elevate our appreciation of coffee.” 

“Looking back at the success of Development Stage in 2024, we were inspired to create more thematic programming this year. With uncertainty dominating early 2025 news cycles, questions about the viability of our favorite caffeinated beverage drove us to focus on what the future might look like. Drawing inspiration from the past, examining strategies for survival, exploring global connectivity, and remaining hopeful about the future — all while tasting delicious coffee — coalesced as a way for us to direct our energy and hold meaningful discourse about tomorrow,” says Royal Coffee’s Director of Education, Chris Kornman.  

The name “Development Stage” implies a platform for growth and innovation, and the phrase is a nod to the final moments of roasting coffee, a term used to denote the craft and skill of the roaster.  

The event takes place Friday-Saturday September 12-13 at The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room at 2523 Broadway in Oakland, CA, a premier coffee education venue in the midst of Oakland’s vibrant uUptown culinary and arts scene.  

Tickets are now available. Two-day passes are $150 and one-day passes are $80 until June 30, when early pricing ends and prices rise to $175 and $95, respectively.