Why Nomad Coffee Travels to World of Coffee Every Year

Every year, one event goes straight onto our calendar: World of Coffee.

This year, we're heading to Brussels, Belgium for World of Coffee 2026, Europe's largest specialty coffee event. It's the first time the show has ever been hosted in Belgium, bringing together coffee producers, roasters, equipment makers, cafés, and industry professionals from around the world.

So why do we travel halfway around the world for a coffee trade show?

Because great coffee businesses never stop learning.

We go to learn.

Coffee is constantly evolving.

Every year brings new approaches to farming, processing, roasting, brewing, and sustainability. Spending a few days surrounded by producers, roasters, baristas, researchers, and innovators gives us perspectives we simply can't get from behind the espresso machine.

Every trip gives us new ideas, and those ideas eventually find their way into every cup we serve.

We go to understand where coffee is heading.

Even though we're a neighbourhood café in Vancouver, the coffee we serve is connected to farms, producers, and communities around the world.

World of Coffee brings together more than 450 exhibitors, over 120 specialty roasters, green coffee producers, exporters, equipment manufacturers, and thousands of coffee professionals under one roof. It's one of the few places where you can see the entire coffee value chain in one place.

Seeing the industry together helps us make better decisions back home, from choosing new coffees to improving how we operate every day.

We go to build relationships.

Some of our favourite coffees, collaborations, and ideas have started with conversations at World of Coffee.

Coffee is about much more than what's in the cup. It's built on relationships, trust, and the people behind every stage of the journey. Meeting producers, importers, roasters, and fellow café owners in person reminds us why we love being part of this industry.

We go to share what we've learned.

One thing we've noticed over the past few years is how often conversations come back to the same topic: reusable cups.

When NOMAD opened in 2022, operating without single-use cups sounded unrealistic to many people. Four years later, we've shown that it works.

Together with our community, we've kept hundreds of thousands of disposable cups out of landfill by making reusable cups the standard instead of the exception.

World of Coffee gives us the opportunity not only to learn from the industry, but also to contribute to it by sharing our experience and showing that a different way of running a café is possible.

See you in Brussels.

Over the next few days, we'll be sharing what we discover in Brussels, from new coffees and equipment to the people and ideas that inspire us.

We can't wait to bring those ideas home and continue building a greener coffee culture, one cup at a time.

See you in Brussels.