New station layout at WBC VIENNA

This year, as with others, the Rules and Regulations Committee has been hard at work improving and refining the WBC competition. Each year information, feedback and data is collated from many different areas of the competitions. They receive submissions and complete surveys from Competitors, National Bodies, Trainers, Audience and our Judges. They compile and process masses of documentation and are able to make changes to the competition.

Their Brief is simple, “Deliver an understandable Rules and Regulations document that provides a platform on which Baristas can innovate and excel.” Making that come to life will always be a challenge, but one that everyone can embrace. This year there is a release of new Rules and Regulations document with lots of changes. Some are small, some much larger.

The new document will be out in the next few weeks, but the Committee wants to share one of the most exciting changes that we have made. This is the new Station Layout.

The rationale behind this includes:

  • To maximize the time the Barista has facing the Judges and eliminating the need to turn their backs on the Judges.
  • To allow Baristas line of sight to Sensory Judges to be unbroken while at Espresso Machine.
  • To provide as efficient a workspace as possible for the Baristas, especially between machine and presentation tables.
  • To allow the Baristas to prepare their drinks without the Sensory Judges seeing any visual cues around preparation and extraction.
  • By having the Preparation Table beside the Presentation Table the Sensory Judges are able to have a better view of drink preparation with less requirements for Baristas to transport ingredients around stage.
  • To provide a distinct “Media Boundary” that cannot be crossed.
  • Recommended that Audience to be located to the rear of the Judges seats.

The actual changes are: Table Dimensions:

  • Machine Table- NOT CHANGED
  • Work Table- WAS 2.70L x 0.60W x 0.90H(m) NOW 1.80L x 0.60W x 0.90H (m)
  • Presentation Table- NOT CHANGED
  • Presentation table has been brought closer to the Espresso Machine Table.
  • Slight overlap with the Presentation Table (0.20m) to minimize the overall footprint of the competition area and to bring the Work Table closer to the Machine Table.
  • Ice Machine and Refrigerator have been removed from the equipment supplied list.
  • Head Judge and Technical Judges not constrained to fixed positions.
  • Media Boundary introduced into the station layout.

The Committee is excited to see these changes happen and believe they provide some opportunities for Barista’s to interact better with their Judges and Audience to improve the delivery of their Competition Routine.

This is just one of the changes coming this year and  the remaining changes come very soon!

The Rules and Regulations Committee always welcomes your ideas, questions and feedback. If you have anything you would like to communicate to the Rules and Regulations Committee please feel free to contact us at info@worldcoffeeevents.org

In the Netherlands the station lay out for the upcoming DBC is not changed.

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