Friendly competition as an excuse to get together ☕️Tim Williams, CEO of The World AeroPress Championship
We’re definitely much more about community—bringing people together and having a good time. The competition is almost the excuse for doing that." — Tim Williams
Show Notes
When organizers, internationally renowned baristas Tim Wendelboe and Tim Varney, hosted the first AeroPress competition in 2008, the AeroPress brewing device had only recently been released on the market. The device came with instructions from the inventor, Alan Adler, on how he uses it, but coffee geeks like “the Tims” (who were AeroPress distributors in Norway) thought that they could do better.
CEO Tim Williams (left) with co-founder Tim Varney
Instead of spending months trying to work out how to develop better AeroPress brewing recipes on their own, the Tims decided to crowdsource ideas from other brewers through a small competition in Oslo, which they called the “World AeroPress Championship.”
In the years that followed, fans all around the world asked to lead their own events, and the format began to spread. Each season now sees more than 3,000 competitors go head-to-head in regional showdowns, with one big grand finale to determine a world champion each year.
We interviewed CEO Tim Williams in his home in Melbourne to learn more about what makes the competition special and what structure he and his team offer organizers from HQ.
Tim Williams doing his thing. Photos by Abi Varney (@abivar) for WAC.
While you’re listening to Tim, listen for some of our favorite insights:
The competition format enables the community to realize its shared purpose.
The purpose: pushing the possibilities of a beloved brewing device. The first three competitors ten years ago and the thousands who take part today continue to gather to “hack” the AeroPress. A competition format and simple rules that they decided on fulfill that purpose.
The W.A.C.’s lighthearted approach makes it unique and accessible.
Unlike more serious barista competitions with lengthy rule books, the W.A.C. has just eight guidelines. “It’s fast-paced, it’s super affordable to take part in, and that’s really what we found to be a formula that speaks to average people who love coffee,” Tim explains.
Regional hosts expand the W.A.C.’s reach.
The event could’ve stayed in Oslo. But today, the W.A.C. is in more than 60 countries because they were “super-decentralized and [put] 98% of responsibility with whoever was hosting.” Tim talks about how they created and adjusted the frameworks for hosts over the years, and some of the pros and cons of this distributed approach.
The 2018 World Championship brought together national winners to compete for the title. Photos by Abi Varney (@abivar) for WAC.
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