The San Francisco Coffee Festival runs 7 and 8 November 2026 at Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture's Festival Pavilion. The Coffee Convos stage carries six sessions a day across the two days. Organiser Craft Hospitality LLC publishes the roster on the event's programme page.
For a hotel food and beverage team, the roster reads as a speaker bench and a training list. The three moderator slots go to operators.
Three moderators
Jasraj Singh Sangha of Roaming Bean Coffee moderates the Saturday 1:45 to 2:15 p.m. session. The page bills the session as a conversation with local industry figures on where the trade stands.
Eijiro Tsukada moderates the Saturday 3:30 to 4 p.m. session on matcha and chai brands. The page gives him as founder and CEO of Cuzen Matcha and founder of Stonemill Matcha.
Lea Sabado of Excelsior Coffee moderates the Sunday 12 to 12:30 p.m. session. Her panel carries the Bay's newest cafe owners.
Each of the three holds a company role and chairs a session.
Two decades at one roaster
Eileen Rinaldi takes the Saturday 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. fireside chat. The page gives her as the founder of Ritual Coffee and states the company recently reached 20 years. Her session covers the early days of third-wave San Francisco, a pandemic and a cafe the company opened in 2026.
Rinaldi's is the only tenure figure the page prints.
Competition records on the roster
Jen Apodaca takes the Saturday 11:15 to 11:45 a.m. session. The page gives her the 2019 US Cup Taster Championship, a 2022 US Roaster Championship and ownership of Mother Tongue Coffee. Her session covers the difference between coffee taste and smell, the flavour wheel and how to read flavour descriptions on retail bags.
Chris Kornman of Royal Coffee takes the Saturday 12 to 12:30 p.m. slot on fermentation. Kenneth Davids, longtime editor of Coffee Review and author of four books on coffee, takes Sunday 11:15 to 11:45 a.m. on how the trade finds words for what a cup tastes like.
The research bench
The UC Davis Coffee Center opens the Sunday programme at 10:15 a.m. The page describes it as the first multidisciplinary university research centre addressing the coffee industry's needs through coffee science and education.
Saturday opens with a study result. The page states a single full-black defect disqualifies a lot from specialty grade. It states the study tested 79 coffee drinkers for the point at which they can taste that defect. The page names no presenter against that slot.
Three speaker organisations also hold booth cards
The roasters page carries a wall of logo cards under a Featured Roasters & Coffee heading. Equator Coffees and the UC Davis Coffee Center appear on that page and on the Coffee Convos roster.
Devorah of Equator takes the Sunday 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. session on building a specialty drink with the audience. Erin Schaeferle, a Mr Black ambassador, takes the Sunday 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. session on coffee in cocktails.
The page carries a card headed A Conversation with Chris Baca from Cat & Cloud. That heading carries no clock time.
The operator panel
Sabado's Sunday session lists its own material. The page names run clubs, influencers, a permit the owners did not expect to need, and what the owners learned on the way.
Entertainment runs five named acts
Saturday Session 1 carries Jermaine and Session 2 carries Mae Powell. Sunday Session 1 carries Tom Quell and Liv Belda. Sunday Session 2 carries Top Chefs and Kelsey Kindall.
The pages the festival publishes
The site carries an About page, a venue page, a roasters page, an exhibitors page, a food page, an entertainment page, the Coffee Convos page, an Apres Coffee page, a contact page, a list sign-up and a ticket page. A careers page is not among them.
The About page carries one lodging line. It reads that the organisers are looking for an official hotel partner for 2026 and will update the information there. No hotel operator appears on the Coffee Convos roster.
The roasters page closes its list with an AND MORE heading, an Announcing More Soon line and a note that roasters are subject to change depending on availability.
The caveat on the programme
The Coffee Convos page closes with one line. It reads that speakers, schedule and topics are subject to change depending on availability. A team that books travel around one named speaker carries that risk.
The session clock runs the same on both days. Early Admission opens at 9 a.m. Session 1 general admission runs 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A service break follows. Session 2 runs 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.