IWCA at SCA 2025: Join Us in Houston!
From April 25–27, IWCA is showing up strong at the Specialty Coffee Expo in Houston—and we’d love for you to be part of it.
We’re bringing together our global network to highlight women’s leadership across the coffee value chain, spark cross-sector collaboration, and share real solutions to the industry’s biggest challenges. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime partner, there's a place for you in the IWCA Community Lounge.
Here’s a taste of what’s happening:
☕ IWCA Breakfast Fundraiser
Start your Saturday with purpose. Join us for a meaningful morning of connection, community, and conversation—featuring keynote speaker Pacita Juan, a pioneer in women’s empowerment and sustainable coffee.
Thank You to our Breakfast Event Sponsors!
🧵 IWCA Quilt Auction
Celebrate solidarity, one stitch at a time. The annual IWCA Quilt is back—handcrafted, symbolic, and ready for your bid. Proceeds directly support our global work.
🌎 Global Storytelling Series
Hear firsthand from IWCA Chapter leaders sharing powerful stories of resilience, innovation, and community impact—from Kenya to Honduras, Brazil to South Korea.
USWIC + Covoya Panel: Real Solutions from Women Across Coffee’s Value Chain
📅 Sunday, April 27, 2025
📍 IWCA Community Lounge – Room 352B
This dynamic panel brings together women leaders and allies working across the coffee value chain—from origin to roasting, importing to retail—to share real-world strategies for equity, access, and sustainability in coffee.
Hosted by the U.S. Women in Coffee (USWIC) Chapter in collaboration with Covoya, this session highlights how cross-sector collaboration is driving meaningful change across roles, regions, and supply chain realities.
Rather than focusing on challenges alone, the panel will emphasize tangible, scalable solutions being built by those closest to the work—offering a candid, forward-thinking conversation designed to spark both insight and action.
Whether you're a producer, buyer, roaster, or simply someone invested in the future of coffee, this session invites you to be part of a growing network of leaders committed to shared progress.
Open to all SCA attendees.
Microfinance Learning Program with Roberta Bernhard (FES)
📍 IWCA Community Lounge – Room 352B
📅 Friday, 3-4pm | Saturday 3-4pm | SCA 2025
🟢 Supported by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES)
Following the success of the 2023 webinar series “Promoting Wealth for Women in Coffee,” this in-person session will dive deeper into the proven potential of microfinance and microcredit as tools to empower women across the coffee sector.
Rather than positioning microcredit as a “new solution,” this panel will take a thoughtful, informed approach—exploring the longstanding history of microfinance and its intersections with coffee and other industries around the world. Panelists will define key terms, share real-world case studies, and spotlight successful microfinance models in action across different regions and contexts.
Learning Objectives:
Understand what microfinance and microcredit truly are (and are not)
Learn from existing programs that have successfully supported women in coffee
Gain practical insights for engaging with or replicating similar models
Help spark greater visibility for ongoing efforts within the coffee sector
This session is part of a broader partnership between FES and IWCA, with FES sponsoring two days of programming in the IWCA Lounge (Room 352B). In addition to the panel, Roberta Lauretti-Bernhard, Vice President of FES, will be available throughout the weekend in the lounge to present the Learning Loan Program, serve as a technical resource for IWCA Chapters, and share tools and strategies for building financial inclusion through microfinance.
Whether you're a producer, buyer, nonprofit leader, or funder, this is a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding and explore how microfinance can drive meaningful, scalable impact in coffee.
Join the Rainforest Alliance in the IWCA Community Lounge (Room 352B) throughout SCA weekend for a series of engaging presentations focused on practical approaches to sustainability, regenerative agriculture, and long-term impact across the coffee supply chain.
These sessions will explore how certification tools, landscape-level collaboration, and climate-smart agriculture are being implemented to build more resilient farming systems—especially for smallholder producers and women-led operations. Presenters will also share insights into how companies and producers can partner more effectively to align sourcing practices with environmental and social goals.
Whether you're a producer, roaster, importer, or brand looking to deepen your sustainability work, these sessions offer valuable strategies and case studies from the field.
📍 IWCA Community Lounge – Room 352B
📅 Presentations:
Friday 11am-12pm: "Mapping the Future: EUDR Compliance in Specialty Coffee"
Saturday 11am-12pm: “Regenerative Agriculture Roadmap, join us in the race to the top”
📅 Saturday, April 26 | 10:00–11:00 AM
📍 IWCA Community Room – 352B
Join Firedancer Coffee Consultants for a special session on the IWCA Coffee Assessment Program (CAP)—a quality-focused initiative designed to help farmers better understand and improve their coffee.
IWCA Coffee Assessment Program
The IWCA Coffee Assessment Program is designed to support farmers in understanding and improving the quality of their coffee.
As part of this program, your coffee will be assessed by certified Q Graders and put through the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) platform. You’ll receive an official certificate from CQI that recognizes the quality of your coffee—something you can share with buyers to increase visibility and value. The Firedancer team can also meet with individual farmers to review the detailed reports and provide feedback.
Firedancer will cover all CQI licensing fees for participating farmers, as our way of investing in your hard work and commitment to quality.
Together, we’re building stronger connections and better coffee from the ground up.
Open to all SCA attendees. Free to attend. No registration Needed.
Friday, April 25, 2025 | 3-4pm | Saturday 2-4 pm | Sunday 11am-12pm
Room 352B, Level 3 – George R. Brown Convention Center
Supported by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES)
Following the success of the 2023 webinar series “Promoting Wealth for Women in Coffee,” this in-person session will dive deeper into the proven potential of microfinance and microcredit as tools to empower women across the coffee sector.
Rather than positioning microcredit as a “new solution,” this panel will take a thoughtful, informed approach—exploring the longstanding history of microfinance and its intersections with coffee and other industries around the world. Panelists will define key terms, share real-world case studies, and spotlight successful microfinance models in action across different regions and contexts.
Learning Objectives:
Understand what microfinance and microcredit truly are (and are not)
Learn from existing programs that have successfully supported women in coffee
Gain practical insights for engaging with or replicating similar models
Help spark greater visibility for ongoing efforts within the coffee sector
This session is part of a broader partnership between FES and IWCA, with FES sponsoring two days of programming in the IWCA Lounge (Room 352B). In addition to the panel, Roberta Lauretti-Bernhard, Vice President of FES, will be available throughout the weekend in the lounge to present the Learning Loan Program, serve as a technical resource for IWCA Chapters, and share tools and strategies for building financial inclusion through microfinance.
Whether you're a producer, buyer, nonprofit leader, or funder, this is a unique opportunity to deepen your understanding and explore how microfinance can drive meaningful, scalable impact in coffee.
Open to all SCA attendees. Free to attend. No registration Needed.
📥 Plan Your Visit
Download the full schedule to catch every storytelling session, workshop, and community moment.
Stay tuned for updates!
💬 Let’s Connect
Join us in Room 352B—home to the IWCA Community Lounge and the heartbeat of our SCA activities. Meet fellow changemakers, sip some great coffee, and stay for conversations that matter.
We can’t wait to see you in Houston.
Stay tuned for updates and changes →
