We’re definitely much more about community—bringing people together and having a good time. The competition is almost the excuse for doing that." — says Tim Williams, CEO of the World AeroPress Championship (W.A.C.).

Last year, the World AeroPress Championship (W.A.C.) season brought together more than 3,000 competitors at 120 events in over 60 countries.

But the idea started with much humbler beginnings—three coffee geeks and a cake in a small room in Norway.

Why start a competition? When the organizers, internationally renowned baristas Tim Wendelboe and Tim Varney, hosted the first event in 2008, the AeroPress brewing device had only recently been released on the market. Instead of spending months in isolation 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. We interview the CEO, Tim Williams to learn more about what makes the competition special and what structure he and his team offer organizers from HQ.

🔥 Check out our book Get Together: How to Build a Community With Your People 📙

Get Together is a podcast about the nuts and bolts of community building. Hosts Bailey Richardson and Kevin Huynh of People & Company ask organizers who have built exceptional communities about just how they did it. How did they get the first people to show up? How did they grow to thousands more members?

The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show

Gift Grub: The Gift Grub Valentine's Day Guide

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts