Tuesday, Day 2 of WBC 2009

Today started almost without yesterday stopping, sleep is still hard to find but there is plenty to do!

Mum, Dad and Marc arrived just after midnight, and along with them the last of my crockery/ glasses. Its a genuine relief to have everything here.

The team started off the day heading out to find breakfast, someone didn't want the Hotel food. To cut a long story short, we ended up in parts of the City we didn't fit in very well in, and the Hotel food now looks like a sound option in the mornings.

With the mornings dining taken care of the team split. Most went off shopping, three of us sorted the power for the grinders. The sooner the rest of the world changes their power to be the same as the US, the easier it will be for everyone. Another long story short we went down to check out the venue. Its tiny! You could only just fit a small country into the hall! Marcus, Cindy and Amber had things well under control and the 2009 WBC was starting to take shape. The new "Runway" format is looking great, and I think will have heaps of great advantages for Baristas and Audience. One of the big ones for the baristas being that temperatures should be kept at a more bearable level because there is still the ability for air to circulate.

The stage is quickly taking shape. 2 big screens, 650 comfortable chairs and 3 workstations running down the centre runway. Just to the right of shot is the media centre, which is beside the foodcourt. 100m behind shot is the WBC Bar. I didn't take a pic of it because I couldn't be bothered getting my camera out again.

The WBC Cafe Bar was being put together and is looking huge. Its going to be a masssive draw to the event, and really help create some more depth to the experience for visitors and baristas alike. Where else could you possibly have so many great Baristas making all types of coffees!

While we were there Francesco from Nuova Simonelli took the time to give us a peak at the new WBC edition machines. They look wicked. The Nuovo team have been busy making heaps of small but positive changes to their machines for this WBC and the results are coming through loud and clear. Just to cam any rapidly beating hearts at this point, the operating paarmeters of the machines have remained the same as those WBC machines we have been training on (which I was somewhat relieved about myself!)

The main visible changes are obviously the new limited edition WBC art work and paintjob. Some cool graphics floating from portafilters on the side of the machines right around the front.

White halogens on each of the groupheads brighten up the deck for our espressos and quite clearly the electronic control panel has emerged back onto this WBC machine. I dont have time to go into details at the moment, but the panel controls the pressurestat so temperature can now be easily controlled/ varied from this panel rather than having to open its shell.

The other most obvious changes are the portafilters. Stitched leather porta-filter handles with a new lip to prevent that nasty run of water back down the handles lead up to a teflon lined bowl. They look cool, and are very comfortable to use.

I can't wait to start dropping some shots through these machines, so much time and effort has gone into getting them ready. Even though these machines are all new (and there are heaps of them!), the NS team spent a whole week factory testing each one before they were shipped, and a 15 strong support team is here to make sure everything runs to plan.We are lucky to have Nuova onboard this WBC.

Everyone is piling into Atlanta now, and only a few left on the team to arrive. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone over the next few days. Wednesday is the competitors meeting, and the meet and greet that night, so it all begins now!