It’s time to Level Up once again. Raise The Bar’s premiere educational event is back for year two. Part immersive learning experience and part sleepaway camp, Level Up is a weekend full of workshops and mentorship opportunities with the working coffee professional in mind. And it returns to Minneapolis in September.
Raise The Bar is a barista-focused organization created by industry veterans Rachel Apple, Ivana Chan, and Sandra Loofbourow. With over a half-century of experience in specialty coffee, Apple, Chan, and Loofbourow designed Level Up holistically, training coffee professionals how to excel both in and outside of a specialty coffee setting.
Taking place September 18th through 20th at Mill City Roasters, with other off-site events as well, Level Up is three days of “skill-based education, inclusive leadership, community-led programming designed around the needs of people actually working behind the bar,” led by your favorite coffee person’s favorite coffee person.
Instructors include La Marzocco’s Estelle Bright, Melissa Dixon and Hana Kanashige, leading an Under The Hood and Espresso 101 session, and discussing sales and life beyond the bar, respectively, 2026 US Latte Art Champion Marquis Monzon leading a latte art seminar, USBC Finalist Seidy Selivanow on espresso extractions, US Brewers Cup champion and Cafe Imports Head of Education Dylan Siemens on sensory skills, and cafe consultant Erica Escalante teaching business skills, amongst others, with more to be announced.
Other panel, workshop, and lecture topics include “what drives coffee cost, brand & storytelling, extraction deep dives, hospitality in-action, [and] sustainability in coffee.”
And the impact for 2025 attendees is real. Per Raise The Bar, 100% of surveyed attendees reported making a professional move following—”a raise, a new role, a business, finding or becoming a mentor”—61% reported improvement in their ability to save money, 22% reported increased confidence negotiating pay, and % accepted new jobs through connections that they made at Level Up.
“We wanted to make it easier for the generation coming up behind us: affordable, playful, high-quality, low-ego education,” Apple states. “Fun is important to us, and inclusivity is non-negotiable. When people feel safe enough to exist, they can learn, and if they have good learning… it’s going to stick.”
Attendance for Level Up II will be capped at 100 participants. Tickets start at $600 and include food, lodging, and travel to off-site events. Everything except for the plane ticket, basically. While Raise The Bar has worked to keep the price as low as possible, $600 is still cost-prohibitive for some. That’s why they are offering scholarship opportunities. Applications will be available soon and will be announced via Raise The Bar’s email list and Instagram.
For more information, a full slate of events, to register, or to apply for a scholarship, visit Raise The Bar’s official website.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
Photos by Paige Elizabeth Hicks for Raise The Bar, used with permission
