How Many Baristas Do You Need for a Large Conference or Event?
You're the one sitting in the planning meeting thinking, "how do we move all these people from session to session?" — not "who's the most impressive keynote we can get ahold of?" You've ordered from the same caterer for years, you're dialed in on food lines, but now your committee wants to do "something special" and hire a mobile espresso bar for your conference guests.
More logistics. Now you're wondering how to make sure no one gets stuck in line and misses half their breakout session. Empty breakout rooms are really tough on the presenters who worked hard on their presentations.
So — how many baristas do you actually need?
The short answer
One barista at the coffee cart can crank out approximately 40 espresso-based drinks per hour — think a standard latte, syrup and all.
Add cold brew alongside them, and that average climbs to 45-50 drinks per hour, max.
Two baristas working one cart with one fast-serve add-on (like cold brew) add roughly 10 more drinks per hour on top of that, with more consistency and less risk of things slowing down mid-rush because someone ran out of ice or had to go grab more milk.
Quick-serve carts — a pre-batch cart, where baristas serve a limited menu of iced lattes only — can get output down to 15-30 seconds per drink.
Why are we writing this?
Coffee carts are popular. Very popular, at any event. So whether it's a coffee cart or some other attractive draw — a mobile smoothie bar, a milkshake bar — the same rule applies: know the math ahead of time, and have a plan to move people along to their next breakout.
A rough staffing guide
Think in terms of output.
If we want 30 people to get through the line during a 15 minute break, that would take two coffee carts and one barista at each cart.
If we want 100 people or more to get through the line during a 15 minute break, you’ll need a combination of espresso bar service and pre-batched service (3-4 carts with 2 of them offering pre-batch).
You’re killin’ it. Keep up the good work. We’d love to talk you through these kinds of decisions as you hire a coffee caterer. Shoot us an email or give us a call if you need help, and if you’re planning a conference in Milwaukee, Chicago or Madison (WI), submit a quote request to get the conversation started.