Melbourne International Coffee Exhibition

Hi Women In Coffee

We'd like to take this opportunity to address your concerns.

Firstly, MICE never intended to be exclusionary to any gender, race or other through this campaign. You'll note that men without beards were also excluded from being the "one to be shaved" so this was not a deliberate exclusion of only women. The focus of this campaign was entirely around raising money for our charity partner and unfortunately that messaging has now been lost in the broader discussion.

MICE is disappointed that Women In Coffee chose to start a petition rather than call and discuss directly with us.

MICE has been very supportive of women in the coffee industry, having offered space within the show for both MICE and The Coffee Experience to various women's coffee groups and gone to great lengths to support and promote those groups through the MICE communications platforms, as well as through our BeanScene partnership.

The campaign that you're referring to has already been changed. The new campaign was launched yesterday around lunchtime as "Shave the Baristas" and explicitly references both men and women in the campaign, being able to shave hair or beards.

It appears this petition was started 10 hours ago (at time of responding), well after the relaunch of the campaign, so if there is another issue to address, please contact us directly for an open and clear discussion, as this issue was rectified long before the petition started.

We hope that the coffee industry can rally and focus on the intention of the campaign to support StreetSmart in raising funds to combat homelessness.

Yours sincerely,
MICE