17 years in the UAE: How this Australian expat is creating opportunities through coffee

Dubai: When Ryan Godinho came to Dubai in 2009, he did not arrive with a ready-made career waiting for him.

His father has been running events and trade shows in Dubai for several years, and Godinho pitched him the idea of doing a small coffee event. An opportunity has soon come up for Godinho to take on an operational role with what would eventually become the “International Coffee and Tea Festival.”

He realised that an event alone could not build an industry.

“There needed to be something that actually helped build the industry as well,” Godinho told Gulf News.

Within a couple of years, Godinho has become the UAE’s first national coordinator for World Coffee Events, helping establish licensed national championships in the country. The first UAE Barista Championship gave baristas working in the Emirates a route to the World Barista Championship.

“It was a slow start. Participation was small, audiences were smaller, and most people still had no idea why anyone would voluntarily stand on a stage and make coffee in front of judges.”

Each year, more people have become interested. More baristas have competed, more people wanted to learn, and coffee began to be taken more seriously.

Creating opportunities

Godinho did not easily  enter an established industry. He has found himself working in one that was still being built.

“I’ve always liked about Dubai. If something useful doesn’t exist yet, the response here is rarely, ‘well, that’s unfortunate’. It’s usually, ‘right, so how are we going to build this?’,” shared Godinho.

He then became a lead instructor with the Specialty Coffee Association of America, helping bring internationally recognised coffee education to the UAE. Instead of people having to travel overseas to access professional training, education could increasingly happen here.

In late 2011, he has established “Specialty Batch,” initially as an education and training platform because he felt that was what the market needed most. Roasting and equipment have followed, along with technical support.

“A few years later we took over a villa in Jumeirah 1 to create somewhere customers could actually experience all of this work rather than us continually explaining it to them. That became Stomping Grounds.”

Godinho has noted that the path was rarely linear.

“Most of my professional life in Dubai has been spent solving the next problem created by solving the previous one. And somehow that became a career.”

People behind the coffee

For Godinho, the most meaningful part of that journey has been the people.

Early on, he has hosted the UAE’s first “Latte Art Throwdown,” bringing together baristas and cafe staff from different backgrounds. It has given people a chance to demonstrate their skills, compete, and potentially be noticed by those who could help them progress.

Moreover, he has formed the UAE Coffee Club, offering another way for people to connect and bring together coffee enthusiasts, cafe regulars, and industry professionals in a less formal setting.

Then there were the national championships, which have created a pathway for working baristas to compete, develop their skills and, for some, eventually represent the UAE internationally.

But education has remained at the heart of his efforts. Over the years, people from cafes, hotels, restaurants, and his own businesses received training. Some have stayed in the businesses, while others went on to become trainers, roasters, managers, cafe owners, and business owners themselves.

For Godinho, seeing people take those skills and create their own paths has been more meaningful than just building a business.

“That is probably the part I’m proudest of. Giving back does not always need to involve a giant cheque. Sometimes it’s simply giving somebody skills, confidence, and an opportunity, then watching them go off and build something of their own,” exclaimed Godinho.

Learning from Dubai

The lessons Dubai taught Godinho was not to assume that what worked somewhere else would automatically work here.

The UAE's multicultural environment has meant working with people from many various backgrounds, each bringing different expectations and ways of communicating.

“You learn to listen more, communicate more clearly, and become a little less precious about your own way of doing things,” explained Godinho.

He has also understood that what he was building could not simply remain an Australian concept transplanted into Dubai.

“I still carry a lot of Melbourne with me. But I reckon Stomping Grounds wouldn’t have lasted this long if it were simply an Australian cafe transplanted into Jumeirah 1. It became a Dubai business because the people around it shaped it.”

Learning something new

Godinho's advice to other expatriates has been rooted in the same experience that shaped his own career.

“Bring the useful parts of your experience with you, absolutely. But then learn from where you are,” stated Godinho.

“Respect the culture. Meet people outside your normal circle. Employ people properly. Build good relationships. Support the community and industry that support your livelihood.”

For him, the lesson of nearly two decades in the UAE is not simply that opportunities exist. It is that opportunities can also be created, sometimes by recognising what is missing and deciding to build it.

“Dubai gave me the opportunity to play a role in shaping its own coffee culture. There is enormous opportunity here, but opportunity should never be confused with entitlement.”

He added, “Dubai gives you plenty of room to have a go. The rest is still on you.”

Local connection

After 17 years in the UAE, Godinho's relationship with Dubai has changed.

The friendships, cultures, and people he has encountered have broadened his world in ways that would have been difficult to replicate elsewhere.

“Personally, I think living here has broadened my world enormously. After these many years, Dubai is not really somewhere I happen to work anymore. It’s home,” said Godinho.