Joe Donoghue & Benjamin Dawe: Code, Culture & Coffee at The 3000s - From Game Developers to Creative Brand Builders
How does a computer game studio end up making coffee?
On the surface, The Three Thousands and Griffiths Bros might look like an unexpected collaboration.
One is a Melbourne creative studio building computer games.
The other is a coffee company with deep roots in roasting, hospitality and coffee culture.
But the more you look at it, the more sense it makes.
Games and coffee are both about experience. They’re both about culture. They’re both about energy, ritual, creativity and community.
And for The Three Thousands, coffee is also part of a bigger story: how do you build a visible, culturally relevant brand when the thing you actually make can take years to build — and often can’t be talked about publicly?
We’re very excited to welcome Joe Donoghue and Benjamin Dawe, Co-founders of The 3000s to the Coffee Lab!
26 Apr 2026
Ross Scacco: Inside the culture of office coffee.
S2E6 - Is office coffee in 2026 actually better than café coffee?
If you’ve walked into a modern corporate office lately,you’ll know it’s no longer International Roast and a dusty kettle in the corner.
Today’s workplace coffee is automated, data-driven,hospitality-level — and in some cases, outperforming traditional café setups in consistency and scale.
So what happened?
How did we go from click-clack machines in the 90s to fullyconnected coffee ecosystems that report back in real time?
And what does this mean for the future of cafés, baristas,automation, and even workplace culture?
Our guest today has played a big role in driving this change. We’re very excited to welcome Ross Scacco, Founder of Procaffe to the Coffee Lab.
12 Dec 2025
Sam Taylor: Specialty coffee. Great customers. One shared journey.
S2E5 - Sam Taylor is a bit of an industry legend in Australia.
He’s journeyed from making his first coffees in a steakhouse to competing in and judging the biggest coffee competitions in the world.
Today he heads up the coffee division at Soul Origin. With more than 150 locations Australia wide, they aspire to big things, with our guest leading the charge.
We’re very excited to welcome Sam Taylor, Head of Coffee at Soul Origin to the Coffee Lab.
4 Dec 2024
Melissa Caia: From Melbourne cafes to judging on the world stage
Melissa Caia shares her journey from Melbourne cafes to judging on the world stage, empowering coffee industry professionals with her expertise and accreditation.
4 Dec 2024
Jack Eydlish: Generations of flavour
Jack Eydlish shares his unique journey from pharmacy to leading Maltra Foods, a leading Australian food and beverage contract manufacturer.
2 Aug 2024
Andrew Baldry: Tips on flexible franchising
S2E2 - Just to the northwest of Noosa in Queensland, lies the small town of Gympie, population a bit over 50 thousand. It’s a far cry from the big, bustling, coffee metropolis that is Melbourne, population 5 million, some 2000km to the south. But that’s the journey today’s guest made, and the culture shock was real.
We’re very excited to welcome Andrew Baldry, General Manager of Coffee Wholesale at Degani Australia, to the Coffee Lab!
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podcast" on socials.
2 Aug 2024
Steve Plarre: How to keep a 120 year old business modern
S2E1 - When your dad’s a baker, his crazy hours mean you don’t get to see much of him as a kid. Which is why as soon as they could, Steve and Mike Plarre joined their dad at
the bakery. A couple of 7 or 8 year olds covered in flour, doing anything they could to get involved.
Fast forward a few decades and one of them is now the CEO, the other is the General Manager of Production at Plarre Foods, more commonly known as Ferguson Plarre’s
Bakehouses.
We’re very excited to welcome Steve Plarre to the Coffee Lab!
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28 Apr 2023
Nick Ferrara: Why happiness should be the only measure of success
S1E6 - Nick Ferrara was born in Naples, Italy and studied engineering in Rome, before launching into a career in news publishing. He also worked with his mum in a not-for-profit aimed at dissuading young people from a life of organized crime, and at some point also started a wind farm with his mates.
Then, with no real knowledge of English, and having never been on a plane before, he packed up and moved to Australia – a gutsy move.
Today, he’s National Training Manager with one of the most recognizable names in coffee: Lavazza.
We’re very excited to welcome Nick Ferrara to the Coffee Lab.
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21 Feb 2023
Peter Patisteas: Driving innovation and social change - through coffee
S1E5 - Peter Patisteas has seen Melbourne’s coffee culture unfold and mature from a front row seat. He grew up learning the art of coffee roasting – at the time, a very manual process – from his father and uncle, in the Griffiths Brothers roastery.
After a foray into investment banking in London in the late 90s, he decided to go straight to the source and see how coffee starts life, on the plantations of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. And after a year, he returned to Melbourne, to settle into the family business.
Today, if you ask him his job title, he’ll say something like “coffee roaster from sunny Mulgrave”, but he’s actually now co-director of Griffiths Brothers, along with his brother-in-law, Chris Togias.
While the words “coffee” and “technology” don’t always fit into the same sentence, they do for Peter. He’s passionate about refining and advancing the processes around coffee production, from crop to cup, while also doing as much as possible to look after the people involved, and the environment.
We’re very excited to welcome Peter Patisteas to the Coffee Lab.
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21 Feb 2023
Alberto Schiavon: Reinvention of a classic and looking to the future
S1E4 - Alberto Schiavon was in Melbourne for the World Barista Championships, where for the first time, competitors did their thing using Barista Attitude machines.
The machines themselves are backed by the half-century pedigree of Astoria CMA, but they’re servicing a new customer – a barista, or café owner, or multinational chain that’s looking for something a little bit different, a little bit 21stcentury.
At the same time as they’re digitizing the coffee making process, Barista Attitude are working to reintroduce the humanity to coffee, with a focus on hospitality, and zoning in on the barista’s role in our daily lives.
We’re very excited to welcome Barista Attitude’s Sales Manager, Alberto Schiavon, to the Coffee Lab!
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21 Feb 2023
Kamal Bengougam: How to disrupt a market with innovation
S1E3 - Kamal Bengougam is a risk taker, but it’s risk for the sake of a good story, as much as it is for the payoff. He’s had a varied career including publishing, engineering, biotech, and he’s mashed all those together to land at the cutting edge of super-automated coffee at Eversys.
Now, super-automation is contentious. There are those who will argue that automating the coffee making process rips the soul from it but Kamal and Eversys disagree. And with the pandemic shaking the hospitality industry across the world, for Eversys the aftermath has presented enormous opportunity.
We’re very excited to welcome to the Coffee Lab Kamal Bengougam, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Eversys.
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19 Feb 2023
Chris Togias: Tips for moving from corporate to building a family business
S1E2 - As time passes, generational shifts occur – in families, in their businesses, the products they’ve created, and the communities they serve. Riding the waves of these generational shifts is challenging, particularly in migrant communities that still feel so connected to their homelands, but for whom identities and points of reference are constantly shifting and changing. Our guest today is Chris Togias, Co-Director of The OG Group, which includes Oasis Greek coffee. Today, we’re here at the Antipodes Festival, which is a huge Greek street festival that takes place in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD every year, and we’re here to talk about pulverized Greek coffee, which is facing a generational shift of its own. We’re very excited to welcome Chris Togias to the Coffee Lab! Join the conversation - search "Coffee Lab podcast" on socials.
19 Feb 2023
Barry Moore: How La Marzocco continues to innovate & why social enterprise matters
S1E1 - From the espresso bars of Rome to the laneway cafes of Melbourne, La Marzocco is a globally recognized – and loved – brand. But long before he became their Managing Director here in Australia, Barry Moore was a devoted customer, placing hundreds of La Marzocco coffee machines in the businesses he worked in around the world. Then, the opportunity arose to head-up the business here in Australia, so here he is – growing and reshaping the brand, while also exploring what influence it can wield in the world. We’re very excited to welcome Barry Moore, Managing Director of La Marzocco Australia, to the Coffee Lab! Join the conversation - search "Coffee Lab podcast" on socials.
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