Pizza Expo Columbus adds sourdough dough workshop to June registration update

Sourdough is moving deeper into pizza culture, and Pizza Expo Columbus is making that shift obvious by putting a Sourdough Pizza Dough workshop on a program built for working operators. The expo returns October 11-12 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, and registration opened June 1, with organizers urging early sign-ups because some competition categories have limited spots.

The Great American Pizza Challenge gives a clear picture of how wide the event’s reach has become. The lineup stretches from dessert pizza and traditional thin crust to gluten-free, pepperoni slice, non-traditional thin-crust, breadsticks and garlic knots, with a Young Pizza Maker of the Year division folded in as well. Competition rules say the Great American Pizza Challenge is open to pizza-industry participants 18 and older, while the Young Pizza Maker of the Year category is open to ages 16 and 17.

For sourdough bakers, the most revealing part of the update is not the competition roster but the classroom. Among the fee-based sessions is Sourdough Pizza Dough, taught by Will Grant, also known as Sourdough Willy. Pizza Today has called Grant the top sourdough competitive chef in the world and the first non-Italian Master Pizzaiolo Instructor in the United States, a credential set that makes his presence feel less like a novelty and more like a signal that naturally leavened dough has real traction in the pizza business.

Grant’s background fits the moment the expo is trying to capture. He has been making pizzas for about 40 years, has opened 13 restaurants since 1984, and has earned wins and placements in more than five food competitions in the last five years. Pizza Today has also reported that he works with a 120-year-old sourdough starter, and that his current operations include Sourdough Willy’s Pizzeria in Kingston, Washington, and That’s A Some Pizza in Bainbridge Island, Washington.

That combination of competition, instruction and business focus is what gives the Columbus show its weight. Pizza Expo Columbus materials describe the event as a Midwest trade show centered on networking, products, education and pizzeria growth, with more than 30 hours of workshops, seminars and live demos. Pizza Today’s Expo Spotlight says the 2026 program will feature 20-plus seminars, and the sourdough workshop sits inside that larger push to treat dough technique as a practical business skill, not just a bakery obsession.

For home bakers and small pizza operators alike, the message is blunt: sourdough is no longer an off-menu experiment. It is now part of the professional pizza conversation, and Columbus is putting it under the lights.