Bar & Restaurant Expo 2025

Learn how to create an engaging industry night that boosts sales during slow months, fosters community support, and adds excitement with friendly competition. This session will guide you in setting up a successful event that unites hospitality workers and gives back to the hospitality community while building lasting relationships with local businesses and suppliers.
Participants will learn:

• How to organize a competition that attracts hospitality professionals and builds camaraderie.
• Effective strategies for marketing the event on social media to maximize attendance.
• Techniques to engage the community and ensure long-term participation.
• How to partner with suppliers and local businesses for sponsorship and support.
• Key steps to manage high volumes and optimize your venue for a seamless, successful event.

This session highlights the vital role front-of-house staff play in crafting memorable guest experiences. Gain actionable strategies to energize and empower your team, ensuring they deliver exceptional service that transforms first-time visitors into loyal patrons.
Participants will know how to: 

• Empower staff to make on-the-spot decisions that enhance guest experiences.
• Build a culture of recognition that celebrates outstanding service and teamwork.
• Enhance training focusing on soft skills like empathy and conflict resolution.
• Personalize guest interactions by remembering preferences and special occasions.
• Foster a feedback-driven environment to encourage continuous improvement.

Striking the right balance between managing costs and driving revenue is one of the most challenging aspects of running a successful bar or restaurant. This session dives into actionable strategies for pricing menus effectively, maintaining profitability, and staying competitive in an ever-evolving market. Gain the tools to optimize pricing while enhancing guest satisfaction and loyalty.
Participants will: 

• Learn how menu pricing influences customer perception and drives purchasing decisions.
• Explore tactics for managing food, beverage, and labor costs while maintaining high standards.
• Discover how to strategically price and structure menus to increase profitability and guide guest choices.
• Leverage industry data and consumer behavior insights to stay ahead of pricing shifts.
• Design promotions that align with your pricing strategy and attract repeat business.

Designed specifically for established independent restaurants and multi-unit operators with 2-25 units, this town hall session tackles the unique challenges for established businesses or those currently in an active scale-up phase.
This 2-hour "triage" session is tailored for those facing specific business challenges or actively scaling up operations.
In an interactive town hall format, three industry consultants will provide targeted insights on these key areas: People & Staffing, Operations & Financials, and Digital & Social Media Marketing, focusing on solutions that drive growth and streamline operations.
After the town hall, participate in 30-minute breakout discussions providing one-on-one coaching to address your current challenge or questions. Get ready to leave with tailored, actionable insights to help you scale effectively and enhance your business’s long-term success.

In this dynamic workshop, participants will learn how to craft a compelling and flexible brand story that aligns their hospitality project with community values and supports sustainable growth. Through interactive activities, we’ll guide you in defining core brand values, refining your messaging, and ensuring consistent communication with employees, partners, and customers.

• Identify and define core brand values for long-term success.
• Develop a compelling brand story that resonates with your community.
• Learn how to communicate consistently across all stakeholder groups.
• Build a brand story that remains adaptable as your project grows.
• Gain practical tools to structure and discipline your brand messaging efforts.

Labor costs are a real challenge for restaurants that want to make money. Restaurant owners have to battle with a lot of variables to control their labor cost and create success from things that are out of their control. For example, there is rising minimum wage – could be going as high as $22/hour in some places, labor laws that freeze scheduled hours for staff, a fear of working people so hard they leave and don’t forget the cost of providing the best service possible. What is a restaurant owner to do? How can you give good service, keep your team happy and make money? In this session, David Scott Peters, restaurant expert and coach, will teach restaurant owners three deadly mistakes commonly made in managing labor hours and how to correct them. Attendees will learn the formulas to properly plan for and manage these mistakes and leave with the knowledge and tools to fix it immediately. Attend this session to learn:

• How to successfully budget for labor
• How to identify shifts where you are over staffed
• How to track and control labor cost
• How to avoid overstaffing
• How to teach and lead your team to run the right ideal labor cost

Become a local leader by building meaningful connections with your community. This session will help you develop strategies to strengthen your brand’s presence and foster loyalty in your local market.

Learn how to engage with your community to build lasting relationships.
Discover strategies for supporting and collaborating with local businesses.
Position your venue as a cornerstone of your neighborhood.
Utilize local events and partnerships to enhance visibility.
Build a loyal customer base through authentic community involvement.

Explore how adopting a people-first approach can transform your restaurant's business model by fostering loyalty, increasing productivity, and enhancing customer experiences. This session dives into actionable strategies that link employee satisfaction with financial success, paving the way for long-term growth in the industry.
Participants will learn to:

• Empower employees by creating a supportive environment that encourages ownership and excellence in their roles.
• Build trust to form a foundation for team resilience and long-term business stability.
• Understand the connection between employee well-being and customer experience, focusing on mutual benefits.
• Gain insights on structuring training programs that increase competency, reduce turnover, and align with company values.
• Learn to achieve profitability through people-centric practices that improve morale, retention, and revenue.