The Tech Chef, Restaurant, Hospitality and Hotel Technology Business Podcast

TCP095: MURTEC Executive Summit 2025 Recap with Toby Malbec

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Toby Malbec joins the Tech Chef Podcast to talk about the future of restaurant technology and the key insights from the recent MURTEC Executive Summit. He emphasizes the importance of getting foundational technology in place before diving into advanced innovations like AI. Toby shares his experiences as the Vice President of Global Restaurant Technology for Church's Chicken and highlights how operators need to prepare for upcoming changes in the industry. The conversation dives deep into the collaboration necessary among brands to tackle common challenges and improve operations. Overall, this episode is a serious look at how technology can lead to success in the hospitality sector.

Takeaways:

Restaurant operators to get their digital house in order before the next wave of technology changes hits the industry.
The importance of foundational technology to leverage advanced innovations like AI and machine learning.
There is a significant distinction between operational success and the technology tools used, highlighting the need for seamless integration in restaurant operations.
Insights on the evolution of hospitality tech and the importance of collaboration among industry leaders to succeed.

TCP094: The AI IT Consultant Is Here!

Tue, 20 May 2025 05:00:00 -0500

In this episode of The Tech Chef Podcast, Skip Kimpel welcomes Chris Herd, co-founder and CEO of Olive, the AI-powered platform that’s redefining how businesses approach vendor selection, RFPs, and strategic sourcing. Chris shares his journey from tech sales to entrepreneurship, the pain points that inspired Olive’s creation, and why the traditional RFP process is fundamentally broken.

Together, they explore how Olive eliminates bias, accelerates decisions, and empowers consultants, operators, and vendors to collaborate more effectively. Whether you’re tired of bloated spreadsheets or questioning the future of your consulting model, this conversation offers a refreshing, forward-thinking take on how to evaluate and adopt technology in a smarter way.

Key Takeaways:

The RFP Is Broken: Traditional RFPs are slow, manual, and often biased. Olive offers a collaborative, agile alternative powered by AI.

AI as an Assistant, Not a Replacement: Rather than replacing consultants, Olive empowers them to work more efficiently, scale faster, and deliver more value by automating tedious tasks.

Vendor Fairness & Objectivity: Olive doesn’t accept vendor payments, reducing bias and ensuring a level playing field in the selection process.

Smarter, Faster Decisions: From consolidating stakeholder input to auto-analyzing vendor responses, Olive dramatically shortens timelines and improves project outcomes.

Beyond Hospitality: While widely used in restaurants and hotels, Olive’s platform is industry-agnostic and scalable across enterprise sectors.

The Future of RFPs? According to Chris, the term “RFP” might be obsolete in five years. Instead, decision-making platforms will lead the way

How To Contact Me:

Website

https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)

https://magicgate.com

Instagram:

https://instagram.com/skipkimpel

https://www.instagram.com/magicgatetech/

X (Twitter):

https://twitter.com/skipkimpel

https://x.com/magicgatetech

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/

https://www.facebook.com/magicgatetech

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel

https://www.linkedin.com/company/magicgate

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech

You can always email me at:

skip@magicgate.com

TCP093: MURTEC 2025 Recap with Tom Seeker

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500

This week on Tech Chef, host Skip Kimpel dives into a post-MURTEC 2025 recap with first-time guest and hospitality tech veteran Tom Seeker. Fresh off the show floor, they discuss everything from shifting conference venues to the biggest tech themes making waves in the restaurant and hospitality space.

Tom brings the dual perspective of a vendor and operator, offering sharp insights on what made this year’s event stand out. The conversation centers on how data has become the true king, replacing cash as the core currency of innovation, and how restaurants must own and control their data to stay competitive.

From the evolving role of AI and VR in training and operations to conversations around legacy tech, security, and personalization, this episode is packed with strategic takeaways for operators, tech providers, and hospitality pros alike.

Takeaways:

Data is the New Currency: The dominant theme of MURTEC 2025 was clear—data is king. Operators need to prioritize data ownership, clean pipelines, and interoperability between systems to future-proof their businesses.
AI is Just a Tool: The buzz around AI has matured. It’s no longer seen as a silver bullet, but rather as a data enhancement tool, helping restaurants normalize, visualize, and act on information more effectively.
Training is Going Virtual: With limited resources and expanding footprints, operators are increasingly turning to virtual and extended reality (XR) solutions to meet employees where they are. VR-based onboarding and training are on the rise, driven by both need and innovation.
Legacy Tech Still a Major Pain Point: Many brands remain handcuffed by outdated systems. There’s a growing push to modernize the tech stack while ensuring data continuity and seamless integration with modern tools.
Security Still Matters (Even If It's Not Trendy): While AI dominated past headlines, cybersecurity remains mission-critical. Large restaurant brands continue to be high-profile targets, making awareness and proactive defense essential.
The Guest Experience is Assumed, but the Employee Experience is Rising: Guest experience is now table stakes. The bigger surprise? A growing emphasis on employee-facing tech—tools that empower teams, improve shift management, and optimize training.
MURTEC Venue Shift & Community Vibes: While there was skepticism about the move from Paris Las Vegas to Caesars Forum, Tom praises the new setup, calling it a “family reunion” with great energy and flow. Still, the familiar charm of Paris has its fans.
RTN Standards & Collaboration: The Restaurant Technology Network (RTN) is playing a vital role in shaping the future. From RFP standards to possible mentorship programs and showroom tours, there’s a strong push for industry-wide collaboration.

How To Contact Me

Website

https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)

https://magicgate.com

Instagram:

https://instagram.com/skipkimpel

https://www.instagram.com/magicgatetech/

X (Twitter):

https://twitter.com/skipkimpel

https://x.com/magicgatetech

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/

https://www.facebook.com/magicgatetech

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel

https://www.linkedin.com/company/magicgate

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech

You can always email me at skip@magicgate.com

XR Bootcamp for Business Professionals!

Magicgate will be launching an XR Bootcamp for Business Professionals. This is a low tech / no tech approach to guide you, as business leaders with knowledgeable information to take new ideas to your company and your team member and be able to talk intelligently around the subject matter. This is a 5 week course (plus a bonus week!) that will get you caught up on terminology, discuss business strategies, uncover devices and services to help you down your XR path as well as how to manage this type of project. Most importantly, you will given research and tools to help you make a business case for including this in your technology strategy and roadmap. For more information and to sign up, go to bootcamp.magicgate.com. LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE!

TCP092: Making Data An Experience, Spreadsheets Are Dead!

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500

The Tech Chef Podcast takes listeners deep into the world of hospitality technology with episode 92 featuring Jason Marsh of Flow Immersive. The episode kicks off with an introduction to the latest trends in restaurant and hospitality tech. Skip Kimpel, the host, sets the stage for a discussion about immersive data visualization, a groundbreaking approach to understanding complex data in a more engaging way. Jason shares the fascinating journey of Flow Immersive, starting from its inception at a hackathon to its current capabilities that allow users to interact with data in 3D space using AI. This technology, he explains, transforms dull business meetings into lively discussions, where stakeholders can visualize and manipulate data dynamically, fostering better decision-making and collaboration.

As the conversation unfolds, listeners gain insights into the practical applications of this innovative technology across various industries. Jason emphasizes how immersive data experiences can enhance understanding in sectors like hospitality. He illustrates this with an example of a life expectancy dataset visualized in 3D, showcasing how historical data can reveal trends and insights that are not visible in traditional 2D formats. This immersive approach encourages shared understanding, which is crucial for data-driven decisions in business environments. The episode also highlights the importance of collaboration and how immersive experiences can lead to more effective teamwork.

Listeners are invited to think about the future of data presentation and how immersive technology can become a staple in boardrooms. The discussion wraps up with Jason expressing his vision for Flow Immersive to integrate seamlessly into everyday business practices, making data visualization a natural and intuitive experience. This episode serves as a compelling invitation for listeners to explore the evolving landscape of hospitality tech and embrace the future of data interaction.

Takeaways:

Flow Immersive started nine years ago when the speaker wanted to build Ironman and invited others to join in.
The speaker believes immersive data visualization is the future of data interaction and collaboration.
Businesses can use Flow Immersive for better data interpretation, especially in supply chains and financial services.
Augmented reality provides a shared data experience in meetings, allowing for interactive discussions and real-time collaboration.
The future of data visualization will be about integrating technology seamlessly into the human experience, making it feel natural and engaging.

TCP091: VIROO: The Only XR You'll Ever Need

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 05:00:00 -0500

The podcast features a deep conversation Unai Extremo and John Cunningham, of Virtualware to discuss the innovative platforms developed especially focusing on their flagship product, VIROO. This platform is designed to assist industries in adopting immersive technologies, particularly in training and operational efficiency. Unai explains how VIROO aims to enhance competitiveness and sustainability in companies by leveraging real-time 3D technology.

He emphasizes the platform's ability to support various training scenarios, enabling organizations to create immersive training experiences while protecting their proprietary information. John shares his journey with Virtualware, highlighting the company's commitment to providing a user-friendly experience and the importance of having trusted partners in the industry.

The episode dives into the specific applications of VIROO in sectors like hospitality, where it can revolutionize training processes and operational efficiencies.Overall, the episode conveys the exciting potential of XR technologies in transforming traditional business practices, urging listeners to consider how these advancements can be integrated into their operations.

Takeaways:

The Tech Chef Podcast dives into the latest innovations transforming the hospitality industry, focusing on XR technology.
Virtualware is helping companies become more competitive by using real-time 3D technology in their operations.
The partnership between Magicgate and Virtualware aims to enhance XR adoption in the hospitality sector.
Training and collaboration using XR can improve efficiency and effectiveness in various hospitality functions.
John and Unai from Virtualware discuss the importance of security and scalability in implementing XR solutions.
The discussion highlights how XR technology can streamline training processes in hospitality and improve guest experiences.

TCP090: Powering the New Wave of Hospitality with HTC VIVE

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0500

This episode features Dan O'Brien from HTC, who brings years of experience in tech innovation to the table. They discuss the importance of strategic business partnerships in the travel and hospitality industry, focusing on how these collaborations can lead to growth and enhanced guest experiences. Skip and Dan explore the role of technology in shaping the future of hospitality, emphasizing the need for companies to keep up with the fast-paced changes in the tech landscape.

Throughout the episode, Dan shares insights into HTC's commitment to immersive technologies, particularly virtual reality and augmented reality. He explains how these technologies can revolutionize training programs, making them more effective and engaging for staff. The conversation also touches on the broader implications of XR in various industries, including healthcare and military training, showcasing the versatility and potential of these technologies in improving operational efficiency and training outcomes.

As they delve deeper into the practical applications of XR in hospitality, Skip and Dan discuss innovative solutions for guest engagement and staff training. They highlight specific scenarios where immersive technology can enhance the guest experience, such as interactive service training and event planning simulations. The episode wraps up with a strong message about the necessity of embracing technology in hospitality to meet evolving consumer expectations and ensure long-term success.

Takeaways:

In this episode, they discuss how immersive technology is transforming hospitality and training.
They highlight the importance of strategic partnerships for driving innovation in the tech industry.
The conversation reveals how XR can dramatically improve training efficiency and retention rates.
They emphasize that understanding the specific problems to solve is key when integrating XR solutions.
They explore the future of XR, including advancements in AR and VR technologies.
They stress the significance of comfort and security in XR hardware for enterprise applications.

TCP089: Smart Glasses That Slay - Meet ARGO

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0500

The Tech Chef Podcast dives deep into the world of augmented reality with Brian Hamilton, the VP of Sales and Marketing at Digilens. He introduces Argo, their innovative smart glasses designed specifically for the hospitality industry. The conversation highlights how Argo stands out with its unique waveguide technology that minimizes light leakage, allowing for better human interaction while using the glasses. The episode details the real-world applications of AR in hospitality, from enhancing customer service to improving logistics and training. Brian emphasizes the importance of human connection in hospitality, showcasing how Argo facilitates this by allowing users to maintain eye contact while accessing information. This episode serves as a crucial resource for hospitality leaders looking to embrace technology to enhance guest experiences and operational efficiency, making it clear that the future of hospitality is intertwined with advancements in AR technology.

Takeaways:

In the podcast, they discuss how augmented reality is changing the hospitality industry in many exciting ways.
Brian shares insights on how Digilens' Argo smart glasses are leading in AR technology for business applications.
The conversation emphasizes the importance of human interaction while using augmented reality in customer service roles.
They touch on the future of AR and its potential to enhance training and operational efficiency in various sectors.
Skip and Brian explore the unique features of the Argo glasses that set them apart from competitors in the market.
The podcast highlights the strategic partnership between Digilens and Magicgate, focusing on innovations for the hospitality industry.

TCP088: Feel The Future of XR Training With WEART Haptics

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Guido Gioioso, the CEO of WEART, shares insights on their innovative haptic technology in this engaging discussion. The conversation centers on how Weart's devices are redefining training in virtual and augmented reality. Guido explains how their technology allows users to experience realistic sensations such as temperature, texture, and pressure, which enhances the training process.

Guido emphasizes the importance of immersion, noting that the ability to feel these sensations can lead to better learning outcomes in various fields, particularly hospitality and industrial training. The episode also touches on the upcoming MURTEC conference where Magicgate will present more about these advancements, showcasing the potential for haptic technology to revolutionize the way we interact with virtual environments. Listeners are encouraged to explore this cutting-edge technology and consider its applications in their own fields.

Takeaways:

Guido Gioioso discusses the unique features of WEART's Haptics technology, emphasizing the three tactile sensations it provides: contact force, temperature, and texture rendering. This combination enhances immersion in VR and AR experiences.
Listeners are encouraged to attend the upcoming MURTEC conference in Las Vegas to learn more about restaurant technology trends and participate in discussions about streamlining procurement processes using RTN standards.
Guido shares insights on the challenges faced in scaling WEART, including the need for user-friendly designs and overcoming skepticism from businesses about the necessity of haptic technology in VR experiences.
The podcast highlights the importance of emotional engagement in training simulations, where haptic feedback can significantly enhance the realism of virtual experiences for hospitality and other sectors.
Listeners are invited to explore WEART's website and social media for more information on their haptic devices and to participate in demos at the MURTEC conference, showcasing cutting-edge technology in action.

Links Referenced in This Episode:

How To Contact Me

Website
https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
https://magicgate.com
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
https://www.instagram.com/magicgatetech/
X (Twitter):
https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
https://x.com/magicgatetech
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
https://www.facebook.com/magicgatetech
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
https://www.linkedin.com/company/magicgate
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech

You can always email me at skip@magicgate.com

TCP087: Steaming up Success with Geoff Alexander

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0500

The Tech Chef Podcast features a compelling conversation between Skip Kimpel and Geoff Alexander, President and CEO of Wow Bao. They explore Geoff's extensive background in the food industry, which spans over three decades, and his significant contributions to Wow Bao since its inception in 2003. The discussion focuses on the innovative strategies that have propelled Wow Bao's growth, including the use of technology, ghost kitchens, and grocery store partnerships. Geoff emphasizes the importance of looking beyond the restaurant sector for fresh ideas and adapting to changing market conditions, which he argues is essential for any food brand aiming for success.

Throughout the episode, Geoff shares fascinating insights into the operational strategies that have enabled Wow Bao to expand into various venues such as airports and sports stadiums. He discusses how technology, including AI and self-service kiosks, has transformed the customer experience and operational efficiency. The conversation also highlights the challenges of scaling a food brand without compromising quality and consistency, with Geoff offering practical advice on leadership and team dynamics necessary for achieving these goals. This episode serves as an informative guide for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and the hospitality industry.

As the podcast draws to a close, Geoff reveals his ambition for Wow Bao to become the leading brand in the bao market, aspiring to achieve recognition similar to that of Heinz ketchup. He shares his excitement for future growth opportunities and the need for continuous innovation within the industry. The episode also lightens up as Geoff shares his passion for spin cycling, adding a personal note to the professional insights offered. Overall, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of restaurant technology and the future of dining.

Takeaways:

Geoff Alexander discusses how Wow Bao expanded through technology and creative strategies like ghost kitchens.
He emphasizes the importance of looking outside the restaurant industry for innovative ideas and practices.
Success in the food industry requires passion, focus, and adaptability to market changes and trends.
The podcast reveals valuable insights on leading a successful food brand in a rapidly changing market.
Wow Bao has made significant strides in technology, including self-ordering kiosks and delivery-only kitchens.
The episode highlights the need for restaurant brands to embrace technology for operational efficiency and customer experience improvements.

Links Referenced in This Episode:

How To Contact Me

Website
https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
https://magicgate.com
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
https://www.instagram.com/magicgatetech/
X (Twitter):
https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
https://x.com/magicgatetech
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
https://www.facebook.com/magicgatetech
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
https://www.linkedin.com/company/magicgate
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech

You can always email me at skip@magicgate.com

TCP086: AI, IoT and Bottom-Line Bliss with Fabio Zaniboni

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

This podcast features an enlightening discussion between Skip Kimpel and Fabio Zaniboni, focusing on the integration of IoT technology within the hospitality sector and its profound implications for sustainability and energy efficiency. Fabio, with his extensive experience in engineering and innovation, articulates how IoT devices serve as a game-changer for hotels and restaurants aiming to reduce their energy consumption while simultaneously enhancing the guest experience. The narrative highlights the shift toward edge computing, which facilitates smarter data processing at the device level, reducing the need for extensive cloud data transmission and thereby conserving energy and resources.

Throughout the conversation, Fabio presents various practical applications of IoT in hospitality, emphasizing the role of smart technologies in optimizing energy usage. For example, he illustrates how occupancy sensors can dynamically adjust lighting and climate control systems based on guest presence, leading to substantial energy savings—potentially as much as 70%. He underscores the accessibility of these solutions, noting that they can be integrated into existing infrastructure with minimal disruption, making them feasible for properties of all sizes, including smaller boutique hotels that may previously have found such technologies cost-prohibitive.

Takeaways:

The transformative role of IoT in hospitality focuses on sustainability and energy efficiency.
By integrating IoT solutions, hotels can significantly reduce energy consumption and operational costs.
Smart environmental controls enhance guest experience through improved air quality and personalized lighting.
IoT technologies allow for real-time monitoring, leading to predictive maintenance and reduced operational stress.
Implementing IoT devices can result in substantial cost savings, improving the hotel's bottom line.
Wireless IoT solutions minimize the disruption to existing infrastructure, making adoption easier for hotels.

Links Referenced in This Episode:

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://magicgate.com
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
https://www.instagram.com/magicgatetech/
X (Twitter):
https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
https://x.com/magicgatetech
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
https://www.facebook.com/magicgatetech
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
https://www.linkedin.com/company/magicgate
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech

You can also hear all these new episodes on the Magicgate website at Magicgate.com Email me at skip@magicgate.com

TCP085: Navigating Digital Transformation with Ken Gavranovic

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Ken Gavranovic joins the podcast to discuss the transformative power of AI and digital tools in the hospitality industry. He highlights how many companies struggle with digital transformation due to a lack of clarity on outcomes and insufficient leadership commitment. Drawing from his extensive experience with iconic brands, Ken emphasizes that technology should enhance human connections rather than replace them. He introduces Product Genius, a tool designed to capture real-time guest feedback and streamline operations, which has proven to deliver impressive ROI for hospitality businesses. Throughout the conversation, he offers actionable insights for leaders looking to successfully navigate the complexities of AI-driven transformation while fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

The conversation reveals a deep understanding of digital transformation, particularly concerning the hospitality industry. Gavranovic, whose extensive experience includes leadership roles at prestigious companies, discusses the pivotal role of AI in reshaping customer engagement and operational efficiency. He posits that the most successful transformations occur when organizations embrace innovation holistically, integrating technology with a focus on enhancing human interactions. This perspective is crucial in industries like hospitality, where guest experience is paramount. Gavranovic's insights underscore the need for leaders to recognize that technology is not merely a tool but a means to amplify human capabilities and create memorable experiences for guests.

Takeaways:

Transformation in companies requires not just technology adoption but also evolution of people and processes.
AI can significantly enhance customer engagement in the hospitality industry by streamlining operations.
Leaders must focus on clear outcomes rather than just activities when implementing digital transformation.
Embracing change is challenging; leadership commitment is crucial for successful transformation initiatives.
Start small with AI implementation by addressing specific, clear problems for immediate ROI.
Fostering a culture that embraces technology will empower employees to enhance human connections.

Links Referenced in This Episode:

TCP084: "AI Does Not Exist" with Brandon McRill, CEO of 5Out

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Skip Kimpel welcomes Brandon McRrill, co-founder and CEO of 5Out, to delve into the transformative role of machine learning (ML) in the hospitality industry. As the conversation unfolds, McRrill shares his extensive background in the restaurant sector, which began at the tender age of 15. His journey through various prestigious establishments laid the groundwork for his current endeavor, where he aims to harness data to enhance operational efficiency in restaurants. A key theme of the discussion is the common misconception that artificial intelligence (AI) is synonymous with machine learning. McRrill argues that true AI, as depicted in films, does not yet exist in practical applications. Instead, what we see today is sophisticated programming that utilizes vast datasets to automate and simplify processes, ultimately benefiting restaurant operations.

The dialogue shifts to practical applications of ML within the restaurant space. McRrill emphasizes the importance of predictive analytics in optimizing staffing, menu design, and inventory management. By leveraging data, restaurants can make informed decisions that not only improve profitability but also enhance the customer experience. Kimpel and McRrill dissect the challenges of integrating ML into existing systems, highlighting the need for user-friendly interfaces that allow operators to easily access and implement insights without getting bogged down in technical complexities. As they explore the future of hospitality technology, they stress the importance of delivering actionable outcomes rather than just insights, setting the stage for a new era of efficiency in the industry.

Takeaways:

The podcast explores the misconceptions surrounding AI and emphasizes that true AI does not yet exist as commonly portrayed.
Brandon McRrill highlights the importance of machine learning as advanced programming, not independent thinking.
Restaurants can leverage machine learning to optimize operations and enhance customer experiences through automation.
The discussion includes the challenges of integrating machine learning into existing software platforms in the hospitality industry.
Listeners are encouraged to evaluate AI solutions by focusing on the deliverables rather than the technical jargon.
Brandon emphasizes the need for simplicity in technology to ensure that restaurant operators can easily implement and benefit from it.

Links Referenced in This Episode:

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://magicgate.com
Instagram:
https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
https://www.instagram.com/magicgatetech/
X (Twitter):
https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
https://x.com/magicgatetech
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
https://www.facebook.com/magicgatetech
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
https://www.linkedin.com/company/magicgate
Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech
You can also hear all these new episodes on the Magicgate website at Magicgate.com Email me at skip@magicgate.comc

TCP083: Mastering Hospitality: Leadership In Action

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0500

Mike Blake joins Skip Kimpel on the Tech Chef Podcast to share his insights on the evolving landscape of hospitality technology. As Vice President of Information Technology at KemperSports, Mike draws from his extensive experience in the industry, highlighting the critical importance of strategic leadership in implementing technology solutions that enhance operational excellence. The conversation begins with Mike recounting his transition from finance to IT, where he became a specialist in understanding the cost implications of technology investments during a time of rapid change. He reflects on his tenure at Hyatt Hotels, discussing the challenges faced in migrating systems to the cloud and the revolutionary impact it had on the hospitality sector. This foundational experience informs his current role, where he oversees technology for a diverse portfolio of golf courses and resorts.

The episode delves into the pressing challenges of cybersecurity in hospitality, with Mike emphasizing the need for proactive measures to safeguard sensitive data against increasing threats. The discussion also explores the significance of adopting emerging technologies like AI and IoT, which Mike believes are essential for creating personalized guest experiences. He advocates for a data-driven approach, urging hospitality leaders to develop comprehensive data strategies that prioritize security while fostering innovation.

Throughout the episode, Mike's leadership philosophy shines through as he discusses the importance of partnership and collaboration in achieving technological success. He encourages professionals in the hospitality industry to embrace a broker, integrate, and orchestrate mindset, focusing on integrating off-the-shelf solutions rather than reinventing the wheel. The conversation concludes with Mike sharing his passion for innovation and encouraging listeners to engage with the technology community through events like CES, where they can discover new tools and ideas that can be applied within their organizations. This episode is rich with insights and practical advice, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and hospitality.

Takeaways:

Mike Blake discusses his extensive experience in hospitality technology, emphasizing the importance of adapting to cloud-based solutions.
He highlights the need for a strategic approach to attending major technology events like CES for maximum benefit.
Blake believes in the concept of 'broker, integrate and orchestrate' rather than building systems from scratch in hospitality.
He stresses the significance of networking and helping others in the industry, as connections can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Cybersecurity initiatives are prioritized in the hospitality sector due to increasing threats, calling for better tools and awareness.
Embracing digital innovation while balancing security is crucial for businesses in the hospitality industry.

Links Referenced In This Episode:

How To Contact Me

Website:

https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
https://magicgate.com

Instagram:

X (Twitter):

Facebook:

LinkedIn:

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech
You can also hear all these new episodes on the Magicgate website at Magicgate.com

Email me at skip@magicgate.com

Companies Mentioned in This Episode:

Growth Advisors International Network
KemperSports
American Hotel and Lodging Association
Hyatt
Commune Hotels
Magicgate
Hospitality Technology Next Generation
Restaurant Technology Network
HTNG
AHLA

XR Bootcamp for Business Professionals!

TCP082: Data Driven Training with XR featuring Tony Bevilacqua of Cognitive3D

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0500

The Tech Chef Podcast welcomes Tony Bevilacqua, founder and CEO of Cognitive3D, who dives deep into the transformative potential of spatial analytics and immersive technologies in the hospitality industry. With a focus on maximizing ROI through data collection, Tony explains how Cognitive3D's platform uniquely measures human behavior in virtual and augmented reality environments. By utilizing spatial intelligence, businesses can gather actionable insights that not only enhance training but also improve consumer research and operational efficiency.

The conversation highlights the critical need for data in decision-making processes, particularly in an industry where margins are often tight. Through engaging discussions, listeners learn about the practical applications of XR technologies, including training simulations that ensure compliance and quality standards within hospitality operations. The episode underscores the importance of integrating these technologies into existing systems, allowing for a seamless flow of valuable insights that can drive business growth and innovation.

Takeaways:

Cognitive3D's spatial analytics platform transforms user interactions in virtual reality into actionable insights.
The integration of VR training can significantly enhance employee performance and compliance in hospitality settings.
Tony Bevilacqua emphasizes the importance of data collection and ROI in XR technology adoption.
The future of immersive technologies will likely merge virtual, augmented, and mixed realities into everyday applications.
Cognitive3D's technology enables detailed assessments of user behaviors beyond traditional LMS systems.
The podcast highlights how immersive technology can address societal challenges and enhance accessibility for diverse audiences.

Links Referenced In This Episode:

TCP081: Scaling Hospitality Excellence Featuring Michael Cohen

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Today, we delve deep into the world of hospitality technology, this episode features an engaging dialogue between Skip Kimpel and Michael Cohen, the Managing Partner of Growth Advisors International Network (GAIN). The discussion begins with a reflection on the challenges faced by the hospitality sector in the wake of the pandemic, particularly regarding staffing shortages and a lack of technological adaptation. Cohen stresses the urgency for businesses to embrace innovation, arguing that those who fail to do so may risk becoming obsolete in a fast-paced market. He articulates GAIN's commitment to providing specialized advisory services that not only address immediate technological needs but also foster a culture of ongoing improvement within organizations.

Cohen's extensive background in technology and marketing shines through as he navigates the conversation towards the importance of strategic planning and execution. He shares insights on how GAIN differentiates itself by blending advisory roles with practical execution strategies, ensuring that clients receive not only theoretical guidance but also actionable steps to realize their visions. The episode touches on the critical role of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation, which are reshaping customer interactions and operational efficiencies in hotels and restaurants. Cohen's perspective challenges the common narrative that the hospitality industry is lagging, suggesting instead that risk-averse leadership across various sectors contributes to a broader hesitance to innovate.

The culmination of the episode features an exciting announcement regarding GAIN's new partnership with MEWS, a prominent player in the hospitality technology space. This partnership aims to enhance GAIN's service offerings by providing comprehensive technology stack reviews, designed to help clients streamline their operations and improve their competitive edge. Cohen expresses enthusiasm for the collaboration, emphasizing how it reflects GAIN's strategic growth plan and commitment to delivering value to clients. This episode serves as a rich resource for hospitality professionals seeking to understand the importance of innovation and strategic partnerships in driving business success.

Takeaways:

Michael Cohen emphasizes the importance of innovation in driving growth within the hospitality industry.
GAIN Advisors differentiates itself from traditional consulting firms by providing actionable advisory services.
The hospitality sector faces unique challenges in adopting emerging technologies, necessitating knowledgeable guidance.
Collaboration and strategic partnerships are essential for businesses to navigate the post-pandemic landscape effectively.
Successful hotel technology stacks must be flexible, scalable, and integrated into a cohesive ecosystem.
Understanding the MICE industry is crucial, as it encompasses various sectors within hospitality.

Links Referenced in This Episode:

How To Contact Me

Website(s):

https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
https://magicgate.com

Instagram:

X (Twitter):

Facebook:

LinkedIn:

Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/@magicgatetech

Email me at skip@magicgate.com

XR Bootcamp for Business Professionals!

TCP080: Redefining the Future of Hospitality

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0500

This podcast episode dives into the transformative potential of Extended Reality (XR) within the hospitality industry, highlighting how technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality can enhance guest experiences, streamline operations, and drive sustainable growth. Host Skip Kimpel shares insights on the importance of integrating innovative technologies to keep pace with evolving consumer expectations and market trends. He discusses the launch of Magicgate, a consulting firm focused on XR strategies, and the significant advantages of adopting VR training solutions for hospitality staff. Additionally, Kimpel introduces the Growth Advisors International Network(GAIN) and Crewire, emphasizing their roles in fostering growth and innovation in the travel and hospitality sectors. With expert advice and a call to action for listeners to embrace these digital transformations, the episode serves as a vital resource for hospitality leaders looking to thrive in a competitive landscape.

Listeners are introduced to Magicgate's core services, which include developing XR strategies, offering VR training solutions, and creating digital twins of restaurant environments for operational efficiency. Kimpel provides real-world examples, highlighting how these strategies can reduce training costs, improve employee readiness, and enhance customer engagement. The episode serves as a call to action for hospitality professionals to consider how these technologies can transform their businesses, offering an engaging and informative narrative that not only educates but also inspires change within the industry. Kimpel's enthusiasm for digital innovation is palpable, making it clear that the future of hospitality lies in the hands of those willing to embrace technology wholeheartedly.

Takeaways:

Magicgate is reviving its brand to offer XR and digital transformation consulting.
The relationship between Magicgate, Growth Advisors International Network (GAIN) and Crewire
Companies that embrace technology early can gain a competitive edge in hospitality.
Extended Reality (XR) encompasses VR, AR, and MR, enhancing guest experiences across industries.
Effective training using VR can significantly reduce costs and improve employee readiness.
Collaboration within the hospitality tech ecosystem can drive faster innovation and success.

Links referenced in this episode:

TCP079: Next-Gen Hospitality: Embracing XR with John Cunningham

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0500

Skip Kimpel welcomes John Cunningham to the Tech Chef Podcast to delve into the transformative world of Extended Reality (XR) and its implications for various industries, particularly hospitality. Cunningham, a seasoned expert in the XR field, shares his extensive background, including his military experience and roles in significant tech companies. He emphasizes the rapid evolution of XR technologies and their growing accessibility, paving the way for widespread adoption across sectors. The discussion highlights XR's potential in enhancing training and development processes, arguing that immersive training environments can significantly improve knowledge retention and skills acquisition compared to traditional methods. For industries like hospitality, the integration of XR could lead to safer, more cost-effective training solutions while minimizing food waste and enhancing employee preparedness.

The conversation shifts towards the practical applications of XR in collaborative environments, especially in remote work scenarios. Cunningham illustrates how XR can revolutionize product design and prototyping, allowing teams to visualize and manipulate designs in real-time, fostering creativity and efficiency. This capability is crucial for industries that rely on visual collaboration, such as hospitality, where layout and design decisions can have a profound impact on operational efficiency and customer experience. As Cunningham discusses the need for organizations to embrace XR, he underscores the importance of strategic planning and the consideration of IT infrastructure to support these emerging technologies. The episode concludes with an exciting announcement about an upcoming XR Boot Camp aimed at empowering industry professionals with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement XR solutions effectively.

Takeaways:

Extended Reality (XR) is reshaping industries by enhancing training, collaboration, and customer experiences.
The hospitality sector stands to benefit significantly from XR technology for training and operational efficiency.
XR technology is no longer just for large enterprises; smaller organizations can adopt it effectively.
Organizations should consider a consulting partner with XR experience to guide implementation.
The integration of AI and XR is transforming product design and development processes.
As XR technology becomes more affordable, its adoption across diverse industries is rapidly increasing.

Links referenced in this episode:

TCP078: Inventory: From Manual to Magical with NomadGo and PAR

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 05:00:00 -0500

This podcast episode features an exciting announcement about the integration of Nomad Go's innovative inventory management technology with PAR Technology's Data Central platform. David Greshler, CEO of Nomad Go, and Paul Rubin, Chief Strategy Officer at PAR, discuss how their collaboration aims to revolutionize the restaurant industry's approach to inventory counting. With Nomad Go's solution, operators can count their inventory more efficiently and accurately using just an iPhone or iPad, significantly reducing the time and effort traditionally spent on manual counting. The conversation highlights the challenges faced during the integration process and emphasizes the importance of data integrity and reliability. Listeners will gain insights into the future of restaurant technology, the benefits of frequent inventory checks, and the impact of emerging technologies such as AI and augmented reality on the hospitality sector.

Takeaways:

The integration of Nomad Go with PAR Technology significantly simplifies the inventory counting process for restaurants.
Using augmented reality and AI, Nomad Go enables users to count inventory with a simple scan.
Both companies emphasize the importance of accuracy and time savings in inventory management for restaurants.
Frequent inventory checks can lead to better management of food waste and theft detection.
The partnership between Nomad Go and PAR Technology reflects a growing trend of technological collaboration in the restaurant industry.
Customers can expect enhanced data insights and operational efficiency from the new integration.

Links referenced in this episode:

Companies mentioned in this episode:

Growth Advisors International Network
NomadCo
PAR Technology Corporation
Nomad Go
PAR Data Central
Brink

TCP077: Creating a Global Tech Stack with Troy Hooper

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Joining the show today, I am excited to have Troy Hooper, Chief Executive Officer at Hot Palette America. Troy Hooper joined Pepper Lunch as one of the three global business unit CEO’s for the brand, and oversees Pepper Lunch’s parent company in North America, Hot Palette America. Troy brings 30 years of unparalleled experience in hospitality, operations management and executive leadership to this role, which has fueled Pepper Lunch’s infrastructure development, growth efforts, and brand deliverables, creating a fruitful franchise model for the North American market.

Throughout his career, Troy has successfully built new concepts, rebranded existing restaurants, and improved well-established venues for iconic brands. Troy’s decades of experience and business acumen brings a breadth of knowledge to the rapidly growing global brand, Pepper Lunch.

By the way, I have some breaking news for you at the end of this episode so make sure you listen all the way through to make sure you don’t miss it!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

What’s up next?

Next week is the one and only Geoff Alexander from Wow Bao. We all know both of these names very well. A man who had a vision, assembled an amazing team and has taken his vision to a whole new level! You think he is passionate about virtual brands? Well, you will have to tune in to hear him tell us what he REALLY thinks about the future of that side of the industry.

So, check out Hot Bytes on all of my social media channels and let me know what you think. I am very curious to see the reaction and see how sadistic you all really are!

TCP076: The Battle for Hospitality: HITEC VS The Hospitality Show

Tue, 18 Jul 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Back with us today is Managing Director of ConStrata Consulting, Mr. Toby Malbec. This episode is dedicated to the two hospitality shows that recently happened, the industry standard, HITEC, brought to you by HFTP, which was held in Toronto and the brand new Hospitality Show put on by AHLA in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. Both of these shows happened at the same exact time, so Toby and I decided to divide and conquer as so many others did as well. Today’s recap will highlight overall arching themes, similarities as well as differences between the two shows. Enjoy!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

What’s up next?

Next week I am excited to share the time I had to chat with Troy Hooper, CEO of Hot Palette America, best known for their outrageously popular and delicious restaurant, Pepper Lunch. Troy has quite a bit to share with us regarding the growth of the organization including building out a tech stack for an international operation. How is he going to pull it off? Tune in and find out!

TCP075: The AI Conundrum with Nabeel from Lunchbox

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Joining the show today is our special guest, Nabeel, CEO and Co-Founder of Lunchbox. Nabeel was born in Bangladesh, moved to Kuwait 7 years later, and to Queens, New York 7 years after that. Nabeel began his career as the first busboy at the Bareburger flagship store in Astoria, and spent his free time devising marketing objectives for the CEO. In 2019 he founded Lunchbox, a next-gen online ordering company, that was built out of the frustration of trying to build his own digital ordering system at Bareburger. In just a short period, Lunchbox has established itself as the premiere product in the digital ordering space, partnering with industry leaders such as Firehouse Subs, Papa Gino’s, Clean Juice, Wings Over, Bareburger and more.

Today’s show is NOT about Lunchbox. It is about AI and the new, free AI application that can be found online to allow restaurants generate food pictures for their online ordering guests. We take this much further into the legalities around intellectual properties, regulation and the future of this technology.

We have some fundamental differences of opinion around the IP side of things but, at the end of the day, we are all trying to figure out where this all lands and are in it together.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

What’s up next?

Busy and crazy times in our industry right now. This also happens to be a very timely subject today, especially around the online ordering and virtual kitchen side of things as we are starting to see a slowdown in online ordering and a significant shakeup in that side of the industry. I would also love to hear your thoughts on where YOU think the digital restaurant is headed. I will be out at the new Hospitality Show in Vegas next week… who is going to be there? Ping me if you are so we can hook up and say “hello.” Guess who our next guest might be? Let’s just say I will have my portable recording rig with me to capture some amazing guests!

TCP074: Welcome to the Future of Delivery

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Joining the show today is Aaron Hoffman, Co-Founder & Head of Strategy at DeliverThat - a white label, last-mile delivery platform focused on catering delivery and setup. Aaron and I break down what a successful delivery operation looks like for your business: best practices, process changes, considerations for success and so much more. We will also dig deeper into the catering side of the restaurant business and how this can be a game changer if you not spending much time and effort to perfect that side of the business.

You will get lots of great juicy nuggets from this show. Bon Appetit! Oh, and by the way, Alan Hickey…. I hear Aaron is a better golfer than you. Just sayin’,..

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week, I have Nabeel from Lunchbox joining us to talk about the new AI Food Generator application they developed, and we go pretty deep into the AI in general. Nabeel is a well known industry expert that people look up to and it was a privilege to have him join me. Certainly, an episode you won’t want to miss.

TCP073: The Digital Restaurant with Carl Orsbourn & Meredith Sandland

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Joining the show today are two individuals who I am sure you have seen all over social media and at conferences if your business is restaurants and technology. Carl Orsbourn and Meredith Sandland join the show to talk about their new book, “Delivering the Digital Restaurant; The Path to Digital Maturity.” This falls on the heels of the must have book from last year, “Delivering the Digital Restaurant: Your Roadmap to the Future of Food.”

Meredith Sandland is the CEO of Empower Delivery, a software company that enables restaurants to profitably and sustainably serve off-premise demand. Meredith met with every major restaurant company, food-tech company, real estate company, and VC investor who is exploring the online food revolution. In Empower Delivery, she found what she had been looking for: a restaurant tech company built from the ground up to service the on-demand consumer. Prior to Empower Delivery, Sandland created and drove disruptive growth as Chief Development Officer at Taco Bell, America’s largest Mexican-inspired restaurant, and as COO at Kitchen United, a ghost-kitchen start-up that is rolling out nationally.

Carl Orsbourn is a global retail executive and board member whose experience spans blue-chip companies, disruptive start-up ventures, and restaurants. As COO of Juicer, Carl leads business development, partnerships, and operations for this innovative start-up supporting the development of dynamic pricing capability for restaurants. At Kitchen United, Carl established the operating model and led operations & customer success for one of the country’s foremost ghost kitchen providers.

Carl and Meredith serve as advisors and board members at several food-service and tech start-ups. They have been recognized as Power Players by Nations Restaurant News and Business Insider for their thought leadership in supporting restaurants to adapt to the challenges and opportunities offered through digitization, technology, and automation.

Don’t worry, this episode is not just a sales pitch for the book. We dig much deeper in conversation about things like figuring out what “digital” means to the restaurant industry, order throttling, dynamic pricing, converting 3rd party to a 1st party customers, the gig workforce and even talk about the good and evil of AI.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week, I have a CIO from a rapidly growing chicken concept that is expanding so fast, it is making my head swim! Think you know who it is? Want to learn how to create a tech stack that can be part of a franchisee-based ecoculture that can handle this level of growth? If you said yes, well, you better tune in next week, same time same place.

TCP072: The Man With The Midas Touch - Chris Artinian

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0500

I have an unbelievable treat for you today with another industry rockstar; the man, that I have heard many times before, to have the Midas touch because he has the reputation that everything he touches turns to gold.

At this point, you are saying to yourself, “who is this person.” Today, the one and only, Chris Artinian joins us to talk about technology through the years and his personal formula for a successful organization. Chris serves as President & CEO at Condado Tacos and Tequila, an emerging NextGen growth brand that specializes in tacos, margheritas and tequilas, with expansion plans to expand up to 100 company owned and operated restaurants by 2026, as it expands to many new markets. Chris has over 30 years of restaurant and retail experience, with both private and public companies, and has extensive experience in restaurant and consumer services. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Another Broken Egg, Ted’s Cafe Escondido, and Condado Tacos.

Chris joined Condado Tacos to partner with the team in charting the next phase of meteoric growth. He continues to serve as an Operating Director at The Beekman Group, and prior to that lead TooJay’s Gourmet Deli, Bakery & Restaurant, serving as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to that, he served as President and CEO of Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill, and previously, was President and CEO of Morton’s Steakhouse, the largest fine dining brand in the world. Chris was a success story at Morton’s, starting in a back of the house kitchen position and rising through the ranks to eventually become the CEO of this leading publicly-traded steakhouse.

Throughout his career Mr. Artinian has been recognized for leveraging his deep operational experience in developing winning strategies and exceptional teams. Passionate about the restaurant business, Chris has provided key insight and commentary on the industry to numerous media outlets including CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg News, and is a sought-after guest speaker and panelist for industry conferences and events.

If anybody has industry chops, I can think of nobody better to bring on this show. We have some amazing conversation around some of the key elements he looks for and corrects when being involved with a new organization. Obviously, he is usually brought onboard to identify inefficiencies and other operational issues, make course corrections and create a plan to take that company to the next level. A key factor of this, obviously, is based around technology in today’s world. Trust, me, Chris can talk technology and I was fascinated with our engaging conversation. Please sit back, relax and enjoy and make sure you have a pen and paper handy to take some notes. You are about to hear from one of the industry greats.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week, you guessed it, we continue to have some more amazing talent on our show. The very well-known Carl Orsbourn and Meredith Sandland come on the show to talk about their new book. Now, it’s not just a sales pitch, there is tons of applicable content that will leave you riveted. Converting 3rd party to a 1st party customer, the gig economy workforce and even talk about the good and evil of AI. I can’t wait to share that discussion with you!

TCP071: The Metaverse 101 with Kevin Seo

Tue, 28 Mar 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Today, I have another special guest that I recorded while I was at MURTEC recently. Kevin Seo and I had the opportunity to present a fire chat at the show on the Metaverse 101. I thought it only fair to sit down with him and record, 1-on-1, for all of you, our thoughts on this matter and share it here on this show.

Kevin is truly a superstar in this space. He started in Fortune 500, leading to side hustling through e-commerce and into start-ups, always being the loudest brand voice in the room. Kevin left his corporate, white picket fence dream to chase something bigger than himself. Focusing on community building and innovation, teamed up with a couple of partners to create Bored and Hungry, Food Fighters Universe and Secret Sauce Society. Kevin is determined to create amazing memories for communities through branded concepts, food experiences and building unforgettable life changing technology.

You will quickly realize why Kevin is the Chief Megaphone and Co-Founder for these companies and why he is always the loudest voice in the room. I love his infectious laugh and I hope you enjoy this time I spend with him.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week is another jam-packed episode with yet another, well respected, industry expert. I will keep it under wraps for now, which means you are going to have to tune in next Tuesday to find out who it is!

TCP070: MURTEC 2023 Recap Show with Toby Malbec

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 05:00:00 -0500

Today, as promised, is our 2023 MURTEC recap show. It was a short two weeks ago we were gathered together at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas right in the middle of one of the best conferences I have been to in a very long time. Anybody who has listened to this show for any length of time knows that a recap show is a must for anybody who did not have a chance to attend OR did not have a chance to see all the sessions.

Having said that, time is too short on this show to talk about every single fire chat, keynote and breakout session that was available, however, my colleague (Toby Malbec) and I dig into some interesting aspects of the show. Hopefully you will enjoy this quick 30 minute, jam packed episode of all the informative and fun stuff surrounding MURTEC. I have one more surprise for you related to the show so scroll down to find out what’s coming next week!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

While at MURTEC , I had the honor to host a kickoff fire chat with Kevin Seo for a session on the metaverse and breaking it down to it’s basics and the power behind the potential of where this technology is headed and, most importantly, how it could potentially impact you in the restaurant and hospitality world. Shortly after the public session, I sat down with Kevin 1-on-1 and we had a discussion around this so that I could bring it to you here on The Tech Chef. Next Tuesday is a MUST HEAR episode!

TCP069: Critical KPI Tracking with Robert Peterson

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 05:00:00 -0500

I have to say, once again, that MURTEC was amazing in many ways. As a matter of fact, I had promised you a Toby and Skip MURTEC recap show, however, we had so many great networking opportunities and vendor discussions that we are still catching up from the show! Having said that, we WILL bring you that re-cap episode but it will have to wait another week. However, I am brining you another special episode today which I also recorded at MURTEC with my good friend, Robert Peterson to talk about some big announcements from the Restaurant Technology Network, especially the results of the KPI workgroup and other groups that Robert is heavily involved with.

Robert Peterson…. Some know him as the Area Vice President for New Business of North America at Oracle Food and Beverage. Others, however, know him as a leader and a superstar of both the RTN and the IFBTA.

Robert Peterson’s fervor for data governance has flourished during his 20 years in the restaurant industry. His career includes technical, sales, and strategic roles at various hospitality technology companies where he developed a deep understanding of the guest experience and its accompanying data flow.

Today his passion to see operators succeed. He is also a contributing member of RTN’s Vendor Advisory Council. Another fact about Mr. Peterson is that he is an 80’s BMX World Champion, he can still be spotted in San Diego with one of his four children showing off on his bicycle. Or experimenting with plant-based recipes at home with his wife, Julie.

Robert is such a dedicated individual and really cares about seeing technology not only progress in our industry but leading and pioneering a whole new era of how we think about the technology and data in the foodservice sector. I had such a good time catching up with Robert at the show… enjoy this chat I had with him while I was there.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

I PROMISE you that Toby Malbec will be on the show with me next Tuesday to give you the recap you thought you were going to hear today. After that, I recorded some more guests that are just as fun. We have good times ahead and a plethora of amazing thought leaders that will blow you away with what they have to share.

TCP068: Crafting a Digital Palate with Scott Lawton of bartaco

Tue, 07 Mar 2023 05:00:00 -0500

For all of you that saw me speak over the past couple of days, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. You were fun and engaged audiences! Web3 and the metaverse can really stoke different thoughts and emotions in people and I had fun exploring the technology as a whole with you and hearing YOUR thoughts on where this technology is headed. It is still the wild west out there when it comes to these topics, and we have yet to see where it all lands. Hopefully you had some good takeaways and are challenging yourself a little more now that you understand the technologies a little bit better.

So here we all are at MURTEC. Hopefully you are all having a fantastic show and are winning lots of money here at the Paris Hotel in Vegas. The content of this show has been absolutely fantastic thus far and it has been a while since I have seen this many people at one of these shows. This might be the record for attendance to MURTEC!S

Today on The Tech Chef, we will be talking about “Crafting A Digital Palette.” To talk about how he pulled this off, Scott Lawton the CEO and Co-Founder of bartaco joins the show. Bartaco is a coastal-inspired restaurant serving fresh, upscale street food in a relaxed environment. Scott has over twenty five years of leadership experience in the hospitality arena, and rejoined bartaco in 2020 under the new private ownership of L Catterton, where he oversees the concept’s overall vision and growth.

That year, Lawton led the rollout of bartaco’s on- demand hospitality dining model, and continues to pave the way for other restaurant leaders looking to create a seamless guest experience. Under his leadership, bartaco was recognized by Hospitality Technology’s MURTEC Breakthrough Awards in 2022 for the restaurant’s signature “on-demand hospitality.”

Prior to becoming CEO of bartaco, Lawton was Chief Operating Officer of Barteca, managing development, day-to-day operations and personnel recruitment. Lawton previously held key leadership roles with Tribeca Grill, Buckhead Life and Big Time Restaurants.

If you have never eaten at bartaco before, do yourself a favor and check them out. Not only is the food amazing but the experience is a real treat as well. Something about being able to control your own experience through the ordering process to the payment at the end of your visit makes it special. Of course, as Scott talked about, hospitality and service is NOT compromised through these digital methods. Technology should never be used to replace hospitality and touch points. Hospitality is such an important part of the value proposition you bring to your guests.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

We have so many awesome guests scheduled to come on the show but there is nobody more awesome than my partner in crime, Mr. Toby Malbec. He is here with me at MURTEC and you know what that means, right? You got it…. Next week will be our obligatory coverage of the show so for those of you who are not able to attend, be on the lookout for that podcast next Tuesday!

Thank you to RTN and HT for making this event one to remember. The connections, relationships and networking were second to none. I always know that when I go to an RTN event, I am going to walk away with good solid takeaways and great new friends.

Tomorrow I am headed back home so, for all of you traveling over the next few days, please travel safe, stay healthy and stay hungry my friends.

TCP067: Failure is NOT an Option with Chef Robert Irvine

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 05:00:00 -0500

The conference season has officially kicked in and I will be seeing many of you this next week. Starting off on Sunday, I will be speaking at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York that will be held at the Javits Center. I will be talking about how technology is changing the landscape of restaurants and digging into the world of web3 and how it could change the way you approach the concept of loyalty with your guest. If you are attending this show, I will be speaking at 3pm so make sure you don’t miss it!

Without a moment to spare, I will be uttering my last words as I head out the door to catch a flight to Vegas. There I will see you at MURTEC at the Paris Hotel and be speaking at 1pm on Sunday. It is going to be an awesome Firechat where Kevin Seo, Co-Founder of Bored and Hungry, and I will be doing a session on the metaverse 101. It has evolved so much, just in the past few months, I can’t wait to share our thoughts on where it was and where it is going. A fascinating chat that is a must see and one that people will be talking about the rest of the conference.

Big show today…. Big, big show. Did I mention this is a big show? He’s been here before and I am honored to have him back. Celebrity Chef Robert Irvine joins me for a riveting conversation about all the things that are going on in his life. Everything he does touches or contributes in one way or another to the Robert Irvine Foundation whose sole mission is to strengthen the physical and mental well-being of our service members, veterans, first responders and their families.

Of course, we will be talking about his new book, Overcoming Impossible and having some very interesting conversations around his thoughts of how technology is a key element to success. We even go so far to discuss if AI is going to take over the human race…. Is it? Well, you will have to listen to find out. I really enjoy talking to Robert and I hope you also enjoy our chat.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Coming Soon...

So, New York Food Show, MURTEC, lots of places to meet up and say hello so please do so. I always look forward to hanging out and catching up with all of you. And if you would like to be on this show and are up to something that you think this audience would like to hear, let me know as I will have my recording gear with me during this trip.

Also, for anybody that is interested in the world of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and want to learn how this is going to impact the world of hospitality, this would also be a good time to strike up a conversation. I have just started up a brand-new committee for the VR/AR Association and we are looking for like-minded leaders that what to help revolutionize the customer experience. This billion-dollar industry is literally untapped when it comes to the hospitality space.

You know, after MURTEC, that Toby Malbec and I must do our obligatory coverage of the show so for those of you who are not able to attend, be on the lookout for that podcast very soon! Time to prepare, pack and get ready for these upcoming trips.

So to all of you, I say stay safe, stay healthy and stay hungry my friends.

TCP066: Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers: What is their secret sauce?

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Well, I think I am finally done traveling for business for the year AND I believe I have been to my last two conferences of the year since we last chatted. I was down the road from my home here in Ft Lauderdale and attended HT-Next as well as the Immerse Global Summit. I have to tell you, both of these conferences were amazing and I spent the two days down in Miami conference hopping as they were both in the same building. To be honest with you, it was not my intention to go to the Immerse conference as it was not until I had checked into the hotel did I realize what it was. I had to walk past it every morning and kept seeing some pretty amazing vendors that were there so I looked it up online. It was all about virtual and augmented reality hardware and software. Most of the companies there, including universities were working on training tools for other industries. I had a fascinating time!

Today, joining the show, is Sean Thompson, the IT Director for the fast-casual restaurant franchise Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers. He oversees the business intelligence and data science team and the execution of Freddy’s global communications platforms. Thompson and his team work to deliver technology solutions to the restaurants as well as the franchise support teams, including construction, training, marketing, accounting, and operations. Recent projects have included a system-wide conversion to a universal Point of Sale, launching an all-new digital platform for ordering and loyalty, and starting up an internal support team for the more than 450 Freddy’s locations nationwide. Before Freddy’s, Thompson ran his consulting company and Managed Service Provider.

All of us that follow the industry news know that seeing them in a headline, about once a week, is not uncommon. With their appetite for growth, what is it that makes the successful? What is their “secret sauce?”

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

I will be traveling, for pleasure (for a change) for the next couple of weeks so I am going to let you all enjoy the holidays without having to remember to download a new episode every week. I know you are all busy right now…. This is the craziest time of the year to be in hospitality.

Having said that, I will see you on the flipside and launch a new show right after the new year. We will look at all of the fun and crazy stuff we faced in 2022 and we will also talk about where the puck is headed for 2023. What should you be keeping your eye on?

I guess that means that you better keep your eye on when the next episode comes out because it will be filled with some nuggets of information and takeaways that you won’t want to miss. Have a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays and happy new year! And of course, stay safe, stay healthy and stay hungry my friends.

TCP065: How to Build a Successful Tech Stack for Franchisees

Tue, 29 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

I hope you had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving week last week. Hopefully you were able to get some extra time off to spend with your friends and family. I know that in our industries, that may have been your busiest time and that may not have been possible. For those of you lucky ones that DID have time off, now it is “go-time” to prepare for Christmas and the holidays next month.

Since we last spoke I attended the Digital Signage Experience along with the Restaurant Finance and Development Conference. RFDC was probably one of the best showing of operators, at any one event, in a very long time. Lots of takeaways from that event and excellent networking in the beautiful Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. While I was there, I was able to sit down with a good friend of mind and talk about what it looks like to run a restaurant chain that is heavily franchised. The do’s and don’ts of a successful tech stack and how to properly get the buy-in for procuring and deploying new technology.

Today, I am honored to have Zerrick Pearson, the Chief Information Officer for Five Guys Enterprises, L.L.C., a global company that operates more than 1750 franchise and company-operated restaurants domestically and internationally. Zerrick is responsible for developing and implementing information technology initiatives across the Enterprise. Having been born into the restaurant industry, Zerrick has been involved in restaurant operations for almost 25 years. Prior to his time with Five Guys, Zerrick held the position of Vice President of Information Technology with a publicly traded Washington, DC based Company. While there Zerrick managed all IT initiatives, bridging the gap between IT, Finance and Operations.

Zerrick is a board member of the IFBTA, RTN and various other industry specific IT organizations.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

I am traveling the majority of this week and I have yet to bring you the interview that I promised you, Leigh Gower, CTO at Dutch Bros which is a publicly traded company. They have been in the headlines quite a bit lately so I can’t wait to get her on to talk about all the amazing technology she is currently implementing. Beyond that I also have some very exciting guests that will take us into next year so it will be a very fun time hanging out with me, The Tech Chef.

TCP064: Learn How To Set Healthy Boundaries With Your Vendors

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

This week I am here at the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference and the Digital Signage Expo, here in Las Vegas. If you are at RFDC and are listening to this show, tomorrow, Wednesday, make sure you stick around and sign up and join the Technology Boot Camp where Zerrick Pearson, Galen Collins and myself will be teaching on various areas of technology in the restaurant industry. Get your certification while you are there… for free!

Also, later in the day tomorrow, I will be speaking at the University of Las Vegas Hospitality College speaking with students there on “Restaurant and Hotel Technology.” That is going to be a blast and am really looking forward to that!

I know this show was supposed to go live last week but we had to jump on the recap of MURTEC and, I promise you, this week’s show was worth the wait. As previously mentioned, living on the operator side for most of my life, I had a very defined methodology for maintaining vendor relationships. I would say they were more partnerships than anything. When you engage with a vendor you need to have buy-in from both sides and you have to willing to work together to make it a fruitful and long-lasting relationship. But what does that really mean? What do vendor’s think about us?

My guest, for today’s conversation, is none other than Bob Gibson who is a seasoned veteran supporting Global Enterprise customers with complex Franchisor/Franchisee models, building out GTM strategies to support these relationships with his Hospitality, Retail, and Technology experience.

With over thirty plus years Bob is a SAAS veteran who understands how to build systems to reduce churn while helping overall revenue growth and increasing net revenue retention. His areas of expertise include but are not limited to Strategic Selling models, Go to Market Strategies and execution, Customer Service team builds and execution, Support Desk build and execution and Thought Leadership.

He has over 20 years of experience in point of sale and served in leadership roles at Micros, Oracle and JOLT. Bob now serves as President and Chief Operating Office at the ConStrata group that continues to shape the technology industry in the hospitality, food and beverage space.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week our guest is Leigh Gower, CTO at Dutch Bros which is a publicly traded company. We will talk about her joining the company last year as its first-ever CTO, previously working at Blue Nile and T-Mobile. We will also discuss how Dutch Bros is investing in technology to improve their customer experience on and off-premise, advancing the company’s rewards app (which just surpassed 4 million users in Q2) and her outlook on tech for beverage and drive-thru-only operations specifically.

TCP063: MURTEC Executive Summit 2022 Recap

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Last week’s Florida Restaurant and Lodging Associations Show was a huge success. I you didn’t get to hear me speak on web3, don’t fret, you will have many more opportunities in the near future and into 2023! From what I hear, the reports are in and it sounds like the MURTEC Executive Summit was a big hit as well! I wish I could have replicated myself and been at both places at once. I am sure you all missed “The Mayor of MURTEC!” Next big show for me is the Restaurant Finance & Development Conference and the Digital Signage Expo, both in Las Vegas in less than a week. If you are going to attend RFDC, make sure you stick around Wednesday morning and join the Technology Boot Camp where Zerrick Pearson, Galen Collins and myself will be teaching on various areas of technology in the restaurant industry. You can even get your certification at the end of the session. I hope that is reason enough to see you there!

Today, we are going to switch things up a little bit as I had promised you a show with Bob Gibson, previously from Jolt and Oracle where we have a VERY interesting conversation on vendor / client relationships. However, given the fact that my colleague, Toby Malbec just attended the MURTEC Executive Summit, I thought I needed to jump on the opportunity to get a recap from him so he could fill us in on all the amazing things that I missed. I am sure not all of you were able to attend either so this will be very informative for all of us

As you know, I work side by side with Toby at ConStrata and why I love having him on the show is that we don’t always agree on things, which makes for a healthy conversation. Hey, if everybody thought the same, we would just be robots…. Hmmmm… that might actually be one of the subjects for the day. Regardless, those that know Toby, knows that this will be an engaging conversation with lots of good insight.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Okay, next week I will bring you the show that got bumped where I will be talking with Bob Gibson whom many of you know as the previous chief revenue officer of Jolt and spending countless years over at Micros and Oracle. Do vendors hate customers? What is the breaking point? Is it appropriate to “fire” a customer? How can you make your vendor / customer relationship be healthy and fruitful? Having always been on the operator side, I certainly have my viewpoints so Bob and I will go head-to-head and have a very spirited conversation.

TCP062: Metaversal - Curators of the Metaverse for Restaurants

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Happening this week is the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Associations Show as well as the MURTEC Executive Summit. If you will be at the Florida show, remember, I will be speaking on web3 and how it is impacting the restaurant industry. Lots of fun, cool, interactive elements to this presentation so it would be worth your effort to come see it. And of course, the MURTEC Executive summit will be amazing, as it always is. There is always great content at that show and, from what I have seen, this one will be no exception. Please reach out to me later this week to tell me how it was and what your biggest takeaways were.

As promised, today’s show is a continuation of last week’s show where I recorded this episode live at the Menches Bros. NFT minting party. I won’t go into detail about that as you can go back and listen to the previous episode.

On site, however, a huge group from Metaversal, the company behind bringing this project to fruition, was onsite to help support the Menches Bros. team. While I was there, I was able to sit down some of the Metaversal team members including the CEO, Yosi Hasson, the creative director, Sam Brukhman and the project manager, Erin Thompson.

Combined, this gave me the opportunity to learn more about the scope of what they do, what their vision is and how they are looking to help other small restaurant brands.

They are new to our industries so this will be a great opportunity for you to get to know more about Metaversal, what they do and how they do it. Enjoy!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week will I promise to give you a break from web3 conversations and will be talking with Bob Gibson whom many of you know as the previous chief revenue officer of Jolt and spending countless years over at Micros and Oracle. I always wanted to bring over somebody from the vendor side to talk about operator and vendor relationships, what that looks like from both sides and how to make it more of a partnership in terms of both longevity and development and growth. Being on the operator side, I always had my own viewpoint on how this relationship should look but I can’t wait to see what a vendor thinks about us. By the way, did I mention that he is the new President and COO of our company, ConStrata Consulting?

TCP 061: Menches Bros Is Now On The Blockchain!

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Next week should be exciting for a couple of reasons: First, I will be speaking at the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association’s Show in Orlando, Florida. For those of you that will be there, make sure you come see my session on November 3rd where I will explore how web3 is changing the landscape of restaurants. Don’t know what #web3 is? Want to learn more about NFTs, cryptocurrency and actually see the metaverse in action? Most importantly, do you want to know how this is impacting the hospitality industry from the large chains down to the “mom and pops?” This is the session you DON’T want to miss!

Now, for those of you not attending, that probably means, if you are an operator, you will be at the MURTEC Executive Summit in Napa Valley. Why, oh why, did these two events have to happen on the same exact days? I have been waiting to go to Napa for that show for a couple of years now, ever since it was first announced during COVID. Oh well, you will all have a great time without me, I am sure. Just make sure you don’t have too much fun… you will make me even more jealous!

The show today was recorded live at the Menches Bros. NFT minting party in Green, Ohio. Yep, you heard me right. This is the mom and pop that I have been talking about quite a bit lately and you have seen in the industry news channels. If you want to hear my original podcast about this initiative, go back and listen to Episode 58 where I have Dani Kimble, CMO for Menches Bros. on the show. During that discussion, she talked about her Uncle John. Well, I was fortunate enough to sit down with John Menches, CEO of Menches Bros. to go into more depth about this project and why they felt that this little hamburger joint was the perfect concept for a NFT project. During this conversation, I learned a whole lot more about John, the family and other interesting facts other than being the originator and creator of the hamburger back in 1885.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week will kind of be a continuation of today’s episode except I will be talking with the company out of New York behind this NFT project, Metaversal. We will talk with the CEO, Yosi Hasson, the creative director, Sam Brukhman and the lead project manager for this creative endeavor, Erin Thompson. They are the secret sauce (pun intended) behind the execution of this project, and it was exciting to see the large team they brought to help support Dani Kimble and Menches Bros pull this off.

TCP 060: Make Data-Driven Decisions For Your Restaurant

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 05:00:00 -0500

It’s been a little while since we last spoke as I have been traveling around like a madman with client work and lots and lots of shows. I saw quite a few of you at FSTEC in Dallas. It was a great show this year and certainly loved the venue. There was tons of energy out there on the trade show floor…. I think everybody was glad that things finally seem back to normal. The networking was some of the best I have experienced at a conference. Between vendor dinners and cocktail happy hours, this proved to be extremely beneficial to most, from what I have been told by some of my collegues.

I think, from the sessions I was able to attend, one of the key takeaways is that the customer is still looking for change and their habits continue to evolve. Long gone are the days of what we considered conventional dining experiences. My advice to all of you is to stay on top of the current trends, evaluate them if they are a trend or a fad, and move forward, full force before you are the one that is left behind. Okay, I’ll step off my platform now.

Today’s guest on this show has been a dear friend for quite some time. For some reason, we always “clicked” and I love nothing more to run into him at a conference so we can hash out the newest trends and also discussing how we can make our industry better. I really wanted to do an episode on real life data warehousing, data pipes and of course, visualization of that data. When I replayed back my history of conversations about these subjects, well, none other than Sterling Douglass came to mind. Sterling is the Co-Founder & CEO of Chowly, a leading point-of-sale integration company that enables restaurants to expand and maintain a diverse set of off-premise capabilities.

Today Chowly processes over $1 billion in orders annually for its 12,000+ restaurant partners. With a focus on lean start-ups and building a business from scratch, Douglass thrives in environments defined by ambiguity and takes challenges head on while designing creative solutions to the hardest problems. He has a natural ability to grow a team and develop processes that are distinctive and unparalleled. Plus, his entire sales team could win offensive linemen of the year, just saying’.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next week will be a show I recorded on the road recently at an NFT minting party for a mom-and-pop restaurant. Intrigued? I was, that is why I made the trip to the middle of the Midwest to see how they were going to pull this off. It is such a fascinating story that you would be doing yourself a disservice to miss next week’s show. I witnessed 90 year old’s minting their very first NFTs! Now I know you are hooked to see how they did it.

TCP 059: The Future of Web3 Dining Is Here

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 05:00:00 -0500

So, what are we cooking up on today’s show? We’ll be taking a look at some groundbreaking restaurant technology news that happened last week. Our special guests will discuss how they are rapidly changing the industry one bit and byte at a time. So, whether you’re a tech novice or an expert… heck, you don’t need to understand technology at all as there’s something for everyone on today’s show as it is a super interesting topic and might open your mind to new possibilities that, just last week, you didn’t think was a reality or did not think would happen for many years to come.

The company, Devour, is one brand focused on positively impacting restaurants and their fans. Their mission is to deliver web3 technology to delight guests, retain workers, and grow your brand. They are group of experienced restaurant technology professionals ready to change the web3 dining experience and guest engagement.

We are lucky to have two of the co-founders from Devour on today’s show:

The CEO and Co-Founder of Devour, Shelly Rupel brings 30-years of experience as a technology entrepreneur, strategic partnership leader and restaurant owner. Before Devour, she most recently was Sr Director of Strategic Partnerships at PAR technology. Overseeing teams that managed 150 Channel Partners and 200 Solution Integration Partners for the Brink POS division of PAR.

Chad Horn is also a co-founder of Devour, creating the fusion between restaurants and the blockchain. He’s on the team making crypto and NFTs easy, accessible, and fun for restaurants and their fans.

If you have been waiting for web3 to become a reality in the restaurant industry OR you thought it was a crazy idea and would never happen, it does not matter… this show is for both sides of that thought process.

So are you excited yet? I know I am! I wasn’t kidding when I said I would be their first customer in The Verse when it launches in a few months. Just the thought of being able to virtually being able to order your food and have it show up the door is so Ready Player One. You know what, I finally feel like this industry is no longer the ones playing catch up!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

I will be taking next week off for a little “vacay” but will return with some new and exciting content on Tuesday, July 26th. I hope you are all having a fantastic summer and I can’t wait to chat with you again later this month. I have so many fun things planned for this show over the remainder of the year including a beloved celebrity chef which I am still keeping under wraps for right now!

TCP058: From Mainstreet to the Metaverse: Inventors of the Hamburger To Launch NFT Collection

Tue, 05 Jul 2022 05:00:00 -0500

That’s right, you have found the Tech Chef Podcast. The one show out there you can count on for weekly insight, news and guests relating to the restaurant, hotel and hospitality industries. This is your host, Skip Kimpel, and it is great that you joined the show today. Welcome back to all the faithful TCP listeners and for those of your listening for the first time, it is a great privilege to have you here today. This is one of those shows you don’t want to miss as it is weekly and if you don’t subscribe or follow it in your podcast software or service, it is easy to forget and then you will miss some great content so go ahead and subscribe or follow this show now.

For those of our listeners from the United States, I hope all of you have a fantastic long weekend celebrating our great Country with 4th of July celebrations. I am hoping you all stayed safe and enjoyed your time with friends and family. This is one of my favorite times of the year. As a kid, this was the day that we celebrated my grandmother’s birthday and I always had great memories of this day over the years.

From Main Street to the Metaverse… that is the theme of today’s show. When I saw this company pop up in the national news last week, I knew I had to get them on this show. I reached out to them and Dani Kimble, CMO for Menches Bros. was just as exited to be on the show as I was to have her on.

To understand the significance of this show you have know that this mom and pop hamburger restaurant, which has three units in Northeast Ohio, is the originator of the hamburger dating back to 1885…. That’s right, you heard me correctly and they have proof of that. Secondly, this little operation has taken on a NFT project that will take their company to a global level. These web3 initiatives are no longer for the big boys out there…. Dani and Menches Bros. are proving that anybody can play in this game.

A friendly public service announcement: if you are listening to this show and the terminology web3, NFT or the metaverse are all foreign to you, push pause on this episode and go back and listen to episode 51 where I talk with Chad Horn from Devour about these technologies an break them down one by one into digestible chunks of information.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program…..

Our guest today, Dani Kimble, is the descendant of the inventor of the hamburger. Raised in the restaurant industry, Dani found a real passion for the marketing side of the business. Later in life, she pursued a career in marketing, eventually rising to be Chief Marketing Officer for an insurance firm – and always remained closely connected and ingrained in the family’s brand, story, and business. Dani now has her own marketing consulting company and works directly with Menches Bros. Restaurants on digital marketing and web3 strategy. She is the founder of the Lil Mench NFT project, partnering with Metaversal venture studio to expand her family’s restaurants into the metaverse.

Make sure you listen to this one all the way through to the end as you don’t want to miss any of what Dani has to say and closes with some advice to all of you who are thinking about including web3 initiatives in your marketing plan.

I wanted to be one of the first people to help her spread the word about what she is doing and how she is doing it. I promise all of you that I will keep in touch with Dani and fill all of you in along the way to share what they will learn as a company.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Busy week this upcoming weekend with the Texas Food Show in Dallas and then I must jet set around the rest of the month meeting with clients. Trust me, I needed this last weekend to rejuvenate, especially after HITEC, which was an awesome show! I have a couple of interviews coming up this week. I am hoping to get one produced in time for next week’s show. So I guess next week will be a surprise! But you know me, whatever it is, it will be cutting edge and worth your time to listen to!

TCP057: Digital Entirety Featuring Noah Glass, Founder and CEO of OLO

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Welcome to The Tech Chef podcast! I’m your host, Skip Kimpel, and I’m here to take you on a ride of technology news related to the restaurant, hotel, and hospitality industries. For those of you returning, it is great to have you back and for those of you joining us for the first time, welcome to the show! I’m excited to have you here and please go ahead and hit that subscribe or follow button on your favorite podcast app or website.

What a great episode we had last week with Ben Thein from Flytrex…. The drone delivery company you have been hearing quite a bit about over this past year. If you didn’t hear it, make sure you go back and listen to this show.

Today, I have a guest that doesn’t really need any introduction. Noah Glass is the Founder & CEO of Olo, a leading open SaaS platform for restaurants that enables digital hospitality at every touchpoint. He is an industry visionary whose mobile ordering work pre-dates the iPhone, beginning with text message ordering on feature phones in 2005. Olo’s customer list includes over 600 of the most-loved enterprise restaurant brands.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

I am currently in Orlando for HITEC this week and am hoping to grab some interviews from here. I am also working on a very interesting episode for next week…. let’s just say it revolves around NFT’s and how it can impact the casual operator. You don’t need to be a big fish to play in this market space! Those of you who are interested in Web3 technologies, this will be a great episode for you.

TCP056: Drone Delivery - The Facts with Ben Thein, COO of Flytrex

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Hello everybody and welcome back to The Tech Chef! This is your host, Skip Kimpel and I am here to take you on a ride of technology news related to the restaurant, hotel and hospitality industry. Those of you returning, thank you for being a faithful fan and for those of you joining for the very first time, welcome! I am so glad you found this show. It is exciting to see how this show has grown so rapidly as your weekly industry resource. Again, those of you joining for the first time, please go ahead and hit that subscribe or follow button on your favorite podcast app or website. Exciting times we live in from a technology perspective and I certainly don’t want you to miss a single episode.

I hope you enjoyed my special Father’s Day Episode last week. I know it was a little out of the ordinary but, you know what, it was one of the most listened to episodes in the past couple of years!

Today, as promised, I have a show for you that I have been waiting to share with you for quite a while. I was fortunate enough to get Ben Thein, COO from Flytrex on the show. You all know how much of a fan I am of drone deliveries and where the industry is headed with it as well as the complications of bringing it to fruition. Well, I thought it only appropriate to get the leading company in the restaurant drone delivery market on this show to share where the industry stands and where it is headed with this cutting-edge delivery method.

Ben is the COO of on-demand drone delivery company Flytrex, helping spearhead the drone delivery revolution. Flytrex provides a direct-to-consumer autonomous drone delivery service that lets retailers and quick-service restaurants cater to a wider customer base with faster, safer and more economical on-demand deliveries than ever before. In a nutshell, Flytrex is building the world’s first drone-based delivery service – cutting delivery costs and times by an order of magnitude in an (almost) infinite market. This is the company behind the recent publicity you have seen including El Pollo Loco, Papa Johns, Brinker, Jersey Mikes, Walmart and many more.

By the way, this company didn’t just pop up out of nowhere, Flytrex Aviation Ltd was established in Israel in late 2013.

I can’t wait for the day where drone delivery is a widespread technology that will help elevate the customer experience and shorten the wait times for food, to go from restaurant to dinner table. It is only a matter of time and it is companies like Flytrex that need to work with the FAA and complicated logistics to make this happen. It is coming folks, the question is when.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Well, we have had a couple of fun weeks and we are on a roll. Next week I have a gentleman on the show that needs no introduction…. The one and only Mr. Noah Glass, Founder and CEO of OLO. He is such an innovator and industry leader, I can’t wait to talk to him about what his vision of the industry is in 2-5 years. He has always been a visionary.

TCP055: Father's Day Special Featuring Al Kimpel

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Well, hello strangers and welcome back for another episode of The Tech Chef. This is your host, Skip Kimpel and every week, it is my goal to bring you the latest and greatest restaurant, hotel and hospitality technology insights from thought leaders across these industry segments. I do have to apologize as this is normally a weekly show but there have been so many shows lately that I have had to travel quite extensively which caused me to miss a few weeks in-between. Having said that, we are back on track again with a bunch of new episodes in the can and ready to go.

If this is your first time listening, make sure you hit the subscribe button, so you don’t miss a single episode and anybody who does that also gets to hear the show before anybody else knows about it.

I saw many of you at the NRA show and it was so good to see this show come back in such a strong way. The amount of technology that was present was also quite impressive. Unfortunately, out of all the buildings that the show was located, I didn’t really get outside of the Tech Pavillion area. I know I missed a lot but, then again, I was there for the technology.

Today is a special episode as this Sunday is Father’s day. I am fortunate enough to still be able to pick up the phone and talk my Dad whenever I want and ask him business advice as he had a successful 45 years in the work force and always has great advice for me.

Recently, I was visiting him in Wisconsin and I came up with the idea to bring him on the show to talk about what it was like before technology and the transition into it over those many decades.

While you are not going to hear ANY hospitality technology talk on this show, my father is a great story teller and he walks us through his career, the patents he received and being an eye witness to the infancy stages of technology as we know it today. How this show WILL relate to you is we will talk about forward thinking thought leadership, the importance of continuing to learn and educate yourself along the way and, most importantly, how to dress to impress.

If I could only be as accomplished as my Dad when I finish my career. You know how many patents I have? Ah, that would be zero. It still fascinates me about everything he has done in his lifetime being 81 years young!

I can’t wait to share this episode with you as it is near and dear to me but also gives you a good insight into the DNA that makes me who I am today.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

Next Tuesday I have the COO from FlyTrex, Ben Thein, to talk about the revolutionary steps this company is taking to make drone delivery a real thing. Yep, this is the company behind the recent publicity you have seen including El Pollo Loco, Papa Johns, Brinker, Jersey Mikes, Walmart and many more. You all know me, this has been one of my passions for quite some time. I see this as a real possibility in the not so distant future. Companies like FlyTrex are working with the FAA to tweak current drone regulations to allow for a safe, fast and very cool way to get your next delivery.

TCP054: Increasing Revenue by Leveraging Guest Feedback with Zack Oates

Tue, 10 May 2022 05:00:00 -0500

For those of you that are regular listeners to The Tech Chef, thank you for tuning in again and welcome to all new subscribers. This is your number one resource for everything related to hospitality technology & strategy that will help the organization be more profitable while also being efficient! To ensure no episode goes unnoticed make sure you subscribe via your favorite podcast app/software service listed here on our website – It’s a pleasure having everyone with us as we continue providing high quality content each week.

What a fun week out in Vegas at Food on Demand. I do have to say that the show was heavy on the supplier side but, regardless, it was a good time had by all and very productive from everybody told me. The next big conference is the NRA show in Chicago in less than 2 weeks. I am sure I will see most of you there. As always, it will be an excellent opportunity to network and get back to the largest restaurant show in the country. It has been a while since we have been there so it will be good to be back.

Our guest today, Zack Oates is an author, husband, father, entrepreneur, and hot tub aficionado (but not in that order, necessarily). He grew up in restaurants before getting into startups. He was voted Top 100 Entrepreneurs, rang the NASDAQ bell, and has been to 50 countries. He went on over 1,000 dates before he got married and wrote a book, “Dating Never Works…Until it Does.” He currently is Founder and CEO of Ovation, the #1 restaurant feedback platform in America and host of “Give an Ovation: A Podcast for Restaurants.”

I can’t tell you what fun I had having Zack on the show. This guy is a stand up guy that will do whatever it takes to help your brand be more successful. His passion and dedication is second to none and he always has your back when it comes to providing you positive ROI results.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Week’s Show

This week, luckily, I am not traveling but next week is a whole different story. I will be headed to the Bahamas for a conference followed by a day at home and then jet setting to Chicago for the NRA show. Exciting times and, as always, I hope you are enjoying the ride. I am able to align with many industry experts and getting them to come on this show to share with you their success stories and knowledge so that you can apply this to YOUR organization. Next week’s show will have a surprise guest that I guarantee you will enjoy so you will have to tune in next Tuesday to find out who it is!

TCP053: Using Data to Convert Bodies Into Bits with Marcus Wasdin

Tue, 03 May 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Here we are, another week past and time for another edition of The Tech Chef. For those of you that are regular listeners, thank you for tuning in again and for those of you that are joining us for the very first time, a very big welcome to all of you. This is your number one resource for all things related to hospitality technology and strategy to make your organization a more profitable and efficient organization. To ensure you don’t miss a single episode, make sure you subscribe to our show via your favorite podcast app, software or service. It is a pleasure to have you with us here today. Trust me, you are amongst great company!

I will be flying to out Vegas tomorrow for Food on Demand… look forward to seeing many of you there. The number of vendors and attendees that this show brings every year continues to impress me. I was at the very first show they had outside of Dallas and even year one, it was a substantial conference. Please come up and say “hi” when I see you there. I have quite a few people scheduled for interviews for this show so if you would like to be one of them, please ping me on LinkedIn or text me so we can set something up.

Today we are privileged to talk to Marcus Wasdin.

Marcus Wasdin serves as the General Manager of the PAR Data Central Business Unit. PAR Data Central, formally Restaurant Magic Software, is the Restaurant Back Office management suite that some of the world’s best-known restaurants use to manage operations. In this role, Marcus has responsibility for all aspects of the business unit.

Most recently, Marcus served as the Chief Information Officer of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. At the Hawks, Marcus has responsibility for the technology, analytics and business strategy functions. Marcus led the technology/guest experience components of the $200 million renovation of State Farm Arena implementing $25 million in new technology in an 18-month period. In his tenure, the Hawks improved from 16th to 1st in overall guest experience and from 18th to 1st in in arena technology as compared to other NBA teams based on guest surveys.

Prior to joining the Hawks, Marcus served in multiple executive roles for hospitality, software and technology companies where he proved to be a successful and driven business leader. Most recently, Marcus served as Chief Information Officer at Church’s Chicken. Marcus’ experiences also include time as Vice President of Marketing and Product Management as well as the Vice President of Sales Support for SumTotal Systems, a strategic Human Capital and Business Planning software provider. Marcus also serves as an advisory board member for Hospitality Technology Magazine which is the only media brand dedicated exclusively to covering technology trends and solutions in the lodging and food service industries.

Marcus Wasdin graduated with honors from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Weeks Show

As I stated at the top of the show, I have several interviews lined up over the next couple of days to share with you in future episodes. Next week I will be featuring Zack Oates, Founder and CEO of Ovation. He is an award-winning entrepreneur, husband, author, innovation consultant, blogger and… well… we will keep the details for next episode. Just like Rev, I never know where the conversation is going to go and what crazy experiences I will have when I am around these two. Regardless, Zack is an amazing individual with an extremely reputable hospitality company geared around customer experience and engagement platforms. Want actionable guest feedback? Zack is a guy you should be talking to.

TCP052: Marketing Tech Talk with Rev

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:00:00 -0500

Welcome to The Tech Chef! This is your host, Skip Kimpel. If you looking for ways to improve your restaurant or hospitality business, this podcast is the perfect show for you. Every week, we talk to industry leaders and suppliers about the latest technology solutions that can help you run your business more efficiently. You’ll learn about everything from cloud-based POS systems to inventory management tools. There’s something for everyone on this show.

You’ll be able to take your business to the next level as we provide valuable information that will help you make informed decisions about technology solutions for your company. Tune in every week for a new episode – it’s sure to be packed with information that will benefit you and your team. To make sure you don’t miss a single episode, make sure you subscribe to this show!

I am currently in Atlanta at meetings but am really looking forward to seeing all of you at Food On Demand next week, for those of you that are going. You do realize we will be in Vegas during Cinco de Mayo, right? It is a good thing restaurant people don’t like to party and have a good time otherwise we would be in trouble! Moving on….

While I was at RLC recently, I had a chance to sit down with Rev. David "Rev" Ciancio is a New York City restaurant owner and knows exactly how hard it is to operate and brand a hospitality business. He is a hospitality marketing consultant, customer and technology evangelist at Branded Strategic Hospitality, with more than 20 years experience in B2B digital marketing and business development, specializing in hospitality marketing, content, local SEO, reputation management and influencer marketing. He helps technology companies, brands and restaurants to acquire and retain customers.

Rev is known as an “expert burger taster,” and believes that Pizza is a religion. What a fun guy to hang around. As you could tell, he has a pretty strong passion for what he does and how he does it. He really takes guest data to the next level. And you know what, he is a curious soul and you never know where you will see him next and what restaurant he might be recording his next Instagram or TikTok video at. Keep your eye out for him, he is everywhere!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Weeks Show

Another week come and gone and another conference in the horizon. Food on Demand, here we come! Next week I have another great show for you with Marcus Wasdin, the new General Manager of Par Data Central over at Par Technology. We will be talking about the power of data and how to best leverage it to be more successful and talk in a little more detail about having overseas development shops, world conflicts that could disrupt your development cycle and how to work around these challenges that might pop up. Another show that will be a “must hear” for you next week.

TCP051: Blockchain for Restaurants with Chad Horn from Devour

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Welcome to another episode of The Tech Chef! This is your host, Skip Kimpel coming to you from beautiful and very warm South Florida. Thank you for continuing to listen to this show and for those of you that are hearing this show for the first time, welcome! Regardless of your listening frequency, if you have not done so already, please make sure you go to your podcasting platform and give us a 5 star review. It is because of your loyalty to this show that has allowed us to be the number one restaurant, hotel, and hospitality podcast on the market.

On today’s show, I have Chad Horn. Chad is a Cofounder of Devour, creating the fusion between restaurants and the blockchain. He’s on the team making crypto and NFTs easy, accessible and fun for restaurants and their fans.

This is a VERY interesting show and do a little bit of a deep dive on web 3.0 technologies, blockchain, crypto currencies, NFTs and the metaverse. The discussion is particularly relevant as Devour is solely concentrated on the restaurant industry.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Weeks Show

Next week I have a session for you that I was able to record with David “Rev” Ciancio… yep, the infamous Rev that you all follow on social media. Anytime I am around this guy, I am guaranteed to have an engaging conversation and an awesome meal.

TCP050: Growth Strategy with Abe Ng from Sushi Maki

Tue, 12 Apr 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Welcome to The Tech Chef! This is your host, Skip Kimpel coming to you from the Restaurant Leadership Conference here in the desert of Arizona. If this is your first time joining, you have found the industry’s most popular podcast related to the restaurant, hotel and hospitality industry. Make sure you don’t miss a show by subscribing to this show using your favorite podcast software or app. And for all of you that are returning to hear what I have to say this week, well, welcome back!

Today I have a well-known South Florida operator on the show, Abe Ng, who is the founder and CEO of Sushi Maki – South Florida’s award-winning leader in innovative Japanese cuisine serving fresh, premium quality food throughout Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County. In this role, he oversees the strategic development and management of the 25 locations owned and operated under the Sushi Maki and Canton Chinese brand names, and is a partner with Whole Foods Markets for sushi stations in the South Florida Region stores.

A Miami native, Ng serves on various boards, including the Greater Miami Convention and Visitor Bureau, National Christian Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters Miami, the Cornell University Hospitality Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, City to City Miami and the Florida Restaurant Association. Abe was recognized as one of the Miami Herald’s 20 Under 40 and the South Florida Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. Abe was recently honored as Ultimate CEO by the South Florida Business Journal and was a regional finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2018, Sushi Maki was awarded Whole Foods Market Supplier of the year for the Florida Region.

If you are ever in South Florida or simply flying through the Miami airport, make sure you try Sushi Maki for some really quality food. My wife and I went just the other night before this trip and was, once again, impressed by the flavor profiles and freshness of what we ordered.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: https://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

Next Weeks Show

Next week I have Chad Horn from Devour on the show. This, for sure, is an episode you don’t want to miss as we will be talking about blockchain for the restaurant industry. Very unique interview with somebody that has a wealth of knowledge on the subject matter. We will talk Web 3.0, blockchain, NFTs, cyrpto currency, the metaverse and so much more. I can’t wait to share this one with you!

TCP049: Fireside Chat with Tim Tang

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Welcome to The Tech Chef! This is your host, Skip Kimpel and we are all here again today to explore the world of restaurant, hotel and hospitality technology. I hope you have had a great week. I am actually on the road at the New England Food Show today and will hopefully have some fun things to share with you from my time up here in Boston

We had a last minute change in our guest for this weeks show but I promise you, you are going to LOVE this one! Our regularly scheduled guest will be on the show for a few weeks, don’t worry. Sherri Landry from CEC Entertainment will be worth the wait.

Today, however is a special treat as Tim Tang joins The Tech Chef for a fireside chat. With a background in both engineering and human/organizational studies, Tim Tang has degrees on both sides of his brain. With over 20 years of professional experience in developing enterprise solutions, Tang is keenly interested in the intersection of technology and humanity. As a director at Hughes, Tang studies various enterprise markets (e.g. Restaurant, Retail, and Banking/Finance) to anticipate trends that will enable enterprise customers to fully unlock the business value of technology.

He has such insight on our industry. I always enjoy the time I get to spend with Tim and his intriguing questions. I don’t think his mind ever stops!

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: http://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

That’s it for this week. I will be seeing many of you at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Arizona next week. I have several interviews lined up but if you are an operator and would like to come on this show, reach out to me ASAP so I can reserve a spot for you while we are out in the desert.

Next Weeks Show

Next week will be a recap of RLC and we should be able to squeeze in a few surprise guests to say “hello.” I am off to have some clam chowder and lobster and enjoy my last day here in Boston so until next Tuesday, stay safe, stay healthy and stay hungry my friends.

TCP048: MURTEC 2022 Recap

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 05:00:00 -0500

Welcome to The Tech Chef! This is your host, Skip Kimpel. Remember me? Well, I am back! And I am so thankful for all of you listening to this show and being loyal to The Tech Chef! Since the last time we spoke I have been a busy guy. I changed positions recently and I am privileged to be the Principal of Independent and SMB consulting for ConStrata. For most of you ConStrata Consulting is a household name. I am responsible for heading up a new division of the company and the business development for the SMB marketplace.

Today, Consultant Toby Malbec and I will be doing a recap of MURTEC 2022 which was held at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas just a couple of weeks ago. Normally, I would have released this show much sooner but I recently moved back down to South Florida so it took a while to get the studio setup again and in functional order to bring you a quality show.

So many great things came out of this show, as we will talk about and I just want to say it was great to see all of you and all the great new friends and connections I made.

How To Contact Me

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
Website: http://ConStrata.io
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/constrata-consulting
You can also hear all these new episodes on the ConStrata website at ConStrata.io
Email me at skip.kimpel@constrata.io

That is a wrap for today. Given my new job, I will be on the road quite a bit this year and will have the opportunity to be face to face with some amazing thought leaders. April 3rd, 4th and 5th I will be at the New England Food Expo in Boston followed by the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Arizona. Lots of content for this show coming your way. If you will be attending any of the major shows this year, let me know as I will be traveling with my portable studio and I would love to have you on the show. Please reach out to me to set something up.

Next Weeks Show

Next Tuesday it is my honor and privilege to have Sherri Landry the Chief Marketing Officer for CEC Entertainment on the show. You best know CEC from one of their brands, Chuck E Cheese but have also launched several successful virtual brands in recent times. We will talk about all of that plus useful tools and services that can turn your marketing department into a powerhouse of information and success.

TCP047: Out With The Old, In With The New

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 05:00:00 -0500

It has been a little while since we last had the opportunity to talk so I would like to start off by saying Thank you…. Thank you for continuing to support this show and tuning in today. For those of you joining us for the first time, go ahead and click subscribe or follow in your podcasting software so you don’t miss a single episode of the Tech Chef.

Today’s theme is about “out with the old, in with the new.” Today’s show will be a very abbreviated show and we won’t have a guest on like we normally do. The show is all about what I have been up to and what is coming up!

First and foremost, I am announcing here, for the first time, that I have spent my last days at 4R Restaurant Group and have moved on to a new company. I will always cherish my time at 4Rivers and all of the amazing team members that I had the opportunity to work with and the accomplishments we have fulfilled. I would also like to thank John Rivers for his leadership during the time I was working at his company. He is truly a lighthouse in our community. In regards to where I have landed, well, that is the big news I promised you today.

I am officially announcing that I have joined Virtual Dining Concepts as the SVP of Technology. This is great step for me in my career as I help build, what I believe, is one of the most cutting edge concepts currently in the restaurant market space. So what is VDC and what are they all about, you ask? VDC offers restaurant owners an easy solution to generate more revenue out of your existing kitchens with minimal impact to current operations. Attract new customers with delivery-only menus using food delivery services. The magic of Robert Earl, who also owns Earl Enterprises, is that he has joined up with well-known celebrities and brands that will bring instant virtual kitchen success to your business. Brands such as NASCAR, Mr. Beast Burger, Bar Stool Bites, Guy Fieri’s Flavortown are just a small portion of the brands that are offered and there are so many more in the pipeline. If you are interested and would like more information on becoming a partner, please visit https://www.virtualdiningconcepts.com.

So on the heals of that news, hopefully you are all getting ready for the MURTEC Executive Summit which will be from Wednesday through Friday, October 13-15th. Once again, out with the old, in with the new…… FINALLY we are meeting in person after…..how long? I will be speaking on Friday in a session called: Research Super Session Panel: HT’s 2021 Customer Engagement Technology Study featuring:

– Daniel Connolly, Professor, Drake University

– Marybeth Pearce, Executive Director, Comcast Business

– Mike Maxwell, Chief Technology Officer, Hathway

– Your’s truly

Hotel & restaurant guests have ranked the tech-driven experiences that influence their willingness to spend — including mobility, off-prem solutions, and preferences around ordering and payments. Our panel will reveal the results of its annual Customer Engagement Technology Study, and ask us, as a panel of industry voices to weigh in on how these solutions can drive revenue in 2022 and beyond.

If you have not signed up yet but would still like to attend, please make sure you visit https://www.murtecsummit.com/

I truly hope you can join us this week in Orlando. With guest speakers such as Donald Burns, otherwise known as the Restaurant Coach as well as keynote speakers Ben Hall, CIO for Krispy Kreme and Paul Macaluso, President and CEO of Another Broken Egg, this particular year of the MURTEC Executive Summit will be special.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Since I will be at the conference this week, I am hoping to grab so great live interviews with our several of our well respected thought leaders. I guess at this point, our guest next week will be a surprise…. even to me!

TCP046: Industry Rockstar, Joe Tenczar, Co-Founder of Restaurant CIOs

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 05:00:00 -0500

MURTEC is next week, April 13th and 14th. Can you believe it is here already? You can register online right now at murtech.com.

Pulling out the big guns today and digging in deep into some futuristic technology with my good friend, Joe Tenczar. Joe is a founding partner of Restaurant CIOs, a strategic advisory company where he and his CIO partners collaborate to help hospitality companies see their restaurant business through the eyes of seasoned CIOs.

Joe is one of those Rockstar guests that you can only hope you get a chance to spend that much time with. Luckily, I have known Joe long enough to convince him to spend some quality time with us. I LOVE his futuristic view…. I can’t think of anyone more appropriate to have that type of conversation with.

Joe Tenczar, Co-founder, Restaurant CIOs and CSO, Sonny’s BBQ

Joe Tenczar is a founding partner of Restaurant CIOs, a strategic advisory company where he and his CIO partners collaborate to help hospitality companies see their restaurant business through the eyes of seasoned CIOs.

Joe Tenczar also acts as the Chief Strategy Officer for Sonny’s BBQ, one of the largest and most popular barbecue restaurant companies in the country. Tenczar has also led the Technology, Marketing, Finance, and Purchasing areas for Sonny’s.

Before Sonny’s BBQ, Tenczar was the global CIO for Hard Rock International, where he led the R&D and rollout of many innovative technologies that still affect Hard Rock guests and staff members.

After beginning his career as a programmer and manager for financial software companies, Tenczar was a senior technology leader for the second largest arm of the Marriott Corporation.

His specialties include a strategic focus on emerging technology’s place in hospitality. Tenczar holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Telecommunications and Computer Science from the University of Florida and a Masters of Business Administration from the Crummer Business School at Rollins College. He sits on the executive advisory boards for many industry groups, conferences, and cutting-edge hospitality technology companies.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week I will be coving the MURTEC online conference and will have back to back episodes to cover both days….. Super stoked for next week’s events!

TCP045: Virtual Brands with Wade Allen and Pankaj Patra of Brinker International

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0500

MURTEC is less than a month away and it will be virtual this year, scheduled on April 13th and 14th. You can register online right now at murtech.com. This will certainly be an event that you don’t want to miss. Normally we would be at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas for this but obviously, this year needs to be different. I am fully confident we will be back in action in the very near future! Once again, to register online right now, go to murtech.com

This is a big episode today as we talk to TWO Rockstars from Brinker International that have made such a splash in our industry recently I can’t imagine NOT having them on this podcast! What Brinker has been able to accomplish in the virtual brand side of the industry is truly amazing. Both of the guests today have some great insight to share regarding a successful launch if you are considering doing this with your own organization.

Wade Allen, SVP of Innovation for Brinker International

Wade Allen is senior vice president of innovation at Brinker International, Inc. where he oversees culinary innovation, engineering, strategic growth and the development and execution of virtual brands. His team develops creative ways for Brinker and to leverage the consumer, social, economic and technological changes that are disrupting the restaurant industry for the good of Brinker’s Guests, Team Members and shareholders.

During his tenure, Wade has held several leadership roles in technology, analytics and digital marketing, most recently as chief digital officer. He began his Brinker career in 2014 as vice president of digital Guest experience and analytics for Chili’s where he led the implementation and continued advancement of tabletop devices, My Chili’s Rewards and Chili’s mobile app and website. Prior to joining Brinker, Wade served as president of CouponFactory, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rockfish Interactive. He held positions as vice president of retail for Rockfish Interactive and as an account director/solution lead at the integrated marketing agency, RAPP, where he worked on a number of Brinker brands.

Wade enjoys spending time with his wife and four children, reading about emerging technology, politics and history and stays active through participating in water sports, snow sports and other athletic activities.

Wade serves on the digital innovation advisory council for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® and is an active member of his church. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University.

Pankaj Patra, SVP and CIO for Brinker International

Pankaj Patra serves as senior vice president and chief information officer at Brinker International, Inc., where he oversees information technology and data security for Brinker and its restaurants brands.

Pankaj is a longtime BrinkerHead and has served in multiple information technology leadership roles to help transform Brinker into a leader in restaurant technology. While his proudest moment is taking on his current role leading technology, he will always remember starting his IT days in a small closet developing software.

Pankaj officially joined the Brinker family in 2012, but has a much longer history of about two decades working with the company through his previous roles at On the Border and Cognizant Technology Solutions.

Pankaj and his wife have one son and the rest of his family resides in India, so he leverages technology to call them on the way to work every day. In his spare time, you can find him watching any sport – he loves them all!

Pankaj earned his undergraduate degree from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and went on to attain his MBA from Southern Methodist University. He is a member of the Dallas chapter of the International Food and Beverage Technology Association.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website:
https://SkipKimpel.com
(show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

New week we are continuing with our Rockstar series with Joe Tenczar, CIO and partner in Restaurant CIO’s and also, at the same time, Chief Strategy Officer for Sonny’s BBQ. If often wonder how he accomplishes so much and still has time to share his innovative ideas with others. If you have ever heard him speak before you certainly don’t want to miss this upcoming episode as we dig into futurisci and alternative delivery methods. We are going to dig into drone delivery, robots, autonomous cars and so much more. I have never met more of a forward thinker than Joe and I am super stoked he took the time to talk to us so I can share our conversation with all of you.

TCP044: Industry Rockstar, Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0500

As a reminder, MURTEC is only about a month away and it will be virtual this year, scheduled for April 13th and 14th. I had somebody that was new to the industry ask me what MURTEC meant…. It is short for the Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference. You can register online right now at murtech.com. If you go online you can check out the schedule of events and start planning on attending sessions that peak your interest and don’t’ forget about the interactive happy hour at the end of the day on the 13th!

Today is another addition to my Rockstar Series. Toby Malbec manages the day-to-day operations for ConStrata and works personally with many of ConStrata’s top clients to help them leverage their technology investments and bring measurable results to the company’s business operations.

We have some interesting topics we will be talking about today from virtual kitchens, where restaurants are headed from a technology front, loyalty, 3rd party delivery and we will even touch on the current hiring landscape and what it looks like from a restaurant technology professional. As always, Toby has great insight and perspective and I am so happy he took the time to share his ideas with all of us today.

Toby Malbec, Managing Director for Constrata Technology Consulting

Toby manages the day-to-day operations for ConStrata and works personally with many of ConStrata’s top clients to help them leverage their technology investments and bring measurable results to the company’s business operations.

Toby Malbec is an “operational technologist” who brings over thirty years of technical and operational expertise to his clients. He began his career in the hotel industry coming up through the operations ranks before getting into the technology domain as hotels were first beginning to embrace the value of technology as a mainstream affordable operational tool. He was responsible for the design and development of some of the first PC-based Property Management Systems for small to mid-sized hotels as well as working on the design of early touchscreen-based POS systems. After ten years in hospitality, Toby was recruited into retail by Saks Fifth Avenue to head up their CRM initiatives and was responsible for designing and managing the development of several key applications including Saks Trak and their E-Client Book.

In 2004, Toby assumed the role of Vice President of Business Development for Springer-Miller Systems, one of the premier hotel software companies in the world with applications designed for the resort and high-end luxury properties. In 2008, he joined the IPC (Independent Purchasing Co-Operative), the franchisee-owned arm for Subway restaurants, and was responsible for building and managing the team to build the in-house proprietary restaurant technology platform that would create a standard POS and technology platform for all restaurants worldwide. Subway is the world’s largest restaurant chain with over 35,000 units in over 100 countries.

Malbec is a 1985 graduate of the University of Vermont and is completing his MBA at the Isenberg School of Business at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Another big, big episode next week as I have my friends from Brinker International on the show to talk about their virtual brand initiatives. Brinker hit the headlines pretty heavily when they launched this back towards the end of June. When all other companies were struggling to figure out their next move, Brinker announced this was going to bring in an additional 150 million dollars to their organization! Talk about headlines! Joining me on the show to talk about this will be the CIO, Pankaj Patra and the SVP and Head of Innovation, Wade Allen. Like a said, a very big show.

TCP043: Marketing Technology with Mike Vichich, CEO of Wisely

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0500

Greetings, my Tech Chef family and welcome to another weekly dose of restaurant, hotel and hospitality technology information and updates. We talk weekly to industry influencers and vendors that are making a difference in our industries. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to today’s show and if you are joining us for the very first time, please go ahead and hit that SUBSCRIBE button anywhere you are finding this show. We literally are on every possible podcast channel you could think of including a spot on the HospitalityTech.com website, thanks to our partnership with Hospitality Network and the Restaurant Technology Network.

Ready for MURTEC? Well, MURTEC is ready for you so it is time to sign up today! CLICK HERE register now. This year it will be held April 13th and 14th as a virtual event. Restaurant technology moved swiftly from business enabler to operational savior, as the pandemic forced the foodservice industry to innovate overnight. In the wake of rapid digital transformation, MURTEC is helping restaurants fully embrace the potential of new technologies.

How have the strong survived, and which changes are here to stay? How can restaurants shed the shadows of stagnation in favor of innovation as the new industry benchmark? These are the questions MURTEC will answer for restaurant technology leaders as we explore THE BIG SHIFT.

The Restaurant Technology Network, today is announcing a project we have been working on for quite a while now, the Menu Synchronization Standard. They encourage anyone in the restaurant industry whose solutions share or consume menu data to join us and embrace the industry’s newest standard to ease system integration and facilitate smooth communications.

Mike Vichich, CEO and Co-Founder of Wisely

Mike Vichich is Wisely’s CEO and Co-founder. Wisely enables restaurants to personalize every aspect of their guest experience in the restaurant and online. Wisely’s solutions —waitlist & reservations, table & order management, CRM & marketing automation, guest sentiment, and CDP — have attracted innovative brands both large and small, including bartaco, California Fish Grill, Chuy’s, First Watch, Global Franchise Group, Lazy Dog, P.F. Chang’s, Sonny’s BBQ, Wings Etc., and many more.

Mike was also recently named one of the most influential solutions providers in the country according to Nation’s Restaurant News readers (Feb 2021). Mike grew up as a server, and after college worked on customer acquisition and retention at Accenture, where his clients included American Express and Microsoft.

He lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his wife and two sons.

Twitter: @mikevichich

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikevichich/

Wisely Website & Social Handles

www.getwisely.com

LinkedIn: @WiselyInc

Twitter: @WeAreWisely

Facebook: @WiselyHospitality

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week I have a very good friend of mine and a well known name in the industry, Toby Malbec. I know most of you know him but if this happens to be the first time you are hearing his name, you are in for a treat and in either case, you won’t want to miss next week’s show. Not only is he a good friend an colleague, his is an amazing thought leader with some great insight to our industry.

TCP042: Industry Rockstar, Karen Bird, CIO for Hooters of America

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 05:00:00 -0500

I don’t know if you saw it this week but the National Restaurant Association decided to postpone their show, yet again. This means that the soonest they will be getting together as a conference will be 2022. Who would have guessed that one year ago!

On the flip side, living here in Orlando, White Castle is in the process of building their largest “castle” and before they opened, they decided to launch a ghost kitchen to feed the need of everybody craving their food. In just a few hours they had to shut it down due to demand. A few days later, they opened it up again only to permanently close down their ghost kitchen until their restaurant fully opens. They are going to KILL IT here in Orlando!!!

We had Mike and Susan from White Castle on a couple of months again and they are both rock stars in the industry. Speaking or Rockstars, let’s get into today’s episode.

Karen Bird, CIO for Hooters of America

Karen Bird, Chief Information Officer for Hooters of America is accountable for the strategy and execution of technology systems and services for multiple Brands and all functional areas within the company. She has responsibilities for both corporate and franchised departments within the overall organization. Karen joined the Hooters of America executive team in July 2017.

From late 2011 through July 2017, Karen served as the Vice President, Information Technology for Buffalo Wild Wings. In this role, Karen was responsible for establishing the technology architecture and framework that delivered all core business information to the Buffalo Wild Wings Enterprise. She was instrumental in the development of the strategic plan that delivered a unified technology platform for over 1200 company-owned and franchised restaurants and the delivery of an enterprise service platform for the automation of data integrations.

Prior to joining Buffalo Wild Wings, she served as the technology executive for a number of casual dine and quick service restaurant chains. Her prior history includes CIO for Whataburger Restaurants, VP of Restaurant Information Solutions for Brinker International, Vice President of Business Systems for Advantica Restaurant Group, and Director of Retail Technology Solutions for Dunkin Brands. Karen started her career as a restaurant-level employee at Burger King. After two years in restaurant operations there, she moved into store accounting services and ultimately into various roles within the Information Systems department that helped build her technology expertise.

Karen received a B.S. in Business Management and graduated with Honors from the University of Phoenix, Boston in 2006. She currently serves on the Board of the International Food & Beverage Technology Association (IFBTA) and has previously served on the North Memorial Healthcare Foundation Board of Directors in Minnesota, the NCR Technology Advisory Board, and co-chaired the Franchisee Technology Subcommittee for Buffalo Wild Wings, North America.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

As always, next week we have another great show lined up for you… you will have to watch social media to find out who our surprise guest is going to be. So in the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy and stay hungry my friends!

TCP041: Industry Innovator, Alex Canter, CEO of Ordermark

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 02:00:00 -0500

For those of you joining us for the very first time, you are in the right place if you want to learn more about these industries from a technology perspective. Season 1, we had a blast and had some many awesome guests on the show, Season 2 we are stepping up our game and it will not disappoint.

If you have not done so already, please hit the subscribe button in your favorite podcast listening software now. This will make sure you don’t miss a single episode and you are always on top of the latest topic and news.

Our guest today has been in the news quite a bit lately. If you have been at ANY restaurant technology conference over the past couple of years, you have probably seen him speak.

Alex Canter, CEO and Co-Founder of Ordermark

Alex is a restaurant industry innovator, in-demand speaker, and passionate advocate for restaurant operators and workers. He was raised in the kitchen of the world-famous Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, where he and his team invented Ordermark.

A fourth-generation restaurateur, the restaurant business has been in Alex’s blood for over 85 years. In addition to being the visionary and leader of Ordermark, Alex is active with the Techstars network and enjoys mentoring other restaurant technology entrepreneurs and occasional angel investing. He is a 2019 recipient of the Forbes 30 Under 30 and Fast Casual Executive’s Top 25.

Alex previously led several technology ventures and most recently, Ordermark announced the close of its $120M Series C funding round led by Softbank and returning investor, Act One Ventures.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week is a special treat as I have one of our Rockstars guests, Karen Bird, CIO for Hooters of America. If you don’t know her name, you either are brand new to the industry or instead of knowing who the Rockstar’s are, you have been living under a rock!

She is always a sought-out speaker at conventions and there is a reason for that, obviously. I can’t wait to share with you our conversation about their new fast casual concept, Hoots. By the way, this is the first podcast she has every done so there is reason alone to listen to next week’s show.

TCP040: What hotels can learn from restaurants - from HT Next 2020

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 02:00:00 -0500

I made a promise to you last year about digging more into the hospitality and hotel side of the equation and today is the start of that. For those of you joining for the first time, please go ahead and hit the SUBSCRIBE button right now so you don’t miss a single episode. If you are joining us for the first time or have been listening to us since the beginning, please consider leaving us a positive review on your podcast feed, wherever you listen to us.

Today we talk about moving away from your main brand to survive through these times of COVID and beyond. Flexibility is so important during these times. Some of the areas we will cover to begin the conversation of bridging the gap between restaurants and hotels are food lockers, virtual kitchens and ghost kitchens. These are all items that a hotel may not have thought about and maybe might also give some thought to a restaurant that might have a connection with a hotel to dig into the concept of utilizing their kitchens.

Remember, the success behind any brand that is trying to launch a ghost or virtual kitchen is the proximity and the radius of their kitchen to their ideal target group. More than likely, hotels fit that criteria, therefore, are a perfect criteria for this type of concept.

Today is unusual due to the fact I am being interviewed instead of me interviewing somebody else. This was recorded for the Hotel Next conference that went live in the early part of December. I just receive permission to release this to all of you so I wanted to share it because there is good use case scenarios on both sides of the business.

HT Next 2020

The world may have changed, but the spirit of hospitality is still driven by trust, comfort and excellent service. Technology is now more important than ever beforein fulfilling that mission as we work together to incorporate new paradigms for health and safety into those core beliefs.

This years HT-NEXT presented HOTEL NEXT, a simulated hotel experience built for the “new normal” complete with operational areas like a lobby, guest room, back office, plus an exhibit hall, auditorium and more.

HOTEL NEXT featured smart sessions with the most well-respected technology titans in the industry. They cover today’s hottest industry topics including touchless experiences and transactions, safety and cleanliness, data analytics and so much more!

Produced by Hospitality Technology in partnership with HTNG, HT-NEXT brings together top hotel IT leaders and technology solutions, plus executive research, and industry work groups.

HOTEL NEXT is not just another video call or webinar. You’ll be able to fully interact with attendees in real-time and have meaningful one-on-one conversations.

You never know who you will meet at HOTEL NEXT, but it is guaranteed to make an impact.

For more information, visit: https://www.ht-next.com

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

I have a great lineup coming out for your starting off next week with Alex Canter where we will discuss his main business, OrderMark, and his plans for the equity influx he just received and what that will mean for them as a company and what it will mean to YOU as a user of their product and services.

TCP039: State of the Industry with Tom Bené, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 02:00:00 -0500

This is the first time we are speaking in 2021 and I am hoping you are all hanging in there. So much has happened since the last time we spoke but I am so excited you decided to join me today for season 2 of the Tech Chef. Those of you joining for the first time, please go ahead and hit the SUBSCRIBE button right now so you don’t miss a single episode. The Tech Chef Podcast has become the best and hottest new place to get all of your restaurant and hospitality technology information and has been doing so since early last year

Looking at this year’s production schedule, I have so many amazing guests lined up for you including some celebrity appearances. Once again, unless you hit the subscribe button, you have a chance of missing some pretty awesome subjects and great giveaways…. That’s right! Anybody listening to this show knows that I love to give things away!

So let’s start of season two with a heavy hitter, shall we?

Tom Bené, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association

Tom Bené is President & CEO of the National Restaurant Association—the Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing the nation’s restaurant and foodservice industry—and CEO of the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.

Prior to assuming this role in June 2020, Tom served as Chairman, President & CEO of Sysco Corp., the world’s largest foodservice distributor, where he had previously served as COO, President of Foodservice Operations, and Chief Commercial Officer.

Prior to Sysco, Tom served as President of Pepsi-Cola Foodservice and held a variety of senior leadership roles over his 23-year career with the company, including President of PepsiCo North America and SVP of Sales & Franchise Development.

Tom earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Kansas and currently serves as a member of the University of Kansas’ Business School Advisory Board. He is Past Chair of the American Beverage Association and has served on the Executive Committee of the Women’s Foodservice Forum.

Today he is going to give us the status of the state of the industry and what we can expect in 2021, especially from an advocacy point of view. What Tom has to say affects all of us so this is a show you don’t want to skip through.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week, we have yet another great guest lined up for you, so you must toon in to find out more but in the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy and stay hungry my friends.

TCP038: Year In Review - 2020

Tue, 29 Dec 2020 02:00:00 -0500

What a year it has been! This episode covers the best of the best over the past 6 months since this podcast started. It is filled with a star studded array of industry professionals not only talking about COVID but the industry as a whole including strategy moving forward which should not be missed! Thank you so much to all of our guests this past year along with our podcast sponsors who made this show the success it has been.

Highlighted in this episode:

Episode 10: Rom Krupp, CEO of onedine : https://bit.ly/3oEl4fE

Episode 19: Carol Dover, CEO & President of Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association : https://bit.ly/2MUsgGp

Episode 35: Phil Crawford, CTO for CKE Restaurants, Inc. : https://bit.ly/3sjYz1W

Episode 15: Susan Carroll-Boser / Michael Guinan of White Castle: https://bit.ly/3scT0lE

Episode 12: Charles Guzzetta, President of BurgerFi : https://bit.ly/35vOiFW

Episode 26: Motivational Speaker, Jim Knight, : https://bit.ly/35zEM4A

Episode 29: Mike Wills, CEO of Apex Supply Chain Technologies, LLC : https://bit.ly/3bBm4gO

Episode 18: Doug Smith: https://bit.ly/38CNJMH

Episode 21: Celebrity Chef Robert Irvine : https://bit.ly/2XyT7tL

Thank you to all of our guest and sponsors in 2020. 2021 we are going to kick butt with some great guests and amazing contest. Thanks for being a faithful fan!

TCP037: The Reason for the Season with John Rivers, CEO of 4R Restaurant Group

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Now, you know this show is driven by industry technology topics, today is a little step out of the ordinary as we begin to finish out this year. When I started planning a few months ago about who I wanted on the show for my Christmas Episode, I couldn’t think of any person I would rather join me more that John Rivers, the Founder and CEO of 4R Restaurant group, more well known under the 4Rivers BBQ name. Just by coincidence he also happens to be my boss and fearless leader.

You have all heard me talk, multiple times, about this amazing company and this electric brand. I am hoping that after today, you will begin to understand the passion and success behind what it is today. And make sure you stick to the end of the interview as John has a very special holiday recipe to share with you.

John Rivers, CEO and Founder of 4R Restaurant Group

Retiring as president of a $1.5 billion dollar company, John Rivers left a career of twenty years in Healthcare to pursue a lifelong dream of opening a restaurant. In 2009 John created his first concept, 4 Rivers Smokehouse, which quickly became one of the fastest growing restaurants in the southeast. With seventeen locations in Florida and Georgia, the success and popularity of his 4 Rivers Smokehouse and his second and third concepts, the Southern-inspired COOP, and Latin influenced Cantina Barbacoa at Disney Springs have garnered national recognition. MSN named 4 Rivers as the #1 BBQ restaurant chain in the country, Southern Living dubbed 4 Rivers as the top BBQ in the South, and Nation’s Restaurant News recognized 4 Rivers as a top five breakout brands. Restaurant Business named John as one of the Power 20 Leaders in the restaurant industry, Orlando Magazine included him among Orlando’s “50 Most Powerful, 15 to Watch”, the OBJ named John the Philanthropist of the Year, and John has twice been named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

John has twice been invited to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City and has enjoyed participating in Food Network’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival for the last 8 consecutive years. He has appeared on numerous television shows and has been featured in national publications including Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, USA Today, Business Insider and Cooking Light Magazine. John authored his first book, “The Southern Cowboy Cookbook” and launched a line of retail and manufactured products currently enjoying shelf space at Publix & Costco and being distributed nationally by partners such as Sysco & US Foods.

A graduate of Florida State University College of Business, where he serves on the Board of Governors, John chairs both the 4R Foundation and the 4Roots Farm and is co-founder of Winter Park’s largest culinary festival; “Cows ‘n Cabs”. John lives in Winter Park with his wife Monica and two children, Jared and Cameron where he serves on the boards of numerous school, church, and charity organizations.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or whatever holiday you are currently celebrating. I will talk to you one last time this year, next Tuesday to say farewell to 2020 and open the door with great glee to 2021… a year that will turn all things around in our industry. I am positive of it.

TCP036: Powerhouse Partnerships, Hospitality Technology and Restaurant Technology Network

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Strong partnerships are a hard thing to find. Today we talk with Abby Lorden, Vice President & Publisher of Hospitality and Co-Founder of the Restaurant Technology Network along with Angela Diffly, also Co-Founder of the RTN. These two individuals and the two networks are making a huge impact in our industry and the Tech Chef is proud to be part of their efforts.

Listen to how the RTN can add to your professional toolset and help you become a stronger industry leader.

Abigail Lorden, Publisher HT, Co-Founder, RTN

Abigail Lorden is a brand leader with deep domain expertise in technology and business trends for hotels and restaurants. She heads up the highly influential B2B media brand Hospitality Technology (HT) including its flagship events MURTEC and HT-NEXT. In 2019, she co-founded the membership community Restaurant Technology Network, which brings together restaurant operators and technology suppliers to solve industry challenges.

In her role at HT, Abigail leads a talented team of editors, revenue drivers, researchers, marketers and community influencers. Her background as HT’s editor-in-chief for more than 10 years gives her extensive insight into consumer and B2B technology trends for the hospitality industry. Known for innovative new launches, throughout her tenure she has created a variety of valuable resources for the hotel and restaurant industry, including the virtual event experience Restaurant Next (in 2020), HT-NEXT, an industry event for hotel technology executives (in 2017, produced in partnership with HTNG), and spearheaded HT’s highly-successful market research and analysis arm.

Angela Diffly, Co-Founder, RTN

As co-founder of the Restaurant Technology Network, Angela Diffly credits her constant curiosity for all-things technology as the driving force along her largely restaurant and retail-focused career path. In her current role, she advocates for the RTN community by creating value for members and sharing RTN technical achievements with the industry at large.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website:
https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

I have a couple of different shows that I am considering for next week. I have too much good content and not enough time! Stay tuned this next week on social media for a hint of what will be dropping live next week!

TCP035: Drive through technology and strategy with CTO Phil Crawford from CKE Restaurants

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 02:00:00 -0500

We have all seen how successful restaurants that have drive throughs have been during COVID. Want to get in on this revenue stream or just want to improve on what you have? Joining me today is the CTO from CKE Restaurants, Phil Crawford to discuss the different technology and with the strategy to make sure your efforts are yielding profitable results.

TCP031: What we are thankful for

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 02:00:00 -0500

TCP030: Food Lockers -2- Customer food pickup logistics - Special guest, CEO from Minnow

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 02:00:00 -0500

TCP029: Food Lockers -1- The next big trend for off-premise? Special guest, CEO from Apex

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Quick announcement: December 1-3, Hospitality Technology in conjunction with HTNG is presenting Hotel Next, a simulated hotel experience built for the “new normal” complete with operational areas like a lobby, guest room, back office, plus an exhibit hall, auditorium and more. HOTEL NEXT will feature smart sessions with the most well-respected technology titans in the industry. The will cover today’s hottest industry topics including touchless experiences and transactions, safety and cleanliness, data analytics and so much more! To register, go to ht-next.com. #HTNEXT

With ToGo Technologies on last week, we talked about one of the partners they integrate with, Apex Supply Chain Technologies. If you have ever been to a Little Caesars Pizza and have seen or interacted with their heated food lockers, you have experienced Apex products.

Today, I am excited to have Mike Wills, Chief Executive Officer, Apex Supply Chain Technologies, the world’s leading provider of self-serve automation solutions for a wide range of applications in the foodservice, retail and b-to-b markets. Wills joined Apex in 2016 following a career of more than three decades in the Enterprise Mobility industry, where he held leadership and officer positions with organizations including Motorola, Zebra, Intermec, Avery Dennison and Honeywell.

This is a two part series and we will explore, together, everything you need to know about the food locker industry. We will discuss their core business and how this trending technology will change not only your restaurant business off-premise strategy but also discover how hotels can benefit from their products as well.

Mike Wills, Chief Executive Officer, Apex Supply Chain Technologies

Mike Wills is CEO of Apex Supply Chain Technologies, the world’s leading provider of self-serve automation solutions for a wide range of applications in the foodservice, retail and b-to-b markets. Wills joined Apex in 2016 following a career of more than three decades in the Enterprise Mobility industry, where he held leadership and officer positions with organizations including Motorola, Zebra, Intermec, Avery Dennison and Honeywell.

Wills is an active board participant, serving on industry standards boards and associations along with higher education boards. He is also an independent Board of Directors member for EdgeIQ Incorporated, an edge analytics IoT company based in Denver, Colorado.

Wills earned a BS/BA from Taylor University and an MBA from Central Michigan University. He holds Intellectual property filings in the field of RFID in both the USPTO and ETC (US patent #7,245,227).

Contest Alert:

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Included in this prize package:

1 free year of DTiQ Video Reporting, Analytics & SmartAudits™
1- DTiQ 10TB NVR
1- 16-CH POE or Analog Encoder
1- Uninterruptable Power Supply
Installation of all of the above to existing IP or HD Analog cameras and configuration of system.
Video & Cloud Services
Data Services
Video Analytics
2 SmartAUDITS per month

Hardware & Install Total Value: $2,100

Video Reporting & Analytics Total Value: $1,800

$3,900 total value!

Fine Print: 1 year contract required, optional renewal after 12 mos. Free Installation. Must have existing surveillance cameras (up to 10) or be willing to purchase cameras.

ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday, is the second part of the series and I will be talking to another food locker or food POD company. Steven Sperry, CEO of Minnow will be on to talk about how their product is different and how you can easily expand your business and your food distribution guest options with their devices.

TCP028: Advanced Online Ordering with Shaun Shankel, CEO of ToGo Technologies

Tue, 10 Nov 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today I have yet another trusted partner on to discuss how they can turn around your online ordering strategy to a winning and powerful relationship. I, personally have used ToGo at the last two companies I have been at with HUGE success. ToGo is a restaurant e-commerce platform that enables customers to order directly from your custom mobile app or website. It’s incredibly powerful, and amazingly simple to use.

To talk about this I have Shaun Shankel, Chief Executive Officer at Fresh Technologies and ToGoTechnologies. This show will run a little longer than normal but we have so many important things to discuss that could change your off premise strategy!

Shaun Shankel, CEO of ToGo Technologies

Shaun Shankel is a highly successful entrepreneur, CEO and CTO with over 20 years of experience in the hospitality, technology, and entertainment industries. He has particular expertise in vision focused executive leadership, employee and culture growth, agile software development, systems integration and bottom-line revenue growth.

Shaun’s unique blend of business acumen, artistic soul and technological expertise give him an uncanny ability to clearly identify opportunities, even in the most unorganized and disparate of systems, navigate challenges and pinpoint successful paths to a profitable reality. Shaun has done this repeatedly, raised millions in private equity and led multiple companies to profitability.

As the CEO of Fresh Technology, Shaun has inspired a culture of success. Under his guidance, the company has built a proprietary suite of vertically integrated software and hardware hospitality products that optimize operations, production and customer engagement. From raw materials, inventory tracking and invoice administration to labor management, kitchen automation and online ordering, Fresh’s software uses predictive analytics and machine learning to control costs and grow sales. This system manages over $350MM in annual revenue and has been proven to add 3%-5% points in EBITDA to its restaurants.

Harvesting the immense amount of data generated from the thousands of locations using Fresh’s software, Shaun is evolving Fresh Tech’s platform to more precisely predict customer purchase habits based on the time of day, physical location and product mix to tap into new areas of profitability.

In addition, Shaun also serves as CTO for Fresh Hospitality brands including Taziki’s Mediterranean Café, Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, I Love Juice Bar and Taco Mac, to name a few. In this role he leads a battalion of software developers, systems architects, network technicians and help desk engineers overseeing an ecosystem of AWS servers, ioT devices, and secure payment processing networks.

Prior to taking the helm at Fresh, Shaun had an extremely successful career in the music industry writing and producing for some of the biggest artists in the pop, gospel and country music markets. Selling over seven million albums and singles, Shaun had 12 #1 hits and song placements in over 18 film and television campaigns.

Contest Alert:

DTiQ’s Massive Giveaway!

Included in this prize package:

1 free year of DTiQ Video Reporting, Analytics & SmartAudits™
1- DTiQ 10TB NVR
1- 16-CH POE or Analog Encoder
1- Uninterruptable Power Supply
Installation of all of the above to existing IP or HD Analog cameras and configuration of system.
Video & Cloud Services
Data Services
Video Analytics
2 SmartAUDITS per month

Hardware & Install Total Value: $2,100

Video Reporting & Analytics Total Value: $1,800

$3,900 total value!

Fine Print: 1 year contract required, optional renewal after 12 mos. Free Installation. Must have existing surveillance cameras (up to 10) or be willing to purchase cameras.

ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday, from our progression of discussions, I have Apex Supply Chain Technologies to discuss the Food Locker business case. I see this as a trending technology additionally invigorated by Covid so this will begin a mini-series on food locker technology.

TCP027: The Power of POS Integrations Featuring Omnivore with Matt Haselhoff

Tue, 03 Nov 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Welcome to this weeks show, podcast family! Today is my Election version of the Tech Chef. I was looking at my podcast statistics the other day and realized we have thousands of listeners in over 40 countries! I find that fascinating. Having said that, if you are listening from the good old US of A and have not gone out and cast your vote yet, please do so! It is such an important part of who we are as Americans and especially this election. Also, if you are additionally listening from Florida, make sure you vote NO on amendment 2, the $15 minimum wage amendment that is on your ballet. This will crush the hospitality industry to the point of no return. To learn why, go to www.Ammendment2HurtsYou.com

I have been looking forward to today’s episode from the time I conceived the Tech Chef Podcast. I think that what Omnivore offers is so critical to a restaurant’s tech stack that I knew they had to be part of this journey with me. With their new Menu Management System, they really have a game changer on their hands.

So who is Omnivore and what do they do?

Omnivore empowers restaurant brands to digitize their guest and operational experience in a meaningful and sustainable way. They deliver an end-to-end suite of solutions built on data and insights that help optimize the essential elements of the digital restaurant experience; online ordering, pay at table, 3rd party delivery, reservations, loyalty, inventory, labor and analytics. All of these solutions completely integrate into the restaurant POS system for operational efficiency, future agility and leveraging of data.

Matt Haselhoff, Chief Revenue Officer for Omnivore

Joining me to discuss this is Matt Hasselhof, a 20+ year veteran of digital technologies serving the restaurant industry. Over the past 4+ years, Matt has served as the Chief Revenue Officer for Omnivore. Prior to his role at Omnivore, he also served under several industry advisory boards that have helped restaurants navigate to technologies that drive additional revenue & efficiencies.

Contest Alert:

DTiQ’s Massive Giveaway!

Included in this prize package:

1 free year of DTiQ Video Reporting, Analytics & SmartAudits™
1- DTiQ 10TB NVR
1- 16-CH POE or Analog Encoder
1- Uninterruptable Power Supply
Installation of all of the above to existing IP or HD Analog cameras and configuration of system.
Video & Cloud Services
Data Services
Video Analytics
2 SmartAUDITS per month

Hardware & Install Total Value: $2,100

Video Reporting & Analytics Total Value: $1,800

$3,900 total value!

Fine Print: 1 year contract required, optional renewal after 12 mos. Free Installation. Must have existing surveillance cameras (up to 10) or be willing to purchase cameras.

ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday I have another good friend of mine and one of my trusted technology partners on the show. Shaun Shankel, Chief Executive Officer at Fresh Technology + ToGoTechnologies. Looking for a feature rich, solid online ordering platform? Look no further. ToGo Technologies might be the perfect solution for you. And guess what? They integrate into your POS with Omnivore. See, there is a method to my madness!

TCP026: Bonus Episode - Motivational Speaker, Jim Knight Unplugged

Thu, 29 Oct 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today I have Jim Knight who needs no introduction to many of you. Motivational speaker, author and podcast host, Jim and I have a BLAST talking about things like, oh I don’t know, mullets, spider cuisine (yes you heard that right) and of course Jim’s Thought That Rocks! Speaking of rockin’ this Certified Rock Star has a lot to share and we are going to have a fun time doing it. https://www.knightspeaker.com

Jim Knight

A Training & Development veteran for 30+ years, Jim Knight facilitates on a variety of interactive topics, including sessions around amping up organizational culture, world-class differentiated service, building rock star teams, hiring & retaining “rock stars”, employee branding, performance management and philanthropy.

Jim cut his teeth in the training field through the Hospitality industry, starting out in the snack bar at Gatorland Zoo, as a restaurant staff-level employee for Olive Garden and then as a host & manager at Hard Rock Cafe. He eventually became the head of the School of Hard Rocks, running point on all global learning & development functions for Hard Rock International.

Although part of a small training group that supported all cafe, hotel & casino properties, Jim Knight’s role at Hard Rock involved many facets of organizational training, including: creating/managing all staff & management training materials & programs, facilitating its corporate university, overseeing management training locations, producing training videos, directing company e-Learning initiatives, facilitating leadership transitions and traveling to properties to deliver on-site classes & measure standards.

Jim has put his experience and creativity to work, which has consistently developed cutting-edge training concepts. During his time with the Hard Rock brand, his team won coveted video Telly Awards (“Guest Service” in 2000, “Menu Rollout” in 2007, “Harassment & Discrimination Prevention” in 2008), garnered Training Directors Forum’s 1998 prize for “Reengineering Training” and won Brandon Hall’s Gold Best in Class Award for their “Service Recovery” e-Learning course. Jim Knight was also recognized by Training Magazine as representing one of the Top 125 training companies in the world out of all industries & businesses. Jim has since been featured in Forbes Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Nation’s Restaurant News, Business News Daily and Fox Business News.

Jim has a music degree in Vocal Performance & Education and taught in the Florida public school system for 6 years, before catching the “hospitality bug”. He is a lifetime member of CHART (an Association of Hospitality Trainers), previously sat on the Certification Governing Board of the National Restaurant Association and started a local networking group (The Training Summit: CHART’s 1st Regional Training Forum) with over 100 active members in Central Florida, to share best practices and discuss common issues with other industry professionals. Networking is a big part of his success.

Jim is the Owner & CEO of Knight Speaker, which positions him to facilitate at any association or company event, in any industry, as a keynote or breakout speaker. He is also the best-selling author of Culture That Rocks: How to Revolutionize Your Company’s Culture, now in its 2nd edition, which was featured in Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the “5 Books That Will Help You Transform How You Do Business”.

Along with his business partner, Brant Menswar, Jim also hosts a weekly leadership podcast called, Thoughts That Rock, which includes a rock star guest and presents 2 life-changing pieces of advice in 30 minutes. Finally, Jim and Brant offer a leadership training program called, Certified Rock Star, as an edu-taining, Rock ‘n Roll-inspired experience for leaders looking to amp up their business in a variety of areas.

A portion of Jim Knight’s book sales, podcast revenue, speaking fees and training program proceeds goes to No Kid Hungry to eliminate childhood hunger in the U.S. and Cannonball Kids’ cancer, which funds innovative, accessible research for children fighting cancer with better treatments, quality of life and options for those told they have run out of options.

To contact Jim, you can reach him at: Jim@KnightSpeaker.com or www.KnightSpeaker.com

To order copies of his book, go to: www.CultureThatRocks.com

Contest Alert:

DTiQ’s Massive Giveaway!

Included in this prize package:

1 free year of DTiQ Video Reporting, Analytics & SmartAudits™
1- DTiQ 10TB NVR
1- 16-CH POE or Analog Encoder
1- Uninterruptable Power Supply
Installation of all of the above to existing IP or HD Analog cameras and configuration of system.
Video & Cloud Services
Data Services
Video Analytics
2 SmartAUDITS per month

Hardware & Install Total Value: $2,100

Video Reporting & Analytics Total Value: $1,800

$3,900 total value!

Fine Print: 1 year contract required, optional renewal after 12 mos. Free Installation. Must have existing surveillance cameras (up to 10) or be willing to purchase cameras.

ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday we pick back up with the regularly scheduled show as I speak with my good friends over at Omnivore. Yes, you have heard me mention their name a million times between this podcast and all the speaking events I have done. Now you are going to hear why I am such a fan of their product and service.

TCP025: Native Delivery -2- Adriana Kosiba from Bringg

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today is the second and the last part of the Native Delivery mini-series…. Hey, it’s called mini for a reason! Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Adriana Koshiba, Enterprise Sales Director for Restaurants at Bringg.

Learn more about Bringg, a company with technology solutions which allows you to meet all of your off premise demands quickly and cost-effectively through unified technology. They are able to do this by providing a full suite of front and backend applications to help leading enterprises maximize their capacity, efficiency, and speed.

Powered by artificial intelligence, our platform orchestrates every element of every delivery and fulfillment, ensuring orders are efficiently fulfilled at massive scale.

Adriana Kosiba, Enterprise Sales Director for Restaurants at Bringg

With more than a decade of experience working in media, retail and the restaurant industry, Adriana helps enterprises develop strategies and solutions to elevate their brands to the next level. Currently, she leads the Restaurant vertical at Bringg, helping organizations navigate their off-premise channels via technology.

DTiQ’s Massive Giveaway!

Included in this prize package:

1 free year of DTiQ Video Reporting, Analytics & SmartAudits™
1- DTiQ 10TB NVR
1- 16-CH POE or Analog Encoder
1- Uninterruptable Power Supply
Installation of all of the above to existing IP or HD Analog cameras and configuration of system.
Video & Cloud Services
Data Services
Video Analytics
2 SmartAUDITS per month

Hardware & Install Total Value: $2,100

Video Reporting & Analytics Total Value: $1,800

Fine Print: 1 year contract required, optional renewal after 12 mos. Free Installation. Must have existing surveillance cameras (up to 10) or be willing to purchase cameras.

ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Bonus Episode!

This Thursday, I have Jim Knight who needs no introduction to many of you. Motivational speak, author and podcast host, Jim and I have a BLAST talking about things like, oh I don’t know, mullets, spider cuisine (yes you heard that right) and of course Jim’s Thought That Rocks! Speaking of rockin’ this Certified Rock Star has a lot to share and we are going to have a fun time doing it. https://www.knightspeaker.com

Next Week’s Show…

TCP024: Native Delivery -1- Ryan Pershad from GetSwift

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Did you get a chance to listen to the last two episodes where I re-capped the Restaurant Next conference, if not, go back and listen. AND if you still want access to the actual conference material, reach out to me or Anglea Diffley at the RTN and she will get you hooked up.

Today we are starting off a new mini series on Native Delivery. This seems to be one of the newest trending topics in our industry and I am excited to have some pretty awesome guests to talk about the subject.

First in the series is Ryan Pershad, Global Operations Lead for GetSwift which is a software company who is a global leader in the logistics, last-mile delivery sector. Currently used by hundreds of clients in over 70 countries to deliver better and faster.

We are going to talk about the benefits and complications of Native Delivery as well as RTN’s TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) calculator to help figure out the profitability between Native Delivery, 3rd Party Delivery and Delivery as a Service. This can be a complicated puzzle to try to put together. You will learn how this tool will simplify that process.

Ryan Pershad, Global Operations Lead for Get Swift

Ryan Pershad is an intra-repreneur, formerly in the media space and now digging deep roots in the logistics space. For about the last decade Ryan has worked with a number of companies: from start-ups to public companies to accelerate growth. Through strategic partnerships, operational efficiency and product strategy.

He is currently the Global Operations Lead for GetSwift. A software company who is a global leader in the logistics, last-mile delivery sector. Currently used by hundreds of clients in over 70 countries to deliver better and faster.

Ryan has brought his experience in an advisory capacity to an increasing number of companies over the last few years such as Vidrovr a leading computer vision platform and CityMixr, an event platform driven by social interaction. Ryan is also on the advisory board of Angelwish, a philanthropic organization that assists families with children who are fighting a terminal illness.

Ryan currently resides in New Jersey with his fiance Dhara. They are currently house hunting. Dhara would like everyone to know they are also currently hunting for a dog-child. In his spare time Ryan indulges in his nerdiness by playing video games and is obsessed with basketball.

Ryan earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in Economics.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Instagram: https://instagram.com/skipkimpel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

This is just the first part of this series and next Tuesday I will have Bringg on the show to talk about their enterprise logistics solution. As you know, the market demands more from your delivery and curbside pickup. Bringg allows you to meet these demands quickly and cost-effectively through unified technology. They are able to do this by providing a full suite of front and backend applications to help leading enterprises maximize their capacity, efficiency, and speed.

Powered by artificial intelligence, our platform orchestrates every element of every delivery and fulfillment, ensuring orders are efficiently fulfilled at massive scale.

This is a a product trusted by such brands as Panera, KFC and many more brands and even by massive companies such as Walmart for their logistics platform. A show you for sure do not want to miss!

TCP023 : Restaurant Next 2020 Conference - Day 2 Recap

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 02:00:00 -0500

.Today is dedicated to coving the Restaurant Next conference held in conjunction with MURTEC and the Restaurant Technology Network. This immersive experience has tons of valuable content and well respected speakers who are our industry leaders. This podcast is a recap of day 2.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Weeks show…

Next week I am starting a new exciting mini series on Native Delivery. Yep, we’ve talked so much about it and it is trending in the industry right now so let’s dig right into it. I have 3 guests coming on the show to talk about their take on how to solve for this problem. First of is Ryan Pershad, who is the Global Operations lead for GetSwift, a software company who is a global leader in the logistics, last-mile delivery sector. I personally have used their product and have a very interesting story to tell which will be a testament to the flexibility of their software in addition to their 5 Star support.

We are even going to talk some details about that TCO calculator that I mentioned in the Native Delivery session yesterday. That alone is some exciting stuff!

TCP022 : Restaurant Next 2020 Conference - Day 1 Recap

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today is dedicated to covering the Restaurant Next conference held in conjunction with MURTEC and the Restaurant Technology Network. This immersive experience has tons of valuable content and well respected speakers who are our industry leaders. This podcast is a recap of day 1.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Tomorrow’s Show…

That’t right, back to back episodes with continued coverage of the Restaurant Next conference. It is looking like this will be even more jam packed with information that yesterday! Quicky looking at the agenda, I am looking forward to the keynote with White Castle and also other sessions only loyalty, ghost kitchens, a deep dive into analytics and the contactless customer journey.

In addition, am hoping to have to to explore some of the on-demand content that I didn’t have a chance to get to yesterday. You will want to tune in to hear what you missed!

TCP021 : Food Safety -5- Celebrity Chef Robert Irvine

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today is a special day as we wrap up our five part mini series on Food Safety. If you are a regular listener of this show, I think you have been anticipating this episode just as much as I have. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to talk with Chef Robert Irvine as we discussed a variety of subjects.

If you know anything about him, he has to be one of the busiest people I know! Most of you know him from his Restaurant Network series like Dinner Impossible, Restaurant Impossible and his most recent, Restaurant Impossible, Back to Business where he helps restaurants put systems and procedures in place to compensate for the damage that Covid19 has caused within the industry. Through his efforts, he has given struggling restaurateurs a second chance to turn their lives and businesses around in over 200 episodes and counting. Other things you probably didn’t know about him, he has a food line, a health bar product, a clothing line, a liquor line, restaurants in Vegas and even at the Pentagon…. This guy is a machine! Speaking of being a machine he was once named one of the 25 fittest men in America by Men’s Fitness Magazine. An author, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist and huge supporter of our nation’s military, I really don’t know what he will be up to next.

Upcoming events….

Just one quick announcement before closing out this show, next week, October 12 and 13th is Restaurant Next which is a spectacular online event that has a very impressive list of content and speakers. For more information and to sign up for FREE if you are a restaurant operator, please visit https://events.ensembleiq.com/RestaurantNext

Chef Robert Irvine

Robert Irvine is a world-class chef, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. The host of Food Network’s hit show Restaurant: Impossible, he has given struggling restaurateurs a second chance to turn their lives and businesses around in over 200 episodes and counting. He would know a thing or two about running a successful business. In addition to his restaurants—Robert Irvine’s Public House at the Tropicana in Las Vegas and Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine within the Pentagon—he is the owner of FitCrunch, whose protein bars, powders, and snacks are available nationwide; Robert Irvine Foods, which makes prepared, restaurant-quality dishes available in grocery stores and provides food service to military bases worldwide; and the Lansdale, PA-based Boardroom Spirits, creators of handcrafted vodka, rum, whiskey, and more.

A portion of the proceeds from all of Robert’s endeavors benefit the Robert Irvine Foundation. Created in 2014, the foundation gives back to our servicemen and women and first responders. Funds raised help at-need veterans and first responders in a variety of ways: training service dogs, making mental health and wellness services available, providding mobility devices for the disabled, and much more. Learn more at RobertIrvineFoundation.org.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week I will be covering the Restaurant Next online conference with daily updates. You can expect these available to you on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I will be doing a separate show recap for each day of the conference. I don’t want you to miss ANY of that great content!

TCP020 : Food Safety -4- Digital Checklist Technology with Manik Suri from CoInspect

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Can you believe we are on episode 20 already? Thank you to all of you who have been part of this exciting journey! As your Tech Chef I am happy to have you here and If you stumbled across this show today and want to stay on top of the latest and greatest technology products and news in the hospitality and restaurant industry, make sure you SUBSCRIBE to this show. Also, don’t forget go give this show a 5 star rating as well as good review.

Upcoming events….

Don’t forget that FSTEC will be starting up their October – December community event that will replace the traditional show that we are all used to going to. I am going to miss seeing all of you and person and I can’t wait to be face to face with you again. For more information on this, go to FSTEC.com

In about 2 weeks, Restaurant Next: an online event being held October 12th and 13th being hosted be the Restaurant Technology Network along with MURTEC. I have talked about this quite a bit with you already so you already know what a cool event this event will be along with the Rockstar guest speakers. For more information and to sign up for FREE if you are a restaurant operator, please visit https://events.ensembleiq.com/RestaurantNext

October 12th and 13th, the Restaurant Technology Network along with MURTC is presenting an exciting two days in an event called Restaurant Next. I will be speaking at one of the sessions and alongside of me will be Matt Friedman CEO at Wingzone and Chris Demery SVP Off-Premises Dining at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc. We will be talking about the rise of Native Delivery, 1st Party Delivery, Self Delivery, whatever you want to call it. https://events.ensembleiq.com/RestaurantNext

Manik Suri, CEO and Co-Founder of CoInspect

Manik is Founder and CEO of CoInspect (www.coinspectapp.com), a technology startup whose mission is to help protect our food and our planet. CoInspect builds safety and sustainability tools to eliminate food waste, energy inefficiency and refrigerant emissions — protecting consumers and combating climate change. CoInspect is deployed across thousands of restaurants, manufacturing plants, and government agencies worldwide, with leading brands including Starbucks, McDonalds, Domino’s, Chick-fil-A, 7-Eleven and Wyndham Hotels.

Previously, Manik co-founded the Governance Lab (GovLab), an innovation center at NYU that develops technology solutions to improve government. He is a former Affiliate of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and has held positions at global investment firm D. E. Shaw & Company and the White House National Economic Council.

Contest

We have a winner!

Michael D, you have been sent an email, please reach back out so we can ship you this great prize. Congratulations!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week I have celebrity Chef Robert Irvine on the show. Yes, you know who he is… Star of the Food Network including his hit show, Restaurant Impossible: Back to Business. Airing on Thursday nights on Food Network this won’t be like any season you’ve ever seen before. Because of COVID-19, restaurants all across the country are struggling to stay afloat and Chef Irvine is there to help solve these new business hurdles. One of the reasons I wanted to have him on the show is that we both have a common theme for wanting to truly help those businesses struggling out there to make sure they not only survive but thrive during difficult times. I can’t wait to share this episode with you!

TCP019: Bonus Episode - Carol Dover, President and CEO of the FRLA

Thu, 24 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today is our BONUS episode so if you were looking for our Food Safety series, don’t worry, this upcoming Tuesday we will be continuing with that.

This is a special episode I wanted to bring you today because I thought it was important to share all the great things that the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association has been doing for the great State of Florida and more importantly, how they need YOUR help for upcoming initiatives, especially Florida’s amendment 2 that addresses the $15 minimum wage increase that is soon to be on the ballot.

Upcoming events….

October 12th and 13th, the Restaurant Technology Network along with MURTC is presenting an exciting two days in an event called Restaurant Next. https://events.ensembleiq.com/RestaurantNext

Carol Dover, CEO and President of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association (FRLA)

Carol B. Dover has served as President & CEO of the more than 10,000-member Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association (FRLA) since July of 1995. Dover is a professional association manager, a lobbyist, a former government executive, and a Florida State University Dedman School of Hospitality graduate with a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management.

After graduating from Florida State University in 1978, Dover accepted the position of Assistant Director of the Beer Industry of Florida. This position familiarized her with the rules, regulations and tax laws associated with the beverage industry – information which has been beneficial in her role with FRLA.

In 1989, Dover moved inside the halls of the Florida Capitol and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Office of the Governor, serving in the Martinez administration. As Bob Martinez’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Dover was responsible for the Governor’s many executive appointments, served as his spokesperson, and represented his administration before the Florida Legislature.

Dover’s other professional accomplishments include positions at the Department of Business and Professional Regulation as the Director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants, the first woman to serve as Chief of the Bureau of Fire Prevention in the State Fire Marshall’s Office, and President/CEO of the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association.

As FRLA’s President & CEO, Dover works to protect, educate, and promote the diverse interests of Florida’s $111.7 billion hospitality industry. Comprised of 1.5 million employees, hospitality is the Sunshine State’s largest industry and represents individuals from every walk of life.

She also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Restaurant Association, Council of State Restaurant Associations, International Society of Hotel Association Executives, VISIT FLORIDA, Florida State University College of Business Board of Governors, Florida TaxWatch and the Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park.

On opening day of the 2003 Legislative Session, Dover was diagnosed with breast cancer and courageously fought to beat the cancer. Dover, a native of Orlando, is married and has three children and three grandchildren. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities including dressage riding and running.

Links:

FRLA Website

Tipped Wage Calculator

Contest

**One lucky winner will win a Fortigate Firewall PLUS support**

One (1) Fortigate 40F Firewall
1 year Enterprise Protection bundle
A prize package valued at $1200!!

To enter, CLICK HERE

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday is part 4 of this series. I will be talking to Manik Suri, Founder and CEO of CoInspect, a technology startup whose mission is to help protect our food and our planet. I have had personal experience with his product on multiple occasions so I am a huge advocate about how they can help solve for your food safety problems.

TCP018 : Food Safety -3- Intelligent video-based surveillance with Doug Smith from DTiQ

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0500

If you are listening for the first time, I am glad you found this show and hope that you hit the SUBSCRIBE button today so you don’t miss one single episode! While you are at it, go ahead and give us a 5 star rating as well as good review. This will help the show to continue to grow.

Today is part 3 of our food safety mini-series. It is my privilege to have Doug Smith, the Director of DTiQ join me today. He is a seasoned and top-ranked sales manager with over 10 years of sales team leadership and process improvement experience in the ecommerce and technology spheres.

Upcoming events….

Doug Smith, Director of National Accounts for DTiQ

DTiQ is the world’s leading provider of intelligent video-based surveillance and loss prevention services for the hospitality, convenience store, and retail industries. DTiQ combines state-of-the-art surveillance equipment with advanced, cloud-based analytics and managed services. DTiQ has been in business for over 20 years, enhancing over 8 million consumer experiences daily, while protecting trillions of dollars of assets. DTiQ has over 45,000 customers, including corporations and/or franchisees such as Burger King, Dairy Queen, Hard Rock Café, KFC, McDonald’s, Subway, and Taco Bell, just to name a few. CLICK HERE to learn more.

Possibly the most powerful video analytics system I have come across. This episode is packed full of information so you might want to take notes. As related to our main topic of this series, enjoy this fascinating way to solve for food safety issues in your organization.

Contest

**One lucky winner will win a Fortigate Firewall PLUS support**

One (1) Fortigate 40F Firewall
1 year Enterprise Protection bundle
A prize package valued at $1200!!

To enter, CLICK HERE

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Bonus Episode on Thursday

This week I have a bonus episode on Thursday lined up for you where I will be talking to the President and CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, Carol Dover. Carol and her team at the FRLA are single handedly making an impact on businesses in the great State of Florida. Even if you don’t have a business here in the State, there are plenty of reasons for you to tune in.

Next Week’s Show…

Next week is part 4 of this series. I will be talking to Manik Suri, Founder and CEO of CoInspect, a technology startup whose mission is to help protect our food and our planet. I have had personal experience with his product on multiple occasions so I am a huge advocate about how they can help solve for your food safety problems.

TCP017 : Food Safety -2- Hand Hygiene Technology with Christine Schindler from PathSpot

Tue, 15 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Thanks to all of you, together we are making this show grow in leaps and bounds. Remember, if you would like to help continue this growth, leave me a 5 star review and a glowing review. That helps with ratings and makes sure people can find this show when searching relevant information.

Today is part 2 of our food safety mini-series. Joining me is Christine Schindler, CEO & Co-Founder of PathSpot where her company has developed a product to help solve for hand hygiene protocols. Always relevant, but even more so in today’s COVID world. I love my chat with her and it is my pleasure to be able to share it with all of you today.

Upcoming events….

Christine Schindler, CEO and Co-Founder of CertiStar

Christine Schindler is an engineer and entrepreneur passionate about utilizing technology to overcome gaps in healthcare. Christine founded PathSpot Technologies, a venture-backed startup of which she is the CEO, based off of technology she created to instantly detect harmful contamination behind illnesses and outbreaks spread through poor handwashing. PathSpot, awarded one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Inventions of 2019, is used by restaurants, packaging facilities, and farms to encourage sanitation practices, protect our food supply, and create a healthier world. For more information, CLICK HERE.

Contest

**One lucky winner will win a Fortigate Firewall PLUS support**

One (1) Fortigate 40F Firewall
1 year Enterprise Protection bundle
A prize package valued at $1200!!

To enter, CLICK HERE

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week is part 3 of this series and I am excited to have Doug Smith, Director of National Accounts of DTiQ. This company is the world’s leading provider of intelligent video-based surveillance and loss prevention services for the hospitality, convenience store, and retail industries. DTiQ combines state-of-the-art surveillance equipment with advanced, cloud-based analytics and managed services. We’ll even talk about how they are solving for food safety and even how they are adapter their software and services for COVID19.

TCP016 : Food Safety -1- Food Allergy Technology with Shandee Chernow from Certistar

Tue, 08 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Happy Tuesday, and I hope you all had an enjoyable, safe and relaxing Labor Day. It has been pretty rough this year so you have all deserved that extra day off.

Today kicks off our new 5 part series on Food Safety. It was a 4 part series until I found out that Chef Robert Irvine will be joining the Tech Chef podcast to close out this series. Yes, that’s right, Chef Robert Irvine!

Upcoming events….

October 12th and 13th, the Restaurant Technology Network along with MURTEC is presenting an exciting two days in an event called Restaurant Next. I will be speaking at one of the sessions and alongside of me will be Matt Friedman CEO at Wingzone and Chris Demery SVP Off-Premises Dining at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro Inc. We will be talking about the rise of Native Delivery, 1st Party Delivery, Self Delivery, whatever you want to call it. https://events.ensembleiq.com/RestaurantNext

FSTEC is going virtual this year where from October through December, three webinars, each up to 20 minutes, will launch every week and will feature executive interviews, keynote presentations from experts and industry leaders, interviews with Restaurant Business editors and Innovation Forums. For more information and to sign up, please visit https://FSTEC.com

Shandee Chernow, Founder and CEO of Certistar

I am exited to have Shandee Chernow, the CEO and Founder of Certistar on the show to talk about a food allergy technology she created to help keep your guests safe and even open up a new profit center for you!

Shandee discovered in her late 20’s that she had life threatening allergies. She knew that the hospitality industry needed a solution not only a software to make things easier on the restaurants, hotels, schools or airlines but also on the customer with food allergies. Hence the creating of CertiStar which was founded 2017 that allows for guests dining out to have a safer and easier experience by the way of the MenuStar software.

Contest

**One lucky winner will win a Fortigate Firewall PLUS support**

One (1) Fortigate 40F Firewall
1 year Enterprise Protection bundle
A prize package valued at $1200!!

To enter, CLICK HERE

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week is part 2 of this food safety mini-series and I will have Christine Schindler, the CEO & Co-Founder of PathSpot which was awarded one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Inventions of 2019, is used by restaurants, packaging facilities, and farms to encourage sanitation practices, protect our food supply, and create a healthier world.

TCP015 : White Castle's Robotics, Drive Through Technology and a Touchless Economy

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Happy Tuesday, everybody and welcome to the first day of September! I can’t WAIT for this year to be over with. Let’s hope things are looking up on December 31st so we can welcome the new year like never before!

A couple of quick announcements. First up, many of your heard that FSTEC is going virtual this year where from October through December, three webinars, each up to 20 minutes, will launch every week and will feature executive interviews, keynote presentations from experts and industry leaders, interviews with Restaurant Business editors and Innovation Forums. For more information and to sign up, please visit https://FSTEC.com

Also in October, more specifically October 12th and 13th, the Restaurant Technology Network along with MURTC is presenting an exciting two days in an event called Restaurant Next. Attendees will be transported to a simulated restaurant built for the “new normal.” Explore new operational concepts, tap into contactless technologies, source solutions for safer operations, and hear from the industry’s top IT minds. This sounds like it is going to be an amazing experience and I am sure it is an event you are not going to want to miss. To learn more and sign up for this conference, please visit: https://events.ensembleiq.com/RestaurantNext

Well, today, I am honored to have two individuals from White Castle that include industry rockstar, Susan Carol-Bosser who is the VP of Information Technology as well as Mike Guinan, the VP of Operations Services.

Susan Carroll-Boser, VP of Information Technology

Susan Ann Carroll-Boser started her career with White Castle in 1994 as a systems administrator. She has consistently advanced in the company during her 26-year career and now serves as the vice president of technology. In this position, Susan has the overall responsibility for the company’s technology strategy, leading the tech shared services, IT and information services departments. Her teams are responsible for software development, software implementation, the server/data center, network services and cybersecurity. Susan also serves on White Castle’s restaurant leadership team and leads the company’s technology strategy team.

Susan has made many contributions to White Castle’s technology and systems integration. With a constant drive to find solutions, she has created cross-platform people systems, led the development of internal and external apps, and introduced artificial intelligence into White Castle’s technology infrastructure. Developing the technologies and the people to support them are at the heart of her role at White Castle.

Susan has many memorable moments in her 26 years with White Castle. She liked working on the Guardian and Sentinel projects, both designed to reduce internal loss through trend and predictive analysis. She also liked helping to create the original operations and management manuals for White Castle. Although the process was a major undertaking, it was also the best learning experience of her career, not to mention a terrific opportunity to bond with her colleagues.

Susan is active with the National Restaurant Association (NRA), serving as chairman of both its Cybersecurity Committee and its Information Technology Executive Study Group, which keeps NRA members current with developments in the restaurant industry and IT field. She is also a member of Women in Technology, a tech organization that offers programs and resources to advance women in technology.

A resident of Galena, Susan lives with her husband, Ken, in a multi-generational household. In her free time, she enjoys writing, traveling and volunteering. She serves on the board of the Community Shelter Board and as an 11th hour volunteer with Hospice. She also supports the American Heart Association and various autism charities.

Susan earned a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University and an MBA in information systems development from the Keller Graduate School of Management at DeVry University.

Mike Guinan – VP of Operations Services

Mike Guinan has worked in many roles since he started at White Castle more than 34 years ago. He began behind the counter learning the grill, dressing sandwiches and cleaning while he was still in high school. Mike rapidly moved up into more prominent roles as shift manager, Castle supervisor, regional assistant director, Regional Vice President of restaurant operations and currently Vice President Operations Services. In his current position, Mike oversees Destination locations, Real Estate, Construction, Engineering as well as leads company strategies. He enjoys building relationships and helping others grow as leaders. Mike also revels in helping people to be all they can be and says that is one of his greatest rewards at White Castle.

Through the years, Mike has attended seminars, workshops, and worked with business leaders to learn more about the restaurant industry. He currently lives in the south suburbs of Chicago with his family and where he grew up. Mike also is an avid runner completing several marathons. He is on the Illinois Restaurant Association Board, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Board, and gives his time to the Autism Foundation.

Mike has many favorite Craver moments, which include hearing memorable stories from customers, seeing a young Craver’s face light up when they enter the restaurant, and watching the many generations that visit the Castles daily. While he says there are too many items on the menu to choose a favorite, he would choose the White Castle Slider with cheese.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next week we are launching our new 4 part mini-series about Food Safety. We have a wide variety of individuals that we will be speaking to including products that deal with detecting handwashing effectiveness, digital line checks and food temperature monitoring. In addition, how about using your digital cameras to detect for social distancing, capacity monitoring and contact tracing?

To start off the series next week, I have Shandee Chernow from Certistar where we will talk about food allergy software and how you can keep your guests safe, reduce liability and create a whole new profit center for your organization!

TCP014 : NFL Super Bowl Champion, Fred Stokes from Fred Stokes Foods

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Just to let you know, if you are looking for technology tips and tricks, this bonus episode does not have any. Next Tuesday starts back in with our regular schedule where the Tech Chef brings you all the latest and greatest restaurant and hospitality information. I met Fred several months ago and I knew immediately I had to share his story. Back then I didn’t even have this show up and running but he immediately came to mind as I started planning out my episodes.

Fred Stokes, NFL Super Bowl Champion

(Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur and Super Bowl Champion)

Fred Stokes has a personal mission to positively enhance the life of every person who comes across his path. His down to earth personality and his uncanny ability to connect with people is what sets Fred Stokes apart from other speakers/athletes of his caliber…

While attending high school in Vidalia, Georgia, Fred excelled in basketball and track. However, it wasn’t until his senior year that he decided to play football. As a result, Fred was offered a full scholarship to play football for Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga. under the legendary coach, Erk Russell. While at Georgia Southern, Fred played a vital role on two National Championship teams (1985 and 1986). Fred was only one of two players on his team voted First Team All-America after his senior season as an Offensive Tackle.

Fred was drafted into the National Football League where he would spend the next ten years playing Defensive End for the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams, Washington Redskins, and the New Orleans Saints. Fred had the awesome privilege of playing in, and winning, Super Bowl XXVI with the 1991 Washington Redskins against the Buffalo Bills. In that game, Fred recorded two and half sacks, a forced fumble and recovered another. Fred’s Redskins teammates affectionately labeled him “Big Play Stokes” because of his knack for making a big play at the right time of a game.

Fred is a highly sought-after Keynote Speaker, delivering his thought provoking motivational/inspirational messages on the main stage, in workshops and at weekend retreats. He is also a part of the Vistage Speakers Bureau. Fred presents globally for both live and virtual events.In addition, Fred has found time to write and publish his autobiography entitled “The Bridge That Brought Me Over”. Fred and his wife Regina have three boys: Lance, Landon and Luke.

New Contest!

What is the oddest thing you have ever eaten and your experience around that; where was it at, ambiance, did you like or or hate it? Leave a 1-2 minutes long message at 954-302-0851 and you will be entered for a $50 Amazon gift card which will be given away in September. Remember, you can’t enter if you don’t leave us a voice comment! You can also click on the little icon on the right hand side of the screen that says “Send a Voicemail. Record your comment right in the browser!

Check this week for a Fortinet Firewall Giveaway that will launch on social media!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Tuesday

We are back to our regular schedule next week and it looks like we are going to be able to release the White Castle episode that I told you about in Episode 13. They have a great technology story to tell combined with a big technology announcement! You will hear all about it right from the source as I talk to industry rock star, Susan Carrol-Bosser, VP of Technology and Mike Guinan, Vice President Operations Services.

TCP013 : Digital ADA Compliancy with Jacey Kaps and Anne Sallee

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today, we will be talking about Digital ADA Compliancy and how to make your website compliant as well as what to do if you get notification you are being sued due to non-compliancy. Jacey Kaps, Attorney at Law for Rumberger / Kirk, will discuss what to do when you get notified of such an event as well as the legal implications around this. Anne Sallee, Senior Relationship Manager for DigiPro Media will discuss how to fix your website for compliance as well as some pre-emptive things you can do to prevent future lawsuits.

Jacey Kaps – Rumberger | Kirk

Jacey is conversant in issues arising from data security breaches, the ensuing claims, and regulatory investigations. He is able to provide guidance on cybersecurity risks and cyber incident readiness. Jacey holds the ANSI/ISO accreditation of Certified Privacy Professional US (CIPP/US) from the International Association of Privacy Professionals and Payment Card Industry Professional (PCIP) from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. When online and offline privacy assessments and information security audits are needed, Jacey is able to assist his clients with identifying the relevant legal considerations and retaining the appropriate consultants to accomplish the task. Jacey’s litigation experience and lengthy tenure on his law firm’s Executive Committee also equip him to address cybersecurity issues unique to law firms.

Jacey’s team represents a wide range of clients with the depth and capabilities to handle the issues that matter to retailers including commercial and transactional disputes, construction disputes, intellectual property litigation, labor compliance, Medicare compliance, employment litigation, constitutional challenges and casualty litigation. He also consults with retail, restaurant and lodging businesses in overall litigation management and alternative dispute resolution programs. For more information, visit www.rumberger.com

Anne Sallee – DigiPro Media

Anne is a committed and charismatic professional with a diverse and successful experience in business, legal, government and NGOs, including legislative advocacy, strategic planning, marketing, public relations, research, customer service, event planning & management, fund raising, risk management, goal setting, budgeting, policy and procedure. Phew! As a mission-focused leader with an understanding of long-range and strategic planning to reach goals, she is able to lead and collaborate effectively to meet objectives and knock it out of the park! For more information, visit www.DigiProMedia.com

New Contest!

Check this week for a Fortinet Firewall Giveaway that will launch on social media!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Double Header Week!

On Thursday, I will have Fred Stokes, Owner of Fred Stokes Sausage and NFL Superbowl Champion, to talk about his life in the NFL, what brought him to where he is today in the food industry and we will also have an emotional conversation about his foundation, LintBrother.com. While this show will not cover any aspect of technology, Fred is a very inspirational person and will finish your week on a high note!

TCP012 : Charlie Guzzetta, President of BurgerFi

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Today I am honored to have Charlie Guzzetta on the show. Mr. Guzzetta serves as President of BurgerFi, a fast-growing international better burger concept headquartered in North Palm Beach, FL. Charlie has been with BurgerFi since 2013 and for the past seven years he has worked just about every role within the BurgerFi organization including operations, communications, marketing, new restaurant openings, and franchise development. Combining his experience in each aspect of BurgerFi’s business, Charlie has been integral in growing the company from a 20-restaurant regional chain to a nearly 125-restaurant international brand.

In his role as President, Charlie is responsible for the oversight of all brand and operational activities as well as the strategic execution of the company’s purpose of redefining the way the world eats burgers.

He is going to share with some of the technology that has made their brand the success that it is today and have a really fun chat about some pretty cool augmented reality technology that they have tested along the way. This episode is a little longer than normal but it is worth every second.

Fortinet Summer Prize Package Contest Winners

We have our two winners of the following prize package! You have to listen to the show to find out if you won or not!

This prize package included:

Frosty Beer 2 Go
Bodacious BBQ set
Titleist Pro V1x Golf Balls
Igloo Seadrift Coast Cooler
High Sierra Packable Hammock
Waterproof 360 degree Bluetooth speaker

New Contest!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday is a surprise episode… the reason why it is a surprise is because I have another well-known name in our industry that is ready to make a big announcement so we are working on the timing of that. Next week will also be a double-header and I will have another surprise guest on as well. Surprise, surprise… I am full of surprises!

TCP011 : Contactless Payment -7- Sarah L'Heureux - ZeroContact

Tue, 11 Aug 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is the last part, part 7 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I have the pleasure to chat with Sarah L’Heureux from TouchPoint.

Co-founder of Touchpoint Restaurant Innovations, Sarah L’Heureux brings over 20 years in the technology industry to the world of hospitality. As champion of the new ZeroContact product line, Sarah is building industry and business partnerships to bring a truly better contactless customer experience into the marketplace. www.ZeroContact.com

Fortinet Summer Prize Package Contest

Thanks to Fortinet, from now until August 15th, we are running a contest for a HUGE prize package. As a matter of fact we will be choosing not one but TWO winners for this contest! To learn more and to enter, visit SkipKimpel.com/contest or visit any of my social media channels. You can earn entries every single day. What are you waiting for? Start getting your entires in now! CLICK HERE

Included in this prize package:

Frosty Beer 2 Go
Bodacious BBQ set
Titleist Pro V1x Golf Balls
Igloo Seadrift Coast Cooler
High Sierra Packable Hammock
Waterproof 360 degree Bluetooth speaker

ENTER NOW!

Bonus Contest

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday we talk to Charlie Guzzetta, the new President of BurgerFi. He has such a great story to tell about the brand, his journey with the company and the amazing technology they have implemented and played with along the way. He is currently leading the charge to take the company public by the end of the year. Such a positive, needed story in this time of absolute chaos. I can’t wait to share this one with you!

TCP010 : Contactless Payment -6- Rom Krupp from OneDine

Tue, 04 Aug 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is Part 6 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I have the pleasure to chat with Rom Krupp from OneDine.

Rom Krupp is a pioneer, disruptor, visionary and thought leader in the restaurant industry. For more than 23 years Rom has worked with over 500 restaurant brands designing technology and analytics solutions used in over 100K restaurant locations worldwide.

He is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Marketing Vitals, the most comprehensive analytics solution specifically developed for the restaurant industry and currently used in over 200 brands around the world to drive top-line sales. https://marketingvitals.com

Rom has lauched a second company called OneDine that is disrupting the future of menu browsing, ordering, and payment in the restaurant industry. OneDine offers restaurants and customers a contactless mobile technology solution that integrates into the current POS system providing guest-side ordering, payment and experience integrations to help restaurants lower labor costs, drive incremental sales, increase table turns and allow guests to dine on their time. OneDine was named the #11 Hottest Pre-IPO Startup in the world for 2020 by Crunchbase. https://onedine.com.

Rom’s passion is to help drive growth in the restaurant industry while maintaining a purpose-driven culture. This mission is brought to life in part as the founder of RestCon, the premiere conference for data and future innovation in the restaurant industry. https://restcon.splashthat.com

The Power List: Reader Picks (2020) by Nation’s Restaurant News – The most influential solutions providers and operators in the country

Fortinet Summer Prize Package Contest

Included in this prize package:

Frosty Beer 2 Go
Bodacious BBQ set
Titleist Pro V1x Golf Balls
Igloo Seadrift Coast Cooler
High Sierra Packable Hammock
Waterproof 360 degree Bluetooth speaker

ENTER NOW!

Bonus Contest

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

Next Tuesday is the last of our contactless payment series where I will be talking with Sarah L’Heureux from Touchpoint and their product called Zero Contact known as the “Contactless everything solution for your business.” After that we are going to talk to a few industry leading operators, which is going to be a REAL treat for you followed by our next series which I know you will love! Lots and lots of amazing content is headed your way!

TCP009: Bonus Episode - Brett Krueger, Boutique Hotel Developer

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is BONUS episode and a break from the of the contactless payment series… In this episode I will be having a conversation with a good friend of mine for over 25 years, Brett Krueger.

Brett is a boutique hotel and high end condo developer in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. He has unique vision for his developments and a passion for his projects like I have not seen from anybody else. He personally takes on each development and curates everything down to the art hanging on the wall. Heck, I have seen him fly to Paris, many times, just to find unique items to install in his hotel environments to make his guest experience special.

He has experience in all phases of development from assessing properties for acquisition, finance, sales of residential condos and commercial hotels.

He was VP of MRK when they purchased, designed and built the Windsor Hotel in Asheville NC and the Ivey’s hotel in Charlotte NC. Both hotels he oversaw conceptualized, managed build out, opening and operations to a #1 status in their respective markets on Tipadvisor.com.

For more information, please visit his LinkedIn profile at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-krueger-5367044/

New Contest

Included in this prize package:

Frosty Beer 2 Go
Bodacious BBQ set
Titleist Pro V1x Golf Balls
Igloo Seadrift Coast Cooler
High Sierra Packable Hammock
Waterproof 360 degree Bluetooth speaker

ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

This upcoming Tuesday we will be continuing our contactless payment series by talking to Rom Krupp from OneDine. You all know Rom being the rockstar of the industry that he is. Easily one of the smartest people I know and have had the privilege of having on the show. We will learn more about OneDine, Marketing Vitals and talk a little bit about what it takes to be an entrepreneur in today’s challenging environment. An episode you don’t want to miss!

TCP008 : Contactless Payment -5- Tim Lockhart from TableSafe

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is Part 5 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I have the pleasure to chat with Tim Lockhart from TableSafe.

Tim Lockhart began his hospitality technology career in 1994, a pivotal time in the point of sale industry, when “touchscreen” POS was just coming into the marketplace. Serving in both sales and management roles for some of the largest POS players in the field, in addition to spending ten years with major acquirers in the payments business, Tim’s combination of industry knowledge provides him a unique perspective on the latest trends and opportunities in the market today.

Currently, the National Sales Director for TableSafe, a “pay-at-the-table” solution, Tim is married, with two grown children. He and his wife, Amy, live in Sanford, FL with their two goldendoodles. Tim is also a multiple time Fantasy Football Champion.

For more information, please visit: https://TableSafe.com

Upcoming Webinar:

Netsurion has a webinar coming up called “Creative Ways to Optimize Restaurant IT Spending at a Time of Crisis”. I will be one of the panelists on the show and should make for some very interesting conversation. This will happen on July 29th at 2pm EST and you can register for this by going to https://netsurion.com/techchef

New Contest

Thanks to Fortinet, from now until August 18th, we are running a contest for a HUGE prize package. As a matter of fact we will be choosing not one but TWO winners for this contest! To learn more and to enter, visit SkipKimpel.com/contest or visit any of my social media channels. You can earn entries every single day. What are you waiting for? Start getting your entires in now! CLICK HERE

Fortinet Prize Package Giveaway

Included in this prize package:

Frosty Beer 2 Go
Bodacious BBQ set
Titleist Pro V1x Golf Balls
Igloo Seadrift Coast Cooler
High Sierra Packable Hammock
Waterproof 360 degree Bluetooth speaker
ENTER NOW!

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show…

We have a bonus episode this week on Thursday where I will be talking with Brett Krueger, a boutique hotel developer in North Carolina. That will be a VERY interesting episode and Brett and I will be talking a whole lot about a whole lot! Next Tuesday we will be continuing our contactless payment series by talking to Rom Krupp from OneDine.

TCP007 : Contactless Payment -4- Yale Goldberg from PopID

Tue, 21 Jul 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is Part 4 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I have the please to chat with Yale Goldberg from PopID..

As Chief of Staff at PopID, a Cali Group company, Yale Goldberg is responsible for developing and launching the PopID brand and products, generating brand and product awareness and sharing the vision, benefits and story with partners and end users. Prior to joining PopID he was a management consultant for Black & Veatch, a global engineering consulting firm. While at Black and Veatch Yale worked on projects for leading international technology and mining companies, helping them to implement production efficiencies and establish cyber security standards.

Yale holds a B.S and M.S from Stanford University in Science, Technology & Society and Management Science & Engineering, respectively. While at Stanford he captained the Men's Tennis Team and founded a student enterprise.

Upcoming Webinar:

Netsurion has a webinar coming up called “Creative Ways to Optimize Restaurant IT Spending at a Time of Crisis”. I will be one of the panelists on the show and should make for some very interesting conversation. This will happen onJuly 29th at 2pm EST and you can register for this by going to https://netsurion.com/techchef

New Contest:

Our new contest will involve 2 winners, each receiving a prize package valued at over $250 a piece! Be on the lookout on our social media posts next week for more information.

How To Contact Me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next Week’s Show...

We will be continuing with our contactless payment series and talking to Tim Lockhart from TableSafe. More than likely you have seen these pretty cool devices in some of the restaurants you dine in.... or use to dine in, I should say (depending on when you read this.) Tim is a very smart guy and will be talking about all things contactless including some discussion around interchange rates and what to look for.

TCP006 : Contactless Payment -3- Tom Holmes from PayMyTab

Tue, 14 Jul 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is Part 3 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I have a good friend, Tom Holmes who is the CEO and founder of DinerIQ and PayMyTab.

Tom Holmes is CEO and Founder of DinerIQ and its award winning platform, PayMyTab., The leader in secure payments and guest engagement for thehospitality industry, PayMyTab has revolutionized how guests order and pay, howteam members engage, and build loyalty with their guests. Annualized, DinerIQ processes almost $1Billion in payments and is scaling to thousands of locations throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. For more information go to https://PayMyTab.com

Upcoming Webinar:

Netsurion has a webinar coming up called “Creative Ways to Optimize Restaurant IT Spending at a Time of Crisis”. I will be one of the panelists on the show and should make for some very interesting conversation. This will happen onJuly 29^th at 2pm EST and you can register for this by going to https://netsurion.com/techchef

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Last month’s contest winner, Danny! You have won a $25 Amazon gift card!

New Contest:

Our new contest will involve 2 winners, each receiving a prize package valued at over $250 a piece! Be on the lookout on our social media posts next week for more information.

How to contact me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next week’s show...

We will be continuing with our contactless payment series and talking to Yale Goldberg, Chief of Staff for PopID. There is no contactless or touch-less solution that solves this problem better.... pay with your face!

TCP005 : Contactless Payment -2- Laurent May from Ready

Tue, 07 Jul 2020 02:00:00 -0500

This is Part 2 of the contactless payment series… In this episode I am delighted to have a special guest, all the way from Canada. Laurent May is the Head of Ready, a fully integrated mobile self-ordering, payment and loyalty technology solution. He has over 20 years of expertise in product management and the electronic payments space.

For more information, go to https://readytopay.com/techchef

In other news…

RTN Launches Contactless Payments Evaluation Tool in partnership with Olive,Chris Heard. Members-only interactive tool for quickly narrowing down the field of tech players offering #contactlesspaymentssolutions. I have tested it against my needs it selected things very accurately. A job will done by Olive and the RTN.

https://restauranttechnologynetwork.com/page/fast-match-tech-selector

How to contact me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851
Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

Next week’s show…

We will be continuing with our contactless payment series and talking to Tom Holmes, CEO and Founder of DinerIQ and PayMyTab. I personally have used these devices at the last two companies I have worked for and am excited to share with all of you this rapidly growing company.

TCP004 : Contactless Payment -1- Dining Behaviors

Tue, 30 Jun 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Show Notes:

This is Part 1 of the contactless payment series… more than just contactless payments.

Poll results from my social media study:

“How are you thinking about returning to restaurants?

A) I'm ready to dine inside restaurants now (51%)

B) I'm ready to dine using outdoor seating only (18%)

C) The most I am comfortable with is pickup or takeout (27%)

D) I'm only going to do delivery for now (1%)

E) I'm not eating at or ordering from restaurants (3%)

This social experiment spawned an idea… let’s hear from somebody in each one of these categories and get their take on things, first hand. This is the perfect introduction into our podcast series as it will lay the foundation groundwork for everything we will be talking about.

(Interviews with five individuals, one from each category)

Studying these results give you the opportunity to find ways to enhance things that you do to increase the guest’s confidence and find ways to alter their behavior and drive more sales into your restaurant.

RTN has a new Contactless Payment Workgroup. Many industry leaders as well as many major operators.

https://restauranttechnologynetwork.com/default.aspx

https://restauranttechnologynetwork.com/page/fast-match-tech-selector

How to contact me

- Comment hotline: 954-302-0851

- Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

- Don’t forget the contest… This is the last day to give us a iTunes podcast rating for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card. Winner will be announced on July 14^th episode.

- Next week’s show, we will be continuing with our contactless payment series and talking to Laurent May, the head of Ready. This is a company and a product I was introduced to a year or two ago. You are not going to want to miss this as Laurent is well versed in our industry and the needs for contactless solutions long before covid was upon us.

Please have a safe and happy 4^th of July!

And until next time, stay safe, stay healthy….. and stay hungry my friends!

TCP003 : Growth Hacking Technology with Danielle Guzzetta

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Episode 3: Growth Hacking and Marketing Technology.

This episode features Danielle Guzzetta who is the Senior Vice President of Growth Hacking for Smokey Bones and, has more than 25 years of marketing and revenue-generation experience. Danielle join Smokey Bones in January 2019 and is responsible for driving non-traditional revenue and delivering rapid growth by finding every go-to-market opportunity that provides leverage as well as uncovering new revenue streams; ultimately driving the bottom line. She has established several new revenue streams for the organization including Ghost Kitchens.

How to contact me

Comment hotline: 954-302-0851

Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel

Next week’s show, we will be starting a starting a multipart series on contactless payment…. The hottest, most talked about subject out there right now.

TCP002 : Working Remotely

Tue, 16 Jun 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Show Notes:

Today’s show will cover the subject of working remotely. This is not an industry specific topic so please share with your friends and colleagues!

CONFERENCES

FSTEC – Are you going? Any other restaurant industry-based conferences that you have heard of that are back on for this year?

Approaching working remotely from two different aspects:

- As an employee – Equipment, etiquette, tools to make you more successful

- As an IT professional responsible for the mobile workforce

Video Conferencing:

Etiquette

- Mute yourself when not speaking.

- Be on time.

- Ensure your technology works correctly.

- Wear work-appropriate clothing.

- Frame the camera correctly.

- Have the right light.

- Look into the camera.

- Pay attention.

Lume Lights for making you look better:

https://lumecube.com/collections/computer-lighting/products/video-conference-lighting-kit-for-remote-workers

Green Screen

Chair Mounted Green Screen

https://myproductiveplace.com/products/green-screen?variant=31836103704627&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google%20Shopping&gclid=CjwKCAjwlZf3BRABEiwA8Q0qq-R0yH27FZmnchdOD8DSDGDDPBjJvIzP8NcDPQQd2mytVN9KLlnX-BoCzekQAvD_BwE

Promaster 6x7 Pop-up Background Green/Blue

https://www.amazon.com/Promaster-Pop-up-Background-Green-Blue/dp/B002BTTTYQ

Remote Video Conferences Security

- Password protect your meetings

- Authenticate users

- Join before host

- Lock down your meeting

- Use a randomly-generated id

- Avoid file sharing

- Check for updates

Great video conferencing software feature comparison chart on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_conferencing_software

Security plan for an individual

- Protect devices with an antivirus solution

- Update programs and operating systems

- Configure wi-fi encryption

- Change your router login and password (no defaults)

- Use a VPN service if connecting to a wi-fi network that doesn’t below to you

o Express VPN: https://www.expressvpn.com

o SufShark: https://surfshark.com

- Lock your device before walking away

- User corporate services for e-mail, messaging and all other work

- Create strong passwords

- Stay vigilant / email links, credentials, unusual requests.. double check everything

- Keep your work separate from personal

General individual good practices

- Track your progress – be ready to report on what you ‘ve done and how much time it took

- Try to work normal office hours

- Create a comfortable workspace – desk, well lit room, standing up, stretch your legs, drink water, get plenty of sleep and don’t skip meals.

- Be transparent and communicate everything

For those that are running departments and responsible for your remote workers:

- Make sure that staff know what to do if their device is lost or stolen.

- Work schedule policies and expectations must be communicated

- Encouraging Collaboration Keeps Teams Engaged

More to the techy side of the conversation

Making the appropriate tools available for users

- infrastructure to the cloud

o Servers

o Azure / AWS

o SaaS applications

o Office365

SECURITY

Observed security activity: (covid-19 themed operations and schemes)

- eCrime

- Targeted intrusion

- Targeting remote services, SaaS

- Vishing Robocall and Tech support scams

General security tactics and solutions

Crowdstrike whitepaper: https://go.crowdstrike.com/rs/281-OBQ-266/images/eBookCybersecurityCOVID-19.pdf

- Make sure you have a current cybersecurity policy that includes remote working.

- Sensitive data may be accessed through unsafe Wi-Fi networks.

- Plan for BYOD (bring your own device) devices connecting to your organization

- Personal devices will need to have the same level of security as a company-owned device

o User MDM solution

Vulnerability management with a distributed workforce

- Scanning remote systems

- Agent based vulnerability assessment

- Find a best in class endpoint protection and deep visibility into vulnerabilities

Patch management

o Create a dedicated vulnerability management team

o Deploy patch prioritization and automation tools

Securing remote workforces:

- Reducing exposure with vulnerability risk management

- Hardening remote user endpoints

- Protect your collaboration platforms

In closing:

That is a lot of content to take in in such a short amount of time!

How to contact me

- Comment hotline: 954-302-0851

- Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

- You can now subscribe to this podcast directly through your favorite podcast platform!

- Next week’s show, we are going to talking with Danielle Guzzetta, Senior Vice President of Growth Hacking for Smokey Bones.

TCP001 : The Resurgence of QR Codes

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 02:00:00 -0500

Show Notes:

Welcome to Episode number 1! This show is dedicated to restaurant and hospitality technology. This weekly show will occur on Tuesdays and will include trending technology as well as interviews with industry leaders and vendors with relevant technology.

Introduction – Who is Skip Kimpel?

Industry conferences – where do we stand?

- Who remembers Murtec from this year? Doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago?

Restaurant Technology Network Career Center:

https://careers.restauranttechnologynetwork.com

Today’s episode is about the resurgence of QR codes, specifically within our industry

History
Ability to remove touch points
No longer need an app to use QR codes. Built in functionality for Apple and Android
Use Case Scenarios
One hot use right now is creating a QR code for your menus
Link to online ordering
Some systems out there allow you to embed the table number into the QR code so that when they place their order and it is fired in the kitchen, they know where to bring the food when it is ready.
Daily specials
Nutritional information associated with your food items.
Have a unique feature in your kitchen or want your guest to see how seriously your team members are addressing food safety and cleanliness? Use a QR code to link them to a video.
Loyalty or gift cards: scan a guests card or use your bar code scanner attached to the POS automate his process.
Curbside delivery – Put a code on the signage for the parking spots that perform an action like send a text message, place a phone call or simply lead the guest to website to let the restaurant know they are there and which spot they are in.
Good old-fashioned marketing
Enroll in a contest
Improve service and measure customer experience with a link to your GSS
Autopost on social media including sending out an automated tweet
Links to existing photos and social media
QR code in window so people can scan your code and view your menu when you are not open. Especially useful in high foot traffic areas
Signing up for loyalty program
·Allow guests to quickly download your brand’s app
One QR code can differentiate between different phone types. IOS, Android, etc.

Taking Payment

Table service, print QR code on check to link to the payment system
Create a contactless and truly touchless solution. Fast casual or quick serve – display QR code on screen to pay via online form, launch brand’s app, apple pay or google pay.

Challenge: How can we create a truly touchless payment system for fast causal and quick serve without holding up “the line?”

o Companies that are doing this to different degrees:

Upcoming episode solely dedicated to contactless and touchless payment solutions

Operations use
Track employee tasks
Line or safety checks
Link to schedules
Inventory tracking

· HR Uses

Links to forms to fill out
Onboarding materials
Employee benefits
Anything that is frequently updated, post the QR code to the document in the break room.

Did I miss anything critical? Let me know…. I will talk about how to contact me at the end of this show.

In today’s landscape, ask yourself, how can we eliminate touchpoints and how can we serve the guest in the way THEY want to consume information… or interact with you…. Or make a payment.

Tracking

- Google Analytics

https://www.butterfly.com.au/blog/digital-marketing/all-about-the-stats-using-google-analytics-to-track-qr-code-visitors

How brewed solution

Where to get a barcode
https://www.qr-code-generator.com
Google QR Code Generator with tracking
Custom / Stylized bar codes

Hopefully I have inspired you to start thinking outside of the box a little bit. I am sure that many of you already have a QR Code strategy in place, but in case you don’t, this should get you started down the right path. There are plenty of other applications I didn’t mention so if you have additional thoughts and ideas, please let me know.

How to contact me

- Comment hotline: 954-302-0851

- Website: https://SkipKimpel.com (show notes will be posted here)

- Twitter: https://twitter.com/skipkimpel

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skipkimpel1/

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipkimpel/

- Next episode, working remotely and what you need to have in place from an IT perspective to make this successful for your team and other’s in your organization