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BREAKOUT SESSION / THURSDAY / AUGUST 12, 2021 / 12:45 PM
Experiential Marketing: The Key to Making Your Restaurant the ‘Place to Be’
It’s no secret that getting involved in your local communities helps generate traffic and sales gains. What’s hard, however, is understanding the best way to connect with customers and if your investments are resonating with them. This panel of experts will discuss what’s worked for them as well as mistakes they’d avoid in the future.
PANELISTS
Brett Campbell | Vice President, Field Marketing | Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Brett Campbell, Vice President of Field Marketing for Tropical Smoothie Cafe has a proven track record of contributing to the revenue growth of organizations in the franchise food sector, such as HoneyBaked Ham, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Papa John’s and Tropical Smoothie Cafe. In his current role, Brett leads the Tropical Smoothie Field Marketing team who are responsible for all local marketing including media, sports partnerships and local store marketing. With Tropical Smoothie Cafe opening over 120 cafes, his team also manages the marketing of new store openings.
Bryan Lewis | Founder | Press Waffle Co.
When Founder & President Bryan Lewis was traveling across Europe with his fiance in the summer of 2013, they encountered the Liege waffle for the first time. Upon returning to Dallas, they could not find them anywhere, so Bryan set out to do it on his own. With no culinary background, he tinkered in the kitchen for over a year before he had perfected the recipe. With a desire to share his waffles with everyone he knew (and more!), Press Waffle Co. was born. When Bryan’s brother, Caleb, moved home from college, they began dreaming and planning their business and after a successful Kickstarter Campaign, finally founded Press Waffle Co. as a food truck in 2016. Press Waffle Co. opened its first permanent storefront in late 2017 and now operates 3 company owned stores, with plans for more this year.
Kyle Noonan | Owner & CEO | Free Range Concepts
Kyle Noonan is an American entrepreneur, speaker, television personality, and creative tastemaker. First known as an entrepreneur who grew his hospitality and entertainment company to a $50mm company in five short years and is on pace to eclipse $100mm in revenue by his eighth year. Not only has Kyle quickly emerged as an innovative entrepreneur and respected speaker, but he has been recognized as an engaging media personality appearing in national outlets such as CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, Bravo, ESPN, FoodNetwork, Travel Channel, Food & Wine Magazine, New York Times, WallStreet Journal, and many more. Kyle has been described “as innovative as he is engaging” by the New York Times.
Zack Oates | Founder & CEO | Ovation
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, won the world’s biggest business competition, been to 50 countries, and started 3 companies. 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.
Chris Smith | Co-Founder & CEO | Zunzi’s
Speaker bio coming soon!
MODERATOR
Stacey Kane | Restaurant Marketing Consultant
Stacey Kane has more than 25 years of experience working with multi-unit restaurant chains as a Head of Marketing and Marketing Consultant. She has worked with such brands as California Tortilla, Think Food Group, Subway and East Coast Wings. Known for her incredible creativity and obsession with data she was one of the pioneers of using social media in the restaurant space and was named a Top 20 Movers and Shakers by Fast Casual Magazine three times. Currently, Stacey is a fractional CMO for several fast casual brands including and works as a marketing consultant for CORE: Children of Restaurant Employees a non-profit that serves food and beverage employees with children.
Karl Mawhinney | Chief Partnerships Officer | Huddle, Inc.
Karl Mawhinney is Chief Partnerships Officer for Huddle, Inc where he oversees partnerships. Prior to Huddle, Karl was with the Harlem Globetrotters, where he was VP-Global Partnerships leading sponsorship sales, strategic partnerships and special programming. Karl brings over 20 years of property and agency experience. He has previous leadership roles at Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment, Lagardere Unlimited, and over ten years in the college sports landscape, including ISP Sports.
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