In The Spirit of TA-DA, Joel shares his experience and insight on creativity, communication, teamwork, passion, and fun. With wit, a sharp observational eye, and playful irreverence, he discusses the choices we all encounter in our careers. We each have the ability to take initiative and make the right choice to live a more creative, passionate, effective, and productive life.

In this hilarious and very interactive keynote, Joel invites members of the audience to participate in improvisational exercises to help illustrate how organizations and individuals can celebrate everyday successes to increase collaboration, productivity, and innovation.

We are very excited to have Joel join us in Austin to share seven lessons you can take away to better create a positive work environment, manage stress, and lead change. Fun at work is a BIG idea, and he will show you how to deliver!

In this hilarious, interactive session, you will:

• Learn to celebrate work and create a positive environment
• Learn to improve teamwork and help all partners find success
• Learn the three keys to leading change: be prepared; be focused; be open and flexible
• Learn the key to success: staying in the game and keeping your passion
• Learn to promote ownership and accountability
• Learn to encourage innovation by creating opportunity
• Learn to enhance communication

Jamie Murdock, Managing Vice President, Sales, Maritz Global Events
LinkedIn

Hackathons have quickly become one of the most talked-about conference experiences, as they deliver on two key attendee expectations for events: learning and networking. Solving the challenges of hospitality businesses today isn’t easy. It takes a new way of thinking. Hackathons create a safe environment to help facilitate honest conversation and idea generation around some of the most crucial topics your company is facing.

In this session, expert facilitators will open their playbook to share proven techniques for tapping the collective wisdom at your event for the common good. From creating the right mindset and environment for more fruitful ideation to engaging a diverse set of perspectives in a constructive debate we’ll cover the full hackathon spectrum.

Participants will emerge from this session with breakthrough ideas to address industry challenges while igniting cross-disciplinary, collaborative conversations that advance learning and nurture relationships. Hackathons can create a library of solutions and potential content that can be used throughout the year (crowdsourcing on overdrive).

While hackathons typically span a day or more, participants will experience a mini-version where they will flesh out new ideas with peers, while experiencing this interactive model firsthand.

In this interactive session, participants will:

• Understand how key components can be orchestrated to create a richer hackathon experience
• Develop two techniques that can be applied to jumpstart, enhance, and accelerate team hacking exchanges
• Generate a multitude of solutions to a specified challenge to see firsthand how effective crowdsourcing can be

MODERATOR
Joleen Goronkin,
President, People & Performance Strategies
LinkedIn

Jason Lyon, President and COO, Flatbread Company
LinkedIn

Kendall Ware, COO, In-Shape, former President, Cinnabon
LinkedIn

You won’t want to miss this hands-on tutorial that will teach how to capture high-quality video, edit, and create animated text. This demo will guide users through an end-to-end workflow using Adobe Rush* and a mobile device. Part 1 will be all about mastering the shot, and part 2 will focus on bringing your videos to life through editing.

Participants will:

• Use a mobile device to shoot, edit, and share high-quality video content
• Learn about shot composition and framing
• Explore video aspect ratios to determine which one works best for their video’s destination
• Import and edit video content to fit the needs of their project
• Learn how to add animated graphics and titles
• Add music, filters, and effects
• Export and archive the project

*NOTE: Participants will need to have Adobe Rush installed on their phone. You will either need to have an active Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, or sign up for the free trial (be sure that your trial is active for the date of this session).

Angelina Sabatini, Director of Training & Development, Ford's Garage
LinkedIn

Compliance training topics can often be dry and boring. And we all know the training is often done to “check the box” for legal requirements.

As training professionals, we want to make compliance training meaningful and relevant to employees. To do that, we must move from employees taking a course to be legally compliant to employees learning and practicing behaviors that support a physically and mentally safe environment for fellow employees and guests.

This interactive session will provide a simple but effective framework for designing and delivering compliance training via engaging and effective eLearning experiences. Attend and identify learning experiences that support your company culture and values, and that your employees will enjoy and practice.

This session will explore:

• Why it’s important to re-think compliance training
• How to shift from compliance to culture and values
• A framework for delivering compliance training that is interesting, relevant, and effective

This session will provide a customizable template that can be used to:

• Create relevant and relatable scenarios
• Increase engagement with reflection activities
• Support learning reinforcement

Workplace culture is often overlooked in the hospitality industry, but now it’s loud and clear that having a healthy and clearly defined culture is an important factor in hiring and retaining staff long-term. Not only is culture important for your staff, but it also impacts your brand image, your customers, and your bottom line. With the current state of the industry and wider societal shifts, hospitality leaders have a unique opportunity right now to reset their cultures for the better. Learn successful strategies to define and immerse your business in a purpose-driven workplace culture that will help strengthen your business from the inside out.

Learners in the workplace are made up of a variety of language, cultural, and social backgrounds, so it is important to create learning environments where everyone feels included. Reducing bias in training courses and workshops will help create inclusive training environments that support learning comprehension and lead to lasting behavioral change. This session will address how to utilize a variety of content types, make accommodations for individuals with disabilities, and support language, cultural, and social diversity.

Participants will:

• Discuss common bias types and categories of diversity
• Review the “Cycle of Socialization”
• Review the “Diversity Wheel” and complete a self-cultural profile
• Discuss ways to use a variety of content types and incorporate customizations to account for language and cultural diversity
• How to accommodate for learners with disabilities
• Learn how to create an inclusive environment by being aware of use of idioms, quotes, and gender references

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to learning design, which explores the use of empathy, discovery, and innovation to define desirable, intended outcomes. This approach creates feasible actions that deliver impact to your organization’s business results.

The framework can be used to design learning for strategic initiatives, to close discovered skill gaps, to apply to turn-key situations, plus many other applications! All members of an L&D team can benefit from this process as it helps them experience and understand challenges by stepping into the end-user’s shoes. Designing from this space will help you create solutions that are viable, desirable, and feasible for the organization and individuals.

In this hands-on session, you’ll:

• Learn the 5 principles of Design Thinking
• Explore examples of how Design Thinking has impacted businesses
• Practice applying the tools of Design Thinking to rapidly explore ideas and find the best one to match your end-user’s needs
• Discover how Design Thinking differs from Instructional Design
• Walk away being able to practice this in your everyday world

David Kreitlow, Director of Training
LinkedIn

If keeping restaurant-level management engaged is like running a 5K, then keeping hourly employees engaged is like climbing Mount Everest! Come and hear a lively, real-life case about motivating all levels of the restaurant, including ways the pandemic has made this group adapt on the fly. You’ll take away ideas the Wienerschnitzel training team has implemented with little budget that can make a big impact at your organization.

In today’s world where people are craving connection and camaraderie, having fun in the restaurant is key to recruiting and retaining team members. If the team is having fun, the guest experience wins too, and what’s more fun than a little friendly competition? Attend and learn how the spirit of competition connected teams while driving important business metrics. Hear about the launch of an award-winning training program that proved how a culture of learning, accountability, and recognition creates lower turnover, increased sales, stronger guest metrics, higher staffing levels, more employee referrals, and ignites knowledgeable team members.

You will take away:

• How to tap into the natural competitiveness of people to drive culture and engagement
• How to better connect your team member’s goals to your brand’s strategic plan
• How connecting team members to a brand’s purpose can build trust, lower turnover, drive bench strength, and support the bottom line
• How to work with vendors to strategically incorporate their goals into yours to create an experience for your team

• Address short-term needs while developing a long-term, strategic focus
• Use vendor relationships to get better, faster operational results
• Leverage an ROI model to demonstrate value to drive initial adoption from the top down
• Use vendor expertise and experience to help sell up the chain as well as sell down the chain

• Hear how BWW measures Culture and Training at their locations
• Identify obstacles and solve issues when it comes to making the argument for strong training cultures
• Work through Excel functions to provide a scorecard ranking of metrics
• Gain a larger understanding of the following Excel tools: Pivot Tables, Lookup functions, and SumIf Statements
• Excel knowledge can be minimal for all participants

• Discuss and explore trauma defined  
• Explore other perspectives about trauma
• Shine a light on 'hidden trauma'
• Cultural insights that may help people better understand trauma/differences among culture
• Actionable steps for how we as learning professionals can influence and reframe our approaches to training

Brad Stutzman, Partnerships, Growth, and Strategy, PlayerLync
LinkedIn

Icebreakers are great for “warming up” the room, but they aren’t always a one-size-fits-all. Knowing your audience is key to determining the best icebreaker that will really work wonders to cut out the awkwardness and foster engagement in your group. Let’s revisit what’s in our toolboxes and learn creative ways to help you rule the room!

How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice.
Don’t you feel better now that we’ve gotten that out of the way?

Kelly McCutcheon, VP, People, HiBar Hospitality
LinkedIn

• Create an action plan to assess their team’s wellness needs
• Leverage assets that are already in your business to implement the start of your program today
• Learn how the Wellness Wheel can help create a holistic approach to supporting mental wellness
• Engage in self-care practices

Yvonne Lloyd, Product Manager, Career Development, National Restaurant Association
LinkedIn

Danielle McLimore, Product Manager, Hospitality Careers, National Restaurant Association
LinkedIn

Jason M. Lyon,
President & COO, Flatbread Company Inc.
LinkedIn

Kate Stiteler,
Senior Training Manager, Sonesta Hotels
LinkedIn