Seminars
Sunday
Serving Customers We Don’t Like |
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Date: Sunday, April 27Time: 9:00 - 10:00 amPresenter: Paul Paz, WaitersWorld  |
Seminar Description: Based on real world experience and not theoretical academics, this seminar is indispensable for those responsible for training staff as well as those who are on the front lines of customer service. Learn successful tactics for managing stress when dealing with difficult customers and key elements of managing complaints and resolving conflicts. Attendees will also receive a guide for positive results in some common challenging customer service situations. |
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Presenter Bio: Co-author of Service at Its Best: Waiter-Waitress Training, Paul Paz is a career professional waiter with nearly three decades of experience. He is a well known hospitality and customer service consultant whose writings have appeared in a variety of industry publications and web sites including Main Ingredient, NW Stir Magazine, and Restaurant Report.com. He has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, and is frequently quoted in articles on the industry as a customer service expert. |
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Leading with Financial Authority |
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Date: Sunday, April 27Time: 11:00 am- 12:00 pmPresenter: Gerry Adams
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Seminar Description: Ever wonder whether the numbers you receive on your financial statements are worth the paper they’re printed on? This session will provide confidence to financial statements users by showing how to benchmark and analyze the numbers and use them as intended—to reinforce positive results, isolate problems, and make more money. |
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Credit Cards: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You! |
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Date: Sunday, April 27Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pmPresenters: Rob German, Micros Systems, Inc.  |
Seminar Description: The credit card industry is cracking down on restaurant owners who are out of compliance with regulations designed to protect diners’ credit card data from thieves. Despite more than $4.6 million in merchant fines levied by Visa just last year alone, tens of thousands of restaurants are still out of compliance and in some cases, unaware. If you are an owner-operator and are unaware of PCI Compliance issues, this seminar is a must attend. |
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Presenter Bio: Rob German is a ten year veteran of Micros Systems and currently directs sales and marketing for a diverse array of accounts including Shari’s, Elmer’s, and the Seattle Mariners. Jane Hartle is a Division Manager of Heartland Payment Systems with twenty years of experience in the payments industry. Louis J. Klahn Jr. has more than twenty years of experience in sales and marketing management, and financial and merchant services. |
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Keynote: What it Takes to be Famous |
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Date: Sunday, April 27Time: 3:00 - 4:00 pmPresenters: Jim Bergquist  |
Seminar Description: In 1986, Pike Place Fish in Seattle’s Public Market was on the verge of bankruptcy. That’s when Jim Bergquist began coaching the market’s owner, John Yokoyama, on a new and empowering company culture. The idea was to become “World Famous – In a Way that Makes a Difference for People”. Learn how a struggling enterprise was able to turn itself around and how these lessons can be applied to your own business to get noticed and improve profits. |
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Presenter Bio: Jim Bergquist founded Business Futures Consulting in 1981. He is an expert at coaching leaders on how to unleash employee creativity to improve productivity and expand organizational effectiveness. His approach, which is based on employee inspiration and empowerment rather than a top-down command and control model helped to turn around Pike Place Fish and many other client businesses, and contains lessons that any business owner can profit from. |
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Monday
Leveraging Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry |
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Date: Monday, April 28Time: 9:00 - 10:00 amPresenters: Tony D'Onofrio, CEC  |
Seminar Description: Sustainability is not just a buzzword for good works and resource management, it’s the present direction of the industry. When marketed correctly, sustainability can also be a public relations triumph and a boon to the business owner’s bottom line. This seminar will cover management policies for sustainable business practices including product purchasing, raising staff awareness, green building, eco-labeling, and marketing to raise public awareness, develop customer loyalty and contribute to long term fiscal stability and success. |
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Presenter Bio: A faculty instructor in the Culinary Department of the Art Institute of Seattle, Tony D’Onofrio, CEC, is an expert on sustainable food systems and agriculture. He has 25 years of industry experience including as Executive Chef for Sodexho Corporate Services - Pacific Northwest Region, and has worked for several celebrity chefs including at Jeremiah Tower’s Stars Bar and Dining in Seattle, Bradley Ogden’s One Market restaurant in San Francisco, Michel Richard’s Citrus restaurant, and Wolfgang Puck’s famous Chinois on Main in Santa Monica. |
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How to Build Your Customer Service Dream Team |
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Date: Monday, April 28Time: 11:00 am - 12:00 pmPresenters: Dorothy Frisch, Polished Service  |
Seminar Description: Everyone knows that excellent customer service is important, but few can easily define what it looks like, or most importantly, how we can get our employees to consistently deliver it? This seminar will identify some of the ways in which management often sabotages good service, cover the skills required to make a positive impression on guests, and offer training tips for bringing out the best in your employees so that your customers keep coming back for more. |
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Presenter Bio: Dorothy Frisch is the owner of Polished Service, a company dedicated to coaching and training restaurant managers and staff on customer service issues. Co-owner and dining room manager of the former Saleh al Lago, one of Seattle’s most successful restaurants, she brings 30 years of passion and hands-on restaurant experience to her training program dedicated to giving restaurateurs the skills to bring out the best in their staffs and build customer loyalty. |
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What’s All the Buzz About Trans-Fat Free? |
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Date: Monday, April 28Time: 12:30 - 1:30 pmPresenters: Debe Nagy-Nero, Burgerville / The Holland Inc.  |
Seminar Description: What are trans-fats and why the push to get away from them? How do fats in general, and trans-fats in particular affect our health? This seminar will answer these questions and more. Learn about alternative oils and how to choose the best one for your restaurant. Also included is a case study of how Burgerville switched to a new oil, and a list of operational questions that need to be answered if you are planning on making a switch. |
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Presenter Bio: Debe Nagy-Nero is a Registered Dietician (RD) and is currently Director of Quality Assurance, Nutrition and Safety for The Holland, Inc., a Northwest restaurant company that includes three growing restaurant brands, including Burgerville. Since 2003, she has co-chaired the Access to Healthy Food Committee for Steps to a Healthier Clark County. |
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Keynote: The Big Picture: The State of the Industry 2008 |
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Date: Monday, April 28Time: 2:00 - 3:00 pmPresenters: Anthony Anton, President and CEO Washington Restaurant Association  |
Seminar Description: What is the big picture for the restaurant industry in the state of Washington and beyond in 2008? Anthony Anton, President and CEO of the Washington Restaurant Association outlines how the industry is doing, what the leading trends and indicators are, and what owners and operators should be doing to prepare for the future in an ever-changing and dynamic marketplace. |
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Presenter Bio: Anthony brings more than a decade of government affairs and association management experience to the WRA. He guided the WRA’s government affairs business from 1995 to 2001 when he left to manage The Boeing Company’s state relations in Olympia. Coming back to the WRA in 2004 as Vice President, Anthony successfully marshaled the industry’s efforts to support important legislation and increase the WRA’s grassroots lobbying efforts. |
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