Why Catering Is the Ultimate Event Touchpoint

Speaker A: Welcome to Gather Geeks, a podcast by Biz Bash for event organizers, strategists and innovators who want to stay ahead of the curve and have the ability to peek over the fence to learn from what others are doing. I'm David Adler, your host and Biz Bash founder. If you want to be the best event pro you can be, take this journey with us and make Gather Geeks your weekly habit. The catering experience is the final frontier in marketing, the ultimate touch point where brands can make a lasting impression. It's more than just food. It's a chance to engage all the senses, leaving a memorable mark on guests hearts and minds. From the presentation to the flavors, every detail matters in creating an experience that resonates long after the last bite. In today's session, a Gather Geeks live recording at the Connect conference in New York City in February 2024, we delve into cutting edge culinary innovation and event experiences. From drone cocktail bars to deconstructed chicken dinners, and even the avant garde 100 course dining experience. We explore how technology intertwines with the dining experience as well, and even more importantly, how you can engage your catering partners to be as much a marketing partner as your internal teams and agency partners. We're thrilled to welcome our esteemed panelists. Michael Storino, Chief Executive Officer of the House of Attention. Chelsea Levere, the senior sales manager of corporate meetings and conventions at the Turning Stone Resorts Casino, and Mary Giuliani, the founder and CEO of Mary Giuliani Catering and Events. So grab a drink, pull up a seat, and join us for an engaging discussion that's sure to tantalize your taste buds and inspire your event planning endeavors. So. So take a listen. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Before we start the official program, first of all, next year is the 25th anniversary of Biz Bash, and many of you were here for the first day. So we're old, but I, uh, for the last five years, I like to do this poll question before we start an event. And I didn't do it for the last five years, but I'm gonna do it again, starting now. And that poll question is very interesting. We're using this incredible technology, this special technology called raising your hand. It's a little old school, but we're going to do it. How many people in this room love their job? Raise your hand. Okay, now look around, look around. Where else do you see this level of commitment? We may not have loved our jobs for a couple of years there, but now we're back and it's the most innovative time that we've ever had in the event industry.

Speaker B: The rules are all gone.

Speaker A: There's new rules everywhere.

Speaker C: And.

Speaker A: And so you are part of a new generation of event organizers that I call not event organizers, but collaboration artists. Because ultimately you're not just there to get an event done. You're there to create connections between people. And I also believe that we don't judge an event by how many people are at the event, but how many conversations that we curate at the event. And the way to do that is to activate a room. And so right now I would like you guys to have conversations with people that you don't know and say hello, tell them what your favorite cocktail was, maybe tell them what your first, the first concert you ever went to, something, maybe get a date, maybe start a business. You never know. I just wrote a book called Harnessing Serendipity. And what we do with events is we harness serendipity and you never know what's going to happen. So for the next three minutes, I want you to reach out and say hello to someone that you don't know and become their best friend if you want, or just pass on to someone else. Okay, now comes the tough part. Oh, it worked. Sometimes you used America the Beautiful at, ah, political conventions. I think in event school I learned that the shh. The shh works. So now I need everyone's attention again. Was that pretty good that you got to meet people? The audience and the attendees of your event are, uh, the best speakers and the best guests. So take advantage of this. Do this in every setting. Let people talk to each other. That is the most important thing. We've created maybe a thousand conversations in the last three minutes. Who doesn't want to talk about food and beverage now? But I believe that we talk about the last mile in marketing. The ultimate last mile in marketing is catering. Because you actually put it in your mouth. It's unbelievable. So caterers are no longer caterers, they're marketers. Would you agree with that, Tanel?

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay. And we're going to learn all about the innovative things that they're doing. I believe that we're no longer in the event business. We're in the goosebump business. And you're going to hear things that they are saying that will say, oh, my God, I want to do that even if I can't afford it. You're going to come up with an idea that would be a variation of that. So the idea is think about new ways of doing things. Like, we had to do during the pandemic. So with that said, I want each one of them to introduce themselves and tell us one of the most important things that they've done in their careers. And I'm going to start with Michael, who is, in my book, Harnessing Serendipity, because he has done so many amazing things. We'd be here for two hours talking about it. And Mary Giuliani, who has won almost every award Biz Bash has ever had, and I understand she majored in cocktails at Georgetown. And I want this to be a totally open conversation. And, Chelsea, I want to learn from you all the things that you've done in your world. And so we're going to keep this as an open forum. I'm going to interrupt, but the only way I'm going to interrupt is tell us more about that. Okay? And these guys are not shy. They passed the Dale Carnegie classes, and they're definitely graduates. So, Michael, why don't you start and tell us some of the things that you've done and what you have on the horizon.

Speaker D: Hello. Um, my name is Michael Chorino. I run a creative studio called House of Attention. We are an experiential, focused creative studio. We make activations, full service productions, all with, like, a focus on either immersive, interactive experience, design, or these big wow moments. David calls them goosebumps. I call them magic, whatever you want to say, but they're the things that make people stop for a second and remember, usually for me, and the way that I apply that kind of skill of things that have never been done before or things that make you stop for a second, you need to have a big idea, and that big idea needs to be coupled to a passionate audience. It's not just good enough to shoot a firework in the air. It needs to be a little bit of a narrative story. Now, this is why David was talking earlier about catering. Not just being about food, but about telling a story. Events themselves being this last mile of a journey that got somebody to start paying attention with an Instagram ad and then show up into a room six or seven months later. My specialty is connecting those two things, the reasons why we're here together, into something that's bigger than just a photo booth moment, even though no matter what the client asks for, they really just want a photo booth. So let's be honest, right? The photo booth, though, represents something that's worth remembering, and that's what we try to focus on.

Speaker A: That photo group's a metaphor for the

Speaker D: desire for the guest to say, wow, I want to remember this for a

Speaker A: long time and talk about the hundred course dinner. I'm going to be a, uh.

Speaker D: Thank you for doing that, David. My version of a food and wine festival was a 100 course meal. And it was designed around the idea that food and wine festivals are really mostly about bragging. So if you go to something, you get to say, hey, what did you do last night? And you could say, I went to a 100 course meal. And then in the middle of the room, I put a 150 foot long table with 1000 dishes on it. So you could take a picture of that one thing in the room and explain your entire night. That is the photo booth moment, whether it's the head of the table from one of the balconies. But the whole rest of the event was just a food and wine festival. There was still a tasting room. There was an educational area where the celebrity chefs could teach you about whatever they're doing. There was sampling and all that kind of stuff. And then there was this performance in the middle of the room, which you got to participate in, which was the 100 course meal. And when you showed up, everybody was like, oh, I can't wait to eat 100 courses. And when you see the scale of the thing, you quickly realize you're watching a ballet or a football game or a concert. The 100 course meal is happening to you, next to you, but you are not participating in it, uh, the way you would imagine a three Michelin star meal. You're not sitting down because it's a tidal wave that can't stop. So that human experience immediately changes into one of exploration, one of discovery, which, if you're at a food and wine festival, is really the goal. Right? Oh, I found this apple bourbon because that was the sampling style. Right. People would be able to taste something they never tasted before in a perfect way with a perfect pairing.

Speaker A: Cool.

Speaker D: Now they have that moment to discover inside that context.

Speaker A: Okay, I can't. I'm sorry. I'm going to force you to a couple other things. Talk about the best subway ride you've ever had.

Speaker D: In 2011, I served a six course Michelin starred meal on the L train as it traveled from Manhattan into Brooklyn. And there was 12 people that sat down for the event. And it took 84 people to serve them lunch. A lot of what I do is logistics, is art. Hence the 100 course meal. The Michelin starred meal on a subway. The reason why it took 84 people was because we couldn't get a permit to do this, you just can't ask for permission for that. But we could operate inside the code that the MTA has. So to do that, we had to have no tray jacks on the floor. We had to have nobody holding things. We couldn't have tables that touched the ground. So we had to re engineer the whole system. And a lot of the things we as caterers take for granted, like a tray jack is the easiest thing had to be replaced by a human. So we had people literally holding workstations to be able to assemble filet mignon. Or the first course was a fluke sashimi with bone marrow, mayonnaise and trout roe we cured in laphroaig. I served that at 6th Avenue. And we picked that dish up at a Chipotle. And they loved it. It was so fun for them. They had the best time in their entire life. What else do you want me to tell you? So I ordered a pizza from every pizzeria in Manhattan. That was for the 125th anniversary of pizza.

Speaker A: Yeah. The one thing I also want you to talk about is your personal entertaining and how everyone should be doing this. He explores with his friends, and he created dinner parties that got him to do this intelligence gathering for the most part. And I'm sure Mary's done the same thing. I'm sure you've all done the same thing. But don't underestimate the research that you do with your friends.

Speaker D: I like making things instead of consuming things as a social engagement. So when I started doing this, I would cook dinner with people. And it was a supper club like David was talking about. And the idea there was, if I have a bunch of people that I've never made anything with, if I could make dinner with them, I can probably make something more complicated. Because dinner requires a providence of the recipes, of the ingredients, of the reasons why you're doing these things. Most likely there's a dynamic between knowledge and skill sets. Mary's going to teach me how to do something, or I'm going to teach you how to do something or something like that. But you have to have grace. You have to have at the end of it. It's a really affordable way to see if you can have fun making the thing. And then you get to eat the thing and be like that, uh, sucked. I don't want to ever do that again. Or this wasn't worth it. It was really complicated. Or that was delicious. And what that led to was having permission to be creative with other people because you had a relationship, something that was able to let you say, if I give you the scope of work, you're going to be able to give me back something creative. And as David said, I use that to learn how vendors like to do things and what they can do.

Speaker B: And.

Speaker D: And, uh, I try to ask people to do something that they're great at that's just slightly unique. Right. So if you're a caterer, how do I ask you to do something that's like, just a little bit on the side of what you're awesome at, but in the same venue, with the same audience, with all that kind of stuff? And again, that comes from learning about you as a company, as an individual, and as a creator, to be able to connect those dots.

Speaker A: The serendipity impact of this.

Speaker D: Exactly.

Speaker A: Now, Mary, who is attached at the Hip, I think they didn't even know each other, but I got a feeling you're going to see a lot of collaborations between you two. Mary has won almost every award Biz Bash has done. Tell us, how did you go from Georgetown University and what you were doing to get into catering and what are some of the things that you learned, especially during your startup and also from the pandemic?

Speaker C: I accidentally got into catering, like a lot of caterers do. But thank you. I'm so happy to be here. I serve pigs in a blanket for a living. That's basically what I do.

Speaker A: Who doesn't love pigs in a blanket?

Speaker C: It's still, at the end of the day, it's everybody's favorite food, and it's simple and special, which is what basically is the core of my business. Yes. But I went to school. I was an English major, a theater minor. I studied theater. I wanted. I came to New York just like a lot of us do, to be an actress. And it turns out I'm not that good. I graduated with Bradley Cooper. My claim to fame. We graduated. I said, where are you going next? He goes to the Actors Studio, and. And he's like, where are you going? And I said, me too. He got in. I serve him pigs in a blanket for a living. But I did. In between auditions, I took a job at a catering company in the Lower east side. And that was the first time I realized that dreams don't come true exactly when you want them or in the way you want them. But you could take this really nice roundabout route. I was in this catering company for what I thought was gonna be a couple months before I got discovered and had to go off to Hollywood. And it took about a month that I sat there And I realized that all of those things that I really dreamt about and loved to do were right there in this place that I thought was going to be a temporary stop off. It combined theater, travel, excitement, the ability to make people happy immediately by providing an experience, a life, something to eat. It just was within a month of working at this catering company that I traded one dream for another and figured out, hey, if I can't join them, serve them.

Speaker A: That's a T shirt.

Speaker C: Yeah. And so that's how the catering company. I started it in my living room with my husband and my dog, my beagle, who's since passed Stanley. I will be in business, thankfully, for 20 years next year. The same year I turned 50. I think there's something in that. And I started it out of the very simple thing that I had worked for a very polished silver tray caterer, and. And we were never allowed to color outside the lines. And I learned a tremendous amount of things other than that, it wasn't me. Food, to me is gathering. It's storytelling. It's the ability to tell the best story through the food and beverage experience. And I always say to my clients, I say, what's your story? And then our business tries to take that story and create this incredible environment that you create and serve them food and drinks that evoke memories and bring people together. And since day one, it's just been three simple things that we've stuck to, which is simple can be special, extraordinary, ordinary can be extraordinary. I don't even know my own catchphrases here. And your happiness, our clients, happiness is our ultimate goal, and that's why we're in the business of happy. I think you called it goosebumps, magic making. I loved how many people raised their hands when they said, do you love what you do? Because there's a line in the Godfather about what we do. It's when he turns to Hyman Roth and he says, this is the business we chose. And some days are really hard. This is a very hard business that we're all in. But I think it's one of those businesses where you can actually feel, inspire and unite and leave people better. And that's my story. And I serve pigs in a blanket for a living.

Speaker A: So let me ask you a question about. You say you make your customers happy and you tell the story of the client. Many people here work for quick corporations and organizations. How do you take what they, uh, their client, you're talking about here and personalize it. How do you. What do you see? What questions do you ask these people that have an individual that make it special for them as opposed to, here's plan A, plan B.

Speaker C: Plan B. I think first is listening. We miss out so much on not listening to our clients or thinking our agenda is more important than theirs. And at the end of the day for me, I just. I listen to what their celebrating. I work with mostly art, fashion, and entertainment clients, so they're used to seeing everything better, bigger, before they want to know what the next best thing is before it's even a thing. But I think when you listen to your clients and then you just. You break it down to, I'm going to help tell your story a little bit more creatively. And then you go back to them, sharing with them what they've. What they've asked of you, but always trying to just bring it up to another.

Speaker A: Can you give us some examples of things that you've done? I'm sorry we didn't rehearse this, but I have this habit of listening.

Speaker C: No, I love. I love looking for the little things, like film premieres. I'll go and I'll see the film first and I'll find something in the film that, um. I did the Pretty Little Liars, the one with Nicole Kidman. Which one was that?

Speaker A: Pretty Little Liars.

Speaker C: Thank you, thank you, thank you. And, um, I went to see the. I got an advanced screening of it and I saw it and I said, okay, how are you going to turn Lincoln center into Monterey, California? Just broke it down quite simply into what were the best restaurants in Monterey? What were these women eating? What were they just getting into, like the character of what these people were doing. I don't know if that's the best. I also served food on a Ferris wheel. The first one, I think I would say I did a cemetery and a carnival for Stella McCartney, where constantly things you see all the time, you can always see them differently. I just did the New York City Ballet luncheon last Friday, Tuesday, a week ago today. And they were looking for something that didn't feel like the ordinary chicken luncheon and thing. And I was just listening to all of the things again. Listening is so important. I was listening to all the things they didn't like about the last experience they had, what things they were looking for. And we basically just did a deconstructed Chicken Milanese. It was beautiful and it. But it was something. The flavors were so familiar and so comforting and inviting. Inclusive, but it was a totally deconstructed weirdo kind of plate that was artistic and Fun and universally, everybody loved it.

Speaker A: We're now in this era of AI and we've all learned about prompts. Right? I don't know if everyone's learned about prompts, but prompts are how you ask questions. What should your client be asking of you to not just get the chicken dinner? Like, what do you do? How do you make it so that you're going to come back with package B as opposed to something special? I would assume I see some nod of heads that how do you get the caterer to think this way? How do you get the client to think this way? Maybe we can start with you on terms of how do you get people to get your kitchen to change?

Speaker B: I would say anybody who's working catering is. Chefs like it their way. But I think the biggest.

Speaker A: Is that a mistake? What Chefs liking it their way, or is that.

Speaker C: I just think that I've been very lucky that my chefs bend. A lot of the chefs that I've worked with, there's ego involved. And my whole ethos for my company is to provide egoless.

Speaker B: And that's the perfect word for it. Yeah.

Speaker C: I think you could get a good product when everybody is doing what they can with grace and ego lists.

Speaker B: But if that.

Speaker A: So, Chelsea, you gotta go back and tell your chef that he can't get it.

Speaker B: No egos in the kitchen. Ron, I'm so sorry. Uh, no. But, Frank, I think it's really apt that I am seated between these two rock stars because they are constantly producing these beautiful once in a lifetime experiences. I researched their website. It's incredible. So I see myself in my role as a 10 event marketing person is to make these feelings and these goosebumps and this magic all more accessible to you guys, because not everybody can through their luncheon at Lincoln Center. But I can absolutely listen to you and hear you tell me that we do not want to eat the same chicken dish that we've had for the last 12 years. When that happens, back to your original question is, what should you tell the caterer? I don't think they should tell the caterer. I think it is our responsibility as experience makers and service professionals to ask the right grounding questions. And it's not always exact. It's not, oh, chicken or beef. It's like, where were you and what were you eating when you felt the most inspired at an event?

Speaker A: Okay, let's get interactive. How many people have their supplier caterer actually tell you what to order? You have to force it and you're not getting what you want. How many people would need to push their caterer or their supplier to give you new, fresh ideas? A lot of people if a frustration. Right. So, uh, these are probably the examples of the best in the business. But we have to push on both sides.

Speaker B: Agree. Food is feelings.

Speaker A: Tell us a little bit about your backstory, Chelsea.

Speaker B: My backstory is I actually we all find our roundabout way. I went to school to originally be a pre med student, lol. Which clearly did not happen. Went to Ithaca.

Speaker A: You're still taking care of people?

Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. Went to, uh, Ithaca College, got my degree in marketing, communications, business, et cetera, and fell into event operations. Started in the world of, uh, logistics for combat sports, moved into other kinds of events, social events, corporate events, private, et cetera. And have now landed myself at this beautiful property, getting to help folks take these two sets of dreamy ideas and bring them to all of ah, their attendees. So I really look at myself in this role as a translator and a connector from, um, all the amazing things you hear about in Biz Bash, NetConnect and making them accessible and approachable. Because at the end of the day, you want your clients and your guests to leave an event feeling something. You want them to associate. That was. Even if it's something like, I learned a lot or that was really productive or that day was really well laid out. You don't want them thinking, oh my gosh, it was so dull. And then we had this dry lunch and then it was another speaker, like, weave in your food and beverage. Make it all a part of the experience.

Speaker D: So I would say, like, from my perspective, the run of show is usually the most important thing. And I don't know which mad Madison Avenue ad guy said, you sell the hole, not the tool. And I think as experienced designers with the pandemic, we got a little bit confused with our clients. If you're gathering people for a conference, try to figure out what the conference's real North Star is, why they're gathering these people, and what their goal is for that conference. Is it for 10 people to make connections? Is it for them to learn about something specific? They're doctors and they need to learn about a new medicine. But that why is the most important thing. Every other thing about the run of show is irrelevant at that point. And you can play with it and be flexible with it if you can nail that. Why in a bunch of different ways. And I think my creativity tries to apply those very stereotypical reason why. Right. We gotta gather people to tell them about our new product. Or there's a TV show coming out and we want to make sure everybody's got their considerations. Or we got 1,000 salespeople that did a really great job this year and they all got to go to the Phoenix, whatever golf tournament thing with the guy and the stuff. And like the major focus though of those things is there's usually a second thing. That thousand person sales conference is about socializing inside the company. So if you can figure out new and interesting ways to drive that story and gamify that story either as a venue, as a producer or as any person in that chain, it really leads to a lot of extra value that's directly in line with why they're hosting the event to begin with.

Speaker C: Do you have something? Yeah.

Speaker B: And this goes right back to the catering question. What do you all have to ask your caterer? I work with a lot of first time planners or planners that are really leveling up their event for the first time, making them a uh, 250 to 500 event buyout. And they'll come in and they will be so utterly focused on what room do we use to fit 400 people for general session, what do we need to do to have this operate or what do we need to do to keep the guest rooms in budget. And I was at a meeting maybe two weeks ago and it was a very green planner making this jump and she had a million leaflets of questions. And I said we're just going to wait on that for five minutes and we're going to get to all your questions. I go, but first I want you to tell me what you want people to leave here with. And that particular company did a uh, huge merger acquisition and we all know that can leave people not feeling stable. So, so that brought us to the point of the event not even being like the town hall, all hands, marketing, meeting, finance, bookend things. But it was how do we make this group of strangers connect over their new common mission? And then that went into everything we did because the first wasn't are we going to use 15,000 square foot ballroom M or 10,000 square foot ballroom. So I think again it's back to us as the ah, event professionals and the people who see this day in and day out to really help drive people in the direction of the results that they want.

Speaker A: You're suggesting, and I think you're 100% right, that strategy trumps everything else.

Speaker B: 100%.

Speaker A: And that should be the one thing that people look at. Okay, guess what? Neither one of you guys are, uh, king or queen of the world. When you get into a group of people that are planning an event, how do you assert your ideas that make other people listen? Because that is a real skill.

Speaker C: You make them think it was their idea.

Speaker A: But how do you orchestrate that? You're not in charge. Uh, you have to cajole, you have to talk logically. But what is your technique?

Speaker C: I just think you have to gain their respect as they are coming to you for their expertise and to bring their event to another level. So first, if the respect is gained, that's great. You're starting off on a really good. If I walked into a room and I was like, I will only serve, I, I actually did an event with someone, this is a little bit of a funny story. Very early on in my career, top of his game and he walked into the room, he's darling. I'm only serving this or that. And we hadn't even met the client yet. And so I think that I went in the total opposite direction because I need you to respect me based on my work, based on um, the fact that I'm listening to you based on that I really want your event to win. And so I start with that and then you basically listen again. This goes back to the listening and then suggest to them, I love that idea. But I'm thinking we take this there. But I think if you don't have the initial respect or trust from the beginning, it's hard to get them to go there.

Speaker D: So from. I don't mean to play devil's advocate and stuff, but half of my business is a fee for service business that responds to clients needs. And the other half is a proactive creative business. The proactive creative business does the exact opposite of what you just talked about for 10 minutes. Right? It just makes things for the audience's end use. The 100 course meal was for food lovers. Why? Because it knew how people wanted to sample food. Not in a tent with 5,000 other people, but in an air conditioned room with 250 other people or they wanted to be able to talk to the chef and have a conversation and spend the premium for that kind of access instead of just again being in a tented parking lot somewhere because that's where Lexus wanted to have their event. And that understanding of the audience needs lets you bend the rest of the experience around that core deliverable. So when I try to think about innovations or ways that I'm looking forward, every single one of us has something that we're uniquely awesome at. If we're a venue, we have a magical point that you should be taking your wedding photos at. Or there's a catering thing that you're really great at that you nail every single time. Lean into your magic thing. Right. But then tell a story with it. Right. Bring it to a place where the guest understands how to leverage your creativity.

Speaker A: Give me an example of how that works in, uh, real life. Because these guys are on both sides of this thing.

Speaker D: Yes. I'm trying to figure out the right one that's applicable to everybody.

Speaker A: So

Speaker D: the photo moment type thing is a great example. Right. If you have a venue, you know what the venue looks like, you know how to create moments inside the venue, you know what people are coming there to do. If it's a wedding, if it's a birthday party, how do you create a series of experiences for that guest that allows them to capture that memory of spending 25, $50,000, $100,000 or whatever it is on that event? It's up to you to do the thing that Disney did in the 50s, which is buy my book, and then take a picture in front of the castle so you can remember you went to the castle and take a picture in front of the mountain so you can remember the mountain. When you get done with the event, the recap video is there to prove that it happened, but also that it was valuable. How do you make that impossible for them to screw up? How do you make it impossible for them m to not feel like their dish was brought to life? It's like with children, right? You give them three options so they can pick something, but they're all your options. You made all the options up. So what are you? One can be outrageous and can be the most magical thing you've ever done. And it can inspire people, obviously, we know. But own that one as hard as you possibly can because that'll drive your social media.

Speaker A: Like I always, whenever an agency presents to me, is it the third one that's the good idea, or is it the first one? Or do you mix it up?

Speaker D: That's true. It depends on who the audience. Some people need to be warmed up a little bit before you say something.

Speaker A: You put the expensive idea first.

Speaker D: I'm doing a dinner party with drones. It costs an enormous amount of money that goes right up in front of the deck, and it really level sets the whole thing. This is a dinner party served by drones. Right? The kitchen is on the roof of this building. The dining room is on the roof over there. And the drones fly Back and forth. When you hear the idea, you know that it's not something that you're going to just like fit into the sales holder meeting, but it's there to understand that I can now listen to your situation and come up with novel solutions. Right. Because this was a solution I came up for a drone company or a chip company or Pepsi or something. I can't remember who it was.

Speaker A: But Mary, how do you do it? Uh, present the ideas that, like the high one, low one, middle one. Which one do you want them to actually buy?

Speaker C: It depends on what. The one that I feel we can pull off the best and that will actually produce the best wow factor. So that people are leaving that event and saying, I've never seen that before or that was incredible. So to me, it could be just serving pigs in a blanket with martinis and that's it. And people being like, wait, what?

Speaker B: That's all.

Speaker A: That's a great idea.

Speaker C: But that was different. Or it was that we brought in Elton John to sing on the top of a Ferris wheel. And that's pretty cool too. So I think it's just, it's the thing that is gonna be the ultimate creative bang, but also make them look good.

Speaker A: Uh, let's go to. Since I have a small attention span like the rest of the world, let's go to a popcorn thing where I want you to come up with your, uh, thoughts of what's the hottest cocktail coming up. What are you, what is your thinking? You don't have to all answer them, but what do you think in terms of trends and things like that if you were gonna suggest something that's fresh?

Speaker C: Mary, people are drinking and not drinking in the same. I'm seeing a lot more people come to us to party, to have fun, to drink to. And I'm getting a lot of requests for really creative non alcoholic beverages. So that's also a trend we're seeing. We're eating healthier, we're partying healthier. And I'm also seeing a lot of use of savory chef ingredients like broths and brines in cocktails too these days. So that's just the things that I'm seeing and asking for. And then also there's so many great canned beverage opportunities right now. Non alcoholic, alcoholic, we suggest if the budget's really low, how about an all can bar? And there's no bartender, there's no. And it could look pretty. We put it out in beautiful containers. And then also with lots of toppings that to make your can a little Special again. So there's all these. Those are some other things we're seeing right now.

Speaker B: So the savory thing. Absolutely. 100%. I saw recently someone do a, uh, French onion soup martini at a bar. I was not sure about that. I did not try it. I was not feeling.

Speaker A: There's a lot of, like, strange faces.

Speaker B: I was not feeling brave. Look up the recipe.

Speaker A: Wow. Nose.

Speaker B: Definitely curling. Some, um, interest. Yep. Not for me, but that's okay. A lot of fish oil being used, A lot of fish sauce.

Speaker C: Sardines and anchovies in martinis. That's another big thing. Canning canned food is like sardine. Yeah, canned fish.

Speaker A: Very big canned, um, fish.

Speaker C: What do you mean, canned fish?

Speaker B: You're the caterer. It's what? It's the umami flavor.

Speaker C: Study mommy flavor.

Speaker B: Like the salty savory. Yes.

Speaker C: Uh, okay.

Speaker A: Michael, what do you see more from

Speaker D: just like an experience, design perspective? I think people want to have more immersive digital experiences. Van Gogh started this whole thing where people wanted to walk into rooms and have the walls covered with moving stuff. But it's really expensive. It's hard to do. You're starting to see like my team. There's a couple. There's a sphere, there's cosm, there's imaginarium. There's five or six different types of venues that are either fully projection mapped or have some kind of cohesive interactive design element. I think that a part of the future of gathering is going to be digital decor and interactions in a digital space. And not for the sake of doing what Van Gogh did, which was to occupy all of your attention and distract you. This would be to do the same thing that regular decor does, right? Just elevate the room, make you feel like you're somewhere special, bring your conversations into focus, make it excellent. I see these things connecting very much to the stage show. You're spending money on av. You have this ability to bring in these projections. It's a heavy investment on the front of the stage for a conference. How do you have that same hardware? Create a dining experience, a cocktail experience, an immersive, whatever kind of socialization thing. That to me, I think is one of these areas that as the technology gets cheaper and easier to deploy, people will have better runs of shows in those spaces. So you could more easily understand how to have 150 person gala where everybody's on the moon or they're sitting inside a sound wave brought to life by

Speaker A: a, uh, it's all coming and AI is going to help doing that. One of the things we, we had people enter a, uh, savory, if you like savory, you entered in the savory and you got savory hors d' oeuvres or sweet. And so you actually entered the room based on your taste levels and things like that. I want to. You have another one.

Speaker B: I just actually had a question for you off that one because I've had this question from clients. I've had a tech client recently that wanted to do some mapping, whether they wanted to do it on the table and on the walls. And it was very, if anybody remembers that production mapping of the little Italian chef with the meatball. So what comes first, the menu or the mapping?

Speaker D: It's the run of show. So like for me, Le Petit Chef, the project she's talking about, is seven or eight years old. And the reason why it works is because it's got a cute run of show. Projection mapping though, does not work on the tables. It's very expensive and it's a really poor way to light your room. So this is part of the issue. These technologies are trying to be squeezed into what non technical producers think the technology should do. I will say this, no one wants to eat lobster or fish under the ocean. It's a very obvious creative thing. And it's being done at Michelin starred restaurants all over the world. Ultraviolet in Hong Kong spends thousands and thousands of dollars on it for per person. It's just not actually that fun. What's more fun is integrating the digital stuff to create moments that distract you from the mundane and bring you into that elevated state. And it took us 16 months to figure out how to serve a dinner in a digital table. And a lot of it is teaching the guests to forget that they're in a digital space and making it less important than the human beings and the reason why they're there. And we do that through the typical things we're good at with service. Tableside Caesar salad distracts everyone from the screens because there's somebody doing something in front of them. Putting a lot of small dishes on the table with candles and stuff like that on them creates secondary light sources that are not digital. Right. These are real simple, cheap solutions. And I can show you technical solutions for the screens too. But the idea though is it succeeds because of the way you design your program. The food is irrelevant. It's more about how the humans in the room are going to be served, if that makes sense and you can then start irrelevant. I would say the theme of the food is irrelevant, right? Mary and I could do a Caesar salad or it could be steak tar or it could be sushi making or it could be somebody slicing bread and doing butter service. The thing though is that there needs to be a performance and that performance then could be apple bourbon cocktail shaking right there from the like literally bringing a barrel over from the still. And we're going to put a tap in it to make this cocktail. That would distract you too. But the distraction is actually the performance that needs to connect to those digital spaces to make them. Thank you so much.

Speaker B: Thank you.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker A: Thanks for listening to this episode of Gather Geeks. If you like what you're hearing, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and find it on bizbatch.com as well as other major distributors like iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio and Audible. Be sure to leave us a rating and review it as well. We'd love to hear from you. Email us@gathergeeksbizbash.com we hope you'll join us for the next episode. And until then, Gather on.