Two Chicks, Three Seats: The Event Manager's Guide to Industry Trends

On this episode, Kate and Rachel sit down with Steve Palmer, the Founder of Indigo Road Hospitality Group, which has a portfolio of over 30 restaurants and independent hotels, and the co-founder of Ben’s Friends, a non-profit organization offering support to hospitality industry workers struggling with substance abuse.

Throughout the conversation, we discuss Steve's career in the industry that coincides with his sobriety journey, building an employee-first culture at Indigo Road Hospitality Group, advocating for mental health in the industry, tips for restaurant management to improve their own cultures, and more.

Learn more about Indigo Road Hospitality Group and Ben's Friends below:

On this episode, Kate and Rachel sit down with Neal Bergstrom and Hayden Holm, the business partners behind Rocket Venue, a boot camp service that helps wedding venues get a hold of their sales, operations, and marketing strategies in order to run a successful wedding business.

Throughout the episode, we discuss what exactly goes into the "secret sauce" model that venues can follow to run a successful event program, common mistakes event venues make, the importance of tracking and understanding your event business' data (hint: Tripleseat can help!), marketing tips for a strong website and social media presence, and more.

On this episode, Kate and Rachel sat down with Ashley Stanford, the Vice President and Co-Founder of Ice Cream Social, which was once just a feature inside the product Ticket Socket, and now is its own standalone product that helps gamify ticket sales for events. Whether you are promoting ticket sales for a conference, an experience, or a music event, a digital strategy should be put into place to help increase ticket sales activity.

Throughout this episode, we discuss what goes into building a digital marketing strategy for promoting ticketed events -- from email marketing to word-of-mouth marketing, influencer marketing, and beyond. Ashley's tips and best practices will help sell you tickets for your next event.

On this episode, Kate and Rachel sit down with Cassie LaMere, Founder and Creative Director of the luxury event planning company Cassie LaMere Events, based out of Austin, Texas. Through her company, Cassie plans and executes social and corporate events, bringing event dreams to life with creative activations and experiences. Cassie has especially great experience creating lifestyle events, like influencer dinners and experiences, for her brand clients.

Through the episode, we discuss the power of lifestyle events, how venues can market themselves to attract these lifestyle events, what is hot in events today, what she looks for in her partners as an event planner, tips for starting a business, and more.

Follow along with Cassie's work and journey on her website and Instagram below:

On this episode, Kate and Rachel discuss how hospitality businesses and industry professionals can level up various areas of their business in 2024. They discuss tips and strategies for revamping operations, events, marketing, and personal development.

Take a listen and bring some new energy, initiatives, and revenue into 2024!

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