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

On today's episode of Two Chicks, Three Seats, Kate and Rachel are joined by Natalie Thomas, Founder and Events Director at MTG Hospitality in Washington, D.C. At MTG, Natalie works as a third-party event planner and saleswoman for venues in the D.C area creating their event programs, one notably being the United States National Arboretum. Natalie has successfully created beautiful weddings at the...

On today's episode, Kate and Rachel take a look at hotels and the things that hotels can be doing to succeed in 2021. This episode will be helpful to those who work for hotels, but also event professionals who book events at hotels. With all the changes in daily life over the past 12 months, hotels have also had to adjust and pivot to fit the needs of guests, travelers, and groups with new safety...

On today's episode, Kate and Rachel discuss all the coolest cocktail, home cooking, restaurant dining, and popular marketing trends (like TikTok, IG Guides, and IG Shop) that you must be in the know about! Some may be helpful for your restaurant and others may be fun to try on your own, but if you are at all interested in the latest industry trends, this episode is for you!

On today's episode, we sit down with Sarah Chrastecky and Tracy Rutherford, event professionals from the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at Texas A&M University. We discuss how they pivoted their conference center to now host university classes, all sorts of event industry terminology, tips for virtual networking events, what makes an "event experience", advice for other conference ce...

On today's episode, Kate and Rachel are joined by Amber Van Moessner, the Senior Director of Communications at Upserve by Lightspeed to discuss a recent report Upserve published predicting Valentine's Day trends in the hospitality industry. The data looks at past Valentine's Day patterns with ticket sales, most ordered items, and tips for marketing and creating the best Valentine's Day packages. C...

On this episode, Kate and Rachel talk about one of the busiest restaurant dining days of the year: Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day is less than 3 weeks away, which means that happy couples, groups of friends, and single people everywhere are starting to think about how they want to celebrate the holiday this year, even in a pandemic.  If your restaurant, hotel, or other unique venue is not r...

On today's episode, Kate and Rachel discuss 21 positive predictions for the hospitality and events industry based on some silver linings from 2020. This pandemic has brought new lessons, trends, and initiatives into the hospitality industry and many of these ideas are here to stay in 2021. Take a listen and make sure that your restaurant, hotel, or venue is up to speed on the lessons we all h...

On the first 2021 episode of Two Chicks, Three Seats, Kate and Rachel dive into email marketing. Email marketing is a powerful marketing strategy when executed correctly, and is made up of many more elements than one may think. From gathering email addresses, segmenting lists, creating intentional CTAs, setting up drip campaigns, and more, this episode will provide great insight when it comes...

On the final episode of 2020, Kate and Rachel are joined by Amber van Moessner, Senior Director of Communications at Upserve by Lightspeed. Upserve recently released its incredible annual report called the "2020 State of the Restaurant Industry" which analyzes menu trends, sales trends, restaurant growth and success stories during the pandemic, and 2021 trends. Amber discusses the report on this e...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel are joined by Megan Long, Marketing & Private Events Manager at Bostonia Public House. When it comes to learning and sharing tips about restaurant social media marketing, Megan is your girl! On this episode, the ladies discuss partnering with restaurant influencers to drive social media engagement, creating holiday season specials, hosting events with CO...

On this episode, Kate and Rachel sit down with Arianna Favia, Director of Restaurant Event Sales at Boka Restaurant Group in Chicago. Arianna and her team at Boka Restaurant Group have done a wonderful job pivoting throughout the pandemic, especially when it comes to starting a takeout program from scratch, working with local partners, and creating extremely unique virtual experiences. Arianna sha...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel talk about the unfortunate truth of a second wave of the coronavirus looming across the country. Cities are halting reopening plans, adding curfews, and even stopping indoor dining for the time being. While this is not ideal for restaurants, this episode will provide some fresh ideas to help restaurants shift for the winter season and succeed in the second w...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel are joined by two special guests to discuss how they successfully planned and executed a wedding during COVID-19. Caroline Wise, Tripleseat's Director of Product, got married last month at Killington Distillery in Vermont and shares all the details about planning for her big day with COVID-19 circumstances in mind. Howie Goldfarb, the Operations Manager at K...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel discuss the challenges that many restaurants face when using third-party delivery services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Postmates, among other third-party giants. These services may be causing more harm than good, and a financial loss to the restaurant is only one of the reasons why. Check out the episode to gain more insight into this challenge across the in...

On this episode, Kate and Rachel take a step back from the COVID-19 specific discussions, and dive into other current hospitality industry trends and noteworthy news bits that you will definitely find interesting. A few topics of discussion include an airline turning its planes into a pop up restaurant, a new egg replacement product that has hit the US market, and how a hotel revamped to create a...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel dive into some step-by-step actionable tips that hospitality professionals can take to incorporate a catering program into their offerings. In a time where large in-person events can no longer happen, groups are looking to restaurants and venues to accommodate their gathering's needs in the form of off-site catering. While building a catering program from sc...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel indulge a little bit and talk about a topic that they find interesting as lovers of the hospitality industry, and that is Michelin star restaurants. Specifically how during the pandemic, many Michelin star restaurants have had to do the unthinkable for their businesses and move to takeout operations. This was a make or break decision for many restaurants, bu...

The past six months have forced restaurants to pivot their standard models in order to reach customers in new ways. This holiday season may be no different, and it is time for restaurants to consider how off-site catering can be a key revenue stream during the usually busy holiday events season. On this episode, Kate and Rachel discuss the importance of restaurants offering off-site catering servi...

While the past months in the hospitality industry have been anything but easy, the warm summer weather has made life a little bit easier with outdoor dining and industry trends that help restaurants to earn revenue while keeping guests safe (and often outdoors). Now as we move into Fall, the new challenge will be finding creative ways that restaurants can keep up business once the weather is too c...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel discuss the latest hotel trends they have been learning about that relate to COVID-19. Whether you work at a hotel, have stayed in a hotel during COVID-19, or are simply interested in the hospitality industry, these are topics that you are sure to enjoy hearing.  If you have seen these or other hotel trends throughout COVID-19, please reach out to share...

The past six months have been nothing short of a whirlwind for the hospitality and events industry. While both corporate and social gatherings had to be put on hold due to COVID-19  restrictions, event planners at restaurants, hotels, and other unique venues have turned to virtual events. On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel are joined by Tripleseat's Corporate Event Manager, Rachel Mazzol...

If you are a restaurant sales manager, then chances are you are feeling exactly how Holly Carpenter of A Marshall Hospitality and Whitney Eccher of 4 Top Hospitality have been feeling for the past six months with COVID-19 impacting the hospitality industry. Join hosts Kate and Rachel on this week’s episode as they chat with Holly and Whitney about takeout initiatives, the reopening process, bookin...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel chat with Katie Perkins, owner of Kaper Design, about adjusting restaurant spaces during COVID-19 times. Kaper Design helps restaurants create functional, unique and curated restaurant and cafe spaces, so Katie has been busy helping clients adjust their spaces throughout the pandemic. Katie shares the design process she goes through when working with clients...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel explain how your restaurant can adjust the physical set-up of the space to efficiently host in-house dining while always keeping social distancing front of mind. Listen up to learn tips for rearranging your physical space and changing staff processes within the space, all while maintaining and prioritizing the guest experience. Many states have had very litt...

On this week's episode, Kate and Rachel discuss the specific features of both Instagram and Facebook, and share tips for how event professionals can use them to market their restaurants or venues efficiently. Social media is a powerful, but often overwhelming tool, so listen to the episode and learn new tips about how your restaurant can better connect to your audience on social media! As mentione...