Most hospitality operators think about packaging as something functional.

Max Shipman thinks about it differently.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Max Shipman from Brand Your to explore how packaging has evolved from a simple operational necessity into a powerful part of the guest experience.

Max shares his journey through hospitality technology, delivery, Just Eat and McDonald’s before discussing how Brand Your is helping hospitality businesses rethink packaging, branding and customer engagement.

The conversation explores customer ownership, loyalty, direct ordering, founder-led content and why hospitality brands should view bags, cups and boxes as more than just packaging. Adam and Max discuss how memorable unboxing experiences, thoughtful design and simple branding can turn everyday touchpoints into marketing opportunities that guests remember and share.

Along the way, they explore the future of hospitality technology, AI, delivery, guest relationships and why the most successful brands focus on creating experiences rather than transactions.

If you’re interested in guest experience, hospitality marketing, customer loyalty and building stronger customer relationships, learn more about Captive WiFi and how guest WiFi can become a powerful marketing, data and loyalty engine.

#Hospitality #GuestExperience #RestaurantMarketing #HospitalityTech #CustomerLoyalty #Branding #PackagingDesign #CustomerData #BrandYour #CaptiveConversations

The 15-Second Moment

Mention loyalty in hospitality and many operators immediately think discounts, points cards, and race-to-the-bottom promotions. But what if we’ve been thinking about loyalty all wrong? In this solo episode, Georgina explores why loyalty has a branding problem, why true loyalty has nothing to do with vouchers, and what actually makes guests want to come back.  

The conversation centres around what Captive WiFi calls the “15-second moment” — the short window when a guest first connects to WiFi, before they’ve even looked at the menu. Georgina explains why this is one of the most overlooked opportunities in hospitality and how venues can begin building meaningful guest relationships from the very start of the visit.

Along the way, she shares the story of Regency Club, explores the difference between loyalty and belonging, and explains why the venues guests return to most often are the ones where they feel seen, remembered and known.

#Hospitality #GuestExperience #CustomerLoyalty #RestaurantMarketing #HospitalityTech #CaptiveWiFi #CaptiveConversations

Building a restaurant is one thing.

Building a restaurant while learning hospitality, marketing, technology and guest engagement at the same time is something else entirely.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Charlie Wood-Jones, owner of Cawsburger and Sales Consultant at Popmenu, for a conversation that bridges both sides of the hospitality world.

Charlie shares the journey of launching Cawsburger during lockdown, growing a loyal customer base through social media, and eventually realising that likes, followers and algorithms are not the same as owning a relationship with your guests.

The conversation explores how Popmenu helped shift that thinking, turning a website from a simple digital brochure into a powerful marketing and guest engagement tool. Charlie discusses building a database of thousands of guests, the role of email and SMS marketing, automated campaigns, guest data, direct ordering, Google visibility and why restaurants need to think beyond social media if they want sustainable growth.

Along the way, Adam and Charlie dive into hospitality technology, operational challenges, AI search, customer loyalty, and the importance of creating memorable guest experiences that keep people coming back.

If you're interested in how restaurants can better capture guest data, personalise communications and build stronger customer relationships, learn more about Captive WiFi and how guest WiFi can become a powerful marketing, data and loyalty engine.

A practical and honest conversation about restaurant growth, guest data, hospitality marketing and what operators can learn when they see the industry from both sides.

Captive WiFi

#Hospitality #RestaurantMarketing #GuestExperience #HospitalityTech #CRM #RestaurantOwner #RestaurantGrowth #CustomerData #Popmenu #CaptiveConversations

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Pete Hurley from Well Seasoned for a wide-ranging conversation about hospitality careers, operator pressure, fragmented tech and the rise of fractional talent.

Pete shares how his journey moved from washing dishes in a country pub to building an early meal kit business, pivoting into outside catering, taking on a modern art gallery café, restaurant and events operation, and eventually building Well Seasoned. It is a story full of learning curves, customer demand, operational chaos and the kind of real-world adaptability hospitality is built on.

The episode explores why platforms still need to talk to each other, why hospitality teaches skills you cannot learn in a classroom, why operators increasingly need “outside eyes”, and how Well Seasoned is helping businesses find practical specialists for specific problems.

#hospitality #hospitalitytech #restaurantoperations #fractionaltalent #restaurantindustry #wellseasoned #captiveconversations

This episode almost didn’t happen.

Adam had a client call he had to jump onto, the podcast still needed to go out, and Georgina stepped in last minute to record what was originally written as Adam’s second solo episode.

And honestly… she absolutely smashed it.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Georgina explores one of the biggest missed opportunities in hospitality: what happens after the guest leaves.

Most operators collect guest data.
Very few use it in a way that feels human.

“The goal of a welcome journey is simple: make the guest feel remembered.”

From walk-in guests and WiFi data capture to CRM Live Lookup, personalisation, and guest recognition, this episode breaks down why the first 7 days after a guest interacts with your brand matter more than most hospitality businesses realise.

The conversation also dives into:
• Why walk-in guests are often invisible
• Why most welcome emails fail
• Recognition vs transactional marketing
• Live guest dashboards and personalisation
• Gamification, feedback and CRM integrations inside CaptiveWiFi

A very real, very human episode about hospitality, teamwork and building technology that helps guests feel remembered.

#hospitality #guestexperience #crm #restaurantmarketing #hospitalitytech #wifi #loyalty #captiveconversations

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Claire Reid, a marketing consultant with a career that spans hospitality, charity communications, brand building, feedback, data, internal culture and coffee.

Claire shares how her early experiences in cafés, retail, charity communications and Wood Street Coffee shaped the way she thinks about hospitality. The conversation explores why marketing and operations need to work together, why feedback should be treated as the voice of the guest, and why the best hospitality often comes down to something much harder to measure: how a place makes people feel.

From Dishoom and Wood Street Coffee to freelance life, local marketing, data storytelling and the importance of not diluting a brand as it grows, this is a warm, honest conversation about building hospitality brands that feel human.

#hospitality #marketing #guestexperience #operations #restaurantmarketing #data #captiveconversations

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Kevin to explore what it really takes to turn data into meaningful hospitality experiences.

From his early career in consulting to leading digital transformation at one of the largest restaurant groups in the US, Kevin shares a rare behind-the-scenes look at how systems, data, and people come together in real operations. From fragmented tech stacks to enterprise-wide transformation, this is a story of complexity, challenge, and learning.

At the heart of the conversation is a simple but powerful truth. Recognition matters. As Kevin puts it, “When someone says, welcome back in… it’s great to see you… that just sets the tone.” The episode explores how businesses can move beyond collecting data to actually using it, and why adoption, trust, and usability are what ultimately drive results.

#hospitality #restaurants #data #guestexperience #crm #loyalty #technology

The journey into content does not always start with a strategy.

Sometimes it starts with curiosity.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Forman sits down with Thomas, founder of Fearless Media, to explore how starting young and learning through doing can shape a career in content and business. From making videos at 12 to building a creative agency, this is a conversation about consistency, experimentation and long-term thinking.

The episode dives into how content creates goodwill, builds relationships and opens doors over time. It also explores how different platforms play different roles, and why brands that show up consistently have an advantage.

For hospitality businesses, this is a powerful reminder that connection starts before the visit. Content is not just marketing. It is relationship building at scale.

#hospitality #marketing #content #socialmedia #growth #captiveconversations

Big things just dropped at CaptiveWiFi.

In this episode Adam Forman walks through the most significant platform update in CaptiveWiFi's history. No guests, no interviews — just a straight-talking rundown of everything that has just shipped and what is coming next.

Covered in this episode: the Live Guest Dashboard, built after a conversation with Ben Heppell from Aqua Restaurant Group, now pulling in real-time spend data, loyalty points, CRM tags and a VIP triage from SevenRooms, ResDiary, Airship, Me&U and Klaviyo. A major feedback upgrade with new templates, emoji ratings, WhatsApp and SMS delivery, and SevenRooms feedback reporting. Competitor analysis against up to five locations. Fully branded scheduled email reports. Two brand new WiFi portal designs. And gamification — scratch cards, spin to win and shake to reveal, with live voucher integrations from Airship and Square.

If you work in hospitality and you want to know what connected guest data actually looks like in practice right now, this is the episode to start with.

#CaptiveWiFi #HospitalityTech #GuestExperience #Gamification #GuestData #ProductUpdate #CaptiveConversations

What does it actually take to bring a guest back? Not through aggressive re-targeting or bulk email sends, but in a way that fits inside a premium hospitality experience and makes the guest feel genuinely valued?

In this episode, recorded live on stage at HT360 at ExCeL London, Adam Forman sits down with Ben Heppell, Global Digital Marketing Director at Aqua Restaurant Group.

They talk about the repeat guest challenge that sits at the centre of Ben's role, why ecommerce tactics do not translate into premium dining, and what changes when you start connecting WiFi visit data to your reservation and CRM systems. Ben also shares how Aqua changed the way they measure repeat guest rate and what that revealed about the real problem underneath a metric that looked fine on the surface.

A grounded, honest conversation from a practitioner doing this work in real venues, in real time.

#CaptiveConversations #HospitalityMarketing #GuestRetention #HospitalityTech #CaptiveWiFi #RepeatGuests #HT360