Thibault Paquin is the CEO of Celebrating Life, a total destination consultancy specialized in tourism, leisure and cultural assets. In this interview Thibault stresses the importance of defining the purpose of your business and your brand, and how it will create meaningful experiences for the guests you serve. This includes hiring staff members who are also consumers of the experience you provide, which breaks the dichotomy between employee and guest, and ultimately leads to a more social experience. When discussing the future of the family entertainment industry, Thibault talks about how venues are moving toward creating more premium experiences for their guests, and enhanced through the technology that enables it to be successful. When you transform the lives of the guests you serve, it truly shows that you have created a meaningful experience.

Ruddy Harootian is so passionate about guest experience and hospitality, that the guests that he serves often end up becoming his friends. Based in New York City, Ruddy is the Director of Guest Experience at the Roxy Hotel, and also runs his own tour business called Ruddy Was Here. Guests who take one of Ruddy’s tours are immersed into the art culture in various areas of New York, curated specifically by Ruddy based on what he believes to be of high interest. Founded in 2012, Ruddy Was Here has grown organically through word of mouth, repeat guests, and by being featured in several large publications, all promoting the incredible experience he provides on his tours. In this interview, Ruddy shares the importance of making personal connections with guests, which will amplify the success of the business.

Jenny Emley and Kerri Little are with High 5 Entertainment, based in Austin, TX. With two locations in the greater Austin area, High 5 offers unique experiences at each of their locations, with a strong company culture built around the experience. In this interview, we talk about how High 5 focuses marketing efforts on the parents, who are the decision makers of the household, and how the parents are kept engaged while the children have a great time. From day one, High 5 immerses new staff members into the “High 5 Way,” which sets the standard for hospitality and guest service, along with a strong focus on ensuring staff can take the experience to the next mile, which makes it even more memorable. Jenny and Keri also talk proudly about their food & beverage options, which includes a menu with unique food options and creative craft cocktails, and how food & beverage is a key driver in building repeat visitation and loyalty.

Simon Nash is the Owner and GM of Ohana Towels, helping businesses add more warmth and feeling to their customer care experience. In this interview, we cover many of the core elements of hospitality: a warm welcome, an emotional connection, and treating your guests like family in your home. Simon shares how the warm moist towel is a gesture of appreciation and care, and while it may seem like it doesn’t have a large influence, it actually is a big differentiator between a standard experience and a premium one. Additionally, Simon shares his views on how customer service and hospitality are different, mainly in that companies who focus on customer service ensure that the transaction is fulfilled to the expectation that has been set. Companies that focus on hospitality take an extra level of care toward those they serve. Simon also discussed the importance of employee engagement, and going beyond the functional elements of one’s job duties.

Kevin Williams is the Co-Founder of Spider Entertainment, a consultancy that brings together decades of talent and experience within the family entertainment industry. Spider Entertainment offers research, feasibility, and operations to venues within the out-of-home entertainment space to help operators make data-backed decisions on what entertainment offerings should be implemented to serve the ideal guest demographic. In this interview, we talk about the evolution of the guest experience, particularly in family entertainment centers, and how gut instinct is not the most optimal way to run your business. Kevin talks about driving repeat visitation, minimizing cannibalization when adding new entertainment options, and how guests are becoming more and more sophisticated, which is changing the way operators need to look at their business.

Amanda Verhoff is the President of ALSD, the Association of Luxury Suite Directors. ALSD helps to share information, ideas, and values to those who are providing the epitome of guest experience and hospitality at stadiums and arenas throughout North America, and with a growing global reach. In this interview, Amanda shares the guest journey of the premium guest or client, and talks about the importance of removing friction from the most granular elements of the experience. This includes booking suites at venues, how the tickets are delivered, ingress and egress, and everything in between. Amanda stresses the vital impact of incredible customer service, the highest quality food & beverage, and full attention to detail at every stage of the experience.

Jeroen Sijl is the Founder and Director for Smart Segments, a technology platform that helps operators better collect and understand the data they receive from their guests. Everyone knows that information is critical to the success of any business, but many owners or operators are either “gut-feeling guessers” or “manual miners,” meaning that they either make decisions based on instinct, or they spend too much time searching for the answers they need. Smart Segments helps present the data in intuitive ways that helps businesses understand what actions they need to take, whether it is in the form of marketing, guest experience, or operations, so that they can see improvement to their overall metrics. Jeroen also shares how Smart Segment’s ROLLER API Connector can help attractions cross-reference data across multiple sources to make even more informed decisions, and he also shares the details of becoming an official Google Cloud Build partner.

Adele Gutman is a hospitality expert with decades of experience in the hotel industry, and today she focuses specifically on helping businesses use online reviews to further drive the success of their property. In this interview, we talk about what it was like during the early days of TripAdvisor, when guest feedback first went public, and how Adele and her team embraced the idea of people sharing their experiences online, rather than being intimidated. Adele’s “Service is Marketing” philosophy suggests that in order to gain five star reviews, you must provide a five star experience, and the cost of not doing so is an expensive mistake that you want to avoid. Additionally, Adele talks about how she works with companies to help craft their “dream reviews” and then work backward to bring them to life.

Dennis Moseley-Williams is an Experience Economy expert. In this interview, Dennis walks us through the progression of economic value, and focuses specifically on the difference between service and experience. While service is defined by saving guests time, experiences are about making the time well spent. Specifically, what exactly is the product that your guests are buying? In the attractions industry, you don’t quantify the value of the experience based on how much the guest has done, but rather how they feel at the end of it. Dennis presents a compelling case that your experience focus should be based on how you want your guests to feel after their experience, rather than if they adequately got their transactional exchange.

Sean Fernandez is the CIO for ROLLER Software, and in this interview, we talk about all things data security. Recently, ROLLER was awarded an Independent Software Vendor (IVS) certification from Amazon Web Services (AWS), and also successfully completed a penetration test that included an attempted breach of ROLLER’s server. While venue operators may not always want to be thinking about their data security, it should always be top of mind, especially when employees are given access to devices that contain sensitive data, otherwise you risk that data being compromised. Sean says that it is not a matter of if, but when, someone will attempt to hack your data, and shares recommendations for how you can keep your information safe.