Attracting, nurturing and retaining talent will continue to be one of the hospitality sector’s biggest challenges – but how to do it? Some of the sector’s top employers and culture creators will be sharing their thoughts at next month’s Peach 2020 conference.
Brewdog’s retail director James Brown and Chris Hill, CEO of the award-winning New World Trading Co, will be joining Mowgli founder Nisha Katona MBE to examine the best ways to create a strong and robust people culture – and how to ensure it stays relevant as businesses grow.
Nisha is teaming team up with CGA vice president Peter Martin to co-chair the 2019 conference sessions. The chef, food writer, TV presenter and driving force behind the Mowgli brand will draw on her experiences as a relative industry newcomer, promoting Indian food and launching a restaurant business, to help shape this year’s conference narratives – spotlighting the issues most important to her, chairing panels focusing not just on people but on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.
Julia Wilkinson, group restaurant strategy executive with Shaftesbury, the real estate investment trust which invests in London’s West End, and Ollie Hunter, head of development at street food incubator KERB, which has just opened Seven Dials Market in London, will help lead the discussion on the lessons for the modern food and drink entrepreneur.
The invitation-only Peach 2020 event for the sector’s top executives and entrepreneurs will be held at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London on Wednesday, November 20,
Another big issue on the agenda will be the future of British food. The National Farmers’ Union has thrown down a challenge to the hospitality sector to become more involved in the debate about the future of British agriculture and the food supply chain. Phil Hambling, the NFU’s Head of Food and Farming, is joining the speaker roster to set out farming’s vision.
How pub, restaurant and bar businesses can, and should, have a louder voice in the future of food debate will be the theme echoed by Henry Dimbleby MBE, the co-founder of Leon and the man charged by the Government to create a new food strategy for England, when he too joins the conference discussion.
There’s a raft of research to show that the nation is becoming more engaged when it comes to healthy eating, the provenance of their food and drink and environmental matters in general. Peach 2020 delegates will be able to question Hambling and Dimbleby on their contributions to national policy, particularly in the shadow of Brexit, which will be central to how hospitality itself develops, and is allowed to develop, in the coming years.
Adding the broader political context will be the CEO of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, who will be giving her annual campaigning up-date.
Other big name speakers signed up for the November conference roster include Wendy Bartlett MBE, and commercial director of global food hall operator Time Out Markets, Jessica Parrish – with the final line-up to be announce next week.
An underlying theme of Peach 2020, which is run by CGA, the industry’s leading research and insight consultancy, will be analysing the implications of what’s new and changing in this highest competitive marketplace, including food supply, premiumisation, consumer tracking, site optimisation and tactical pricing. CGA’s CEO Phil Tate and food & retail director Karl Chessell will showcase the latest data, insight and measurement techniques.
As ever, the conference will be followed in the evening by the annual Peach Hero & Icon Awards dinner, honouring the best in the industry, and hosted by Peter Martin and Phil Tate. Voting is currently active.
The awards will honour dozens of outstanding operators across the out-of-home eating and drinking markets, and will include the unique Icon awards, which recognise those individuals who have made an outstanding and lasting contribution to the sector.
The conference and awards dinner are both strictly invitation-only events, with places reserved for senior executives in operating companies. To inquire about attending please submit your request here: https://www.cga.co.uk/peach-events/request-a-seat-peach-2020-november-20-2019/
