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The budding vertical of sports and entertainment is taking the Global Payments family of companies to new heights. Vice President, Global Product and Innovation, Aidoo Osei joins Senior Sales Executive, Danny Brown to discuss the sports and entertainment vertical, and ways to enhance the fan experience. Learn about how the food service industry closely mimics food and beverage functions during events.

To discuss the labor and staffing challenges that are top of mind across the restaurant industry, we sat down with Kurt Chiarelotte, Wendy’s Project Manager, Restaurant Services and Neal Starkey, ����Head of Back Office and Enterprise Services. Discover how the Wendy’s labor model can help operators optimize their staffing and hear insights into how vendors are helping multi-unit QSR chains like Wendy’s.

As a working professional and mother of a daughter with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), Betsy shares her passion for opening up our minds to the resources at our fingertips that would further enable people with IDD to showcase their capabilities. Listen to learn how her foundation, KennedyStrong Foundation, is equipping people with IDD for the workforce in a unique 12-month program.

Ann discusses a variety of topics from her unique perspective as a female who has had a rapid career growth path in the male-dominated restaurant tech industry. Ann talks about a range of topics including how she encourages diverse perspectives, promotes an innovative mindset across her team, and where she satisfies her curiosity and finds inspiration. 

����recently was awarded patents for its next-gen drive-thru technology. Chris Siefken explains what these patents are, why they’re significant, and the value of working with a patent-awarded technology innovator like Xenial. Listen to learn how this patented tech is solving drive-thru guest service challenges for enterprise restaurants.

Completely new to the world, Muros is an art activation agency, partnering with some of the best artists in the world to create first-of-its-kind experiences for brands and businesses, specializing in public space art. Listen as Tricia talks about the value of this unprecedented approach to diversity in human engagement and how she and her team continue to deliver innovative experiences.

From recruitment to professional development to team development, Regina shares inspiring tactics for managing for success. Listen as she explains why there needs to be cross-over between personal and professional worlds, and describes tactics for making the workplace and the world a better place.

Hear how Sheila and CORE develop a diverse team to reach a diverse range of food and beverage employees, providing grants to help restaurant employees and their families through difficult periods and crises including injury, illness, loss of home, natural disaster, and others. Listen to learn all the ways that CORE is making a difference and how you can help.

Global Payments SVP Talent Management & Chief Diversity Officer Jackie Parker draws on her rich experience in human resources diversity, professional coaching, and leadership development to share her perspective on why diversity and inclusion are essential to innovation. Listen as Jackie shares what innovation means to her and her team, advantages that non-homogenous teams have, and keys to overcoming long-held biases, including overcoming a scarcity mindset.

How restaurant operators look at their data—and which data sets are critically important (especially coming out of a global pandemic)—are shifting. Listen as Jerry Philips of Whataburger shares where these changes have brought them as a brand with an extremely loyal fan following. Jerry shares with Katharine Dalton and Tama Looney of ����what the company and its leaders have learned about the importance and value of customer data, employee data, and social media in achieving customer and employee loyalty.

The newest member of the ����Analytics & Customer Engagement (ACE) team Katharine Dalton shares why and how she believes Xenial’s powerful ACE tools will drive innovation among the next generation of data-centric restaurants. Katharine talks about the people who have inspired her in her professional development, her unique view of what it means—and takes—to be an ‘analyst,’ and her optimistic outlook for diversity in the restaurant technology industry.

Rising labor costs and other factors are prompting restaurants to consider automating parts of their operations. Is there real ROI to be gained from these investments? Listen as ����President Scott Meyer and Head of Technology Chris Siefken share real-world examples and a glimpse of the automation technologies ����has brought to market this year, including Voice Bot ordering, Camera-Vision-Based Drive-thru Timing, AI-powered Upselling, and a Next-gen Drive-thru Controller to power it all.

Kristen Zupancic, Sr. Director, Customer Engagement Solutions for Global Payments, shares her broad experience with innovation and how she applies these experiences to deliver Global Payments’ solutions for customer engagement. These solutions are used by an expansive range of merchant types and sizes. Kristen shares her perspective on the value of diversity in the workplace, her switch from process engineering to the software industry, and tactics for inspiring her teams to focus on what’s important and constantly improve.

Many restaurant and retail businesses find it constantly challenging to build awareness in their local markets. Amy LaFrank of Edible Arrangements shares some of the things she’s learned throughout her restaurant and food marketing career, including sage advice for local store marketing.

The move to digital and the recent pandemic have dramatically accelerated changes in how guests order and pay, and restaurant operators have discovered the value of innovation when it comes to payments technologies and services. Listen as Bob Larimer of Hardee's Franchisee Boddie-Noell joins Marc Castrechini of Global Payments Integrated to discuss innovations in payments for restaurants. 

With off-premises and mobile now all but essential, restaurants have been pivoting quickly to digital ordering and payment channels. Kristen Addington, Head of Digital Solutions, talks about Whataburger’s use of agile methodologies to introduce delivery and mobile. She describes her technology career path, women in leadership who have inspired her, and shares how she leads her team to optimize the customer experience by fostering innovation and cross-team collaboration.

Menu innovation is any brand's 'secret sauce' so we were beyond excited when Alice Crowder, Vice President at Tropical Smoothie Café, agreed to give us an insider's perspective. Alice shares how a very diverse team approaches menu innovation strategically. This is part of our series 'Women in Innovation,' hosted by Tama Looney, Brand Executive for ����Analytics & Customer Engagement Solutions. You won’t want to miss a second of this episode.

Guests have heard a lot about what lives on the keypads and screens of ordering and payment devices not to mention what can spread through the air. Suffice to say, we’re all a little on edge about germs these days. What can brands do to reassure guests? The National Restaurant Association's OrderUp Podcast asked Tama Looney, ����Account Executive, to share perspectives on today’s ‘new normal’ and what she's heard from nationwide enterprise quick serve and fast casual brands.

With 97% of its sales in the drive-thru, Dutch Bros. Coffee is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to fast, efficient guest service. Systems Architect Brendon Gilbert shares how the 420+ location rapidly growing brand keeps the customer-server connection strong while it evolves its operations and modernizes its technology stack.

In the midst of unprecedented challenges for dine-in restaurants worldwide prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Golden Corral Buffet + Grill franchise Platinum Corral has a new lease on success.  The company expanded its off-premises guest service options at the Jacksonville, North Carolina location by launching a drive-thru and retrofitting its store with a “To-Go Room” that services all to-go channels. Off-premises sales have far exceeded expectations, and the restaurant is now equipped to further expand its digital service channels and serve guests regardless of possible future pandemic-imposed restrictions. In this episode, we talk with Director of Marketing and IT, Mike Cox, and Platinum Corral President Billy Sewell about the pivot to off-premises, the stellar results, including blazing-fast drive-thru service times, and what it all means for the future of buffet.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Denny’s on Demand digital ordering channel went from about 12% of sales to 100% virtually overnight. Like other brands, the company quickly accelerated its off-premises service options, while planning and preparing for an eventual safe and comfortable re-opening of dining rooms. In this episode, we talk with Jason Breazeale, Director of Architecture and Innovation at Denny’s, about what the brand has done, strategically and tactically, to adjust, make sure guests and employees feel safe, and continue to provide exceptional guest experiences in a constantly changing environment. 

Fast Casual and Quick Serve restaurants are rapidly pivoting to emphasize off-premises and socially safe, low-touch/no-touch service. Tactics include enabling online ordering, takeout, curbside pickup, seating management, and touchless payments. Listen as technology and product leaders from ����discuss the current environment, what operators are doing to adjust, and perspectives on rebounding from this downturn.

The restaurant industry is a core staple of the world economy. It provides sustenance, joy and opportunity to so many people. We all play a part in this family of industry professionals who are constantly trying to improve the ways that we delight the everyday consumer and increasingly look to technology solutions to find ways to make it easier to do that. That’s where the Table Stakes podcast comes in.

Every episode, we offer a conversation around areas and challenges that the enterprise restaurant industry is tackling. Since we started this podcast during the incredibly difficult time of the Covid-19 pandemic, you’ll see a lot of the earlier episodes discussing challenges and opportunities that have come out of that. Most of the Table Stakes episodes will feature guests from well-known enterprise restaurant brands sharing their unique perspective and experience on the topic at hand. We invite you to join us in these discussions! Thank you for checking out our podcast. If you have comments, questions, or suggestions, you can reach us at tablestakes@xenial.com.����