The Future of the Food and Beverage Industry: A Global Discussion

Grab a drink and end your day of working at home by participating in a webinar with a number of pioneering restaurant luminaries to hear their ideas about shape of the food and beverage industry post Covid-19.

The pandemic has created enormous challenges for an industry that is traditionally labor intensive and relies on packed venues to be profitable. Although our local economy is beginning to open back up, how will restaurants be able to provide an enjoyable dining experience and still make a margin in this era of social distancing? How will they be able to cook and serve delicious meals when their chefs and wait staff have to keep their distance? In short, will we be able to enjoy going out for a meal in the future?

At this webinar, we will bring together two restaurant entrepreneurs who developed very successful restaurant chains in China as well as the President of one of Seattle’s most iconic restaurant chains to share their insights about what dining out might look like in the future.

This webinar is co-sponsored by the Washington State China Relations Council and the Seattle Shanghai Expats Society.

Attendance is free. RSVP is required to receive webinar login information. REGISTER NOW

Panelists

Bob Boyce, a Montana native, moved to China in 1994 and built two distinct Western Food and Beverage brands in the PRC: Blue Frog Bar and Grill and KABB Bistro Bar, both of which became the gold standard for casual Western dining and drinking in China.

As CEO, Bob oversaw the procurement, design, fit-out, and management of over forty multi-million-dollar restaurant projects in China and Macau. When Bob sold the business in 2017, the company he founded, Blue Horizon Hospitality Group, operated 35 restaurants in 10 cities throughout China, had annual revenues of seventy-five million US dollars, and employed nearly two thousand team members country wide.

Sok Featherston, a Singaporean native, was one of the co-founders of the Simply Group, the company behind lifestyle brands including Simply Life and the award winning Simply Thai restaurants in China. In 2013, she created where’s my lunch?® – an affordable, food focused, no-frills cafeteria serving a healthier Chinese lunch and global cuisine to a growing set of white collar workers. The cafeteria currently operates 4 locations in Shanghai serving close to 4,000 meals daily.

A year and a half ago, Sok founded Finders Keepers, a private chef service in the Greater Seattle area which has pivoted to a delivery business. She now lives on Bainbridge Island.

Bob Donegan helps manage Ivar’s Restaurant Group. He joined the company as the Chief Financial Officer in 1997 and became the president on 9-11. When not at Ivar’s, he volunteers on the boards of the Seattle Aquarium, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Historic Waterfront Association, the Seattle Sports Commission, the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, the Washington Hospitality Association, and the Board of the Seattle Branch of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

Date

Jun 09 2020
Expired!

Time

5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

Local Time

  • Timezone: America/New_York
  • Date: Jun 09 2020
  • Time: 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Category