This week on Tech Chef, host Skip Kimpel dives into a post-MURTEC 2025 recap with first-time guest and hospitality tech veteran Tom Seeker. Fresh off the show floor, they discuss everything from shifting conference venues to the biggest tech themes making waves in the restaurant and hospitality space.

Tom brings the dual perspective of a vendor and operator, offering sharp insights on what made this year’s event stand out. The conversation centers on how data has become the true king, replacing cash as the core currency of innovation, and how restaurants must own and control their data to stay competitive.

From the evolving role of AI and VR in training and operations to conversations around legacy tech, security, and personalization, this episode is packed with strategic takeaways for operators, tech providers, and hospitality pros alike.

Takeaways:

• Data is the New Currency: The dominant theme of MURTEC 2025 was clear—data is king. Operators need to prioritize data ownership, clean pipelines, and interoperability between systems to future-proof their businesses.
• AI is Just a Tool: The buzz around AI has matured. It’s no longer seen as a silver bullet, but rather as a data enhancement tool, helping restaurants normalize, visualize, and act on information more effectively.
• Training is Going Virtual: With limited resources and expanding footprints, operators are increasingly turning to virtual and extended reality (XR) solutions to meet employees where they are. VR-based onboarding and training are on the rise, driven by both need and innovation.
• Legacy Tech Still a Major Pain Point: Many brands remain handcuffed by outdated systems. There’s a growing push to modernize the tech stack while ensuring data continuity and seamless integration with modern tools.
• Security Still Matters (Even If It's Not Trendy): While AI dominated past headlines, cybersecurity remains mission-critical. Large restaurant brands continue to be high-profile targets, making awareness and proactive defense essential.
• The Guest Experience is Assumed, but the Employee Experience is Rising: Guest experience is now table stakes. The bigger surprise? A growing emphasis on employee-facing tech—tools that empower teams, improve shift management, and optimize training.
• MURTEC Venue Shift & Community Vibes: While there was skepticism about the move from Paris Las Vegas to Caesars Forum, Tom praises the new setup, calling it a “family reunion” with great energy and flow. Still, the familiar charm of Paris has its fans.
• RTN Standards & Collaboration: The Restaurant Technology Network (RTN) is playing a vital role in shaping the future. From RFP standards to possible mentorship programs and showroom tours, there’s a strong push for industry-wide collaboration.

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You are listening to the Tech Chef Podcast.

This is episode number 93.

This show is powered by Growth Advisors International network where travel and hospitality companies come to grow.

For more information please visit gainadvisors.com hi.

This is Tom Seeker, CTO for Ziggy's Coffee and you're listening to Skip on the Tech Chef Podcast.

Strategy Business Continu.

How about a taste test of restaurant technology?

Drive thru or curbside?

Mobile apps or AI?

It's all on the menu.

Cook it up for the date.

It's a recipe for success.

You're in good hands with the Tech Chef.

Make a plan to be your best.

Strategize with the Tech Chef.

Well, hey there and welcome to the Tech Chef Podcast where tech meets table in the coolest ways possible.

I'm Skip Kimpl, your guide on this wild ride through the ever evolving world of hospitality innovation.

Whether you're running a hotel, managing a restaurant, or just nerding out over the latest tech and unique guest experiences, you're in the right place.

Each week we're serving up hot takes on the freshest tech trends.

From AI tools that know your guest better than they know themselves, to jaw dropping immersive experiences and future forward ideas you didn't even know existed.

We're talking to the big thinkers, bold creators and the hospitality rebels who are reshaping how we eat, sleep, play and stay.

So if you're hungry for innovation and thirsty for inspiration, pull up a chair because we're about to cook up the future of hospitality.

Before we fully dive into today's episode, I gotta say, wow.

What an incredible time at Mirtech this year.

If you were there, you already know what I'm talking about.

The energy, the innovation, the conversations.

It felt like the heartbeat of the restaurant tech world was on full blast.

From groundbreaking solutions to seeing familiar faces and meeting a few new ones, Mr.

Now real talk.

This episode was actually supposed to drop last week, but then life had other plans.

Yep, I got hit with a nasty bug right after the conference.

Total Tech Chef shut down.

No voice, no energy, just tea, tissues and sleep.

But I'm back, recharged and more excited than ever to dig into what's cooking in the world of hospitality tech.

So thank you for your patience and if you've also been battling the post conference plague, I see you this year.

To help me recap our experience at the show, I have first time guest Tom Seeker joining us to share his thoughts.

Those that don't know him Tom is a proven thought leader in information technology with extensive experience in the hospitality sector with over 25 brands, and is currently the Chief Technology Officer for ziggy's Coffee and Emtech Innovation Labs.

The main theme of this year's MrTech event was Experience Matters, which promoted discussions about how individual experiences can vary and how technology is evolving in the restaurant sector.

Tom highlights the importance of data, emphasizing its role in enhancing customer and employee experiences while also addressing the challenges posed by legacy systems.

The conversation shifts with a focus on the future, stressing that owning and managing data is crucial for making informed decisions in the industry.

Tom always has great, unique and thorough insights, and today's episode is no different.

Enjoy.

Seeker.

How are you?

Doing great.

Really appreciate being on the podcast.

I can't believe we haven't have you on the show yet.

When we were talking at the show, I'm like, wait, wait a minute, we.

We haven't had Tom Seeker on the Tech Chef.

What's going on here?

My bad.

Certainly intended to have you on at some point.

Well, heck, it's because we worked every day together for so long, it probably just slipped both of our minds.

Exactly.

And this is just another conversation.

So this is a, this is a great opportunity just to chat about technology and of course, a show that we both love and we have great passion for, and that is Mirtech.

So Mirtech was different this year.

Mirtech, it changed venues.

It went from the Paris to Caesars Forum.

What are your thoughts about that?

You know, I didn't like the idea of it when I first heard about it, and, and I thought, you know, being across the street and all the pain it was going to be.

But, you know, the reality is I had not been in the Forum, so I just simply didn't know.

But having done as many as we did in Paris, moving over to the Harrah's, which is where most of us stayed, or at least many of us stayed, and then going over to the Forum, they have a flyover on the second floor, so you're really not crossing the road.

You're just going from one building to the next.

It was like walking through 20 airports by the time you got to where you're going.

But the venue was amazing and, you know, it was like a family reunion down the whole walkway.

So just seeing everybody you knew and still seeing a lot of new people as well.

But I liked it a lot.

The main floor, everything being in the same place was nice, but I think a lot of that was trying to prevent people from suitcasing and doing other things that they really don't like happening at these shows.

Well, that's a very detailed description of the facility.

Thank you.

Thank you, Tom.

And yes, I do believe that the suitcase racing aspect is why they moved the forum.

But do you think that really worked?

No, I don't either because everybody's found.

Everybody found areas to gather anyways.

So, you know, I don't know if you had your choice of Paris or Caesar.

I see they made the announcement to go back to Caesars next year.

So I guess we have some commitment there, at least to the Caesar's properties.

But I'm just curious your thought, if you had to.

If you had to go back to Paris, would you.

Yeah.

Oh, in a heartbeat.

I liked Paris.

I enjoy.

I didn't.

I didn't have any negativities about Paris, to be honest with you.

You know, I like it either way, but I'm just so used to Paris.

That's what was comfortable to me, that when I say Murtagh, I immediately think the Paris.

Well, there was no running quickly back to your hotel room to take a call, that's for sure.

No, no, no.

I put in 47,500 steps at Murtag.

Wow.

Good for you.

That's.

It was a workout.

All right, let's get into the show itself.

So this year's theme was Experience Matters.

What were your expectations walking into the show and did it live up to those expectations?

You know, the good news is I didn't set any expectations.

I came at it differently from myself this year.

And again, remember, Mirtech is a individual experience, which is different for everyone.

That's weird to think about that because you have many, so many thousands different people coming in.

But, you know, the last four or five times I've come, I've come as a CIO or a leader of a restaurant company or restaurant group.

This time I came as a vendor and as an operator, so as CTO is Ziggy.

But I also came as a CTO of MTech Innovations.

So my mindset coming into this was I was going to spend more time on the floor and more time in different sessions and talking with different people, but not trying to specifically solve problems at my locations that I work at.

I wanted to see what the art of the possible is, what's available out there, and then let that guide me on day two, which it absolutely did.

So I didn't come into it With a mindset that this is going to be experience matters, meaning we're bringing all the people who are only experts, who have been here forever.

But I do think that after I watched a lot of the different sessions, that's what I got.

Yeah.

Speaking of sessions, I'm assuming you went to some of the keynotes.

Were there any keynote speakers or panel discussions that resonated with you?

Yeah, well, I mean, I gotta.

I gotta say, the keynote was awesome.

Damon was.

Was what?

What you expect?

I mean, he.

He is exactly what you would expect.

You know, he came in through the side door, walked onto the stage, went a little bit long, which was nice because a lot of keynotes, they give you the 59 minutes, 59 seconds, and they're right back out the door.

He told his whole story, spent the time, really tied it back to the industry, and then came over, took some pictures and left.

But that was good, and it really was an uplifting moment.

I made one of the other keynote speakers and again, that was where the experience matters conversation.

I went to the Optimizing Omnichannel just as I got there, and that's Peter Wiley and.

And really understanding what you and I dealt with in our previous lives, working with, you know, multiple different, you know, channels and how to deal with that.

I will say that I think that if.

If an afterthought, you look at what we could have called it, it is more about data being king and data being important because again, you start bringing a lot of people who are subject matter experts in the industry that it's all about capturing, manipulating and consuming data.

And every one of our talks and, you know, being a little bit selfish based off that, you know, we led a session, myself and Meredith and Clark from El Pollo Yoko, we all ran a group called Leveraging Real Time Data.

And that was, I have to say, I think it went relatively well.

It was well attended.

I had a lot of people following up with me that day and the day after, and they're just basically pointing out what you and I have discussed many times about cash not really being king.

It's data, right?

Data is king.

Cash is a small part of what we do.

It's credit cards and data.

The back of house optimization.

I did not go to that one that was on at the same time, but I did get to watch a video of it and it was outstanding.

Let me interrupt you real quick and ask you a question about the data.

So I did notice there were a lot of data discussions, security discussions.

Was there a shift of talking about AI all the time.

AI, AI, AI.

Or is this more of a foundational conversation around you got to have clean data in order to be able to build some of those LLMs for your AI.

You know, it was a.

It's a really great thing that you asked that question, because I was talking with Tony at mtac and this was wonderful to hear.

AI is going back to what it was always meant to be.

A tool.

Yes.

And quite frankly, a tool to.

To normalize, capture, and to bring you that data and present data to you.

But it's been less the conversation about AI being the answer, but a tool to help you get the answer.

And so there were a lot of AI companies at the event this year, but it wasn't that.

AI is the salvation of what you do.

It's a great mechanism to get your data quicker, to help you look at data from multiple points.

But AI was less the subject matter this year and more a great tool to help you get to the data that you need.

So there was a shift, and I'm glad to see it, because I've been saying this from the very beginning.

Those of us that have been in the technology world, not just, you know, hospitality, but technology, we've been dealing with AI for a long, long, long time.

If you've ever googled anything, you've been dealing with AI.

Yeah.

So, you know, just understanding that it's not going to come in and replace your employees, it's not going to come in and replace your processes.

It's going to come in and enhance your employees and enhance your processes.

And because of that, you can spend more time looking at that data.

On that same point, do you see any significant shifts and how restaurant tech is evolving?

Yes, I do.

A lot of restaurant technology is going, you know, look at your world, right?

What you're doing, you know, with virtualization and being able to bring a great deal of information to somebody, to where they are.

I think a lot of it.

Think about since the pandemic, we don't bring people to us as much as we bring us to them.

Right.

So meeting people where they are, if I have a training group that goes all over the country, opening five or 10 different restaurants a week, or five restaurants a week, I don't have enough staff to be at all of them.

So I can just as easily send virtual screens over to people and have them use a virtual reality to train and then be able to retrain people.

So I'm not having to send a whole team of people out to retrain.

So in Your world virtual is becoming a strong conversation.

But meeting people where they are, meeting people to where they can do what they need to do, wherever they are, versus forcing them to come into a specific classroom or a specific place.

And then again, it pulls right back to data.

If they can get the information they need, where they need it, when they need it, then they could be more responsive and the industry is catching up.

I will say we've been way, way, way behind technologically for many, many years.

But in the last two or three years, I think we're starting to actually be the tip of the spear.

Walking around the conference and we talked about kind of that experience.

Now we're talking about as a team member and as operations, which is an interesting shift away from the hospitality and guest experience that we've been so focused on for several years.

Not that that's ever lost focus.

Obviously hospitality and the touch points are key factor to restaurants being successful.

Did you hear any conversations around improving customer experience with tech new stuff?

Okay.

Oh yeah.

In fact, I would say we take it for granted that that's part of the conversation, right?

That it doesn't have to be the main topic of conversation.

It is the reason for the conversation.

I mean, every dinner, every vendor I met with, every group, and even with the teams that I was there with, we were constantly saying what tools can we utilize to be able to get in front of the customer quicker to know our customer?

That was, I would say if you were to give a theme about customer response would be getting to know your customer, how a lot of conversations with each of the POS companies that, that I was standing there listening to the groups about how can I capture information now that PCI compliance and EMV that limited me from capturing it on the front end at my restaurant, how do I do hashtags?

And working with the banks and the gift card companies, loyalty companies, know my customer, where can I get this data?

And then what can we do?

There were conversations even at the event that I was at about looking at drive thru loops and drive through cameras and understanding who your customer is, but not breaking the law like California laws on license plate reading and tying it to a customer versus Florida, where you can do a lot more than you can do out in California.

So there were lots of conversations about that.

But all of it kept leading us back to how do we take care of the customer?

But let's also not forget the employee.

How do we also take care of the employee with the same data?

Are we giving them the right shifts?

Are we able to give them the ability to trade shifts.

Are we able to pay attention to patterns with these employees?

So maybe we can see where there's some weaknesses and help them help themselves?

Yeah, through some of the VR training stuff that we're doing, we're able to actually, I don't wanna say pre qualify, but walk them through some steps.

And just from the additional data points that we're able to gather through VR, from facial tracking to pupil dilation, we're able to gather how stressed they are under certain environments.

You know, is that employee actually a right fit or let's say your, your formula is out of every 20 people that you train, you're hoping to get 10 good ones that are keepers.

Maybe this helps you kind of figure that out a lot quicker.

Anyways, I digress.

This is not a Magic 8 pitcher, but I appreciate the, the plug along the way here.

Tom, this was not planned, but you.

Were there and you were there as a vendor.

So you know, as we take it up, it wouldn't be right to not mention that that was a big car.

A lot of people were talking about what it is you're doing.

It's unique, it's different.

Certainly the only people on the showroom floor that were doing that and it's interesting.

Just real quick, I'll just put this in there.

It is being done a lot more than people do realize and I keep emphasizing that and people don't realize it, but some of the biggest competitors out there that you have, folks, they are doing VR training.

And Magic 8 is not a VR training company specifically.

We are an XRP consulting agency.

We help you find the best solutions for VR training.

We know what the industry enterprise solutions are.

Also you saw some augmented reality remote support options too.

So we have a variety of next gen technology that is quickly making its way into the restaurant space through, through Magic 8, hopefully.

And the bigger thing is, like I said, it's a.

And if this was part of conversations that wasn't VR related.

But it does take a VR slant is meeting people where they are.

I cannot always offload and unload people to a bus or on a plane and get them to where an event is happening or where they need to touch something that they can't touch.

They can't, they can't be inside the freezer.

They can't be somewhere where we're trying to train or do something.

They can't be standing in the kitchen as a group of 20 when we're trying to show how to plate a specific meal.

So there's a lot of things that we can do using that world.

And there was a lot of conversation about it.

That's good to hear.

Glad.

And hopefully it was good conversation, not bad conversation.

Going back real quick to the, we were talking about kind of the data, the customer data and how to utilize that.

Our restaurants balancing that personalization aspect through data with their digital transformation.

Because there is a balance there.

There is, it's there.

You.

Even large companies are dealing with this problem of understanding who their customer is.

Right.

And, you know, you can have all the money in the world, but if you cannot get access to your data, you can only know your customer to where the customer opts into your loyalty program.

And you're, you know, you're only as good as your loyalty program is.

And so there were lots of conversations and I was leading a lot of them, but there were lots of conversations about how people are tied to their, their point of sale system, tied to their legacy equipment, with the inability to work with some of the newer stuff that's on the floor.

Right.

So there were lots of conversations about, well, how do we get around that?

How do we capture this data that we need to get?

Lots of conversations about things like data warehousing and utilizing BI the right way.

And this is where AI and BI were coming back in to conversations.

It's nice.

I mean, BI has been around forever, but again, if data is king and we're using AI to capture it, to present it to us, we're using BI to be able to manipulate it and then be able to give it out to people to see however they want to see it.

Right?

So every restaurant group that I've been working with is still struggling with the same problems we were struggling with 10 years ago.

We're just getting the data quicker.

A lot of restaurants that didn't have fast speed Internet now do, so they're able to get it quicker.

But a lot of processes that are happening due to legacy systems are still requiring people to manipulate data on the front end, put it through the grinder, get it back on the back end, manipulate data again from that customer all the way to the bank.

There might be five legacy processes that prevent people from getting that full picture, at least in a real time factor, of who their customer is and what their data really is.

That was the theme of the entire two or three days of what we were talking about and more informative than another.

Even Damon was talking about that with his company that he started up is, you know, he branded it differently the first time he sold hats and then the next day he realized he kind of made a mistake and then kind of flipped some words around.

And it's something that's silly of just being able to understand what your, what your needs are and being able to pivot quickly.

But if you're dealing with a ton of legacy systems and you're not able to get the right group or the right people to help you, your, your hands are tied and your hands are handcuffed.

And that's been the case years.

I spent so much time on the show floor as a vendor this year doing demos for people that I didn't have a lot of time to see sessions.

So the one session I did see happened to be the one that I was doing.

So I'll go ahead and speak to that right now.

And it relates back to data, and that's the RFP process and the restaurant technology, the RTN standards, and, you know, the importance of them, how to incorporate them.

We sourced all of the attendees that were in that session.

And by the way, anybody who wants access to this, let me know, I'll send you the link.

But it is, you know, a series of questions that we recommend that operators put into their RFP process to start asking the questions.

Very few vendors, I'll be honest with you, very few vendors have adopted the standards.

It will take years before it gets to full adoption.

But we need to start as operators.

I still say we as operators because I still have that operator mindset, which I think is a key to, to my success having that mindset always as an operator.

What are we going to solve for?

We're thinking about as operators, how do we, you know, make life simpler for us and for the vendors to really start integrating all these data points together, that is a huge struggle.

So it's faster time to market if everybody comes on board not only from, from operator, but a vendor side.

So there's great incentive for vendors to really jump on the bandwagon here.

But it comes down to the operators driving adoption.

You need to be asking your vendors, are you implementing or have you implemented RTN standards?

And that's a great opening question too, because if they don't know what it is, open door to introduce them to rtn.

You said it exactly right.

People have to.

And you know, RTN is, is critically important not just about setting standards, but also key point indicators, right?

Looking at what kind of standards should we do, how should we behave from API to questions to workflows.

You and I and Robert and others have worked with these, but also looking at how do you measure one of the things I mentioned in my session and I mentioned every chance I get, we'll never get to the same place as an industry if we can't even define what guest count is.

That drives me nuts that we still cannot really state if a guest is somebody that sat in a chair, if a guest is somebody that bought a specific entree, or if a guest is somebody that because they bought a huge pizza, that it's three people.

Even if it's only one person eating it, or if it's a child eating a hot dog versus an adult eating a hot dog, if it's an adult, it's a guest gallon child, it's not.

If we can't get those kind of silly things figured out and agree to those, then how do we measure whether our guest count and our per plate average compares to somebody else?

So when we try to compare ourselves against ourselves or against the industry or if you're at a large corporation where you have 12, 14 brands, you can't even know how you're doing against your own brands because they're measuring things differently within those brands.

So, Tom, we're going to take a little break here.

When we come back, we're going to continue the conversation around what we saw at Myrtek, the cool things that you need to be aware of and maybe questions you should be asking of operators out there.

So hang on everybody, we'll be right back.

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Okay, Tom, continuing on, let's talk about anything you heard from the data and security side of the restaurant tech stack.

Yeah, it was awesome.

I went to the upgrade cybersecurity to meet new threats and that was being run by Joseph Frisk at Dyn and Marcus Wasden, our all around wizard in the industry.

And you know, for those of us that have been cyber and security for a long time, it was a variation of a theme but it really is critically important and they spent a lot of time showing that, you know, you would think that a restaurant industry or restaurant company would not be a target at the highest level for cyber, but that has been proven and even in years of my world, previously Large restaurant brands get attacked often and are a target on a regular basis.

So making sure people understand, you know, don't click it.

Make sure that you do all the right things in the cyber world.

Yeah, it was discussed.

It wasn't.

Other than this particular event, I didn't hear a lot of talk about it other than whenever you got to some AI, they were talking about AI security and things they were concerned about.

But that was a great session.

Did you see any more products on the floor that were specifically dedicated to security that you hadn't seen before?

No.

Okay.

Same players maybe just being a little more robust in their, their thinking and hopefully the base products are also concentrating heavily on the security piece as well.

So speaking of the show floor, were there any other standout solutions or startups that caught your attention?

I know the, the startup alley, we had a very interesting winner this year.

Anything else out there?

Well, the Ring of Fire, this is the second year they've done it.

Last year M Tech was in it and I think they were one of the couple runner ups.

They made it to top three.

And this year they had a couple people that we know.

I mean we all know Mako, we know Kinetics, you know, we know Oracle, Clear Cog, these are people we've known.

But it was really good because it gives them a chance to get up there and not just have individuals walk by and ask some questions and get two minutes.

This gives them a couple minutes to get up there and give a pitch on what it is they do.

And it was good to see it.

You know, I mean, I didn't get to spend as much time in the Ring of Fire competition and spend with them, but for the couple minutes I saw it was going fairly well and you know, it was a very energetic, fast paced environment.

So that's good to always see, you know, MyRTAC embracing the art of the next.

Right.

You know, the Shark Tank that we did a couple years ago was a lot of fun.

So yeah, it's good to see those things continuing.

It keeps a lot of excitement.

Were there any surprising use cases for tech that you hadn't considered before that you saw?

If I say yes, that means that I don't know my stuff.

By saying no, it sounds like I'm being.

Oh, it wasn't meant to be a trick question, Mr.

Seeker.

Oh, good.

But I'm gonna have to say no.

It was, I didn't see anything that I've not seen before.

What I saw was, I, I will say this, I did see a lot more variances in solutions than there had been in the past.

So instead of going in some solutions that you would only find one vendor, with exception of yours, there was nobody else that did what you do.

But there were a lot of other, like there were a lot more kiosks this time.

I would say I saw probably double the amount of people that had kiosks, a couple menu boards that, that weren't there in the past.

Portability seems to be, you know, catching on.

You know, but that goes back to the conversation I was having a little bit earlier where a lot of legacy systems do not allow you to utilize a lot of the newer portable devices and you know, a lot of limitations like Ship four and some of the others that only focus on their particular credit card processing type very much limit what kind of hardware you can have.

But there are solutions coming up left and right that are allowing some of these legacy systems to utilize some of the new portability.

So I would say that would be the one thing that I was excited to see.

All right, so you're a social butterfly.

You, you fly around that, the networking circuit there at Mirtech.

Who, who are some of the most interesting people that you connected with at Murtech?

Well, you're one of them.

This one could get you.

Yeah, this one could get you in trouble, I guess, if you left somebody out.

Right?

Yeah.

But, you know, the reality is, is there, there's so many people that, that we both know.

Goodness sakes, you're right.

I'll tell you what, let's just say that I saw probably 20 people that I know on a regular basis and they're all even and equal in my eyes, but they're all very good.

All right, that, that's a very, that's a very safe answer.

Fair enough.

I'll accept that.

Although I will say that it was good to see a lot of the operators like Zarek and you know, the ex operators like Bill and some of the others running around the room.

You know, when we see the mayor, yourself and others running around, that lets you know that the industry is still in good hands.

Good point.

What kind of conversations were happening on the expo floor?

Was there, was there anything unique?

I guess it comes down to what was on people's minds.

Everything I was hearing is what's next?

What's next?

Most of the people that are there know what they have.

What I saw a lot of young restaurants, meaning small, not multi.

You know, multi unit meeting.

They probably had 5, 10, 15, 20, but not 3, 500,000.

I talked to quite a few of the VP of Director level positions where they were asking questions about, you know, hey, I've got this and I have this, but I don't know how to get to here or don't know how to get to there.

I probably recommended RTN and IFBTA to probably 25 different people based off what they were wanting, if they were wanting to do, you know, certification and education.

But the RTN world, which obviously were both on the board, it was a great fit for every one of their questions about who do I talk to or how can I find somebody that can help me make the right decisions on doing what.

The first time I ever went to a mirtech was because a friend of ours made that recommendation and he was working with the two Js, environment with me, and he being one of the smartest people in our entire industry, got me involved and said, you need to go, you need to start talking.

And ever since then, I've been to nearly everyone, including the executive conferences.

And now it's our goal to pass it along to these younger restaurants, these newer restaurants, because they were all wanting to know who to talk to about what.

That's why they're here.

A lot of the first timers, that's why they're here.

You know, one interesting thought that just came about, I can't remember if I've even suggested this to the team over at RTM before, but at nra, for instance, we'll set aside some people to give tours of the showroom floor.

So people sign up for, hey, I'm interested in xyz.

And then, you know, you have an RTN member, kind of walk them around to those solutions, not going into detail, but just kind of, just kind of pointing them out.

That's really cool.

Maybe a mentor program where you got a new, not just a new member of rtm, but somebody who's relatively new within the industry or has a relatively young restaurant company and they can get a mentor that can help walk them around and let them see what the art of the possible is based off of what they have and where they're trying to go.

Maybe you do a 15, 20 minute interview with them and then, you know, in an agnostic way.

Because most of us that are here, especially in our TN group, are not there to sell anything anyway.

So to get people in and show them who the right solutions are, at least guide them around so they know the right people to talk to.

That's a great idea.

I love it.

All right, as we close up here, if you had to Pick one major takeaway from the event that all restaurant operators should know.

What would it be?

Data is king.

If you simply look at what you're doing today and you have a problem with anything that you're doing today and you have to shut it off, they go out of business, you have to turn it off.

Do you own your data?

Can you get to your data?

And when you put your new solution in, will your data integrate to it so you don't lose all your history?

If you can think like that, then every decision you make about what you're doing, where you're going and where you plan on going next becomes easier and easier because you're never going to put something in that you can't control and you're never going to put something in that you can't take out.

Because because it's phenomenal today doesn't mean in that two years going to be phenomenal then.

So you own your data, manage your data and then work everything around.

Best of class.

You'll be great.

Tom, next year as we look forward, what would you like to see next year's mye?

The Art of the possible.

I like it.

How can we get to where we all want to go?

I'd love to see surveys about what it is we would like as operators and then as a vendor, I'd like to see those surveys so I could then take and address those and then say the art of the possible based off the request R.

And then that way we can spend the time in our talks and things trying to convince the people that are looking for something that we have what they're looking for versus just being wide open.

Tom, as always, great talking with you.

Glad we could do it right here on this forum and and share our conversation with everybody else.

And I look forward to doing another one of these with you after the next show that we do together.

Sounds good, buddy.

Thank you very much.

Well, if you missed it this year, we are so sorry.

We didn't see you there.

There is always the Executive Summit in the fall.

Make sure you put that one on your calendar.

If you have any questions for Tom or myself, you can reach out to me on social media, iipkimpel or magic8tech.

We're on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

For past episodes of the Tech Chef podcast and the show notes, head over to skipkimple.com and to catch all of the latest episodes, visit magicgate.com you can always reach out to me directly via email@Skipagic8.com Conference season is officially in full swing and it feels like there's something happening every other week.

From tech summits to hospitality expos.

The calendar is packed and let's be honest, it's impossible to hit them all.

As much as I'd love to, I've got a few on my radar this year, including a couple staples and maybe a couple of new ones I haven't experienced yet.

So here's the question.

Which conferences are you planning to attend?

Let me know because I'd love to connect, swap insights and maybe even feature some on the show.

There is no better time to get inspired and stay ahead of the curve.

Next Tuesday we have a good friend of mine, Sterling Douglas from Chowley back on the show to talk about the new Chowley Plan platform.

What the heck is that?

What's changed?

Well, you're going to have to tune in next week to find out, so until then, stay safe, stay healthy and stay hungry.

My friends.