In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Claire Reid, a marketing consultant with a career that spans hospitality, charity communications, brand building, feedback, data, internal culture and coffee.

Claire shares how her early experiences in cafés, retail, charity communications and Wood Street Coffee shaped the way she thinks about hospitality. The conversation explores why marketing and operations need to work together, why feedback should be treated as the voice of the guest, and why the best hospitality often comes down to something much harder to measure: how a place makes people feel.

From Dishoom and Wood Street Coffee to freelance life, local marketing, data storytelling and the importance of not diluting a brand as it grows, this is a warm, honest conversation about building hospitality brands that feel human.

#hospitality #marketing #guestexperience #operations #restaurantmarketing #data #captiveconversations

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Kevin to explore what it really takes to turn data into meaningful hospitality experiences.

From his early career in consulting to leading digital transformation at one of the largest restaurant groups in the US, Kevin shares a rare behind-the-scenes look at how systems, data, and people come together in real operations. From fragmented tech stacks to enterprise-wide transformation, this is a story of complexity, challenge, and learning.

At the heart of the conversation is a simple but powerful truth. Recognition matters. As Kevin puts it, “When someone says, welcome back in… it’s great to see you… that just sets the tone.” The episode explores how businesses can move beyond collecting data to actually using it, and why adoption, trust, and usability are what ultimately drive results.

#hospitality #restaurants #data #guestexperience #crm #loyalty #technology

The journey into content does not always start with a strategy.

Sometimes it starts with curiosity.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Forman sits down with Thomas, founder of Fearless Media, to explore how starting young and learning through doing can shape a career in content and business. From making videos at 12 to building a creative agency, this is a conversation about consistency, experimentation and long-term thinking.

The episode dives into how content creates goodwill, builds relationships and opens doors over time. It also explores how different platforms play different roles, and why brands that show up consistently have an advantage.

For hospitality businesses, this is a powerful reminder that connection starts before the visit. Content is not just marketing. It is relationship building at scale.

#hospitality #marketing #content #socialmedia #growth #captiveconversations

Big things just dropped at CaptiveWiFi.

In this episode Adam Forman walks through the most significant platform update in CaptiveWiFi's history. No guests, no interviews — just a straight-talking rundown of everything that has just shipped and what is coming next.

Covered in this episode: the Live Guest Dashboard, built after a conversation with Ben Heppell from Aqua Restaurant Group, now pulling in real-time spend data, loyalty points, CRM tags and a VIP triage from SevenRooms, ResDiary, Airship, Me&U and Klaviyo. A major feedback upgrade with new templates, emoji ratings, WhatsApp and SMS delivery, and SevenRooms feedback reporting. Competitor analysis against up to five locations. Fully branded scheduled email reports. Two brand new WiFi portal designs. And gamification — scratch cards, spin to win and shake to reveal, with live voucher integrations from Airship and Square.

If you work in hospitality and you want to know what connected guest data actually looks like in practice right now, this is the episode to start with.

#CaptiveWiFi #HospitalityTech #GuestExperience #Gamification #GuestData #ProductUpdate #CaptiveConversations

What does it actually take to bring a guest back? Not through aggressive re-targeting or bulk email sends, but in a way that fits inside a premium hospitality experience and makes the guest feel genuinely valued?

In this episode, recorded live on stage at HT360 at ExCeL London, Adam Forman sits down with Ben Heppell, Global Digital Marketing Director at Aqua Restaurant Group.

They talk about the repeat guest challenge that sits at the centre of Ben's role, why ecommerce tactics do not translate into premium dining, and what changes when you start connecting WiFi visit data to your reservation and CRM systems. Ben also shares how Aqua changed the way they measure repeat guest rate and what that revealed about the real problem underneath a metric that looked fine on the surface.

A grounded, honest conversation from a practitioner doing this work in real venues, in real time.

#CaptiveConversations #HospitalityMarketing #GuestRetention #HospitalityTech #CaptiveWiFi #RepeatGuests #HT360

The guest journey doesn’t start at the door anymore.

It starts long before that.

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Forman sits down with Natalie Dunning, CEO and Founder of Kitch, to unpack how hospitality is changing and why brands need to rethink how they attract, understand and retain their guests.

From data and CRM to TikTok, discoverability and automation, Natalie shares a clear view of where the industry is heading. This is a conversation built on real experience, from growing up around restaurants to building a business focused on helping hospitality brands connect the dots between marketing, operations and guest behaviour.

What stands out is how much has shifted.

Guests are discovering brands in completely different ways. Loyalty is no longer just about points. And the brands that are winning are the ones thinking more like ecommerce, building relationships before a guest even walks through the door.

This episode is a reminder that hospitality is still about people.

But understanding those people now starts much earlier.

#hospitality #guestexperience #marketing #crm #restaurants #data #captiveconversations

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Forman sits down with Chloe Dodd and Alex O’Reilly, two people I’ve known for a while now and whose journey in hospitality is seriously impressive.

From nightclubs and bar floors to national sales roles and multi-site operations, this is a conversation built on real experience. Not theory. Not guesswork. Just years of being in it, figuring it out and now helping other businesses do it better.

We get into where hospitality is still getting it wrong. Missed enquiries, slow responses, teams not aligned and how simple things are still costing operators real money.

There’s also a lot of honesty in this one. About taking risks, backing yourself and why experience across both ops and sales gives you a completely different perspective.

If you’re in hospitality, this will feel very familiar.

And probably a little uncomfortable in the right way.

#hospitality #guestexperience #restaurants #sales #operations #captiveconversations

In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Forman sits down with Tom Stanley, founder of Williams Stanley & Co, to explore the financial realities facing hospitality operators today.

Tom shares his journey into hospitality finance and explains why understanding the numbers behind a venue is just as important as the guest experience on the floor.

The conversation explores the pressure operators face, how better financial visibility can support stronger decisions, and why hospitality businesses need to think differently about growth, investment and resilience in a changing market.

This episode is a practical and honest look at the intersection between finance, operations and hospitality leadership.

#hospitality #hospitalitybusiness #restaurantindustry #hospitalityfinance #restaurants #hospitalityleaders #captiveconversations