Feeling Othered at the Association Breakfast Table

She said, okay, I'm allergic to eggs. They came back with a different dish, but they poured the Hollandaise sauce on top of it. KiKi L'Italien: Interesting. I can't eat this. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. And she's it doesn't have any eggs. No Hollandaise sauce is made with eggs. And I'm a chef. KiKi L'Italien: I know this for a fact. And then they never brought her anything else. KiKi L'Italien: Oh my gosh. And so this is the opening breakfast of a association event.

And she's in her seventies and she's been a chef for a long time. And she advocates for this association left and right. And just to make her feel excluded from that meal. And people came up to me and said, Tracy, did you hear what happened to her?

KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. And I'm like, no, but now, so now I'm telling that story and it's, it just makes you feel of, and the big word that has come up in the last couple of the days is othered because it wasn't taken into consideration and thought through properly. And it, she, she left breakfast hangry. Because there was nothing for her there and, cause she, she had also identified it in advance. So why was there nothing prepared for her and done for it?

So it really does it, and, and sitting at that table, it's not just her. experience that's been impacted. It's everyone else at that table. The other nine people sitting at that table whose experiences have been impacted because they're watching her not eat.

They're watching her be excluded from that event, from that meal and worried about her, And so it's not just making that one person feel inadequate or ashamed potentially of what That they ask for, but it's everyone else that is impacted by that. And I think that you don't feel belong, you don't feel like you belong in that environment because of that. And I've experienced that same feeling at that same event on in other years. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. Why ask the question?

KiKi L'Italien: And I think that the thing that we have to be aware of is, I, Yes, it can be difficult to figure out how to accommodate for so many different issues. And definitely we're more aware of allergies now than ever before, right now in the news we've got McDonald's with the E. coli outbreak and all of this kind of stuff going on, people dying because of this stuff. And yeah.

When we are dealing with staff, when we're dealing with we're showing up on site and we have servers who maybe are under informed constantly we are at risk or putting our attendees at risk for getting hurt. And it's no joke. I am happy that there's more awareness there, but you work with associations on a regular basis or different organizations and their events to keep people safe and to better inform people.

Can you talk a little bit about some of that work that you do and where do you really focus your attention when you're going in and working with associations? I, cause I imagine that it's not just labels, right? It's labels. But it's also so much else. Oh, it is so much else. And actually I'm giving a presentation tomorrow to an association to the group of meeting planners. And ironically, the HR team asked to sit in on it because they want to see what else they can do.

And it is it's understanding the dietary needs. And I gave them a quiz and I asked, what are the top nine food allergies and majority of them pick them correctly, but some of them, did other things, but It's understanding what the dietary needs are KiKi L'Italien: and really what the top nine are food allergies. But I do it into five different categories. So I do food allergies, my finger medical conditions KiKi L'Italien: for those who are listening there.

We have hand gestures that are going along with that. So there's there's a whole, you're not, you're missing out on part of the experience. Exactly. So there's food allergies. There's other medical conditions, which would be celiac disease, diabetes. And then there's religious or cultural based practices. KiKi L'Italien: Oh, yeah. And then the lifestyle preferences or lifestyle choices. And under that it can be vegan, vegetarian. It could be gluten non celiac gluten free.

It could be no alcohol, no caffeine, a variety of things like that. And then the last one is physical disabilities. KiKi L'Italien: All right. And because my biggest mantra as of late is the fact that we want to make sure that everybody can eat the plate, have something in front of them to eat, but I also want them to be able to reach the plate and that's physically meaning you utilizing their wheelchair or scooter to get to the event, but also can they reach the buffet?

I know there's so many that do vertical buffets, which look great, but even just a regular chafing dish on a regular table, it's high. And somebody in a wheel who utilizes a wheelchair or scooter cannot reach up and get. And that's KiKi L'Italien: part of that's part of that inclusivity. That's part of that accessibility that I don't think a lot of people would necessarily think of.

I don't think that they, because when you look at the way that we it's common to complain about the setup for a buffet. Like I, I'll go in and I'll see there are so many different things like, Oh my gosh, we're shoulder to shoulder. There's no room to spread out. Why don't they have the line set up going different ways. But who is thinking about people in wheelchairs, people in scooters, people who are having to get up to these tables. So it's so good that is something that, you know, that.

You bring to the table that you're able to remind people about that. It's not just about what's on the table, but it's also getting to that table in the first place. Exactly. And that's what I start with, because then it's really thinking about it's thinking through that and food and beverages are number one expenditure. And I'm going to, I will argue with any association who's planning a meeting, food and beverages are number one expenditure. With an AV after that, right?

And if it's your number one expenditure, why do we spend the least amount of time focused on it? Why aren't we being strategic in designing it and looking at the dietary needs? So then that's my next step is let's look at the dietary needs that you have that had been requested in the past. How do you incorporate those into the overall menu So there are no other plates having to be designed. And then, and when is that conversation being had? Is it being, it should be in the RFP.

It should be in your site visits, having conversations with chefs. And it should be through the entire planning process so that you, because those dietary needs as registrations come in, you have to really think through how you're going to incorporate that. And then. Especially if you have different food functions and some people are, you're going to, you're going to one and I'm going to another and yeah, I don't want to order food for you that you're not going to eat. We, in the labeling.

KiKi L'Italien: Yeah, we were just, we just actually we didn't really get a chance to see each other at IMAX. We were just at the same event and you were busy and talking and teaching about all of these different things. One of the things that I am constantly impressed. So I'm going to start with when I'm hearing you talk and I'm learning from you listening to your podcast is you bring real life stories, real life examples into our awareness. Or and I'm constantly learning about that.

So recently you were talking about the Disney story. So can you maybe share a little bit about that and some lessons that people can get from that, torn from the headlines, ripped. Yep, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Law and order, but with a different twist. So a year ago this month a doctor from New York went to Disney and she and her husband did a lot of research on where they were going to eat because she has an allergy to milk and an allergy to nuts.

KiKi L'Italien: And so they did their due diligence and Disney. Has a reputation for being very good and managing food allergies in the food allergy world And our community and so they did their due diligence and they went to this restaurant called raglan road and informed the server of her allergies. I think she also informed before she got there as well.

Need to confirm that, but went over the menu multiple times with the server, asked the question before when it was plated and put in front of her, are there no nuts? Are there no milk? And they said, we guarantee there's none of that in here. She ate the meal. Within an hour, she wasn't feeling well. She administered herself an EpiPen and unfortunately passed away. And she had gone off with her hut. She was with her mother and her husband had gone off somewhere else. So she was with her mom.

When this happened, she administered the EpiPen herself. And so her husband finds out later that she's passed away. And so what has come of it? He filed a wrongful death suit in February. And I think just to get the awareness of what happened, not for exorbitant, things. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. Disney came back and said in, in April, I believe that they were just the landlord. They had nothing to do with this. And it was the restaurant's responsibility.

The restaurant now has a big sign on their thing that says, Hey, we're not a nut free. We're not a milk free, allergen free environment. And then in August of this year, Disney came back and said he signed up for a free one month trial of Disney plus four years ago. And in that contract of terms and conditions, it says you cannot sue us. You can only go to arbitration, KiKi L'Italien: which by the way, guys, if we're thinking about this you're like, Oh yeah, I'm going to have Disney plus.

And you're not thinking that you're signing away your rights to sue every single thing ever KiKi L'Italien: related to Disney, which is crazy. But that was dismissed. Wasn't it? Didn't they like. They pulled it back a week later because I think everybody picked it up. So in my conversation on eating in a meeting, I had a disability rights attorney, Mary Vargas. I had Ryan Gambala, who is represents restaurants and hotels. In their food safety practices.

And then I had Joshua Grimes from our world of meeting event and events and representing the meeting planner. And so we had this really thoughtful conversation and none of them are related to the case, but we really talked about it from three different angles of how this impacts meetings and events, and I really do think, because it is going to go to court, I really do think it's going to have an impact and while they weren't attending an event. She did do the right thing.

She notified the restaurant that she was, she has food allergy. She went over it again with the chef or the server when it was presented to her. And so that is meeting professionals and association professionals. If you're asking these questions, what are you doing following up with your catering partners? Because you are their voice. You're asking the question, which you should for financial reasons and whatever.

You should be asking the questions, but then you are the conduit to making sure that happens. And so what questions are you asking? If you're catering partners, what, how are you asking about labeling? Are they labeling everything accurately? What are those labels done? Can you proof them? And not that you are the end all be all the chef is. But it also comes down to service practice, service methods, cooking KiKi L'Italien: methods. And you like to get back there.

I'm sorry if I'm pointing at him like that, you like to get back there and if you can, I know how you are. You love to teach that team and make sure that they are educated so they know what goes into this sauce. Thank you. So they know where there are potential allergens. I want to bring over a comment I saw from someone. Oh, it's covering us up. Let me shrink our little heads over here. Those of you who are listening, I'm doing something visually.

So like I'm bringing up this comment from Dan, who says as a host, as a hospitality professional, you are correct. And it is not that hard to create menus that are inclusive of most dietary requests, or at least have viable options ready to serve. , the requests will only grow in the future. Thanks for covering this. Thank you, Dan, actually, for finding this. Dean. It is growing. There are 13 million Americans. with food allergies and 26 million of them are adults.

KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. And and that means only 7 million of them are kids, but those kids grew up to be adults and adults are having more adult onset food allergies. And so it's not something that's going to go away. And and it's even that, the story that I told at the very beginning, not taking into consideration that, Hey, Hollandaise sauce is made with eggs. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. And thinking through that entire process.

And even an example of an event I did, I manage food and beverage for clients as well. So I will come on in and plan their whole menu and their budget and then manage it on site. And they had, one of the menus said like it was a Peppadoo pepper stuffed with goat cheese. And then when it came out, it was on a crostini. I'm like, one, why do you need to put it out on a crostini? A Peppadoo pepper can sit by itself, right? KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. But nowhere in the description.

Did it say that it was served on bread? And so you confirmed that it was gluten free, but then you now served it on a crusty gluten. So that whole, where's the chef's conversation across the board to making sure that those, because the sales teams, they are the ones that print the menus. Yeah. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. Yeah.

And so there's a really big disconnect from the catering team and I'm going to say in the most, in most instances, I'm not going to say every single place, but in most instances there's a disconnect between the kitchen, KiKi L'Italien: stales, and front of the house staff because front of the house staff is responsible for making the labels. And if it's not on the banquet event order, or if it's not been checked, how do we know?

And I've had servers, or I've had chefs yell at me going, I make the food. I'm not responsible for labeling it. And then servers saying I don't cook. How would I know that? KiKi L'Italien: It's so frustrating. And cause this is really something that is precarious like for so many people, especially their health and maybe even their lives depend on it. And yet there's this cavalier attitude that seems to be. Oh, I, I pervasive, but maybe people are working on it.

Maybe it's getting a little bit better. What do you think? Do you think that it's getting any better over the years? You've been watching this for a while. It is getting better, but there's still a lot of work to do. And I believe, and a couple of months ago, Sue from meetings net asked me a question about. Individuals who have long lists of dietary needs, like one page sheets, right? And KiKi L'Italien: yeah, people are asking for more customization of it.

And at an event, I think it's a little bit too hard, but if it's a one off or whatever, figuring it out, you need to be very upfront about your dietary needs and it, and if it's really is life threatening versus a preference, right? And. but we need to be paying attention to how wholesome our food is and how true to nature our food is versing versus processed foods.

KiKi L'Italien: And when we know more about when our food contains fewer ingredients, that we know what they are versus a variety of words that we can't say, then it's a lot easier to control. So I was going to KiKi L'Italien: ask you about that. Sorry to interrupt. I know you're fine. Yeah. I was going to ask you about that. And you're answering the question, like as far as guidance, are there some go to rules or some go to favorite recipes. And I'm hearing clean food, whole food.

Are there some things that you tend to recommend though, to people that you're like, this is going to be a crowd pleaser. And it's most likely not going to kill your attendees. I think it would be hard to eliminate all top nine allergens from everything, right? I tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and I said egg wheat, right? So eliminating all those nine from every single menu is going to be near impossible and not very easy. healthy or, not very easy to do.

So looking at it from a whole holistic perspective and trying to focus on foods that are whole foods, like you said, and clean. We can still have the Mexican buffet, but let's look how it's prepared, right? Is it a build your own taco station? Is it, or, and, Or is it a lot of processed foods? And I have been warned by using the word processed foods is like a can of chickpeas is processed. But is it overly processed? Does it have excess sugar in it? Does it have excess salt in it?

So where are we looking for that? And talking to chefs about, doing clean and clean meeting whole foods kind of foods. It's healthier for everybody. Across the board, cause it's, you don't want to give everybody sugar. Because they're going to, they're going to get this high and they're going to crash, right? And you want people to be paying attention and, absorbing the knowledge and the information that you're giving them at the event and being able to do something with it afterwards.

KiKi L'Italien: And engage with each other and maybe not have to rely on those really horrible, like evening networking events where they're like getting too much alcohol or too much this just to try to keep going so that they can make it through the conference log or whatever, or have to leave. To go get something to get their food. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. And so now they've paid how much money to go to your conference.

And now they're having, and I was having a conversation with somebody about this yesterday. They've paid your registration fee. Let's say it's a thousand dollars. And it says it comes with lunch and breaks and dinners and receptions that include food. So if your registration fee includes food and you don't accommodate them, Are you willing to give them their money back for the food and beverage that they did not eat or they could not eat?

So are you willing to reduce your revenue, which can be offset by the cost of the food, right? Are you willing to reduce your revenue and then send those people off site? KiKi L'Italien: Fascinating. Has anyone ever done anything like that? There was actually, there was a rant in a Facebook group this like a couple of weeks ago about somebody, a planner really perturbed by all the dietary requests.

And once she said the chef wanted to quit his job because he didn't want to do this anymore and such, but she's we're just going to send everybody off site. I said okay, that's a thought, but depending on where you are and how many people you have, one, are there enough restaurants within walking distance? of your venue to send them all. Are you going to inform all of those restaurants that they're going to be inundated over and above their normal lunch rush with all of your attendees?

Two are you, are their menu, are there restaurants that actually accommodate your guests? What if you have a large contingency of Jewish participants or, so how are you managing that? And then that's reducing your revenue to, it's a catch 22 and because it's also reducing the amount of people who are then connecting at your event together. And if that's the reason you're bringing them together, then why are you sending them off site?

KiKi L'Italien: What are some of the cool things that you've seen in some of the, like maybe some of the trends or some of the I don't know. Have you seen any sort of innovative ideas that you thought, Oh yeah, this is the way to do it. This is if only every event would do this. If only every event would label correct, would label it. And I say correctly, would label with ingredients and with allergens. That would be my dream first and foremost.

But I think thinking through having stations, having build your own stations really helps because, and if you're not doing build your own stations, make sure that you're labeling for the allergens, but you can make people want customization. And when you do your build your own stations, that really does allow for customization, right? Hey, I want the meat and I want the fish, or I just want the cauliflower right on my tacos. Tacos are perfect for making your own thing.

But can and The people who, my friend Murray Hall, the chef up in Toronto, he, his philosophy on building a plated dish is start with the sides, make sure that they're gluten free and they're dairy free, which would then probably make them vegan, right? If you're starting with your potatoes and your carrots and whatever, right? And then the entree. is the add on, KiKi L'Italien: right?

And so that's the last thing put on the plate and it should be the smallest proportion when you're looking at nutritional information. But so then you can add the beef or you can add the chicken or you can add the cauliflower steak, right? So that's a really good way to think through and how to design your menus. And I think that's a thoughtful way to do that. KiKi L'Italien: Ooh, we have another great comment over here.

The chef is responsible for making sure every item is listed correctly, including buffet signs. You can't pass that to anyone else. You are correct. Processed food may not list everything correctly or the ingredients checked correctly. by the chefs or cooks. The most affordable venues often lack the professionalism in the kitchen due to their budgets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dan I agree with you. I'm like, I want and an example would be that next year I'm doing an event.

This year, my client negotiated the day of the week menu to, to be, 58 per person. And then for 2025, you did not. And so I'm looking at the menu and the price for buffet at this hotel is anywhere from 85 to 92 per person before the 24 percent gratuity and the tax. KiKi L'Italien: Oh my gosh. Yeah. So the 85 lunch is now 110 per person. KiKi L'Italien: Wow. And my client's Tracy and I told him, I was like, just lunch increased the budget by a hundred thousand dollars.

KiKi L'Italien: That is insane. Doing everything exactly the same ex. I know. And so I went to the chef and I said, okay, I can't ha lunch can't be more than 63 bucks a person. And he's okay, I can do that. But now I'm Dan, I'm worried about what that $63 lunch is going to look like compared to the $85 lunch. And, but he's no, we can do that. We're and KiKi, it blew me away. They're like, you're gonna be really easy to work with. And I'm like. Are you sure?

And they're like, you set out all of your expectations. Cause I said, I want my menus labeled. I want to proof them two weeks out. I want non alcoholic beverage options on the bar. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. And I want, these menus, I want inclusive menus and I don't know what it is, but the seat, the general manager of that hotel. had seen my list that meetings net meetings today put together. And he's Oh, I read your article, Tracy. And then chef came prepared. Here's where I source my meat from.

Here's where I get my fish from. This is what we do. And I'm like, okay, KiKi L'Italien: this is nice. Yeah, that is nice. So we'll see how it comes out. But just by that, if you put that information in your RFP, see how they respond. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. I wonder if that could be something that I feel like that's achievable.

I feel like that's, that should be a goal for all of us, for all of our meetings, any association leaders listening to this right now and thinking, okay, we've got our annual meeting that we have every year. How can we make it better? This is where a great place to improve upon and just to show your care to show that you are, conscientious do your due diligence too. I feel like that's just the, we should all be doing that. It's achievable.

I think it is totally achievable if you're thinking through it strategically from the get go. Yeah. And having those conversations and I was on a conversation last week, even about sustainability aspects of food and beverage, right? Managing waste. How are we giving food to the community if we have excess? I'm from that top. From IMAX from Trevor Liu, actually, he said, let's stop talking about our waste that we're giving our waste away.

Let's, if we know we're going to over order, let's talk about how we're going to give it to some KiKi L'Italien: instead of throwing our waste to them. So really thinking through that giving aspect of that. But Hang on. I'm just processing KiKi L'Italien: what you just said, because that is such a great, that's the power of words. That's the power by changing your words. And everyone, if you are not following Trevor Lou, he is amazing.

Restaurant tour dedicated events, professional just a fascinating human, but and he has a cookbook and you can like, you can get that too. Double happiness, I think. I think so. Yeah. So it's cool. But anyway I love that the intention behind the words and just shifting perspective, just that shift can make such a huge difference.

Completely because you're looking at the people in your community differently then and you're looking about the people in your own audience differently too and thinking through how you're going to provide not only for your association, for your membership, and then for your the community that you're supporting with that. revenue that you're bringing to the city.

If you know the economic impact that you have on that city based on your convention, then you should also be looking at the economic impact that your food choices make and provide to the community as well. KiKi L'Italien: I love that. And I think that that's that engaging with the community, having a better impact, really thinking about in a deeper way about the way that your meeting is impacting the environment that you're going into.

And certainly sustainability has been huge on everyone's minds, but I love that concept of giving rather than thinking of it as throwing something away or getting rid of waste. I want to go back to the economy of all of it and the financial aspects of it, because that's definitely something that is, that's something such a driver of many decisions. And it's something I don't hear anyone complaining or talking about paying less for things.

It's only that meetings having meetings, it's costing more, everything costs more, whether it's a V or food. So you were talking about it earlier about how some of these shocking. Discoveries sad, unfortunate discoveries where it's like you show up and like suddenly the buffet that you ordered last year is, sometimes double, a lot of times I'm hearing horror stories similar to that. So, oh yeah.

That and like coffee was never, we never thought of coffee as the cheap thing at a meeting, but it's even more expensive. It's a, even more of a premium now. What are some of the ways that you're advising people To think about this in different ways to cut costs. Cause everyone's looking for the, I don't know, key, the secrets, the tips and tricks. Are there any Tracy that we can use? My biggest one is know your numbers, like really ask the question, pay attention okay.

So my client that I'm doing that event next year, but two years ago we were in Palm desert. And he, my client said, okay, we're going to have 450 people based on a registration. We're going to have 450 people for our closing lunch. And I'm like, I looked at the room pickup and our room drop pickup went from 600 KiKi L'Italien: to 300. I'm like, okay, that's less than the 400. And I know people will be leaving. But then I asked him, I said, how many of those people live on the East coast?

And he said, why? I said because they're going to get on the 7 a. m. Flight home because otherwise they have to take the red eye. And so they're all going to leave. So I ordered instead of the four 50, I actually ordered two 50 KiKi L'Italien: and we ended up serving 300. So I still saved, even though we went over by, and it was an easy salad with chicken on it.

So it was easy to redo or, and they had extras in the back of course, but instead of spending 150 150 extra plates, one that's food waste, right? And at what, 45, $50 a person. I save my clan a lot of money. So one is really knowing your numbers and that's looking at the historical data that you have. And another association I worked with and that was this summer, my event manager at the hotel was like, Tracy, you have 500 people registered for your conference.

Why are you only ordering food for two 50? We had my client, it was his first time client, but she had historical data from five years to show how many people hit. She had actually served for every single meal function from, for the last five years. KiKi L'Italien: Oh my gosh. So she knew to only order. Half the number of people and the numbers were accurate on this round. So really paying attention to that and it's counting the rollups, right?

It's doing counting at the door, if you can, or tickets, whatever way you want to do it, but also, so knowing that, and then also switching to on consumption items for your breaks, don't order. Desserts for 350 people, for your break breaks, use it on consumption. You will see the number of items that are purchased actually. And so your numbers can come down on that instead of paying 17 for a break, you're paying eight bucks by only what's consumed. And then also your coffee.

A lot of the, in the, some of the Facebook groups that are out there for planners have cut decaf and tea from their menus. Interesting. They're only serving, wow. The caffeine and the decaf and the tea are on request and they've been able to drop their costs a lot on that. But again, it's looking at your numbers on that. And then alcohol too, if you can. Do it on consumption. Like you do not want to pay for per person for a bar.

If you can tell, KiKi L'Italien: do you want to talk a little bit about that? Cause alcohol, I know it has become more and more of a topic. I know in the event space. And in finally now I'm hearing more and more association. professionals talk about it too. What does it look like if we were to offer networking opportunities, receptions where people weren't forced to just have water or soda, as opposed to all of that. Mixed drinks and stuff like that with lots and lots of alcohol.

And this idea of the mocktail, a signature mocktail or something to make to allow people not to feel othered and not to feel like they don't belong or don't fit in. So talk to us about that. Yeah. So that is a whole nother way. to think about your bar and you can have your full bar. I'm not telling you to take your full bar away. I'm telling, asking you to improve upon it and add alcohol free options and to that menu item. And that could be your athletic beer.

It could be your ritual gin, which is a non alcoholic gin, and creating a curated pre batched, if you want non alcoholic. cocktail. KiKi L'Italien: And it is, it gives me, it gives all of us the ability to still walk around with the same kind of glassware and participate that or have something in your hand. Because we all know going to a party, no matter what, you always have something in your hand. You feel awkward without having to do it's something, right? Yeah, exactly.

And even at my event in June, this one guy, he came up and he ordered an athletic beer and he had no idea who I was. And I was just standing there talking to the bartender. He's God, these association things. He's I like my alcohol, but I need to do a non alcoholic version in between my regular version of beer KiKi L'Italien: because I need to be able to stay focused. And even a woman that I interviewed a couple of years ago on eating in a meeting She's neurodivergent. She's autistic.

She's I'm already neurodivergent. So why am I going to add something that's going to impede my perception, KiKi L'Italien: right? Inhibit my perception. But I want to say that adding these to your venue or to your menu for the bars, will actually help you meet your food and beverage minimum. Think about it. And you're trying to meet a minimum anyways. If you're offering it, might as well do it with some other things that are also keeping your attendees alert.

But the non alcoholic mocktails, or cocktails alcohol free cocktails, are still 16. KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. Because they're curated and they're so they're still there. And so you will still meet your food and beverage minimum with them. So why not go ahead and offer them? KiKi L'Italien: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh. It makes people, I remember this is a long time ago, KiKi. This was 2003 probably. And I was at a convention in Las Vegas. I'm a corporate planner.

And I'm in the booth the next morning. I'm there. Cause that's what I'm doing. I'm running the booth and one of my sales guys comes in and he's yeah, I took out my client. We were drunk all night. We danced and then I'm like, I do not want to hear that. I don't want to hear how you like totally got our clients drunk. And you think that's awesome. And because you should be alert, you should be on time in the booth the next day. You should be selling the booth.

You should be selling our products and I don't want you to be in. Discombobulated from the alcohol. KiKi L'Italien: And I think that, this is venturing into some other topics, but I think that we've become more aware of some of the horrible things that can happen when too much alcohol is consumed at our events and the liability. of because we have such a responsibility.

We associations, we organizations hosting these events have a responsibility for the safety and care of our, attendees and over consumption of alcohol, obviously. Leads to a lot of different complications and not the least of which is sometimes assaults and things like that can happen. And so that's also something I feel like there's more awareness around it now.

It's something where I even think that younger generations are coming into the workplace are not as I don't want to say like party hardy. I sound so old, but like they're not so driven to drink. As some of us olds maybe we're familiar with in the early days of attending conferences.

I'm not going to say that for every conference because certain industries that's still happening, but I definitely see where things like the sands bars and things like that, where, you're not, it's not as focused on alcohol and it's more because of, wellness. It's more because of trying to avoid unsafe conditions. And I just think that people are more aware now, yeah. And some stats to back that up is I think it's about 45 percent of Gen Z has never had alcohol.

KiKi L'Italien: Yeah, that's nice. And that's a huge number. If you're thinking about them coming into your workforce. But the other stat is like 94 percent of people who are buying the non alcoholic drinks still drink alcohol. So they're doing what that guy was doing. I want to have a, I want to have a Budweiser, but then I want to have an athletic. Yeah. And so he's buying both.

And so if you can capture that 94 percent of people and not just give them a bottle of water, but you can upload okay, so you're selling a bottle of water for seven bucks, right? But your cock, your beer is 12 bucks. So why not sell him that alcohol, that non alcoholic beer for 12 versus the 5, the 7 soda? Or that non alcohol free cocktail, right? I love those. KiKi L'Italien: Oh my gosh. I'm so glad that you So it's a financial, it's a financial opportunity.

KiKi L'Italien: Yeah, I'm so glad that you joined me today. It's just been so great and it's been a long time in coming. We need to do this more. I love the collab cast idea. If people have not gone over and followed eating at a meeting podcast podcast, they need to go check it out because you just, you have great guests. You are constantly giving good ideas. And I don't know, I feel like that's something that.

I'm just better informed and know a little bit more about what's going, what's moving and shaking in the world. When I follow you and listen to you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And likewise with the Association Chat. I love going in there and seeing what people are talking about. I'm always searching for food conversations as well, but it's like I had a conversation with a guy yesterday that runs not a transportation company that's helping us. And I'm like, Oh, but you could do this.

And, and I love just collaborating with people and learning what they're learning and what they're experiencing. And I'm taking something from your playbook. And with my eating at a meeting facebook group, I'm doing your weekly I don't know what do you call yours? The weekly, the AC KiKi L'Italien: Insider. Yeah, it's the recap discussion. And actually today we're having it again. It's every Thursday at three o'clock Eastern time. Okay. And and and that's, that is where everyone comes together.

It's not streamed, it's not recorded. It's just. conversation, and it's usually pulling from, we'll kick off with a hot topic from the group for that week just to get things rolling, but really it can be about anything that the group decides that they want to focus on. I'm doing my first one in the eating meeting group on November 1st, which is next Friday. And I've had a bunch of people sign up and it, and mine's called table talks. KiKi L'Italien: So how are you doing this?

So people are signing up ahead of time. Who's going to be there and, or yes, I, I just put it in the Facebook group as an event. So I know, but, and I gave them the link to zoom. Yeah, because I do, but I want to have that conversation. Cause I, we all need to learn from each other because I am not the end all be all in knowing things about food and beverage, but I want people, but I learned from everybody and I'm a sponge in that.

Yeah, KiKi L'Italien: I feel if we're not constantly learning especially these days it's just, we all get stronger, but we need to stay on top of things. Just because so much is changing so very quickly. That, how are we gonna, how are we going to stay on top of it? And how are we going to innovate and how are we going to help each other out? Where we as a collective are solving some of the biggest problems that our world has ever faced.

So how are we going to solve the big and the small problems if we don't come together and talk about them? Exactly. Yeah. And then if food allergies and dietary restrictions annoy you to no end, then find somebody who, it doesn't and figure out what they're doing that makes it not so annoying to them, and and figure out how you can legally protect yourself as well. Because we didn't even get into that, The legal, because food allergies and celiac come under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

So providing options for them, we have to provide a reasonable accommodation. For them. KiKi L'Italien: Interesting. Interesting. Oh, gosh, I can foresee that we're going to have another conversation. Tracy. Yeah, it's well. And so the Disney case is one. And then there's a case against United Airlines, KiKi L'Italien: a pilot who has celiac disease.

And they, he cannot eat safely when he's on duty and they, for every employee, they deduct the food, the cost of food from their paycheck whenever they're working, but when he can't eat safely and then he goes and buys his own food, they won't reimburse him. So this is, he's, United is being sued under the ADA for KiKi L'Italien: accessibility.

So that to me, those two cases will have a lot of impact on a meetings in general, but I think it's memberships, looking at memberships and employee status. or employee. KiKi L'Italien: It's something the association executives need to be aware of and be watching. Yeah, for sure. Oh my gosh. Thank you. I want to say thanks for joining me today. And I hope that you'll join me again. Yes, ma'am. And you need to come on to mine. KiKi L'Italien: I do. I, and I will be there. I will do it.

Okay. I just kicked Tracy off because I had to, but Tracy, thank you so much for joining me today. I don't know about all of you, but I got an enormous amount of value from just listening to Tracy, share her stories and give us examples about ways that we can improve some of the things that are happening at our meetings when we're eating, drinking, and sleeping. At a meeting. So please follow Tracy's podcast, join her Facebook group, go be a part of these conversations that she's starting.

Cause I think that they're going to be really good. And as always keep asking questions to learn every day. Why? Because as Joseph Campbell once said, the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek. Have a great rest of the week, everyone.