From pulling pints in Welsh pubs to building one of hospitality’s most connected marketing communities — Glenda Barber shares her journey from Brains Brewery to Bloom Marketing and the creation of Team Marketing IRL.
In this Captive Conversations episode, Glenda and host Adam Forman explore how hospitality marketers can build authentic communities, foster collaboration, and create meaningful customer connections.
💬 Topics:
Hospitality marketing trends for 2025
How to build a marketing community that lasts
The power of empathy in branding
What Team Marketing IRL means for the industry
#HospitalityPodcast #BloomMarketing #CaptiveConversations #HospitalityMarketing #MarketingCommunity
Two engineers. One mission: make dining safe for everyone.
In this episode, Adam chats with Eve and Alana, founders of Served, the tech company redefining allergen transparency across hospitality. From their early research at university to partnerships with Dishoom, Techstars, and Hawksmoor, they’re showing how empathy can drive innovation.
🎧 Topics:
Highlights:
💡 Turning lived experience into scalable hospitality tech
🍽️ Working with over 100 restaurants to perfect the product
📊 Why 40% of orders include allergens — and what that means for brands
⚙️ Behind the scenes at Techstars and their US journey
❤️ Making dining out safe, inclusive, and joyful again
📈 Fun fact: 40% of restaurant orders now include allergy notes — and Served is helping teams handle that confidently.
If you work in hospitality or just love eating out safely, this one’s for you.
#ServedApp #CaptiveConversations #HospitalityInnovation #FoodAllergies #TechForGood
In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Foreman sits down with Matt Serwin, Director of Partnerships at Klaviyo, to discuss how hospitality operators can use data to truly understand their guests.
💡 Highlights:
• How Toast and OpenTable data power personalisation
• Why first-party data is the foundation of real loyalty
• What AI means for guest experience
• How to shift from vanity metrics to actionable insight
🎙️ “Data should make marketing smarter, not harder.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get yours.
#CaptiveConversations #HospitalityTech #Klaviyo #CRM #DataInsights
.In this episode of Captive Conversations, I sit down with Charlton Santana, founder of HeyGuest, to explore how messaging, automation, and AI are quietly rewriting the rules of hospitality.
From working front-of-house to building a platform used by hotels and short-term rentals, Charlton shares how he turned guest frustrations into a product that serves teams and guests equally.
We talk about:
💬 Why messaging is becoming the new front desk
🤖 How AI removes repetition — not humanity
🧠 The danger of “data wallpaper” and forgotten feedback
✨ Why your loyal guests should be your focus group
🌍 Benchmarking innovation outside the hospitality bubble
Quote to remember:
If you’re in hotels or hospitality tech and want to evolve how you communicate, this one is full of real, actionable insight.
🎙️ Follow Captive Conversations for more honest talks with the people building the future of hospitality.
“Guests don’t want another app — they just want an answer, fast.”
Better Conversations, Not More Apps.
In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam Forman chats with Guy Weiss about the chaos of communication — and how ZenZap is bringing calm, clarity, and connection back to workplace messaging.
From noisy notifications to meaningful moments, we unpack:
• The real reason internal comms fail
• How AI can help teams breathe, not burn out
• Why simplicity always wins in complex industries
• How to build tech that listens instead of shouting
💡 Quote from Guy:
“Technology should feel like teamwork, not traffic.”
🎧 Listen now on Spotify — and if you’ve ever felt buried in messages, this one’s for you.
#CaptiveConversations #ZenZap #Messaging #TeamCulture #HospitalityTech
Richard Liverman: Brand DNA & The Power of Ambassadors
What do food, stories, and ambassadors all have in common? They’re at the heart of building brands that last.
In this episode of Captive Conversations, I sit down with Richard Liverman to talk about:
✨ Why brand DNA is more powerful than just marketing
✨ The role of ambassadors in scaling businesses
✨ Why curiosity is key for growth
✨ His challenge to hospitality: stop saying “we’ve always done it this way”
And of course – his reminder to all of us: “Don’t be boring. Be a little more amazing.”
🎙️ Episode 68 of Captive Conversations welcomes Olivia FitzGerald, Managing Director of 125 Data & Insights.Olivia shares her journey from:✅ Early days in hospitality at Quaglino’s✅ Scaling online reservations at Livebookings & Bookatable✅ Leading sales & marketing at Zonal✅ Running B2B at Majestic Wine✅ Transforming Feed It Back into 125 Data & InsightsKey themes we cover: • Why operators must be brave enough to really listen to customers • The danger of vanity metrics vs. actionable insight • How AI and advisory boards are shaping the future of guest experience • Why acquisition is expensive — and retention is where the value lies📢 Quote: “Feedback is the start. Insights are where the growth happens.”🎧 Listen on Spotify, watch on YouTube, and follow Captive Conversations for more industry stories
In this episode of Captive Conversations, I sit down with Victoria Searl, founder of DataHawks, to unpack her career from running pubs at 18, to senior sales & marketing leadership, to building a platform designed to turn hospitality data into action.
We cover:
✅ Early lessons from running pubs and learning ops the hard way
✅ Sales and marketing at major brands under private equity pressure
✅ Why operators collect endless data but struggle to act on it
✅ Building DataHawks to help operators focus on what really matters
✅ How to balance people, process, and tech in hospitality
💡 Standout quote: “Hospitality is easy when everything’s going well. Real hospitality is tested when something goes wrong.”
If you’re in sales, ops, or tech, this one’s packed with nuggets of genius.
🎙️ Catherine Allen on Selling with Empathy & Building Stereo
In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam chats with Catherine Allen, sales leader turned founder, about building Tidr, a new tool for sales enablement in hospitality.
From her early days doing cold outreach at Trail to launching her own platform, Catherine shares what she’s learned about earning trust, finding product-market fit, and growing with grit.
🔥 Highlights:
How rejection shaped her sales mindset
Building relationships over transactions
Why most outreach fails (and how to fix it)
Stereo’s vision: empowering teams from the inside
What ops people actually want from tech
💡 “You get one shot to show up as someone useful, not annoying.”
If you’re in SaaS, hospitality sales, or ops, this episode is a must.
#CaptiveConversations #HospitalitySales #Stereo #Startups #HospitalityTech
Welcome back to Captive Conversations. In this episode, I’m joined by Reiss and Louise from Set Menu—a platform that’s quietly becoming a must-have in the hospitality tech stack.
💥 We talk:
How menus get out of sync across delivery & booking platforms
Why most operators still rely on spreadsheets and manual fixes
Building Set Menu with real operators, not just devs
The future of brand control, from third-party listings to guest experience
💡 One standout quote:
“Our biggest competitor isn’t another tech tool—it’s the spreadsheet.”
📱 Learn more about Set Menu: https://setmenu.com/
#CaptiveConversations #SetMenu #HospitalityTech #RestaurantOps #MenuManagement #DigitalMenus #HospitalityInnovation
In this episode of Captive Conversations, I sit down with Jack Edge, founder of Edgey, to explore his journey from hospitality operations into the world of branding and creative strategy.
We dig into the real lessons from running venues, why operators need to think like lifestyle brands, and how storytelling is becoming the missing link in guest experience.
In this episode, we cover:
✅ What Jack learned from years in operations
✅ Why branding and storytelling are as important as great service
✅ The birth of Edgey and its mission to reshape hospitality marketing
✅ How retail and lifestyle brands can inspire hospitality
✅ The future of creative storytelling in a digital-first industry
💡 One standout quote:
If you’re an operator, marketer, or creative, this one’s packed with insights on how to build brands that stand out and connect with guests.
“If you don’t tell your story, someone else will — and it might not be the version you want out there.”
Hospitality lives and dies by its operations. Few people know that better than Gary Digby, who’s built a career leading multi-site venues and now runs his own consultancy.
In this episode of Captive Conversations, we talk about:
✅ Why operations are the backbone of every hospitality business
✅ The common pitfalls operators face – and how consultancy can help
✅ Where AI and tech can genuinely add value
✅ Gary’s own journey from operations to consultancy
If you’re an operator, leader, or consultant in hospitality, this episode will give you practical insights you can use today.
Gary’s Answers
🔥 Best Hospitality Experience: Ivan Ramen
🔥 Best Hospitality Tech: TipJar, Nory, aquaint, Lightspeed
🔥 Best Restaurant: After a huge hike in Turkey, Corner Store serving awesome Rotisserie Chicken
🔥 Best Burger: Shake Shack NYC, BLT NYC
🔥 Best Hotel: The Hoxton Chicago
#Hospitality #CaptiveConversations #HospitalityConsultancy
🎙️ EP61 – Lee Niles: 25 Years of Hospitality Tech & the Melford Technologies StoryIn this episode of Captive Conversations, I sit down with Lee Niles, a hospitality tech veteran who’s been driving digital transformation for over 25 years.We cover:✅ The evolution from old-school PDQ machines to cloud-based systems✅ How operators can simplify their tech stacks without losing performance✅ Why Melford Technologies is the “quiet partner” behind successful venues✅ The future of guest experience in a tech-first worldIf you’re an operator, supplier, or just love hearing how technology changes industries, this is for you.📌 Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping hospitality’s future.#HospitalityTech #MelfordTechnologies #CaptiveConversations
🎙️ Why Pubs Still Matter — Building Community-First Hospitality at Scale
In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Daniel Keen from Urban Village Pubs to talk about the enduring role of pubs, leadership through growth, and what happens when you build around people first.
In this episode:
Daniel shares hard-earned insights from a career in hospitality finance, operations, and people-first leadership — offering real, actionable wisdom for anyone building a brand with heart.
#CaptiveConversations #HospitalityLeadership #UrbanVillagePubs #CommunityBusiness #PubStrategy #HospitalityGrowth
🎙️ Menus That Speak for Your Brand — with Annica Wainwright of 2Forks
In this episode of Captive Conversations, I’m joined by writer and strategist Annica Wainwright — co-founder of 2Forks — to explore the power of words in hospitality.
We break down:
Annica shares examples from real restaurant projects, how she uses brand research to shape storytelling, and why designing menus isn’t just about what’s on the plate — it’s about how you make people feel.
"You’re basically hypnotising people with your menu… and it works.”
If you’re working on menus, brand strategy, tone of voice, or storytelling in the hospitality space — this one’s packed with gems.
📺 Watch the episode: YouTube
#HospitalityStrategy #2Forks #CaptiveConversations #MenuDesign #ToneOfVoice #RestaurantBranding #HospitalityLeadership
In this episode of Captive Conversations, Adam sits down with Fi Sellick — UK Head of Strategy at Square — to talk about what hospitality really means in a world of tech, loyalty, and data.
Expect laughs, lessons, and a love letter to cheese, coffee, and customer experience.
🎙 In this episode:
🧀 Cheese, chaos, and the charm of a proper deli
📲 How Square designs loyalty for real humans
☕ Coffee, culture, and the tools baristas actually want
📦 Why “invisible tech” is the secret to scale
❤️🔥 Creating brands that feel human, even at 1,000+ venues
🎧 Full episode + more at: www.captivewifi.com/podcast
#CaptiveConversations #Square #RestaurantTech #HospitalityLeadership #FiSellick #WomenInTech #CustomerJourney #BrandExperience
🎙️ Solo Episode 2: The CRM Graveyard
In this solo episode, Adam Forman dives into the uncomfortable truth behind most customer databases — they're full of unused potential.
You'll learn:
💬 With a few personal stories and shout-outs to brands doing it right (hello, Rosa’s Thai), this episode is packed with takeaways and no fluff.
Your CRM isn’t dead — it’s just asleep. Let’s wake it up.
Hosted by: Adam Forman | Captive WiFi
Adam's First Solo Pod
Welcome to Captive Conversations — the podcast where hospitality meets technology. In this first solo episode, Adam Forman (founder of Captive WiFi) talks through:
💡 Featuring examples from real brands like YOLK, Honest Burgers and more — this episode is packed with practical takeaways and some honest, slightly chaotic solo energy.
Like, follow and subscribe — more epic guests coming soon!
In this episode of Captive Conversations, we go behind the scenes with the founder of two standout hospitality brands — one that built a cult following for handcrafted doughnuts, and another powering seamless online ordering and loyalty for restaurants across the UK.
We dig into the real story behind the rise of these brands, the philosophy behind digital experiences that don’t feel digital, and what it means to scale hospitality with care and consistency.
In this episode, we cover:
If you're in hospitality, tech, or just love hearing how great brands are built — this one's packed with gems.
💡 One standout quote:
"The best tech is the kind you don’t even notice."
🎧 Learn more: www.captivewifi.com/podcast
#CaptiveConversations #HospitalityStrategy #BrandExperience #RestaurantTech #CustomerJourney #Slerp #Crosstown #FounderStories #FoodInnovation #HospitalityLeadership
The local visibility game in hospitality is broken, but it doesn’t have to be.
In this episode of Captive Conversations, we discuss local listings, menus, and guest experience with one of the sharpest marketing minds in the business.
Kelsey from Marqii joins the show to share:
✅ Why most brands are still missing the basics when it comes to local SEO
✅ How digital presence connects directly to in-store guest experience
✅ What she’s learned helping hundreds of operators clean up their listings and reviews
✅ The small tweaks that create massive impact across search, social, and discovery
✅ Why partnerships (not platforms) are the secret to scaling with success
This one is for every operator, marketer, or founder who wants to win the battle for digital attention, and turn it into real-world loyalty.
Thanks to Kelsey for bringing the energy, know-how, and real-world wins to the mic. Loved this one.
Kelsey's Answers
🔥 Best Hospitality Experience: An Enoteca in Bolongia
🔥 Best Hospitality tech: Mentioning Bikki , Ovation, PopMenu
🔥 Best Restaurant: Travelling Mercys, Denver
🔥 Best Burger: Heidi’s House by the side of the Road
🔥 Best Hotel: Any hotel with a robe LOL
#HospitalityMarketing #DigitalPresence #Marqii #CaptiveConversations