All Episodes · Page 5 of 11

.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:💬 ...

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 wi...

Richard Liverman: Brand DNA & The Power of AmbassadorsWhat 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 challen...

🎙️ 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 ...

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 o...

🎙️ Catherine Allen on Selling with Empathy & Building StereoIn 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,...

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 platformsWhy most operators still rely on spreadsheets and manual fixesBuilding Set Menu with real operators, not just devsThe future of brand control, from ...

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 l...

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 va...

🎙️ EP61 – Lee Niles: 25 Years of Hospitality Tech & the Melford Technologies Story In 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 perf...

🎙️ Why Pubs Still Matter — Building Community-First Hospitality at ScaleIn 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:🍺 What makes the local pub such a powerful space — especially post-COVID📊 Using data to sup...

🎙️ Menus That Speak for Your Brand — with Annica Wainwright of 2ForksIn 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:🧠 Why most hospitality brands sound the same — and how to stand out📝 The difference between clear copy and clever copy (and why it matters)📋 How men...