As a HR director at some of the largest hotels in the world, Rowena Carter has mastered the art of creating valuable experiences for hospitality staff.

Rowena has become one of our go-to people when it comes to HR knowledge. She has recently instructed some new Typsy courses (spoiler alert!) that you'll be able to see soon, and she also presented an awesome talk at our live event in Melbourne last year.

The restaurant business can be a gruelling one, with new food concepts popping up and disappearing again at the blink of an eye. It can be a real challenge for new business owners to know what works, and what doesn't. 

London-based restaurant consultant Vasken Jermakian often gets called in by hospitality entrepreneurs who need his help setting up business systems. Through his consultancy Foodication, Vasken helps struggling businesses become profitable again. We reached out to Vasken and spoke about overcoming some of the most challenging aspects of owning a restaurant business. 

You could say Andrew Carlson grew up in the hospitality industry. He has worked in restaurants in some form or another since he was 12, starting as a server and moving through several management positions. He is now the director of training at Carlson Hospitality Group, where he helps restaurants that want to expand streamline their business processes. 

I picked Andrew's brain on common restaurant struggles, establishing a company culture, and going the extra mile for customers.  

Every week in our staff tips column, we talk to leading hospitality professionals and ask them for their best advice on their topic of expertise.

This week we’re talking to Sarah Leslie, a coffee instructor from New York who has filled various coffee educator roles throughout the years.

She's worked as a trainer at various places doing wholesale classes and other coffee classes, and has volunteered with the Barista Guild and the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Assocation of America).

In October of 2015, Typsy (called Upside at the time) hosted its first live event with a line-up of all-star speakers. The aim: inspire a crowd of Melbourne hospitality folks to 10x their customer service. It was a night to remember, and now we have some good news for everyone who couldn't make it – we filmed the whole thing!

In the upcoming weeks, we will be releasing talks from Upside Live Melbourne, starting this week with Justin Dry. Justin is the co-founder of Vinomofo, also known as 'the most epic tribe of wine loving mofos on the planet'. The wine-deal site has been growing exponentially since they started in 2011, and this year landed a $25 million investment deal. 

We caught up with Justin recently to see how he's been since the event. Read on to hear all about his latest news, and watch his talk below.