That's a wrap – #TypsyLive16

Last Wednesday was an exciting day for our team. We set off for Sydney early in the morning to get ready for our second live event – Typsy Live: Hospitality Innovation.

After a busy day of sorting out lighting, sound, make-up and run-throughs, the doors of the Roslyn Packer Theatre Walsh Bay opened to our audience. 

Our MC, Kirrily Waldhorn, got the evening started. Kirrily is Australia’s Beer Diva and by the end of the night had paired each speaker with a beer she believed matched their personality!

First up, following a welcome from our founder and CEO Jonathan Plowright, was consumer psychologist Adam Ferrier.

Adam is a household name in Australia with regular TV and radio features, a published book, and a lengthy list of awards – he started his talk by noting that if you would like to win awards, advertising is a great industry to work in!

With a screen behind him that read “innovation fucks with convention” Adam told us how his most successful marketing strategies were thought up when approaching familiar subjects from a fresh perspective – his “Steal Banksy” campaign for the Art Series Hotel reinvented the experience of staying in a hotel by adding a challenge to it. Rather than just having a drink and heading to bed, hotel guests were given the opportunity to attempt stealing a piece of work by Banksy!
 

Get your customers to do something for you, in turn, it makes them more invested in your brand @adamferrier #typsylive16

— Suzanne Nguyen (@StringStory) October 5, 2016

Up next was Fady Hachem. Fady was only 21 when he convinced Melbourne venue Bond Bar that he could take the reigns on their $2 million brand and design overhaul. Today he runs the creative studio Hachem, undertaking architecture, design and branding projects around the world.

Fady talked about the importance of aligning your brand identity with the visuals of your business – and thinking innovatively about how to approach both. Alluding to his work with the Adelphi Hotel, Fady noted that sometimes a change in the interior is not enough – sometimes a brand identity overhaul is needed for the business to soar, and this requires the courage to try something new and take risks.

Following Fady was Yossi Ghinsberg, author and adventurer who helped open the Chalalan Ecolodge. He gave us a sneak preview of the release poster for the upcoming film (starring Daniel Radcliffe) based on his misadventure in the Bolivian jungle. Yossi told us about how he headed into uncharted territory of the Amazon with three fellow adventurers, got lost, got separated from his friends, and survived alone for three weeks against all odds.

From this experience, Yossi has come to view the nature of life in the jungle as a metaphor for success in life – when everyone is performing at the peak of their potential, no one gets left behind and everyone thrives. Rather than focusing on competition, Yossi talked about the importance of finding your own monopoly.
 

#TypsyLive16 @yossi_ghinsberg find your niche monopoly and thrive to survive

— Linda McNeil (@marylindamcneil) October 5, 2016

After Yossi’s talk, Sally Irwin took to the stage. Sally is the founder of The Freedom Hub, a charity that helps survivors of modern slavery in Australia through support, job training and work experience, and runs a social enterprise cafe and shop as well. Sally told us about becoming aware of the problem of human trafficking when she was living in Europe. Whilst there she got involved with organizations helping survivors.

After returning home to Australia she was shocked to find out that slavery happens here as well and became determined to work towards its eradication. Now Sally is able to fund her charity through the cafe and shop, and without government funding is able to personalize the help provided to survivors.

To wrap up the first part of the night, Nick Bowditch took to the stage. As an entrepreneur, social media thought-leader and marketing expert who has worked for both Facebook and Twitter, Nick talked about the importance of telling a story rather than selling a product.

Using the clicker in his hand as an example, Nick demonstrated that consumers don’t really care about your brand or your product – they care about how you make them feel. Kindness, he stressed, is the real key to success in the hospitality industry.

No one cares about your brand, they care about how you make them feel @nickbowditch 👍🏽 #typsylive16

— WE ARE HARPER (@weareharper) October 5, 2016

For the second part of the night Kirrily facilitated a panel discussion with Paul Fischmann (founder and CEO of 8Hotels), Damian Griffiths (founder and CEO of Doughnut Time), Brooke Adey (restaurant manager at Yellow and Typsy instructor) and Kernard Koh (a recent hospitality school graduate).

Paul and Damian answered audience questions about running businesses with multiple venues, while Brooke and Kernard answered questions about life as front of house professionals. 

If you missed Typsy Live in real time, you’ll soon be able to watch all the talks on our website – stay tuned! In the meantime, check out all the behind the scenes footage from our live Facebook feed and have a look at our snaps on Instagram! You can also check out footage from last year’s event by clicking here.

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