Restaurant And Event Industry Leader’s Summit 2022

Hosted by County Line on the Lake, event and restaurant industry peers gathered to hear updates and discuss hot topics around the world of events and gatherings.

Panelist Skeeter Miller, President and Owner of County Line Restaurant, spoke about his experience operating a multi-location family restaurant throughout the pandemic and into “variant season”. Miller insisted that providing guests with the same County Line experience even while inside dining was closed made all the difference during the height of the pandemic. A big part of getting Texas to commit to the idea of take-home meals was allowing restaurants to provide take out alcoholic beverages.

Dr. Emily Willams Knight played a big role in the legislation needed to pass the law allowing County Line’s famous margaritas to make it to your dining table. In May of 2021 Texas Governor, Gregg Abbott signed the law legalizing take out alcohol. The Texas Tribune says,

“House Bill 1024 allows beer, wine and mixed drinks to be included in pickup and delivery food orders, securing a revenue stream made available to restaurants during the pandemic when their dining areas were forced to close. Because the measure was approved by more than two-thirds of the House and Senate, it went into effect as soon as Abbott signed it.”

Dr. Willams Knight is the President and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, a key player in Texas restaurant advocacy. She worked closely with hundreds of businesses during the pandemic to understand their struggles and needs as a business battling to stay afloat with little to no revenue.

On the events side, CEO of RED VELVET, Cindy Lo talked about her struggles with corporate clients’ hesitation to get back into the event space. 

“Corporate events have not returned to 2019 levels… and part of the reason is that employees are all still working from home. Corporate leadership’s thought process is that of, ‘If I don't mandate them to come to the office, they are not going to want to go to an event.’ And I call BS.”

You can watch the live recording of the full speaker panel below or on our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CZLFk2WJXPb/?hl=en

Need some strategic insight for your next brand activation? We’d love to hear from you.