Recently we were invited to attend the first ever Restaurant Engagement Conference (REC) at the Marco Polo Manila in Ortigas Center. Courtesy of a friend, I said yes to this as I had plans of opening up a restaurant someday (I hope) so attending this would a plus. Luckily I attended as I was surprised to see my long lost friend, Miguel dela Rosa. He's the CEO of Mplify, the company that organized REC. What a small world it is after all.
Now going back to REC, it has invited a boatload of speakers that would put the franchised restaurants to shame. From food photography to digital marketing to artificial intelligence, REC got it covered.
Food photographer Ronnel Cuison discussed why and how food is presented to attract customers. Then Jerry Ilao showed us how to get customers via social media. Hazel Herber then pushed the envelope further by emphasizing the effects of a strong online presence. Then we made a segue way to traditional media a bit with outdoor advertising courtesy of Lloyd Tronco.
Not to be outdone, Dr. Wessam Atif reminded us of how important food handling is for all our health and business. Artificial intelligence through chat bots was introduced by Brigette Tan Villarin, while restaurant trends was discussed by Jay Bautista. Loyalty and Rewards were discussed seamlessly between Yayu Javier and Alfonso Sy. All things digital then was sold to us by Globe Business representative Nikolai Frez. After all these, it was Google who had to summarize all these through Henry de Chaille.
A powerpacked day for restauranteurs. Information overload I hope not as I learned a lot from the day's session. I forgot I came in as a media entity. It was a great day indeed. I highly encourage restauranteurs to attend this event when they will be offered again. It will surely help the aspirants, newly established and even the established restaurants reach new heights in the food industry.
(At the end of it all, another newsworthy information from this event is that, the beneficiary of REC is the non-stock non-profit company, Children's Hour. What a way to help children while learning. Great community service by Mplify.)
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| Miguel Dela Rosa, Managing Director and CEO of Mplify. |
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| Jerry Ilao |
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| Wilma Doesn't provided the fanfare as host. |
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| One of the Q and A for the day. |
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| First batch of speakers |
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| The Raffle Prize Winners |
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| Another set of raffle prize winners. |
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| Lots of Raffle Prize Winners |
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| Another round of raffle prize winners |
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| Henry De Chaille of Google Philippines. |
For the video of the event, please see below, courtesy of Asenso Pinoy.
