LET’S PUT NETWORKING TO WORK
Published 20.10.2025
I’ve been to plenty of industry events lately and I genuinely love them.
Old faces, familiar laughter, the occasional “remember when...” moment.
But here’s the thing: some of the brightest minds in hospitality keep finding themselves in rooms together, and most of the time, we leave without a single actionable plan.
We clap politely for great speakers. We nod in agreement about how hard the industry has it. We grab a beer, exchange business cards, and promise to “catch up soon.”
Then we go home — and nothing changes.
I get it. It’s easy for me to say. Everyone’s stretched. The week is chaos. Budgets are tight. But if any group of people knows how to find an extra few minutes in a day or to squeeze something brilliant out of nothing it’s us.
We’re the ones who show up early, stay late, and somehow make a 750-cover service look effortless. If there’s an untapped resource in hospitality, it’s not money, it’s energy, creativity, and the drive that keeps us showing up. (I’d say passion, but that word’s been overcooked.)
So what if we turned all that drive toward something bigger? What if networking events became working events? A day where projects are born, solutions are drafted, and someone actually takes ownership of making them happen.
WE COULD TACKLE QUESTIONS LIKE:
How do we make late-night profitable again?
How do we attract the right people to the right roles — and keep them?
How do we spotlight the teams who make hospitality what it is?
How do we build from within so recruiters are a growth tool, not a last resort?
We’ve talked enough about what’s broken. Maybe it’s time to start fixing it together.
Because no one’s coming to save hospitality. But the good news is, we don’t need saving. We just need a plan.
I’ll summarise what Kate Nicholls said at a recent event I went to: “We in hospitality have a resilience. We see hurdles and we just get on with it. We overcome.” And I’d add one thing. “We need to do this together, so that we can get over these hurdles together, and faster.”
I get why hospitality isn’t high on the government’s agenda. When one restaurant closes, another opens — on paper, that looks like balance. But that’s exactly the problem.
Without hospitality, there’s no culture. No exchange of ideas. No community. No family. No relationships.
The government’s Industrial Strategy, “Invest 2035”, focuses on eight “growth” sectors: advanced manufacturing, clean energy, creative industries, defence, digital tech, financial services, life sciences, and professional services. In short, the kind of industries that export, scale, or can be measured in data and R&D output.
But AI still can’t shake a martini.
Hospitality doesn’t fit the spreadsheet. You can’t measure pride, atmosphere, or the human connection that keeps people coming back to restaurants, to work, to each other.
Those sectors might drive GDP, but hospitality drives society. If we want a thriving society, not just a functioning economy. It starts with us.
Because, truthfully, a thriving society creates a thriving economy. You can’t have one without the other.