When every brand relies on the same algorithms and LLMs in its messaging, guest experiences quickly blend together into a sea of sameness. How do you leverage cutting-edge tech without losing the authentic human connection that drives bottom-line profitability?

Join cognitive psychologist, executive therapist, and former Spotify, Google, and Instagram executive Dr. Eric Solomon for a deep dive into the human mind and customer decision-making. Learn how Dr. Solomon applies behavioral psychology to modern marketing and technology strategies—and how restaurant brands can stand out. 
 

How catering, automated vending and grocery-store licensing are keeping brands "Ahead of the Current" without adding brick-and-mortar overhead and with minimal labor costs.

Join us as we dive into the granular-level findings of HT’s latest research studies to uncover the why—and “so what?”—behind the numbers. We’ll bridge the gap between front-of-house experience (Guest Engagement Study), and the intelligence layer driving it (AI Impact Study). Attendees will walk away with a clear understanding of where industry leaders are placing their bets and how to align their tech stacks to meet the skyrocketing expectations of the modern guest. 

Whether they know it or not, most restaurants already have attention: guests searching, scrolling, and calling. Most of that attention leaks before it turns into an order. In this executive briefing, Shawn Walchef (Owner, Cali BBQ and Founder, Cali BBQ Media) walks through the demand system his restaurants run every day: generate demand with stories, capture it when the guest raises their hand, convert the order, and bring the guest back. This session will dig into a new way Cali BBQ is capturing guest demand—evidence of technology's ability to aid in the process. This past Father's Day, when a custom voice AI took total ownership of Cali BBQ's phone lines, it handled complex catering orders around the clock, and drove $26,000 in sales across 268 orders with an 18% lift. Attendees leave with a simple framework to find the demand leak in their own operation and make an action plan on how to respond. 

Most restaurant brands are still struggling with data silos where the POS doesn't talk to the CRM, and the CRM doesn't know what happened on the 3rd-party delivery app. This session is a 101 on the Unified Data Layer (UDL)—the move away from 50 separate integrations toward a single, clean source of truth that powers your AI.

Spanning her career from the global surge of Planet Hollywood to turning around Buca di Beppo and pioneering virtual brands, Giordano shares her approach to moving forward and driving profitability through tech-led innovation.

What happens when you automate transaction-taking but reinvest that human energy into guest hospitality? If you’re Pepper Lunch, you drive basket size, elevate brand sentiment, and build a truly scalable store model. Troy Hooper, Pepper Lunch’s strategic advisory to the board and former CEO, joins us for an informal fireside chat on leading the global fast-casual brand through a high-impact digital evolution.

Discover how the brand paired self-service kiosks with dedicated hospitality hosts before it was cool. Learn how the brand transformed its customer perception from food speed to service friendliness—while generating a dramatic lift in average check size. 

Beyond store-level technology, Troy will share advice for tech executives on proving 100% measurable four-wall ROI, breaking down organizational silos, building cross-departmental coalitions, and securing full operational adoption for new technology rollouts.

This 45-minute interactive workshop is built around peer-to-peer discussion. You’ll join small-group roundtables with fellow restaurant executives to swap candid failure stories, test ideas, and compare real-world playbooks. Across three 12-minute rapid rotations, the room will dive deep into:

Store-Level Infrastructure: Why solid software breaks at the unit level and how to ensure store networks can actually support high-level tech visions.
AI Governance: Whose responsibility is it to oversee a restaurant organization's AI/LLM usage? How are organizations drawing up policies & best practices? 
Franchisee Alignment & Hardware: How to build compelling ROI cases for skeptical operators while tackling frontline device and hardware friction.
Field Support & Operational Realities: Building back-of-house support models that protect store managers and step in when tech crashes during peak rush.
GEO (AI/LLM Search Orientation): How restaurant brands can make themselves more likely to be visible in LLM queries. 

Come ready to speak candidly, learn from the executive room, and walk away with practical strategies you can apply to your own roadmap.
 

As restaurant brands race to implement generative AI, predictive ordering, and advanced CRM platforms, data pipelines are expanding exponentially. But with great data comes great vulnerability. Learn how to architect a data strategy that fuels your marketing engine with high-quality insights while robustly protecting guest identities, payment information, and proprietary brand data from evolving cyber threats.

Presented by Hospitality Technology, the 20th annual MURTEC Breakthrough Awards  celebrate the restaurant brands that aren’t just pushing the boundaries of innovation but delivering measurable ROI. HT will recognize the 2026 finalists, and the winner will be announced live. Their stories will showcase what's possible and inspire your next breakthrough.

This session examines the evolving "make vs. buy" framework, exploring why the traditional competitive advantage of custom-built technology is shifting toward the strategic implementation of modern third-party platforms. We will discuss how to weigh the long-term value of homegrown stacks against the speed and scalability of enterprise solutions, specifically focusing on how shifting to a unified stack can accelerate the deployment of advanced AI and data-driven innovations.