5 reasons to attend Sydney’s Pub Leaders Summit

The 2024 Pub Leaders Summit is less than one week away and tickets are still on sale for last-minute buyers.

At a critical time in the industry, the two-day event is a fantastic opportunity to get new ideas for your business, experience new products and services firsthand, and connect with peers.

The 2024 Pub Leaders Summit will be held 9-10 September at Waterview at Bicentennial Park, Sydney Olympic Park. Monday 9 September will see the running of the half-day Study Tour, while the full-day conference and showcase is on the 10th.

If you’re not sold yet, here are five reasons why venue operators should attend the event:

1. Hear from leading voices in the industry

Many highly respected industry operators will be sharing their insights at the Pub Leaders Summit, including Craig Shearer, founder of Kickon Group; Paul Walton, MD of ALH Hotels; Bianca Dawson, Training and Development Officer for AVC: James Thorpe, CEO of Odd Culture Group; Ben Stephens, COO of Solotel; Jacqui Corbett, COO of Momento Hospitality; and Jamie Gannon, group executive chef for Laundy Hotels.

These operators, and many others, will discuss their strategies, innovations, successes and responses to challenges on a wide variety of topics – from marketing and staffing, to F&B and entertainment.

You can view the full list of speakers here.

2. Get an exclusive preview and visit innovative venues on the Study Tour

The half-day Study Tour, held on Monday 9 September, will visit the award-winning Log Cabin by Laundy Hotels – regarded as one of the best pubs in greater Sydney. The tour will also visit the highly anticipated Oran Park Hotel by Momento Hospitality, which will be one of the largest hospitality venues in New South Wales. The hotel has not yet opened, so Study Tour attendees will be getting a sneak peek into what the hotel will have to offer.

The final stop on the Tour will visit Flight Club Sydney – a new venue by NightOwl Entertianment. Flight Club takes advantage of the trend towards social competitive experiences, which have been big in the US and UK, and are now filtering through to the Australian market. Enjoy a game of darts, drinks, and canapes on this last stop of the tour.

Due to limited capacity, tickets to the Study Tour are restricted to on-premise operators only, and must be purchased along with a ticket to the conference. There are only a few tickets left on the Study Tour, so don’t delay in securing your spot!

3. Drill down on consumer spending and behaviour changes

Several sessions at the Pub Leaders Summit will look at exactly how patron spend has changed in the last 12 months, how to counteract those changes to increase profitability, and where the new opportunities like to capture spend.

It will kick off with a keynote from Craig Woolford, Senior Consumer and Discretionary Analyst at MST Marquee (ex-Citi Australia).

The keynote will look at the factors that will impact consumer spending over the year ahead and cut through the noise around the outlook for topical economic issues such as interest rates and taxes. Woolford will also provide a perspective about the issues impacting pub revenue and profitability.

Other sessions that will look at consumer behaviour using a mix of data, commissioned research and in-venue experiences include a presentation on consumer expectations by Eleanor Knight at McCain Foods; a panel on dining experiences with the likes of Joshua Hillary (Solotel) and Jamie Gannon (Laundy Hotels); and a panel on shifting beverage consumption with Luke Redington (Momento Hospitality), Jimmy Curran (Kickon Group), Jodie Tiernan (Public House Albury) and Daniel McBride (Working Holiday).

Learn more about these sessions here.

4. Strengthen your cybersecurity and prepare for a data hack

Pubs amass significant amounts of data on their patrons through marketing databases, loyalty programs, POS and booking software, and more. While operators have become adept at using this data, are you up to speed on how to keep it protected?

Two experts will present on this topic, with Alex Hoffman from CyberCX kicking off with a look at the top five threats facing hospitality operators and the top five actions you can undertake to secure your data.

This will be followed up by a presentation by Lauren Clancy, client partner and technology/cyber lead at Porter Novelli, who argues that a digital hack is a case of when not if. She will talk through how best to handle a digital hack, from having a crisis management strategy in place, and the messaging and interactions you should be having with your patrons should such a hack occur.

These sessions are not to be missed!

5. Network with industry peers and meet up-and-coming talent

The Pub Leaders Summit conference and showcase offers several opportunities throughout the day to network with industry peers, including at the Networking Drinks session presented by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners at the end of the conference. It’s another opportunity to forge connections and catch up with colleagues.

The Summit will also end with the announcement of the winner of the inaugural Australian Hotelier Future Leaders Scholarship, Several of the finalists will be in attendance, and are a promising group of operators to get to know at the event.

Grab your tickets now to the 2024 Pub Leaders Summit for your opportunity to be inspired, improve your venues, get a first-hand look at new products and tools and forge new industry connections.