Top Four Experiences: Restaurant Leadership Conference

Last week, the Restaurant Leadership Conference (RLC) lived up to its hype with inspirational speakers, lively sessions, and perfect Arizona weather. If you didn’t make it to Phoenix, never fear: we’ve rounded up the top four experiences to make you feel like you were there. Break out your shades and keep reading.

#1 Innovation forum: Customer pride for Taco Bell

For his session entitled “Bottom Line: Taco Bell Empowers Employees and Saves $$$,” Former Inkling CEO Jeff Carr delivered an informative session around how to provide more effective employee training, curb high employee turnover, and better execute limited time offers (LTOs). Prior to adopting Inkling, Taco Bell struggled with training their distributed workforce of 210,000 team members through paper-based training. Now their employees not only enjoy using engaging learning tools that improve execution, but Taco Bell is saving $2M in annual printing costs and has boosted customer satisfaction scores by 5%.

#2 Keynote session: Watching Magic in action

NBA player Earvin “Magic” Johnson hardly needs an introduction for his sports achievements. But did you know that his entrepreneurial successes are equally impressive? Magic took the stage at RLC to discuss how he built a $1B business ventures by embracing competition. Can you think of any way your competitors have challenged you to do better?

#3 Speaking session: Shattering stereotypes

For decades, there was probably nowhere that a woman was less likely to be found than on an American football field. That remained true until Sarah Thomas arrived on the scene.

In her session entitled “Breaking Through: My Journey to Becoming the First Female NFL Official,” Sarah Thomas impressed the crowd with her series of firsts in the male-dominated sport, including becoming the first permanent female NFL official and making history by officiating the Patriots and Chargers playoff game this year. But equally admirable are the leadership lessons she shared about creating change for yourself and succeeding at whatever you set out to accomplish.

#4 Networking: Anywhere and everywhere, especially on the links

We all know that conferences are the best place to network with industry leaders, and RLC is no exception. The conference offered everything from a hiking excursion to a Sur La Table cooking class, but the most popular outing was the RLC Golf Tournament. Former Inkling CEO Jeff Carr participated this year and while he hasn’t shared his score, we know it was one of his highlights from the conference. After all, it’s hard to beat beautiful weather, scenery, and great company.

We hope you enjoyed the recap, and we hope to see you at RLC next year!