The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, led by Executive Director Gwyneth Borden, is pleased to announce its first annual Industry Conference, taking place July 26 – 27, 2015 at San Francisco City College’s Chinatown/North Beach Annex. 

Over the course of two days, notable personalities from Bay Area restaurants, bars, and hospitality groups will come together with industry leaders from across the nation to connect, learn and engage through keynote speeches, business panels, cooking demonstrations, beverage classes, and hands-on technique classes. Presenters include Kyle Connaughton (Single Thread Farms Restaurant); David Glancy, MS, CWE (San Francisco Wine School); Gavin Kaysen (Spoon & Stable); Francis Lam (Editor, Clarkson Potter); William Rosenzweig (Dean & Executive Director, The Food Business School); Sabato Sagaria (Union Square Hospitality Group); Richard Rosendale, CMC (Rosendale Collective); Alex Talbot (Ideas in Food); and Patric Yumul (Mina Group) among others. For a full list of presenters, please see addendum.

Business panels will cover a wide range of subjects including operations and finance, marketing and design. Some topics include:

  • Best Practices for Funding your Restaurant
  • Cultivating the Next Generation of Talent
  • Operating Restaurants in an Era of Escalating Expenses
  • Increasing Nobility in Hospitality Work
  • The Tipping Point: Rising Labor Costs and the New Restaurant

Workshops will explore diverse topics: a food and beverage pairing lab, sous vide technique, working with fermented foods and more. There will also be a drop-in resource café where conference attendees can stop in for consultations on a variety of services including: legal, alcohol licensing, small business services, PR, and food safety and technology.

Space is limited. Registration is now open and is $100 for GGRA restaurant members, $125 for non-member restaurants, $250 for GGRA vendors members, $500 for non-GGRA vendors. Conference passes includes access to keynote speeches, business panels, beverage classes, demonstrations, coffee & pastries, lunch and a networking reception. For more information, visit ggra.org/industry-conference.

Sponsors include: Culintro, PG&E, TriMark Economy Restaurant Fixtures, Groupon, Michelman & Robinson, LLP, Williams Sonoma, World Pay, and San Francisco Wine School (as of 6.22.2015).

The conference will benefit the Golden Gate Restaurant Association Scholarship Foundation, a 501(c)(3), established to encourage, and provide assistance for individuals who wish to further their education in pursuit of careers in the foodservice and hospitality industry. Since 1968, the GGRA Scholarship Foundation has awarded annual tuition assistance to Bay Area students seeking higher education in the culinary and hospitality field.

In addition to tuition scholarships, the GGRA Scholarship Foundation also contributes funds every year to the San Francisco Unified School District’s Career Technical Education Department. These funds go directly to pay high school juniors and seniors for summer internships in the industry.