Sequel: Watch Now On Demand

Nicole Rice, Senior Brand Manager at First Watch Restaurants, is an integral part of developing and optimizing the overall brand experience at First Watch Restaurants. Nicole is responsible for driving execution of key strategic initiatives like the seasonal menu program, alcohol rollouts, and in-restaurant promotions. Most recently, Nicole led the company rollout of curbside across the First Watch brand, utilizing technology available through the Wisely platform to optimize the customer experience. Additionally, over her 4 years with First Watch, Nicole has guided local restaurant marketing efforts and franchise support to help establish First Watch as a true community partner. Prior to First Watch, Nicole spent 16 years as a Field Marketing Manager at Bloomin’ Brands. When she’s not working, she enjoys traveling, exploring the Rocky Mountains and taking her family to Denver’s best Mexican restaurants.

Charles brings over two decades of consulting, spatial, and marketing analytics experience with the likes of Ernst & Young (Manager), Buxton (President & CEO), and Group O (President). Since 2015, Charles has served as President of eSite helping to drive the future of eSite Analytics. Charles is not only a trusted strategic consultant to eSite’s clients but also to many companies across the retail and restaurant industries.

Matt Eisenacher is currently the Senior Vice President, Brand Strategy and Innovation at First Watch Restaurants.  Prior to joining First Watch in 2019, Matt was the Chief Concept Officer for Piada Italian Street Food based in Columbus, Ohio where he was responsible for the branding, marketing, IT and business development efforts as the concept expanded nationwide from 16 units in 2013 to 41 in 2019.  

Prior to joining Piada, Matt spent 12+ years in the Consumer-Packaged Goods industry across a variety of food & nutrition brands working for Nestle USA, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Abbott Nutrition.  Matt received a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Management from Ohio University and his MBA, specializing in Marketing, from The Ohio State University.

Rom Krupp is a disruptor, visionary, and thought leader in the restaurant industry. For more than 24 years he’s worked with over 500 restaurant brands developing technology and analytics solutions used in over 100,000 restaurant locations worldwide.   

He is the Founder and CEO of Marketing Vitals, the most comprehensive analytics solution specifically developed for the restaurant industry and currently used in over 200 brands worldwide to drive top-line sales. https://marketingvitals.com

Rom launched a second company that is disrupting the future of contactless menu browsing, ordering, and payment in the restaurant industry. OneDine® offers restaurants and guests a mobile technology solution that integrates into the current POS system providing guest-side ordering, payment and experience integrations to help restaurants lower labor costs, drive incremental sales, increase table turns and allow guests to dine on their time. OneDine was named the #11 Hottest Pre-IPO Startup in the world for 2020 by Crunchbase. https://onedine.com.

Scott Lawton serves as CEO and Co-Founder of bartaco, a coastal-inspired restaurant serving fresh, upscale street food in a relaxed environment. Bringing over 20 years of leadership experience in the hospitality arena, Lawton rejoined bartaco, under the new private ownership of L Catterton, overseeing the concept’s overall vision and growth. Prior to becoming CEO, Lawton was Chief Operating Officer of Barteca, managing development, day-to-day operations and personnel recruitment. For over seven years, Scott led bartaco’s growth from zero to tores, 60+ million in sales operating in eight different states. While President, the brand achieved five consecutive years of double digit, same-store sales growth while maintaining 29% store level EBITDA. Lawton previously held key leadership roles with Tribeca Grill, Buckhead Life and Big Time Restaurants.

Justin leads a team that drives the strategy behind marketing automation, customer experience, and data visualization at the digital marketing agency, Vert. His focus is on helping brands turn traffic into leads, leads into customers, and customers into loyal advocates using personalized and relevant campaigns.

With over nine years of experience in digital marketing, Justin has guided the marketing strategies across a variety of different industries and companies, including First Watch, Barco, Realogy, University of Georgia, and many more.

Leah McClay is the Digital Marketing Manager for The Kitchen Restaurant Group where she's worked for the last year. Prior to that, she founded McClay Marketing where she provided a diverse set of services to an even more diverse clientele. Leah is passionate about innovative digital content, donuts, and crazy ideas.

Dan Doerfling is the SVP of Restaurant Operations for Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina and Arbor Brewing where he’s worked the past three years.  Dan was previously with Ruth’s Chris Steak House for 12 years as Regional Vice President of the Midwest.  Dan and the team are incredibly passionate about “honest” food and providing the best experience for their guests.

David Bromberg is the Senior Director of Learning & Development for Barcelona Wine Bar. Over his 20 years in the industry, he has led and developed restaurant teams in many major markets across the US. In 2015, David joined the Barcelona Wine Bar team, running restaurant operations in Boston, followed by developing restaurant management teams, and future leaders, in Washington, D.C., Nashville, and Philadelphia. After the opening of Barcelona in Philadelphia, David took on all Training and Development for Barcelona as the Director of Training in 2017. Since stepping into this role, David has redefined training at every level for the organization -- raising performance company wide while simultaneously broadening topics and depth of understanding. Through the openings of Denver, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Dallas, he has continued to refine the successful creation of highly-individualized restaurant operations in diverse markets, and has supported the incredible growth of hundreds of Barcelona employees. David lives in Tampa, FL with his wife Kathryn and three children Hendrix, Presley, and Marley.