Yearly Archives: 2020

Taste, Toast, Zoom: Virtual Tastings, Mixology Classes, and Experiential Events

Virtual Alcohol Tastings and Mixology Classes: Virtual alcohol tastings and mixology classes are not an entirely new concept; however, they have gained popularity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and necessity due to local and state orders. Virtual tastings and mixology classes come in the form of a recorded or live online guided sampling ...
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The Top 5 Ways To Keep Your Employees Engaged (And Safe) Despite COVID Fatigue

When the pandemic first began, most employees were ready to pitch in and do their part to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. They adapted to remote working while attending to their children. Others understood they were deemed “essential workers” and adjusted to the new normal when coming to work, which included temperature checks, symptom ...
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Tools to Track Travel

With the well-ordered world of travel totally disrupted by COVID-19 travel restrictions, new solutions have quickly developed to track what’s open, what’s not, and what travelers must do to thread the needle from Point A to Point B.  The need to keep up with all the well-intentioned but constantly changing – and frequently confusing – restrictions, ...
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Theft in the Restaurant Industry and the Influence of Peers in Worker Misconduct

Introduction An extensive study of theft among restaurant workers was conducted recently by three researchers from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. The results — based on transaction and theft data from 83,153 servers at 1,049 restaurants from 34 chains across 46 states in the U.S. over seven years, are compelling ...
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Human Response During Fire Events: Evidence from Behavioral Research

Introduction When serious fires involving fatalities and injuries occur in buildings where many people are gathered, such as in hotels and other hospitality environments, they receive much public attention. Undoubtedly, it is the responsibility of the industry to prevent, or deal effectively, with fires on their premises, and protect the occupants. Nonetheless, the understanding of ...
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Group Sales and Event Contracting During (and After) COVID-19

1. In The Beginning: February/March 2020 Certain challenges associated with group sales and event contracting have made the coronavirus pandemic that much more difficult for hoteliers, many of whom rely on large meetings, events and programs to generate profit. In particular, the concept of suspending or delaying performance during the pendency of a force majeure ...
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Data Privacy and Security Challenges During Re-Opening

The COVID-19 crisis and stay-at-home orders drastically changed corporate cybersecurity landscapes within an extremely compressed period of time. Almost every industry, including hospitality, rushed to introduce or increase the use of remote technology tools for work-related communication, including: Video Conferencing File Sharing Virtual Desktops Group Chat VPN Web-Based Applications and Tools Cyber criminals wasted little ...
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The Hazy Science of CBD

As governments and regulatory bodies loosen their rules on hemp-related products, including the legalization of marijuana, the cannabidiol, or CBD, market has grown at remarkably high rates. One projection by BDS analytics and Arcview Market Research puts the overall CBD market at $20 billion by 20241. Combining the CBD market with the legal marijuana market, ...
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“But For” COVID-19: Trending Causation Theories in COVID-19 Litigation

As the Covid pandemic spread across the world and the United States, neighborhood pools, parks, gyms and all other manners of public gathering places began to close and many people began to wonder about the potential liability of remaining open or continuing to do business. Almost every defense attorney probably had the same reaction, “how ...
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Legal Issues You Might Not Know About Canada

FRANCHISE LAWSimilarly to the United States, Canada has pre-sale franchise disclosure laws in six of the 10 provinces in the country, each of which require that a “franchise disclosure document” or “FDD” be provided to a prospective franchisee at least 14 days before a franchise agreement is signed or any consideration is paid in respect ...
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