Catering

Restaurant Catering Workshop keynote to reveal the 'hidden' drivers of catering growth

The keynote opens a full day of education focused on helping restaurant operators build stronger catering businesses. Throughout the workshop, attendees will hear practical strategies from operators and industry experts, exchange ideas with peers and leave with tactics they can implement immediately.

Crumbs founder Kelly Grogan speaks at last year's Restaurant Catering Workshop. Photo: Connect Media

July 9, 2026 by Cherryh Cansler — Publisher, FastCasual.com

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Restaurant operators spend a lot of time looking for new catering customers by investing in digital marketing, making sales calls and trying to win business from companies they've never met.

Kelly Grogan believes they're looking in the wrong place.

"The regular who comes in every week has an office. The family celebrating a birthday has more birthdays coming," said Grogan, founder and CEO of CRUMBS. "The customer who loves your food already trusts you, which is the hardest part of any catering sale, and most operators walk right past them to go hunt strangers."

That mindset shift is just one of the lessons Grogan and Chris Barnes, VP of Delivery Operations for Dlivrd Technologies, will share during the keynote, "The Catering Iceberg: What You See Is the Smallest Part of What's There," at the Restaurant Catering Workshop on Oct. 7 in Arlington, Texas, at the Loews Hotel. It follows theFast Casual Executive Summit, Oct. 4-6, also in Arlington at the same hotel.

The keynote centers on a simple idea: most restaurant operators only see the visible part of their catering business — the orders coming in the door. The real opportunity, Grogan said, lies beneath the surface.

"Every catering order sits on top of something invisible," she told FastCasual. "The systems, the relationships and the quiet decisions determine whether that order ever comes back. Most operators only ever see the tip, and they build their whole program around it."

Her presentation promises to move beyond the usual advice about marketing and sales to examine the operational habits that create sustainable catering growth.

"The potential of catering is bigger than what operators can see, no matter where they are in their journey," Grogan said. "Whether you have never done a catering order or you're running a mature program, there is a whole layer underneath the surface you haven't touched yet."

That's why she believes catering potential isn't limited by market size, location or brand awareness.

"Catering is not capped by your market or your size," she said. "It's capped by how much of the iceberg you've chosen to look at. There's always more below the line."

Grogan said the timing couldn't be better. While many operators are already thinking about the busy holiday catering season, the lessons shared throughout the day are designed to have a much longer impact.

"This is going to be a powerful room," she said. "Ideas, networking and real learning you can put to work right away. What you take from this room won't just help you win the holiday season. It sets your catering business up for all of 2027."

For operators wondering whether the trip is worthwhile, Grogan offers one final piece of advice.

"If you're serious about growing catering," she said, "this is the room to be in."

Although speakers are being added daily, confirmed panelists include:

Mike Dollinger, VP of Operations, California Tortilla.
Gabriela Keown, Catering Director, Craveworthy Brands.
Crystal Leuty, Marketing Manager, CSM & Off Premise, Jim N Nick's Community Bar-B-Q.
Brittany Mercer, director of Marketing, Cowboy Chicken.
Danna Navarro, Sr. Regional Catering Sales Manager – California, Boudin.
Claudie Newman, director of Catering Sales, Founders Table.
Ben Pidduck, CEO, MONKEY Catering Platform.
Ashley Reed-Schellberg, director of Digital and Off-Premise Sales, Taco Cabana.
Becca Ridgway, Ops Services Manager, honeygrow.
Courtney Smith, head of Brand Partnerships, MONKEY Catering Platform.
Kori Sparks, director of Catering & Sales, Urbane Cafe
Brianna York — Sr. Regional Sales Manager, The ONE Group.

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About Cherryh Cansler

Cherryh Cansler is Publisher of FastCasual.com and Vice President of Connect Food. She has been covering the restaurant industry since 2012. Her byline has appeared in Forbes, The Kansas City Star and American Fitness magazine, among many others.

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