What I Heard Down the Path to Everywhere

I always have a similar feeling flying home from a CHART conference – my head is full, my heart is fuller, and my imagination is jumping for joy with ideas. As the only hospitality-specific training conference, created by hospitality trainers for hospitality trainers, the theme of this year’s Winter conference was so suiting – Path to Everywhere. I immediately connected to this theme for a few reasons:

• In hospitality, we get to create moments that take people down a path to new places, new people, and new experiences. 
• As trainers in an industry where many have their first job, we are fortunate to help guide or support so many down their path, no matter where it takes them personally or professionally.
• As an association, CHART has helped to guide me and many others down an amazing career by providing education, a strong network, and professional opportunity.

As I experienced the three days of CHART’s 103^rd hospitality conference, my fingers were quickly and constantly moving on the Notes app of my iPhone due to some of the amazing soundbites I wanted to capture from the lineup of speakers. Here is what I heard down the Path to Everywhere:

“Stop saying, ‘I’m going to step outside of my comfort zone.’ Start saying, ‘I’m going to broaden my comfort zone.’ It’s less weight to carry.” – Nadine Williams, Gianni’s Group

“Values are not just words on paper, but how the entire company lives them…Your employees must absolutely believe in your values to live them.” – Tiffany DeHaan, Alaska Airlines

“The audience doesn’t remember how many balls you juggle. They only remember how many you drop. As leaders, we need to consider this in terms of how many balls we try to juggle.” – Simmone Bowe, Limitless Life

“When you ask the question, make sure you are in that emotional space to hear the answer and take it in.” – Jennifer Belk White, Lumina Foods

“Even the broken crayon still colors.” – Matthew Brown, Schoox

“Vala Afshar defined culture best…‘Culture is what happens when the managers leave the room – doing what’s right in the absence of authority.’” – Damian Hanft, Inspire Brands

“After a great event, we all want to take something home to relive the memories – a souvenir. That concert ticket or t-shirt can bring you right back like it was yesterday. Create something onsite that carries the memories forward. This helps provide something to keep the inspiration and momentum going.” – Kelly McCutcheon, Whataburger

“Move from onboarding to everboarding. Go from training a few days to a mentality of always learning; less content at once and more moments of learning.” – Matt Nelson, Modern Training

“As the people who develop and deploy learning for our industry, we have a responsibility to embrace curiosity and keep learning ourselves.” – Donna Herbel, Blue Phoenix Learning

These last two quotes also help to carry forward our Path to Everywhere beyond the conference. While the conference was a few quick days of learning, it helps spark ideas and curiosity to continue learning; not only to make us better as trainers, but to better those around us.