The Bar and Restaurant Summit is invitation only event designed for Founders, CEOs, Managing Directors and Development Directors of established restaurant groups operating five or more sites and preparing for their next stage of growth.
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- Tags Brand Development hospitality
The Harrison Bar and Restaurant Summit will take place on Thursday 1st October 2026, at Bird & Bird, New Fetter Lane, London. The summit is invitation only event designed for Founders, CEOs, Managing Directors and Development Directors of established restaurant groups operating five or more sites and preparing for their next stage of growth.
The summit is designed to bring together operators and experts from every stage of the restaurant ecosystem including concept development, design, operations, finance, legal, branding, and investment to provide founders with the knowledge, connections, and resources needed to successfully scale restaurant concepts.
Through keynote presentations, panel discussions, networking opportunities attendees will gain practical insights from industry leaders who have successfully built, financed, designed, and operated hospitality ventures and explore key questions such as:
How to grow a restaurant/bar business when the cost of getting growth wrong has never been higher?
Vision
The Bar and Restaurant Summit – Building the Next Generation of Venues will become the leading annual gathering for aspiring restaurant founders, bringing together the expertise, inspiration, capital, and community required to transform innovative hospitality ideas into thriving neighbourhood destinations.
Summit Objectives:
The Hospitality Summit seeks to:
- Connect founders with investors, advisors, and industry experts.
- Demystify restaurant financing and growth strategies.
- Showcase emerging hospitality trends and innovations.
- International expansion and cultural understanding.
- Foster collaboration between business professionals
- Accelerate the creation of sustainable, profitable restaurant businesses.
Agenda
12.00 – 12.30 – Guest Arrival and Registration/Introduction to the day
Speaker: Richard Samarasinghe
12.30 – 13.00 – The Future of Bars and Restaurants – Trends and Opportunity
Speaker: Reuben Pullan, NIQ
Purpose: Set the market context for hospitality founders and highlight the forces shaping new bar and restaurant concepts.
Market forces changing the hospitality landscape, exploring:
- Industry outlook
- The changing shape of the sector
- Persistent cost of living impacts
- Tech/AI disruption.
13.00 – 13.30. Market update: Trends, challenges & opportunities
Speakers Paul Langston and Lily Payne – CACI – Partner – Consumer Analytics
13.30 – 14.00. Customer insights – KAM – Jo Lynch and Gary Digby
What customers really want—and how to turn that knowledge into smarter growth
Speakers: Jo Lynch, Account Director, KAM; Gary Digby, Founder, Digby + Fox
This session will examine:
- Why GLP-1 and low-and-no are changing what people eat and drink, not just how much they eat and drink
- The demographic cliff already built into the next 15 years, and why “more covers” stops being a growth strategy from 2034.
- Why smaller, more concentrated formats, tighter menus and smaller footprints are beating the scale-up playbook right now.
- Why your star rating and AI search visibility are now your distribution strategy, and the one thing to check this week.
14.00 – 14.30: Founders Who Built Successful Bars and Restaurants
Moderator: Pheobe Fraser – Editor and Journalist, William Reed
Speakers: Sue Hollway, Roxie Steak; Jason Cotta, Arcturus Group; Noam Barr, Ottolenghi, Graham Ford, Kinjo Restaurants and Jo Fleet.
Purpose: Founder-led discussion on practical lessons from launch, growth, and operational decision-making.
- Challenges
- Lessons learned
- Growth strategies
- Mistakes to avoid
14.30 – 14.45 – Coffee break and networking
14.45 – 15.15 Brand/Customer Experience and Practical Design
Speakers: Claire Siderfin, Sarah Acres, Harrison
Purpose: Explore how name, story, identity, and customer loyalty combine to build a memorable hospitality brand that can scale.
- What’s in a name/Storytelling/Brand identity
- Design flow/integrating storytelling.
15.15– 15.45. Vision, Values and the power of culture with purpose
Speaker – Chris Stagg – Founder Remarkable Hospitality
- Vision and Values as a growth tool
- Recruiting for buy in Not just skills
- The power of culture and purpose when you can’t be everywhere
15.45 – 16.15 Legal, Property and Growth Infrastructure
Legals for Expanding Bars and Restaurants
Speaker: Graeme Payne, Bird & Bird
Purpose: Clarify the legal considerations founders need to manage before expansion, from licensing to employment and intellectual property.
- Licensing and permits
- Employment law
- Risk management
- Intellectual property
16.15 – 16.45. Real Estate and Site Selection
Speakers: James Bell, Gillingham Bell; commercial brokers, developers, and operators and Ollie Purdue, Shuffle.
Purpose: Give founders a practical framework for location strategy, lease decisions, demographic analysis, and expansion planning and alternative financing.
- Lease negotiations
- Choosing locations
- Demographic analysis
- Investment
16.45 – 17.15. Technology, AI and Operational Tools
Speakers: Harri — Ayesha Ansari and Carey Benn.
Purpose: Show how technology and AI can support labour management, service delivery, operations, and decision-making.
- Key topics to be confirmed.
17.15 – 18.00 Networking Reception
