Fostering Relationships and a Passion for Food

Plan Better EventsSmart Event TipsVirtual EventsLeadership InsightsPodcast

Aug 4

With Guest Avital Ungar, Founder of Avital: Food+Drink Experiences

Avital Ungar is the owner and founder of Avital: Food + Drink Experiences, a culinary experience company hosting in-person and virtual events for corporate team building, conferences, and more. Avital has been leading artisan food and wine tours for the last decade. She’s served as a judge at the International Chocolate Salon, the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-off, and the Good Food Awards. She has been featured on CNN, The Travel Channel, Travel and Leisure, and more.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Avital Ungar’s inspiration for Avital: Food + Drink Experiences
How Avital reinvented her business to accommodate industry changes
The significance of building a successful team and how Avital: Food + Drink Experiences leverages that to embody their core values
Avital’s process for building relationships between team members
How Avital: Food + Drink Experiences fosters human connection
Avital reveals her ideal clients
What is the mission behind Avital: Food + Drink Experiences?
Tips for creating an inclusive food experience
The company’s strategy for gathering feedback

In this episode…

In the restaurant industry, the customer experience is central to every food tour. With food and beverage as the driving force behind these experiences, how can you engage with consumers to build lifetime value?

The first step is to facilitate meaningful connections through innovative and hands-on events. For Avital Ungar, this involves hosting educational classes, providing a safe space for customers to try something new, and accommodating individual preferences and needs. And with a vibrant team of people who share your core values, you can successfully create intimate experiences that stimulate a passion for food.

In this episode, Paige Buck joins Avital Ungar, Owner and Founder of Avital: Food + Drink Experiences, to talk about cultivating relationships in the food tour industry. Avital reveals her mission, how she transformed her business amid industry changes, and how her company encourages a deeper human connection.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast where we feature top marketing, communications and the future of work leaders and share their biggest takeaways and insights. We love these conversations and hope you will too. Let's get started.

Paige Buck 0:23

Hi, welcome to the Kennedy Events Podcast. This episode is brought to you by us Kennedy Events. We create stress free conferences and events, providing expert management and design for all your corporate event needs from hybrid to in person and virtual events. You can learn more about us at Kennedyevents.com. I am super excited to be talking today with Avital Ungar, the founder and owner of Avital: Tours and Avital: Virtual, a culinary experience company hosting in person and virtual events for corporate team building sales teams, entertaining clients and conferences. Avital has been leading artists in food and wine tours for the last 10 years, and has collected an impressive list of accolades. She served as a judge at the International chocolate salon, the best of the West rib competition, the good food awards, and has been featured on CNN, the Travel Channel, travel and leisure and more. And now you know, my world famous podcast. Hi Avital.

Avital Ungar 1:27

Hi, how are you? Paige?

Paige Buck 1:29

I am good. That's an impressive set of accolades. I'm super curious, you know, you and I know each other pretty well and have I've, you know, learned a lot about you and your business over the years, but I actually don't know how you got started and where the idea came from?

Avital Ungar 1:47

Yeah, well, um, that's really good question. So I saw the movie Shrek a lot. Have Have you seen the movie? Shakalaka at all? If you haven't, don't worry about it Paige. The only thing you need to know it was about Chocolate Johnny Depp. That's it? That's huge. No, although I must say Johnny Depp has been in the news quite a bit recently. But I saw this when I was younger, this movie. And I said, I'm gonna go live in a tiny little town in the south of France. And I'm gonna go find Johnny Depp Well, I didn't really find you know, him or love in the same way I fell in love with the food. I just started eating my way through the countryside and, and through the different towns of France and drinking wine at three in the afternoon. So I went on to become, you know, a certified wind, Somalia. And, and then I, you know, and then I actually ended up living in, in in China, I bought a one way trip to China to work there. And really, as I was sort of, when I came back to my hometown, and in San Francisco, I, I loved eating, but I also felt like, you know, you have so much curiosity when travel, there's so much you know, and also when you're living abroad, when I was living in France and China, and you know, I wanted to bring those stories from travels and feel like I was a traveler in my own hometown. And so I said, Well, you know, I love food, I love drink, you know, my friends are all hanging out with the chefs in the Mission District. And nobody's sort of telling their stories for locals and, and why not, I want to feel like that traveler and that curiosity in my own city. And so that's really how Avital: Tours was born 11 years ago, was with this idea of bringing that, that the stories of the chef, restaurant owners, to people in their own in their own city. And then I realized that it would also you know, be beneficial to travelers and, and because we were working with some of the best restaurants in the city in San Francisco, it ended up becoming a really popular for corporate team building. And so actually, that was my first client was a law firm that was entertaining their summer associates with

Paige Buck 3:56

us. Oh, so they were entertaining their summer associates. And were you at the time? How much awareness did you have of that sort of entertainment component or team building component as a as a business opportunity?

Avital Ungar 4:10

Well, let's be real. I was 25 years old when I started the company.

Paige Buck 4:16

This is a thing people do this.

Avital Ungar 4:20

I was 25 years old and I loved I wanted to lead tours I wanted to be you know the provider. So I can't say that I had that much sophistication in really understanding business. I just knew that I love to eat and drink I had, you know been in the industry and and wanted to provide those stories and I was the first guide and so you know, I was the first person telling those stories and being out there. So I can't say that I it was quite as intentional as you're able to imagine of saying hey, I'm going to start this business and corporate team building is going to take off but we didn't really find that you know if the business model really work for Are for our corporate clients and that and so we did end up getting more and more through word of mouth really at the beginning.

Paige Buck 5:07

That's amazing. It's something I love about you. And also that we're sets you and I like opposite ends of a spectrum is you're like fearlessness. And I'm super willingness just be like, and I'm just gonna figure it out as I go. But that has served you incredibly, incredibly well. So you went from 25 poorest client, is it corporate? And you're like, Oh, this is an opportunity. You harnessed that opportunity? You went into other cities? Yeah. So like, 20 by 2019? You're in LA and New York. Right? Yeah. And then, you know, we do not have to, we do not get you started in San Francisco. Right, and we do not have to re litigate COVID. But when it struck, you were like, the leading indicator for every business that you and I knew that things were not okay. In at the beginning of the year in 2020. How did you I mean, and also, if I never hear the word pivot again, right, it'll be too soon. But you harnessed something, you you fearlessly, like, dived in and figured out a solution to people aren't going to be getting together in groups and go into restaurants going on these highly specialized tours, what do you do? And how the heck did you do it?

Avital Ungar 6:35

Yeah, well, i Thanks, Paige for the compliment, I think fearlessness is is, you know, sometimes by necessity. And so, you know, our company was operating in, in at the intersection of travel, food and beverage and corporate. And with those three industries at they all went down. It's not like we even could keep part of our business, you know, that it with with the government mandates, restaurants were shutting down. So we really couldn't even provide our services to to our clients. And so, within a matter of week of a week, we we dropped in revenue to zero. And that was very, very scary. Because we had cancellations rolling in from all of the bookings of events that we had booked with our clients. And we quickly sort of, you know, started talking to clients, I think we said, you know, Hey, first of all, I didn't think the pandemic was going to last that long. I thought, you know, hey, this is a bridge. But you know, there was an interesting opportunity, where there was a month to create a market where there wasn't a market before. And so, essentially, you know, we said, well, well, what do we do we have staff, we have resources we have, you know, we have guides, who are incredibly personable we have, you know, bartenders and chefs that we work with, who are some of the best in the in, you know, in San Francisco, LA in New York, you know, can we take this virtual, and so that's where we came up with, you know, the concept of doing virtual cooking classes, virtual cocktail classes. And, you know, and it's grown from there. But, you know, originally what we did was, we just started listening to clients, and I think that's where, you know, what you said is like, Hey, how did you start your business? It's like, well, actually, you know, I didn't think it was going to be great for a corporate team building, or people enter your corporate clients entertaining their clients, or sales teams, but we saw people booking it and using it. And so I think you really need to listen to your clients. And so, you know, in March of 2020, that's where we rapidly put together some pitches of, of concepts that we knew we could produce with our resources. And, and we went out to clients start talking to him and said, Hey, what would you buy? And they said, Hey, we actually want virtual events, and you don't want the ingredients delivered to us. And so we said, Great, let's figure out how to do it. And, and through there, we ended up, you know, building out a, a, you know, at first a domestic supply chain, and then a an international supply chain to be able to deliver, you know, ingredients of cocktail kits and Cooking Cooking kits to people's homes. And so, you know, and we ended up growing the business about three times bigger than our in person business was through throughout the year. Wow.

Paige Buck 9:16

So you also must have an incredible team, because I know how stressful those days were for just figuring out anything, anything at all, how are we going to pack a box full of ingredients and shift them so they don't break or spoil and arrive? I mean, sounds super basic, but was shockingly challenging. And you were one of the early people figuring that out. Tell me about your team, what drives them? I know core values are a big part of like, how you sort of align everybody what does that look like? Yeah,

Avital Ungar 9:50

so I mean, you know, we do have, you know, I like to think that we have really innovative, creative, but very detailed oriented, resourceful people on our team. And, you know, I think when you have to go through, you know, this type of experience, you're really looking for adaptable and flexible people. I think as you're scaling up, as you're scaling down, you want, you know, smart, but you want people who are you willing to try something new, and also who are, you know, okay, living in the unknown as entrepreneurs, that's sort of where we live, that's our genius zone. But that doesn't mean that you always have employees who are okay with that, right. Like a lot of employees want the structure they want, you know, very, they want to know what they're doing every day. And that wasn't something that we could provide at that moment in time. Right. And so, I like to think about, you know, there's different times based on the scale of my business where, you know, you have specialists versus generalists and, and so when we're thinking about building our team, you know, in those moments, we were very much focused on, you know, having generalists who were who are adaptable and flexible and could wear multiple hats and jump in. And then when we're, you know, you're as we were growing and scaling, you really want we really focused on having specialists on our team. Put through it all, I think the really the most important part of that is having core values is making sure that your team jives and so for us that was that was it's, it's incredibly important that, you know, when we were thinking about even having to hire more bartenders, it's like, you know, one of our core values isn't embrace quirky, it's like, we want to make sure that that, you know, we're fun and interesting, and they're people that you want to talk to, you know, we don't want to be boring, we're in the events industry, right? Like, we, we want to want to, we want to have fun and, and, and engage with people, especially our clients and our guests who are showing up to to have a good time and to create connection. And I think that's really what you know, our mission statement as a company is to, to deepen human connection, through store through, you know, food and drink, and interact through interactive food and drink. And so it's really about like creating that connection, and that interaction between people and you want great facilitators, and you want great hosts, and you want great team members, to be able to deepen that connection together with you and to facilitate that. And so, you know, that mission statement is what drives me every day. But it also is what drives our team, right, that they're really thinking about internally, how do we build awesome experiences, which is another one of our core values, both internally and externally? How do you?

Paige Buck 12:36

What's the world gonna look like? How do you screen for that? How do you know when you've got a new team member or a new candidate for a position? who fits the mold? of I mean, who doesn't fit the mold? Because you're looking for something unique? But who fits that Avital? More that Avital values?

Avital Ungar 12:56

Yeah, well, we will I have some some fun interview questions. I will say, what when I the first iteration of when I hired tour guides back in the day, you know, 11 years ago, when I was hiring. The prompt to apply was, send me a two minute video giving me a tour of your refrigerator. And what why would I do that, and this was 11 years ago, this one wasn't as quite as standard, right? You know, now, now you see that with auditions. And now we're, you know, much more used to a virtual world. But back then 11 years ago, I wanted to see people storytelling, I wanted to see the way in which they they interacted, the way in which they the passion in their voice and their excitement for food and beverage, which is really, you know, sort of the position that we were hiring for that. I think now, you know, I interview solely on on core values, I think skills can be taught and learned. And, you know, obviously, we still want expertise coming in. But But with that, I think, you know, we know that people can improve so, and grow and grow as people and grow their skill set. But what you can't change is who they are as a person in their core values. And so I do a whole interview, which is a core value interview, essentially. And one of my question, I can tell you one of my favorite questions.

Paige Buck 14:19

Yeah, well, that one was already good. So now

Avital Ungar 14:23

I'll go back to that core value of embrace quirky, one of the you know, I like to stay the exercise the games that we like to play with our guests is called we call it the Embrace quirky game. Essentially, it is a we give you a blank card that we asked you to write something quirky about yourself that you think nobody else in the room knows, and you're going to give that card back to me anonymously. So I've had people write on it, you know, everything from I like to wear socks in the shower, to you know, my grandmother was a hairdresser to the Queen of England or, you know, I was once on a hijacker In a 1979, you know, so people write, you know, crazy quirky things about themselves that they think nobody else knows. And, and so we played this game on our experiences and it immediately creates deep connection. And the reason it creates deep connection is because, you know, how often are you sitting next to somebody? You're like, oh, you know, how's the kids? How's the house? Where have you traveled recently? And, you know, how deep do you really get her? Are you not going to just ask, here's a fun rant about like, the most random thing they've ever done in their life, right? And you really are trying to get these like conversations, and it creates this whole storytelling and connection between people. Um, it's dead simple. It's really a dead simple game, but it just, it works every time. And so this interview question I essentially asked them in an interview, I say, you know, if I gave you that card, what would you write? Mm hmm. So Paige. All right.

Paige Buck 15:50

I'll give you mine. This is like awesome. Like, I can't wink. I can't wink. And then when I tell people this, it inevitably leads to like, disbelief, like, and then come on, try. So it is like a fun party conversation, like icebreaker because people like Come on. Try it. I'm like, do you want to watch me make these really? I mean, here, I'll show you what that looks like. This is a podcast, a not visual medium, but I'm just like, trying doesn't get any better. It's an effort. But if you're right, you're totally right. Or somebody else showed a client who learned this about me once was like, oh, it's like natural Botox. Like, you don't have that muscle. So you're just not wrinkling there. I'm like, I'll take it. And I recently found out with one of my team members also kind of wink and we were just so delighted, like, look, this is the only people we know. I can also I can't even like just close one eye casually, so it makes like applying eye makeup. And how do you answer?

Avital Ungar 16:58

Oh, man, I played this game a lot. I've got a lot of quirky a lot of, yeah, I've got a little bit I'm a little bit. So I can I can do one. I like to impersonate a meter made by driving around in my three wheeled meter made vehicle and asking, asking people to to pay their tickets. Do you actually I know you have you actually have a great car? Yes. It's a super smart,

Paige Buck 17:27

super smart way to live in a city like San Francisco.

Avital Ungar 17:32

But you actually Oh, totally. It's I you know, it's that's one of the secrets. I think it's very funny, you know, people come out, will come out and you know, to their parking spot, and they're, you know, they're like, Oh, my God, it's just, you know, sweating it and like, please, please, please don't give me a ticket. I'm like, hey, 20 bucks won't give you a ticket. I've never actually taken anybody's money though.

Paige Buck 17:54

Oh, my gosh, I'd be worried about the potential for abuse. There are like real people really flipping their lives. Yeah. I'm curious with how, if you were to ask your clients, immediate, you know, the answer to this, like, what problem? are you solving for them? Like, what, when they're coming to you for a tour or a virtual experience? What problems are you solving with your services?

Avital Ungar 18:20

That's a great question Paige. We bring innovative and interactive experiences, to deepen human connection. And I think that more and more in today's world, that that connection feels forced and cheesy. And food and drink to me is the ultimate connector. So food and drink is the is the is the way that all generations and all people come together around a shared experience. And so I firmly believe that through storytelling, and through food and drink, we are able to create deeper connections than if you were just out there, you know, go karting or paintballing. Right?

Paige Buck 19:13

Right, or being forced to do like a bunch of icebreaker activities in a

Avital Ungar 19:18

exam. Exactly. I think that we really genuinely we create genuine, authentic experiences and relationship building. And so and I think that that's, you know, that's, that's, that's a really big problem. In today's world. That's a really big issue especially we're spending so much time on on Zoom and virtual and now with remote teams, and you know, global remote teams, I really do feel like it's it's important to to create that connection. And we're into social media even further and further away from each other. I also suspect that something

Paige Buck 19:59

Oh All of the things that you're describing that come really naturally to you, the quirkiness, the warmth, the the performative qualities, like the two minute tour of your refrigerator, those come natural to you and the talented folks on your team, but they don't come at all naturally to the people who are choosing to come to you for those services. They're like, they're desperate for that. And they don't know how to manifest it, not manifest it, but like, but create it for themselves at all, without your support. Yeah.

Avital Ungar 20:31

I mean, I like to think that, you know, we're, we're, we're not cheesy facilitators, right? We are, you know, we have people who can really create that connection. And I think that that connection is more important than ever before.

Paige Buck 20:45

Yeah, tell me about a client or a project, that's been a dream for you. It's a very hard question. What makes habit that's what makes a project or an engagement, a win win, like when the client says, that was awesome, but then your team was also like, that was awesome. That was great. I loved them, what makes them great.

Avital Ungar 21:11

So I'll be honest with you, Paige, we are we are really, really good at building experiences. But we are very creative and have a very specific vision for our it, you know, of that experience. And we run that experience quite a lot, right. So when I build a, you know, a workhorse, progressive meal with, you know, going from appetizer to entree to dessert, I work with the best restaurants in the neighborhood. So clients who typically come to us and say, hey, I want you to do this, or that other restaurant or something else, you know, don't tend to necessarily be the best clients when they micromanage us. And the reason I say that is because we've tried those restaurants, and we do it a lot. And we're experts in what we do. And so I tend to find that, you know, amazing clients, or people who trust us, that we're that we have done this before, and we're really able to do a great job. And that's because, you know, when we were we're not, you know, we're not an event planner, I'm not a bespoke wedding, you know, a bespoke company, like we were doing very, like, very specific experiences, for example, you know, we'll do flavor tripping, or a water tasting, you know, will do very creative experiences, but we have very specially curated that experience. You know, and so, so we tend to find clients who, who love us for, for, you know, repeatable experiences for experiences that, that can scale that we can do many, many times for them as well. So that's why, you know, entertaining clients. So if we're doing a, you know, virtual mixology, we do have, you know, pre curated cocktails. So we do recommend we do like, our clients come to us and say, Oh, wow, like, you have really tested that cocktail. And it is phenomenal. Now that cocktail. Whereas if somebody says, Oh, we'd really like to, you know, swap out the lemon for the lime, I might say to them, Hey, you know, really recommend that lemon instead of the lime.

Paige Buck 23:12

Yep. Yeah. I love that you guys come in with such a very strong perspective on what will and will not work. And I imagine that the clients who, who you value the most are the ones who put fully put their trust in you and the advantages, like, you've more than kick the tires on any experience. Yeah, absolutely.

Avital Ungar 23:34

And it's been tried, it's been tested, we know what works. We, we, we really, we love, we liked that trust. And, and it allows us to, and so that's why, you know, a great client is sort of the one who actually just like says, Hey, you take care of that, you know, we have easy payment options, easy, flexible, you know, flexible payments, we do, like we have basically made it a seamless booking process, so that you can just hand it over to us and not have to worry about anything, any of the details. And I think that's what why a lot of our clients actually love working with us is because we do handle all of it for them.

Paige Buck 24:10

Wow. So and all of the experiences that you've created what's like the craziest things things you guys have done?

Avital Ungar 24:19

Oh, wow. Um, I did a I did. I didn't experience the theme was you are what you eat. And it was all about different art historical movements, but representing them through food. So, for example, we had, you know, abstract expressionism if you know, do you know that Jackson Pollock the Jackson Pollock are like you sprays his his paint on his canvas, and it's very visual. And so we did that with donut. We actually had glazes in and we actually had, you know, we had unglazed donuts and we had people Jackson Pollock in their donut. It's an

Paige Buck 25:01

I want like all the doughnuts on the wall without like throwing Yeah.

Avital Ungar 25:06

So we had that was one of the the interactive activities that we did. We also had edible balloons where you pop the balloon and then and then it created a chocolate bowl and then we had you for a performance art. We're bicycle peddling your own ice cream and then scooping ice cream into the bowl that you had just popped. So we've done we've done some some, like really fun. You know, actually here, here's a funny one. You know, if you think of the concept, you know, minimalism we serve them Soylent.

Paige Buck 25:43

Oh, I always I have not tasted Soylent. Is Soylent one of those things you'd like wouldn't wish on your worst enemy.

Avital Ungar 25:52

Right? You know, I hope nobody from Sorry, I was listening to this. But no, I actually think there's, there's definitely a market for it. I'm I'm, I'm I'm probably not that person. But I

Paige Buck 26:05

like definitely really is your art what you eat minimalist experience? Yeah, yep. Nice. That's okay. I love it. I love it. What's your do you vote in? Whether it's in a project or your life, or the trajectory your company's been on? At the moment, you're proudest of

Avital Ungar 26:25

moment I'm proudest of? Well, I'd have to say, you know, if I go think back years and years and years, you know, our company has really evolved. But there was a moment when I first started the company, where I had an 80 year old man who came on a progressive meal, you know, a food tour with us. And he had his first oyster. And I have to say that, you know, if I had to think back, to me, it's somebody trusted us to try something new. And it and I think that we can change lives through that. And so I think that, you know, to me, it's, it's about trying something new, whether you like it or not, is not actually the the most important part, whether he liked the oyster or not, but I do remember that moment. It just sort of sticks with me a little bit. You know, where were you shifting people's perspectives, were something that they, they thought they might not like, or never try that they are willing that you've created a safe space for them to try something new.

Paige Buck 27:42

I think there's something really sweet and vulnerable and like, special about that moment that you were there for somebody having a first time. special experience. Yeah.

Avital Ungar 27:55

That's really cool to create that experience, you know, and that connection between them and their, and the, you know, the rest of the people who were in their group with them, they, you know, it's like, oh, we all did this. And we were there for that moment. We tried it all together.

Paige Buck 28:11

That's really cool. So that's, I really, really like that a lot. Um, what, as you as you'd like, I imagine that in your world, it's like you're having to constantly create, even though I know that you're like creating and then you keep replicating. And to Okay, to kind of come back to something I said about your fearlessness. I think your fearlessness requires a lot of comfort with being cool with what you don't know. And then just getting curious and asking a lot of questions. So what are some things that you're curious about right now? And what are some things you're trying to learn?

Avital Ungar 28:51

Yeah, well, um, so, you know, during the pandemic, I actually had a baby, I was pregnant. And I, you know, I, I had thought that something was a joke, which wasn't a joke. And I started going and researching it deeply and more deeply and more deeply. And then I would just became obsessed with this concept and about to tell you, the idea is that that water deserves a place at the Culinary table, and then it has terroir and it has taste based on where it's from, and that you can taste water just like you do a wine tasting. So I went and became a certified water Somali a that is an actual thing, but I genuinely was just so curious about the fact that water was tasting different and why does water taste different? What if it's it, you know, and that water can come out of the spring in in Spain salty and sparkling at the same time and like I had no idea that water could be like, it's not all just like adding bubbles into water that makes it sparkling. There are naturally sparkling waters, and I just got so excited and interested by it. And so that was something that's curiosity. And I think it's actually a larger part of a larger trend that I'm seeing even in, in the food and beverage industry, which is inclusivity. So I think that, you know, we do, you know, virtual cocktail classes, and we do also hands on happy hours in person in, you know, in all of our cities, at, you know, at different bars and restaurants. And, but I'm seeing that, you know, some people don't drink. And so you want to create an exclusive inclusive experience where, you know, we're having mocktails as an option. And there's, there's also people who don't want to drink or don't even want to be around alcohol. And so what is the one thing you know, we see, with our food experience, there's people who have gluten free or dairy free, or you know, can't, it can't air have allergies, and, you know, and that's both either choice, or they just genuinely for health reasons, they can't do that. And so I am seeing a large trend, really shifting towards, you know, non alcoholic beverages towards inclusivity, with companies making sure that everybody feels comfortable at the event. And so, you know, when I was thinking about I was like, Well, you know, what's the one thing that's, you know, gluten free, dairy free, you know, non alcoholic everything, and it's like, well, water fits that for everybody. And so it's really funny that we're really seeing this concept, I think, I'm seeing a trend of like, sober bars. At events we're seeing, I don't really like that name. To be honest, I did just see that though. Or really thinking about it. So we're actually doing an activation coming up, where we're going to be doing at a at a conference, a water tasting water bar, and then we're going to do and we're calling it the flavor perception bar, we're shifting flavor perception, and we're going to be doing flavor tripping as well. So I, you know, I think about it as something that I've, I personally became interested in passionate about and then turned into a product line of, you know, our clients, we're also interested in it and that's where I think you even talking to clients informs sort of that trajectory.

Paige Buck 32:14

When you I remember when you first mentioned this being like, sure, sure. Not the not the non alcoholic concept so much as the water concept in particular. But I love the also that in picking up on something that seems so basic, you're inviting more curiosity and connection at the same time. Like, it's just that simple, like the sort of like the Soylent Green for minimalism, like, what's actually going on here. You know, as something super, super basic.

Avital Ungar 32:48

It's, that's the, the shifting of your perspective part that I love, right? It's like taking something that you eat and drink every day, and how do you put a little bit of a quirky spin on it? Right? So when I even do a mixology class, you might say, Oh, I've been in a mixology class, but we hear from every, like, lots of people on our experiences. Oh, wow, that was very different. And why? Because we teach them how to do an egg white variation, a sour type of cocktail, and people are like, Oh, well, yeah, actually, I've been taking cocktail classes I know about cocktails, but I've never had egg white in my cocktail. And, and so we really like to sort of take something that you understand, and then add a little bit of a twist and a spin on it. And I think that's where then it brings people in, it's something very comforting to them. They know and they can understand. And then there's like, an extra a high level on top of that.

Paige Buck 33:37

Yeah, yeah. So in all of this, you You took me back to the south of France when we started and as like an origin for you, but what did you want to do when you were growing up? Did you know? Would you want to be?

Avital Ungar 33:53

You know, I think I wanted to be a veterinarian.

Paige Buck 34:00

Did you grow up with pets?

Avital Ungar 34:01

I did. I did. I had very unusual pets growing up. If you can imagine my quirkiness, I had to go and I had a tiger salamander, I bred birds, red birds, little finches we had finches on we used to breed them and then donate them to charity auctions. Wow. To help help charities raise money.

Paige Buck 34:23

So you thought you wanted to be a vet? Yeah.

Avital Ungar 34:25

I've gotten very, very far away from that Paige. Yeah.

Paige Buck 34:29

How did any any recollection about how that shifted? Like, how did you pull off in that direction? Or did that just because I wanted to be a marine biologist. But I mean, that didn't go very far past Right. Like

Avital Ungar 34:43

Yeah. Which is we're so far away from that, right? Like our careers are shifted. I too, you know, but I did study art history, French and Mandarin in college. And I do think that we eat with our eyes first and that you know, having worked my back I was in the art world, and before events and so I do feel like we eat with our eyes. And I was very visual, and I love the visual arts and creativity. And so So through that, I do see that sort of evolution from, you know, my older self, your my, you know, my teenage self with the art history and sort of moving towards a storytelling and that sort of that actually feels like more like a trajectory than than veterinary veterinarian. Yeah. Yeah.

Paige Buck 35:33

What do you think? What do you think it things may look like in the future for events? I mean, like, you're such a, you have such a creative mind, and you're coming up with such creative concepts. I'm thinking more like, three, five years from now, do you think there are going to be big shifts in what people want to experience in food and drink? Or in the way they gather?

Avital Ungar 35:58

Yeah, well, I'm already seeing us move in that direction, I say I say I think that it's, you know, what we're really seeing is the shift from being a spectator to a participator. So really, people wanting to be part of the experience. You know, one of my hobbies and passions. You know, on the side is, as I'm an indie, game, storytelling, storytelling game designer, so I design LARPs, live action role plays. So I love the idea of like casting people in roles. And it's, you know, it's improv without an audience. And so I think that there's a lot of ways that the events industry can evolve. And, and I love to see, you know, taking, you know, that concept and applying it to the food and beverage industry, and I do see that, that it's starting to happen. And we're definitely a big part of that, specifically, you know, where our events are really hands on, we now have our hands on meals that we're building in restaurants, where, you know, if you went to the restaurant, you would dine at the restaurant, but if you come with us, you're actually going to get to make your own cocktail, or make your own beverage. And we're really thinking about, you know, how to integrate, you know, you into the experience, not just having the experience happened to you.

Paige Buck 37:16

Do you think your tent, your clients, attendees have really come in with really high expectations for the restaurants and the food experiences they're gonna have? Or do they come in with an open mind, and you're taking them to a new level?

Avital Ungar 37:32

Well, you know, I'm not sure everybody even knows what they're getting into when they when they come with us, right? You know, typically, we do work with, you know, one person on a team or the event planner, who is sort of, you know, working alongside with us, or trusting us you to build that experience for them. And so I imagine that their attendees, and the guests probably don't know as much of what they're walking themselves into. And so, but I like to create that wow, experience. So I find that, you know, I work with incredibly, you know, quality restaurants and focus on that quality, because that's important to us. But I think creating that those moments, and those experiences are really what people are going to walk away with. So it's sort of that connection or that like, moment of, Hey, I just learned that Paige doesn't get wig, you know, and like, that was like that back and, and build a relationship with, with Paige over that. So I, you know, I don't I don't necessarily, yeah, I'm, I don't know.

Paige Buck 38:36

Yeah, yeah, no, I get it. I actually think I, if I were you or the or the organizer, I would prefer the folks who are like, I don't know what I'm doing tonight. I'm just but but take me take me somewhere. Yeah, absolutely.

Avital Ungar 38:47

Like I, I want them to, you know, to trust us. But you know, to come in with, I don't want to say low expectations, but open an open mind and open expectations. Because, you know, if you come into my experience, and you're like, I can't believe I'm doing a water tasting. You know, that's sort of hard, hard to have that, that change. But if you come in, you're like, you know, that's really interesting. Like, let me learn more about this, you know, or, but I think that I'm most successful. And, you know, when I can see that somebody's coming in, and they're like, totally like, this is this is not a real thing. And then they come out of it being like, wow, I had no idea about this. And so, you know, it's really shifting and changing that. That mindset through the experience can also be very powerful. Although I do like them to come in, you know, starting from the beginning with open mind, with an open mind. Yeah, it's not that much fun when you get somebody just with like their arms crossed through the whole experience. God, it's been so long since I've seen seen that happen, actually, with one of our experiences.

Paige Buck 39:47

Right, actually, that's a quick question. I'm curious about as you've grown and as you're sort of further away from your service delivery. How do you as a team, like create a feedback loop? for hearing how things went hearing, somebody's like, first oyster tasting. And, and using that to, like, inspire and build on to the next thing.

Avital Ungar 40:11

Sorry, can you can you say that again? Paige? Yeah.

Paige Buck 40:15

As you Avital like pull further away from the direct service like you're no longer the 25 year old tour guide on every single experience, how do you get that feedback? How does your team share with one another? What they're seeing and experiencing with your clients that then, you know, fuels, it feels everybody's like, reason for being there. But also like, creates helps you create the next thing?

Avital Ungar 40:40

Yeah, well, I mean, I think this is something that I'm I'm pretty proud of, is, you know, we do ask our our guests, and also our organizer. So both the Booker and the people who are attending the experience, who might not have booked it, you know, a series of questions, we do have this survey after all of our experiences. And, you know, we track our NPS or net promoter score. And last year, it was higher than Netflix and apple. And so we were very proud. We're like, okay, know, brands that people love, we were, you know, we felt like, although actually, maybe Netflix snap aren't the best examples, but, but we did have a really high NPS score. And that was something that we measured, and we asked for feedback. And then we're also just, you know, constantly talking to people asking, you know, what they liked, what they didn't like, how we can improve, you know, one of our core values is continuous improvement. So really focused on always building and always, you know, creating, based on on what the clients want, I think, you know, we we listen to what their problems are, you know, hey, I need something that's inclusive for gluten free, dairy free people, or people who don't drink and then we build something that solves that. So I think listening to your clients, and then improving upon it, and and continuously growing.

Paige Buck 42:01

I love that. I love that. All right, anything, I didn't ask you about Avital, the person or the business is that you really want to share?

Avital Ungar 42:11

Um, no, I think, you know, I think to me, I love that we can, you know, create these connections in both small intimate experiences and very large experiences, you know, we've we've been able to serve conferences, in addition to, you know, intimate dinners. And so I think that's, you know, to me, I think that, you know, to be able to do that well is is, you know, it's our mission statement. So what I'm passionate about and why I do what I do. I don't know, I, I don't have a great, great answer for you Paige. But I do feel like, you know, to be able to do it on but in both intimate and larger gatherings feels special and important to me.

Paige Buck 42:54

Yeah, I love where you're going with this. And as people are able to, like gather at scale again, I think there's a lot of folks in our industry who are going to be eager to like, pull in what they've, what they've experienced, that's been intimate, virtual, constrained by forces and like, help us figure out how to make this happen in a big way. So I think you've got a huge opportunity before you

Avital Ungar 43:21

amazing. Yeah, thank you.

Paige Buck 43:24

We have been talking with Avital Ungar of owner of Avital: Tours. I tell where can people learn more about you?

Avital Ungar 43:31

Our website is Avitaltours.com. That's a V as in Victor I T as in Tom a L as in Larry tours.com that's where that's where it is. That's where it is. I guess I should come up with food words for for you know, Victor should be like, you know, it should come up with words, the food words

Paige Buck 43:53

to explain vegetables, but then when you go vegetable they know. Well, thank you. It's been delightful.

Intro 44:08

Thanks for listening to the Kennedy Events Podcast. Come back next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.

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PAIGE BUCK

Paige Buck is the co-owner of Kennedy Events, a large-scale event management company based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. Our team creates stress-free conferences and events with a positive impact, which allows our clients to resonate with their audience. Kennedy Events specializes in producing flawless product launches, award ceremonies, fundraisers, and multi-day conferences while keeping our eye on retention and engagement goals.

About Kennedy Events

Kennedy Events began with one goal in mind—to produce high-level corporate events with just as much strategy as style. Maggie founded the company in 2000, found her match in Paige, and in 2011 the two became official partners. Since then, these two resourceful and brilliant creatives have pooled their strengths to build one one of the most the most sought after corporate event companies in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.