CAAOC Business Luncheon: The Honda Center Story

"The Honda Center Story: Changing the Arena Dining and

The Building of an In-House Food and Beverage Company"

We are privileged to have as our guest speaker Cornellian

JULIE MARGOLIN

Our next speaker has quite the experience when it comes to applying her excellent organizational skills to a challenging position as the Director of Food and Beverage operations at the Honda Center. She transformed the Honda Center from a multi-vendor venue that offered subpar quality and food and drinks to a "made in-house," fully controlled environment offering a variety of quality food and beverage options with many gourmet choices to the Center’s 17,000 spectators. Her fascinating story will walk us through how she took on such a colossal task and created a successful in-house Food and Beverage operation in the Honda Center in a relatively short time span. Julie will also describe what it takes to run the day-to-day operations with a staff of more than 1,000 employees.

Event Summary:

- Changing the paradigm of Arena F&B Company

- Building a company in 2 months to serve 17,000 people

- Reinventing/Establishing a business mindset inside a building and the Orange County Market

- Establishing the foundation, hiring talent en mass and communicating to and through 1000 team members
- Providing hospitality for every appetite
- Looking back on the first two years with a consideration for the next

11:30 AM Luncheon will begin promptly

12:00 PM Presentation/Q&A

1:30 PM Luncheon will end promptly

Cost: $40 members,

$45 non-members,

includes valet parking at Center Club.

Location: The Center Club, 650 Town Center Drive – Garden Level,

Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Tel. (714) 662-3414.

Parking Information: Valet Parking at Center Club is included.

Event Contact: Gaye Tomlinson, MBA ’05, CAAOC Business Lunches and Breakfasts, gak23@cornell.edu, 714-742-2948.

Speaker Bio:

Julie Margolin, Honda Center's Director of Food and Beverage, oversees all venue F&B operations including, but not limited, to concessions, suite, in-seat and catering services, as well as The Grand Terrace - a 15,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor restaurant and entertainment destination. Margolin played a key role in transitioning the food & beverage operations of the venue in-house in 2013.

A graduate of Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, Margolin has over 15 years of industry experience having previously opened Barclays Center, and worked at STAPLES Center & Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live, Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, Hollywood, California & Osaka, Japan, as well as Royal Caribbean International: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and Celebrity Cruise Lines.