What are the key ingredients in serving up a fun and unique experience for 55 years? When and how should you “play nicely” with the competition? How do you change and keep up with the times while keeping it real and staying true to who you are?
Workshop participants will load into a bus at 8:30 a.m. and spend the day at Kitchen Kettle Village to learn first-hand the not-so-simple ways this Lancaster County attraction grew from a jam and jelly-making business into a Village of 42 specialty shops, restaurants and lodging. The folks at Kitchen Kettle open their Village to you and share their story, including their challenges and successes. Throw in a healthy dose of fun and you’ll experience a full menu of hospitality ideas and tips.
Here are some of the entrees on the day’s bill of faire:
• Corporate Culture
Whether you know it or not, your business has a culture. A vision and mission can shape the culture to be what you choose it to be. They are the core of any business, or they should be. But creating ones that are inspiring, yet simple is not so simple. Does your business have a vision, a mission, values? Can you say them? Can your employees say them? More importantly, are you living them? How do you communicate them? Joanne Ladley, one of Kitchen Kettle’s owners and Synergy Conductor, shares the commitments necessary to build the corporate culture, which has allowed Kitchen Kettle to develop its own personality.
• Cannin’ & Jammin’
Roll up your sleeves and get cookin’ in the kitchen on Kitchen Kettle’s most popular experiential tour. Experiential is one of the buzzwords in tourism today – travelers want to take home more than photos of their trips. How do you give visitors an experience they’ll remember without having to re-invent the wheel or giving away all your secrets? You’ll make a batch of jam to take home while Kitchen Kettle’s food scientist, Kristine Grego, adds a few morsels of information about not-so-simple considerations to keep in mind when developing new experiences. Stir in some tasty surprises and you have a recipe for fun!
• A Taste of Kitchen Kettle
Find out the stories behind this community of shopkeepers while you eat your way through food and fun. Lisa Arrell, Kitchen Kettle’s Assistant Director of Fun, takes you behind the scenes to get to know the characters who built Kitchen Kettle Village. Growing into a diverse community of businesses is not as simple as being at the right place at the right time. What is “community” about in Lancaster County? When is it profitable to be part of a community, a partner, or an a-la-carte option?
• Lunch – An Immersion In Food
Aprons and hand gloves (supplied at Kitchen Kettle Village) are the requested attire to attend this special occasion you help create. If you’re in the tourism business and intend to build critical mass, you need food service options. Directed by Kitchen Kettle’s “Food Guy”, Tom Rothfus, this meal will be an interactive feasting experience where you learn the ins and outs of feeding lots of people quickly. A true feast of ideas and food.
• Lapp Valley Family Farm
Ben and Lena Lapp, who operate the Lapp’s Ice Cream shop at Kitchen Kettle Village, make some of the richest, tastiest ice cream in Lancaster County. They are passionate about farming and community. Ben even moved his family to Rumania for several years to teach farmers there how to run a dairy farm. Today, you’ll travel 1½ miles to the Lapp Farm to see this sophisticated, yet simple Lancaster County operation and taste the fruits of their labor.
Go to Kitchen Kettle Village web site to learn the many different facets of the family operated business.
This workshop will satisfy your belly, give you a few laughs, and fill your doggie bag with thoughts and ideas to take home to your business. Be sure to come hungry!
