Catersource + The Special Event Keynotes
Opening General Session
Christina Matteucci, Executive Director of David Beahm Experiences
Keynote Title: I Know You’re the Boss, But...
Description: Executive Director of David Beahm Experiences and TEDx speaker, Christina Matteucci pioneers an integral role within the special event industry as Number Two to famed event designer David Beahm. During her session, she will address the singular relationship between Number Ones and their teams from both sides of the coin.
Christina will explore how modeling successful partnerships in the workplace sets a precedent for rewarding collaboration in society and bridges generational divides. She will tackle the queries she receives from hospitality Principals such as, "How do I find a Christina? Why is your turnover so low? How can I prevent my employees and associates from taking what I teach them and venturing out on their own?" Her lecture will also address how she advises emerging professionals making the decision to seek employment underneath the umbrella of a larger company or to branch out and begin their own ventures.
Executive Director of David Beahm Experiences, Christina Matteucci pioneers an integral role within the special event industry as Number Two to celebrity event designer David Beahm. Now in her nineteenth year of collaboration with David, Christina has spent almost two decades skillfully executing unfathomably complex soirées all over the globe. Christina credits her rigorous conservatory theater training at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (2001) with her ability to conceive and produce lavish event experiences. She also asserts that her finesse for the fantastic has been enhanced and honed through wholeheartedly embracing the position of Number Two—a role that has blossomed into an esteemed symbiotic partnership with David.
By exemplifying the time-honored model of apprenticeship and mentorship, Christina cultivates a robustly innovative workplace that thrives on deeply rooted collaboration; as such, she is a champion of egalitarian business principles. Her bohemian theories on how we define professional success earn her coveted speaking opportunities within the global special events industry, inspiring and captivating audiences with her no-nonsense, comedic, and self-effacing style. On November 23, 2019, Christina had the honor of speaking alongside Eliza Reid, First Lady of Iceland, at TEDxBeaconStreet, Boston. By virtue of her particular aptitude for team building, Christina is uniquely qualified to counsel both emerging professionals embarking on their career paths (thus earning her the moniker TeucciMama: Mother Hen of the Number Twos) as well as CEOs who value synergistic, cooperative corporate cultures.
Closing General Session
A Conversation with Roy Choi
Roy is known as one of the architects of the modern food truck movement through Kogi BBQ by merging food and social media with community and honoring the street food culture that laid the path before him. He is the host of the civic-minded Emmy Award winning series ‘Broken Bread’ on KCET/Tastemade, and on a global scale, Roy isco-host in the full-blown Netflix cooking series ‘The Chef Show’ with Jon Favreau.
He is a voice and advocate for street food culture past, present, and future, and the co-owner, co-founder, and chef of Kogi BBQ, Chego!, Best Friend at Park MGM Las Vegas, and LocoL.
Roy Choi was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, California. One of the architects of the modern food truck movement through Kogi BBQ, Choi merges food and social media with community, honoring the street food culture that laid the path before him.
Host of the civic-minded Emmy Award winning series ‘Broken Bread’ on KCET/Tastemade, which won him a James Beard Foundation Award in 2020 for Outstanding Host in a television series, Choi challenges the status quo, meeting with inspiring individuals and organizations who use food as a platform for activism and a catalyst for change.
On a global scale, Roy is co-host in the full blown Netflix cooking series 'The Chef Show' with Jon Favreau. He is also a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.
In 2010, Food and Wine magazine named him Best New Chef. His cookbook/memoir L.A. Son was a New York Times Bestseller in 2013. In 2016 he was named TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World. And in 2017, LocoL in Watts, received the first ever Los Angeles Times Restaurant of the Year award.