News Briefs

Fast-casual restaurant concept Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers  promoted Erin Walter to chief marketing officer (CMO).

Walter will oversee all aspects of the company's marketing initiatives, working closely with the executive team to drive brand awareness, guest engagement, and overall business growth. Her innovative leadership style and strategic thinking are expected to bring a fresh perspective to the company's marketing strategies.

"Erin's talent and dedication have greatly benefited our team. Her strategic vision and creativity have been crucial to our success, and I am confident she'll excel as CMO," said Chris Dull, Freddy's President & CEO. "Her exceptional ability to inspire and collaborate, combined with her deep understanding of our brand, will be instrumental in taking Freddy's to new heights. Erin's commitment to excellence and her forward-thinking approach make her the perfect fit for this role, and I am excited to see the positive impact she will continue to make."

Walter, with more than 20 years of experience in the restaurant franchising industry, brings considerable expertise to her position. In 2021, she was appointed Vice President of Brand Marketing at Freddy's. Prior to joining Freddy's, she held several roles at Global Franchise Group, including Director of Marketing for Round Table Pizza.

Boostly, a provider of automated SMS marketing and feedback solutions for restaurants, has raised $22 million in growth capital. This significant Series A round comes just six months after Boostly's $5.6 million Seed round. The fresh capital will fuel innovation and expansion as Boostly continues to empower restaurant owners to unlock the value of their first-party customer data and drive revenue with proven marketing tools and strategies.

Customer Connections

The restaurant industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation, driven by evolving customer behaviors and digital engagement channels including online ordering systems and delivery services. Boostly addresses this shift by providing an SMS marketing platform that leverages behavioral-based marketing and gamified texting experiences, delivering engagement rates 10x higher than standard text marketing offers. With a patent-pending process that aggregates restaurant customer data and accelerates SMS subscriber opt-in 5x faster than traditional solutions, Boostly is redefining how restaurants connect with their customers.

Boostly currently serves over 1,200 restaurant locations across the U.S. and Canada, demonstrating the rapid adoption and the effectiveness of its platform. Founded by restaurant-tech veterans Shane and Mikey Murphy, who previously built and sold an online ordering company and led a restaurant operations software firm, Boostly is driven by a deep understanding of restaurateurs' needs and challenges.

"Restaurant owners are among the hardest working individuals in our country, managing operations while actively working alongside their staff everyday," said Shane Murphy, Co-Founder and CEO of Boostly. "They need a marketing system that operates on autopilot, provides clear ROI, and makes their life simple. We've gamified the SMS marketing experience in order to produce exponentially more engagement and revenue than traditional marketing options available to restaurant owners. Our success is directly tied to our customers' success, and our platform is designed to provide rocket fuel that helps them grow."

Restaurants accumulate vast amounts of valuable customer data through daily operations, yet many struggle to leverage it effectively. Boostly's platform transforms this untapped resource into actionable insights, enabling restaurants to drive repeat business and enhance customer loyalty. By integrating first-party data from multiple sources, Boostly builds fully compliant, opted-in audiences, empowering restaurant owners with automated, intelligent marketing campaigns that generate millions in incremental revenue and thousands of real-time customer reviews.

Boostly's dedication to restaurant owners extends beyond technology. The company delivers an intuitive, elegantly designed platform supported by transparent reporting, revenue attribution, and white-glove customer service, ensuring measurable impact while allowing restaurateurs to focus on running their businesses. 

PPDS, the exclusive global provider of Philips Professional Displays and complementary solutions, is delighted to announce the highly anticipated launch of its most advanced and versatile range of multi-touch displays to date with the new, reimagined Philips Interactive 3000 Series for installations for hospitality environments.

Set to be showcased at ISE 2025 in Barcelona (Feb 4-7) – Philips Stand 3P500 – the chic, bezel-free Philips Interactive 3000 Series marks a new generation of advanced, highly flexible multi-touch Android SoC displays from PPDS, presenting content as it was meant to be seen, with razor-sharp accuracy, color precision, and brightness. 

The new Philips 3000 Series has been remodeled to fit market feedback and configured utilizing the latest advancement in hardware, PCAP touch technology, and software bringing the flexibility to support a broadening range of installation requirements inside hotels, from reception areas, wayfinding, gift shops, bars, restaurants, and many more.

Andrea Barbuti, Global Product Management Lead for EMEA at PPDS, commented: “With the Philips T-Line Series, we raised the bar for how and where interactive displays can be used to bring new business benefits and enhanced user experiences. And now, with this new Philips Interactive 3000 Series, we’re significantly raising that bar again, adding unprecedented versatility and opportunities to an even wider audience.”

Tilting the balance 

Offered in an extended range of 24” (back by popular demand), 32”, 43” and 55” model variants, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series has been designed and equipped to meet any challenge, delivering premium performance, unparalleled reliability, and flexibility to any space.

Updated for 24/7 operation, and repurposed in consultation with partners and customers, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series extends beyond traditional portrait and landscape mounting limitations, with all models now featuring a 30-degree tilt option, as well as optional open frame brackets, opening new installation possibilities and enhanced creativity. 

The request for tilted displays continues to grow, particularly for kiosks, with businesses looking to extend or renew their existing interactive displays beyond smaller screens, such as tablets. Concerns around security? The Philips Interactive 3000 Series also features a secure ‘Kiosk Mode’ feature, disabling any unauthorized remote control, management or tampering for peace of mind. 

Lutz Harder, Global Product Manager for Interactive Displays at PPDS added: “Whether on a shelf – ideal for the 24” – angled or upright for POS, configurators, order points and kiosks – with the 32” and 43” – or for wayfinding – with the 55”, the installation possibilities and benefits with the Philips Interactive 3000 Series are seemingly endless.” And that’s just the start.

Let’s be clear

With an unquenchable desire to deliver unparalleled viewing and user experiences, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series from PPDS has been designed to cope with brighter lighting conditions and even the grubbiest of fingers.

Available as standard, each Philips Interactive 3000 Series model is equipped with a stunning edge-to-edge PCAP touch screen, while also being augmented with anti-glare and anti-fingerprint coating, allowing for perfect presentation, regardless of the number of fingers coming into contact between cleans. 

Need a screen that will be exposed to ever-changing lighting environments? No problem. The Philips Interactive 3000 Series delivers optimum performances at all times, with the 24” and 32” models providing up to 350 cd/m2 brightness, while the larger 43” and 55” models are equipped with 450 cd/m2 for better visibility and user experiences.

Lutz Harder explained: “If you can’t see or use the screen, be it due to brighter light, irritating reflections or simply because it is covered in greasy fingerprints from customers who have just finished their lunch, then it is a failed experience. With Philips Professional Displays the user experience is paramount and for this new Philips Interactive 3000 Series the team has worked to ensure screens can be easily cleaned and will perform to the highest standard – all the time.”

Plug and play with Android 13 

Internally, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series helps to make the lives of AV/IT managers easier, while also delivering instant sustainability benefits and credentials – including financial – with every installation. 

Part of PPDS’ ever expanding Android SoC family, Philips Interactive 3000 Series displays come with an updated professional Android 13 SoC built-in, offering a seamless plug-and-play experience. With 4GB RAM and 32GB ROM as standard, there is no need for an external media player, with content able to be uploaded directly to the display for instant viewing. 

For complete peace of mind, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series also features PPDS’ renowned FailOver technology, ensuring screens never go blank, and content will continue to be presented, 24/7, even in the event of an outage. 

Staying in control 

Whether a single display or many installed around the world, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series offers extensive remote monitoring, maintenance, and management capabilities – whether for single displays or installations around the world – with Philips Wave.

Developed in-house by the PPDS team, the scalable API-first Philips Wave platform, allows users – either locally or centrally – to unlock the full power, versatility, and intelligence of their displays, for greater time, energy, and cost efficiencies. 

Firmware and software updates, adjusting settings, predictive maintenance, content creation and scheduling, are just some of the remote features available on the Philips Interactive 3000 Series with Philips Wave, while the ProStore provides a ‘one-stop digital marketplace’ for access to their preferred applications and services, with zero concerns around compatibility.

Coupled with the benefits of Philips Wave, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series has also been heavily designed – inside and out – with sustainability and the environment in mind. Mirroring other Philips digital signage and LED models, the Philips Interactive 3000 Series has been reconfigured to run with reduced power consumption – without compromising on performance – versus previous models in the Series. All models also feature automatic backlight control, intelligently adjusting the brightness to suit lighting conditions, while ensuring perfect visibility and viewing experiences at all times.

The Philips Interactive 3000 Series is immediately available globally. Additional demonstrations will be available in PPDS’ growing estate of PPDS Studio showrooms, located across EMEA, North America, and in India.

Andrea Barbuti concluded: “The Philips Interactive 3000 Series is unquestionably one of our most versatile, most advanced and sustainability driven interactive displays to date, bringing untold installation opportunities across a vast number of market verticals. There’s no better place to showcase the Philips Interactive 3000 Series than at ISE 2025. We look forward to welcoming visitors to Philips Stand 3P500 in Barcelona so they can experience the power of the Philips Interactive 3000 Series for themselves, whatever industry they are operating within.”

Sonny's BBQ has added George McAllan, new Chief Growth Officer, to the Sonny’s leadership team. McAllan brings decades of experience working in both the franchisor and franchisee roles.

“George’s extensive experience leading operations for some of America’s most-loved restaurant brands is an incredible asset to our team as we continue to expand our footprint and serve our famous BBQ to fans across the South and beyond,” said Jamie Yarmuth, Sonny’s BBQ CEO. “George will serve an important role overseeing the systemwide operations to support the growth and profitability of our brand in the coming years. I look forward to working hand-in-hand with him as we continue to strengthen and develop all facets of operations at Sonny’s BBQ.”

Experienced Industry Executive 

Before joining Sonny’s, George spent the past five years serving as chief operations officer with two different franchisee groups, leading up to 350 restaurants during his tenure. He’s also worked on the franchise side of the business and served a variety of roles with Dunkin’ Brands, including as international vice president responsible for 4,000 Dunkin’ and Baskin Robbins restaurants in South Korea, Japan, China and Latin America. In these previous roles he’s been responsible for operations, development, marketing, and increasing sales and profitability.

“Sonny’s BBQ is a brand I have long admired and loved for its commitment to kindness, Southern culture, and of course its incredible menu of slow-smoked BBQ with all the fixins’,” said George McAllan. “ I look forward to supporting the entire Sonny’s team and share our commitment to providing a great customer experience. It’s an exciting time to join Sonny’s BBQ and I am proud to be a part of this great and storied restaurant brand.”

Growth will be a core pillar for Sonny’s BBQ in 2025, with McAllan playing a leading role. Amid economic challenges, Sonny’s aims to strengthen its market presence and continue its legacy of serving quality BBQ by attracting qualified franchise candidates to expand its franchise network. It will also focus on meeting guest expectations for personalization, convenience and the unmatched hospitality Sonny’s BBQ is known for.

Cendyn, a global integrated hotel technology and services company, and ConferenceDirect, a full-service global meetings solution company, announced the results of their annual report, 2025 State of the Meetings Industry. The collaboration, paired with Knowland by Cendyn data, reveals insights to help industry professionals understand what meeting planners and event managers expect and will prioritize in 2025. The collaboration reveals insights to help industry professionals understand what meeting planners and event managers expect and will prioritize in 2025.

Download the 2025 State of the Meetings Industry here. 

In the past year, the landscape of meetings has been evolving in unexpected ways. Smaller meetings dominated in 2024, but 2025 is ushering in a resurgence of medium and larger gatherings, signaling a strong comeback for larger events. At the same time, planners have had to adapt quickly, with almost half of bookings made for events happening within the same year. But a shift is underway—more organizations are looking ahead, with a growing number of meetings being scheduled three to five years in advance. Other highlights include:

• Medium and large-sized meetings strike a balance – Meetings with 100 to 250 attendees represented 35.8 percent of all bookings in the U.S., while events with over 500 attendees accounted for 32.4 percent. During the year, 49.4 percent of bookings were made in the year for the year. However, booking windows are lengthening as 9.5 percent of meetings booked were 3-5 years in advance. This trend shows an equalizing shift between smaller and larger events, emphasizing the need for hoteliers to improve services and amenities tailored to diverse group sizes. By focusing on both medium-sized meetings (100 to 250 attendees) and larger ones (over 500 attendees), hoteliers can take advantage of this balanced market.
• Rising costs continue to be a top area of dissatisfaction – Planners are dissatisfied with rising costs, which has strained budgets and affected the quality of events. Cost-cutting measures, such as shorter meetings, alternative destinations, and reduced activities or food and beverage options, must be managed effectively to avoid compromising the attendee experience.
• Secondary markets are becoming more favorable – Companies may consider changing destinations and venues to manage meeting costs. Groups are more likely to relocate events to secondary markets to maintain event quality and/or status and avoid moving down in chain scale. This shift presents opportunities for secondary and tertiary markets to attract new business by offering quality products, services, and attractive pricing alternatives compared with the top 25 market destinations.
• Audio-visual support and F&B are preferred RFP add-ons - Planners seek proposals that clearly define technological capabilities and catering options despite prices trending upward. Sixty percent of planners report advanced AV support as a top priority with 33 percent indicating that technology-enabled events are top of mind. More than 53 percent of respondents prefer that catering in RFP responses emphasize functionality and hospitality.

“It is an exciting time to be a part of the meetings and event industry. The outlook for 2025 is optimistic, with more than 40 percent of meeting planners expecting bookings to increase and 65 percent anticipating higher attendance even as rising costs remain a significant challenge for planners,” Michael Bennet, president of Cendyn said. “Finding a balance between high costs and delivering an amazing customer experience will define winning venues in 2025. We look forward to enabling our customers to make every guest interaction an opportunity to nurture relationships and maximize profitability.”

“We have seen a rise in secondary markets as popular destinations, with 90 percent of planners considering them a cost-saving alternative,” said Larry Hanson, CMO of ConferenceDirect. “That being said, planners will prioritize venues capable of making a lasting impression. Respondents emphasized that there is little room for compromise regarding event quality and the pressure is on to deliver exceptional attendee experiences.”

HungerRush, a  provider of integrated restaurant technology solutions, is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Backofhouse.io, a venture owned by Gordon Food Service. This partnership empowers restaurants across the U.S. with access to HungerRush's industry-leading point-of-sale (POS) and online ordering platforms.

This collaboration provides restaurants with the ability to streamline operations, enhance online ordering and delivery capabilities, and boost revenue through loyalty programs and automated marketing. By leveraging HungerRush’s technology, restaurants can take orders faster, reduce friction in day-to-day operations, and deliver an exceptional experience to their guests.

Choosing Technology for Restaurant Growth

HungerRush and Back of House share a mutual commitment to helping restaurants succeed in an increasingly competitive landscape. The addition of HungerRush’s robust offerings provide restaurants with scalable solutions across all areas of their business. From off-premise ordering capabilities to in-house operational optimizations to delivering food to their guests, restaurants can build a resilient and successful business. Restaurants also benefit from HungerRush’s customer-first approach to building and delivering their technology solutions.

“Partnering with Backofhouse.io and Gordon Food Service is a pivotal step in expanding the reach of our innovative restaurant management solutions,” said Nick Butrym, CRO at HungerRush. “Our purpose is to help restaurateurs prosper by delivering great experiences for their customers and employees, and this collaboration allows us to extend that impact to a broader network of businesses.”

Finding the Right Technology

Back of House offers a unique and innovative way for restaurant operators to learn about restaurant technology, compare vendors, and access expert consultants for guidance on business technology decisions.

“Thanks to our partnership with HungerRush, we can provide restaurant operators with high-quality options when it comes to finding the right technology solutions,” said Nick Florek, Head of Back of House. “It’s a partnership that will give them peace of mind that their technology decision is the right one for their specific needs.”

Back of House is available to all restaurant operators across the U.S. Additionally, Gordon Food Service customers get unique benefits, including preferred pricing from leading restaurant technology software providers and free access to consulting services.

To learn more about Back of House please visit the website. For more information on HungerRush, click here.