More than 600 people walked out of the Preston Arts Center on Wednesday with motivation to be a bit more “unreasonable” in their interactions with others they serve.
The call to action, though, had nothing to do with any negative connotations of the word and was in fact paired with “hospitality” and describes the philosophy of the Henderson Hospitality Summit’s keynote speaker Will Guidara, the best-selling author of “Unreasonable Hospitality,” who challenged attendees to go above and beyond on many different levels in their interactions with others.
The hundreds of people, many from other communities in the state and tri-state region, gathered on the campus of Henderson Community College for the first ever Henderson Hospitality Summit, a joint venture of the Henderson County Public Library, Henderson Tourist Commission, Henderson Chamber of Commerce and Henderson Economic Development.
The goal of the summit in a nutshell is to start a local hospitality movement and become one of the most hospitable places on the planet.
The summit was the brainchild of HCPL Special Events Coordinator Emily Hurt, who with an HCPL book club was reading Guidara’s book last year when the idea came to her. She soon discussed it with HCPL Executive Director Shannon Sandefur, who supported it, and then Hurt contacted Abby Dixon with the tourist commission, Clay Gillham with the chamber of commerce and Missy Vanderpool with Hendeson Economic Development. With all on board, the idea grew into reality and led to Wednesday’s turnout.
Hurt said she was “very humbled and empowered by our community. It has been amazing to see the response to this, and it was exactly the response I knew Henderson could give to the concept of hospitality.”
It was an event that Guidara, who speaks far and wide, said is something he’s never seen an entire municipality take part in.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, adding that the impact, “I guarantee,” will be unbelievable.
Hurt said she hopes one piece that Hendersonians take away from the summit involves interactions with friends, neighbors and colleagues.
“I hope that everybody is intentional with the way we treat each other,” she said.
Guidara peppered his hour-plus talk with anecdotes of his career, most notably the timespan that he led New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park in its quest to be the number one on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list (which it achieved in 2017).
He also supplied a number of quotes he’s gathered from others—his father, being one—and his own that have shaped his philosophy of hospitality.
“Never let a gracious impulse pass,” was one of them.
That quote struck Henderson Area Arts Alliance Executive Director Kensington Eck. She said Guidara spoke in a manner that unlocked any holding back and “gave our community permission” to go after unreasonable hospitality.
Another zinger that stuck with attendees was, “One size fits one,” a reference to being present and intentional with every individual while searching for ways to show hospitality to that one person.
Coleman Tramill, a real estate agent with FC Tucker/Collier, said that was a piece of advice he’ll use while helping clients find their home, adding everyone has different needs and he’ll be more in-tune with the individuality of a home buyer.
A line that stuck with the United Way of Henderson Executive Director Kelsi Dunham Johnston involved slowing down. “We all just need to slow down in order to speed up,” Guidara said in his talk. This was another reference to taking time to be one-on-one with a person. Dunham Johnston said this would help interactions with both the donors and the organizations that UW serves.
Guidara also shared anecdotes of unreasonable hospitality in action. One involved a group of foodies from Europe, who were eating their last meal in New York City and would be shuttling off to the airport after their time at his restaurant. He overheard them saying they ate great food during their trip but were disappointed they’d never eaten a real New York hot dog. Guidara went out, bought a hot dog, brought it back into his fine-dining establishment and convinced the chef to let him serve it. The chef cut it into four pieces and Guidara sent it out as an appetizer.
“I had never seen anyone react to anything I served as they did to that hot dog,” he said.
Another anecdote involved a Spanish family on vacation who had never gone sledding in the snow. After their dinner, with snow on the ground in the city, a ride to Central Park was set up and the family was supplied with sleds and a thermos of hot cocoa.
Additionally, Guidara listed some keys for providing unreasonable hospitality:
- Be present
- Stop taking yourself so seriously
- Treat people like unique individuals
The summit also included three other speakers, Kentucky Poet Laureate Kathleen Driskell, architect with Champlin | EOP Brent Bruner and Henderson native and successful restaurateur Brooks Reitz. The program also interspersed short video clips of hospitality in action in Henderson and the people who make that happen.
Driskell ended her talk with a call to share the authentic story of this place—which means the good and the not-so-good.
“We’re made of stories that we want to share with each other,” she said.
“If we don’t tell the authentic story, we are being exclusionary,” she said, adding that with the more negative stories hopefully there’s a caveat that something has been learned from them. “We still have to tell those stories.”
Bruner concentrated on the aesthetics of a place, weaving in anecdotes of different projects he’d worked on and the techniques incorporated to accomplish the feel desired in a setting.
“Design is the silent host,” he said.
Reitz shared a list of events and jobs from his growing up in Henderson—Little League at the fields behind Palmer’s, church meals at St. Paul’s Episcopalian Church, supper parties and Sunday dinners at his parents’ home on Larue Road and a job writing obituaries at The Gleaner in high school—as well as the work he’s done in his professional life, including opening up his first restaurant, Leon’s Oyster Shop in Charleston, S.C., and the touches of hospitality he and partners have added to it through the years.
He asked, “What is hospitality to a town?”
He said the building blocks are already here in Henderson—“Hospitality is deep in our roots.”
Finally at the summit, the tourist commission unveiled a new initiative, Flight School, which seeks to build on the summit’s momentum and help any resident speak confidently about Henderson to visitors, said Dixon. It’s an online course that requires participants to pre-register and opens on June 1. Register here.
