Marcus Viscidi is not just attending conferences. He is one of the people responsible for bringing them to life.

As a vice president of sales for Informa, the company behind some of the most influential gatherings in food, Viscidi oversees the impressive industry events portfolio that includes Create, Restaurant Leadership Conference, FS Tech and even the National Restaurant Association Show.

Related: This Michelin-Trained Chef Now Cooks for One of California’s Fastest-Growing Brands

The Create event in Nashville, Tennessee, was filled with operators who arrived ready to learn, argue, collaborate and grow. “This is the one event built specifically for emerging brands,” Viscidi says, a reminder that events like it exist because he and his team identified a gap no one else was filling.

It is the exact environment he thinks about every day. Not food costs or equipment decisions, but people. More specifically, what happens when you pull operators out of their restaurants and place them in a setting where curiosity takes over?

“Humans are social beings,” Viscidi says. “You get away from your day-to-day, you see content that inspires you, and you surround yourself with peers who help you level up.” He says it with ease, but the simplicity hides the truth.

In an industry defined by constant urgency, stepping back to think requires discipline.

For Viscidi, this segment of emerging brands is electric. It is also the reason he stayed in the events world after its darkest chapter. During Covid, he spent months canceling conferences, calling partners and asking them to hold deposits at a time when no one knew what the next week would bring.

There were days he wondered if events would ever return or if he needed a new career entirely.

But the moment doors reopened, operators rushed back. They came ready to reconnect, ready to trade ideas, ready to get better. They reminded him that gathering is not a luxury in hospitality. It is survival.

“You see who shows up,” he says. “People who represent hundreds of thousands of employees. People who cannot wait to be back in the room.”

Related: This Is the ‘Worst Thing’ CEOs Can Do, According to the Head of OpenTable

Built for outcomes

The strategic layer behind these gatherings is where Viscidi does his most intricate work. Good events are not built as spectacles.

They are designed as engines, tuned for the operators and suppliers who depend on them to make smarter decisions. Viscidi thinks about the audience before anything else. “You have to know who is in the room,” he says. “What you say to a CTO at McDonald’s is very different than what you say to a brand with 10 or 20 locations.”

That clarity shaped Create from the start. The event sits in a deliberate middle space. It is not a show floor full of noise, and it is not a closed leadership retreat. It is engineered to feel approachable while still giving operators access to the tools and relationships that matter.

The speed networking sessions captured that balance. Operators often come to events feeling like red meat, chased by vendors with a pitch. This time, they controlled the meetings through Grip, the AI matchmaking tool humming quietly underneath the agenda. It paired people based on criteria rather than chance encounters. Viscidi had modest expectations. “I was hoping for a B-minus,” he admits. “But it turned into a B-plus, maybe even an A-minus.” Conversations felt intentional. No one seemed drained, and no one felt ignored.

City selection follows the same logic. Nashville works because it draws nationally. Southern California works because hundreds of emerging brands sit within driving distance.

“Location is everything,” Viscidi says. “It has to be either easy to get to or worth the trip.”

Across the Informa portfolio, each event plays a different role. Restaurant Leadership Conference speaks to top executives. The National Restaurant Association Show gives independents and multi-unit operators a full industry view. FS Tech pushes the conversation forward. “Pick the event that matches the phase you are in,” Viscidi says. “A few good days can change your whole next quarter.”

What he builds is not simply programming. It is infrastructure. The kind that helps operators grow, vendors connect and the industry regain momentum in a difficult year.

Because when the right people are in the right room, progress becomes visible.

Related: Why a Super Bowl Champ Chose This Emerging Franchise Company to Create Impact Far Beyond Restaurants

About Restaurant Influencers

Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point-of-sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience.

Toast — Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about Toast.