RTO7 Staff Typsy Picks of the Month
Welcome to the
14th edition of RTO7’s staff picks of the month! It’s a great way to learn about this training platform firsthand as we share our experiences and recommendations on Typsy courses. This on-line training platform is available free-of charge to those that work in tourism in BruceGreySimcoe, and to all levels of employers and employees – business owners, managers, full-time and part-time staff, and seasonal employees.
After reading our choices below, try Typsy out for yourself and be sure to share this awesome training tool with your staff and co-workers.
Bill Sullivan, CEO, RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Utilizing AI For Growth
Total Lesson Length: 6 minutes
In this mentor session, I delved into the world of utilizing AI for growth. My journey with AI began in January 2023, and over the subsequent months, I’ve harnessed its power to provide thought starters, source relevant research, and fine-tune my writing. I can now review research swiftly, enhance the precision of my written content, and set the perfect tone for each message. The following paragraphs describe briefly what was reinforced to me from this enlightening session, the strategies discussed, and the profound impact AI have on growth. I
view AI as a tool, and like any tool it can make your outcomes better when used properly. I recommend when using AI to verify the output you receive to ensure that it provides correct content and reflects your values.
What I Gained: During this mentor session, I gained insights into leveraging AI for personal and professional growth. AI has evolved the way I work, providing me with a competitive edge by accelerating my research process, enabling me to draft content with greater accuracy, and significantly enhancing my productivity. This newfound expertise has empowered me to unlock doors to new opportunities and has streamlined my workflow, allowing me to focus on
strategic thinking and creativity.
The Strategy: The heart the discussion revolved around the strategy of utilizing AI for growth. The session explored how AI can automate time-consuming tasks, such as data analysis and information retrieval, I can attest that it leaves me with more time for higher-order thinking. By setting the right parameters and using AI tools effectively, I can identify trends and insights that might otherwise remain hidden. This strategic approach enables me to adapt rapidly to changing market conditions, make informed decisions, and stay ahead in my field.
The Profound Impact: The impact of AI on my professional journey cannot be overstated. With AI as a reliable partner, I’ve seen a significant increase in the quality and quantity of my work. It has opened doors to new opportunities and allowed me to take on larger, more impactful projects. My ability to craft content that resonates with my audience has improved dramatically, leading to a stronger online presence and broader recognition in my field. AI has not only expedited my growth but has also transformed the way I perceive and harness technology.
Join the Movement: In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology and artificial intelligence, I invite you to join the movement of utilizing AI for growth. Embracing AI is not just about staying competitive but about gaining a cutting-edge advantage in today’s dynamic world. By incorporating AI into your daily workflow and personal development, you can experience the transformative power of this technology, just as I have. Together, we can explore new horizons,
uncover untapped potential and redefine what is possible in our professional journeys.
In conclusion: This is a session led by a Craft Brewer, great start in my book, he provided real world examples of how AI helped in creating a line of beers that sell. If you are a restaurateur, you may find this session particularly interesting if you are looking to change up your wine list to match your menu, or vice versa. Find the right AI that suits your needs and play with it for a while before trusting it.
The above was written by AI and edited by Bill Sullivan.
More About Bill
Bill Sullivan is the CEO of Regional Tourism Organization 7, BruceGreySimcoe. Bill has over 40 years in senior management roles within the hospitality and tourism industry in rural Ontario. Bill’s operational experience during previous booms, recessions, emergencies, pandemics is assisting the industry on its road to recovery. Bill is responsible for strategic planning and operations of the organization. Prior to joining RTO7, Bill held progressive management positions over a 30-year career in resort operations. Bill received his education in the Hospitality and Tourism program at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University).
Alex Hogan, Project & Administration Manager, RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Training Fundamentals
Total Course Length: 46 minutes
This is a useful course for anyone who has to do training of some sort and given that training is a form of communication I’d say pretty much anyone could benefit from these basics. I used to design trainings many years ago, so this was largely familiar, but still a welcome reminder. As much as the how-to’s, types of training, learning styles and tips for designing content, was the reminder of just how important training is, particularly in onboarding. Our young adult children often grumble about how poor or even non-existent their on-the-job training is, which seems a real missed opportunity. When staff are so hard to come by nowadays, why wouldn’t you invest in ensuring that those that you do bring on are as well prepared as possible to do their best for you?
More About Alex
Alex Hogan is the Program & Administration Manager at RTO7 and has over 20 years’ experience managing a wide variety of projects. Alex brings strong communication and organizational skills to projects to meet the needs and objectives of partners and projects. She manages the Partnership Program, as well as contributing to sustainable tourism and workforce development projects. Prior to RTO7, Alex managed training projects for a Toronto based environmental consulting company specializing in waste management and climate change issues. She graduated from Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo.
Ginny Henry, Communication Coordinator, RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Sustainable Food Practices
Total Mentor Session Length: 43 minutes
As restaurant owner and course presenter, Carlos Henriques says, “it’s a long road to sustainability” and the best place to start that journey is now, with everyday actions that support sustainable practices. In this 43-minute long course, Carlos outlines simple and practical steps to introduce and maintain sustainable practices in a restaurant (many of these practices apply to home kitchens and other businesses as well). He includes a sustainable food practices template that can be downloaded so your business vision and goals can be easily added. One of the important points he stresses is that practicing sustainability can be profitable and explains how. With the amount of food waste currently taking place world-wide, this course offers practical strategies that will not only attract new customers, but high-quality employees, too, who feel like their making a difference. And, interestingly, recycling is the last resort on his list of sustainable practices. This course gets two thumbs up and five stars from me!
More About Ginny
Ginny Henry is the Communication Coordinator at Regional Tourism Organization 7 / BruceGreySimcoe. Her career in the tourism industry started from the “bottom up”, with a summer job cleaning toilets and rooms at a family-run motel in Port Elgin, Ontario just over 40 years ago. Many of her job choices were inspired by the words, “it’s something I’ve always wanted to do”, with a strong focus on customer service, tourism, event organization and small business support. Her role at RTO7 includes social media, overseeing the seasonal partnership/image campaigns, newsletters, website content and pretty much anything communication-related that crops up. Ginny has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Kim Clarke, Manager, Stakeholder Relations RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Strengthening Resilience
Total Course Length: 42 minutes
Sometimes it feels like the world is becoming more stressful every day, and this can make the small things start to add up quickly. Understanding how to manage stress and adversity in the workplace is a great skill to learn. That’s right, learning how to be a more resilient person is a skill that, with practice, will get stronger over time.
Michael Sherman walks people through the main principles of strengthening
resilience in this 42-minute course. The lessons review tips on managing stress and why that’s important, how to recognize burnout, what you can do to begin to build resilient relationships in your workplace. This is a fantastic course for anyone who’s in a leadership position or wants to move into a leadership position in their workplace. Personally, I was able to come away with some great
techniques to help manage my daily stress before I get to the burnout stage. I was surprised about how you can use negative thoughts to motivate growth and how the “simple” task of listening can be all you need to do to support a co-worker.
I would highly recommend this course. It was well worth the time.
More About Kim
Kim Clarke is the Manger, Stakeholder Relations at Regional Tourism Organization 7, BruceGreySimcoe. Kim has spent over 15 years in the tourism industry working in destination development and management. She works closely with a variety of stakeholders to help them create amazing new experiences, managing visitation and works to find solutions to the workforce crisis. Kim is the lead for the experience and workforce development files at RTO7. She received her formal education, Bachelor of Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Allison Davies, Communication Assistant, RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Workplace Bullying and Harassment
Total Course Length: 36 minutes
Juliette Gust leads you on this roughly 30-minute course about workplace bullying and harassment. Did you know that the hospitality industry has a higher rate of reported bullying and harassment? This is because of a number of factors including the proportion of young, vulnerable workers, the number of foreign workers who may not know their rights, a reliance on tips for income, and the nature of the work with busy kitchens and long hours.
Gust not only defines these issues she offers a ton of information on who is responsible, how to report and where and when workplace harassment and
bullying can take place. You might be surprised to know that harassment and bullying can still be considered workplace, when happening outside the four walls of your work and after hours. If the behavior wouldn’t be appropriate at work, it remains inappropriate at company functions and on after-work time with co-workers.
Workplace bullying is defined as abusive behavior that a reasonable person would find hostile. There’s a shared responsibility to eliminate this behavior by everyone in the workplace, from staff to management. Gust explains how a culture of harassment and bullying can negatively impact your business and the repercussions are much farther reaching that you might think. They can affect staff retention, customer service, and even your bottom line.
Gust also helps to clarify the line between harassment and bullying and managers making decisions about poor performance and implement management actions and consequences. The topic of victimization also comes up. This is when someone is punished for reporting the harassment or bullying incident. It can take the form of discrimination, like only offering the employee inconvenient or less lucrative shifts, and it can also include that employee becoming the subject of workplace gossip.
Throughout the course, Gust reminds us to check local legislation as well as our workplace codes of conduct to ensure you understand your rights. Ultimately, Gust concludes that no good can come from allowing a workplace where this behavior is tolerated.
The course is short and to the point but packed with great information and
downloadable resource sheets. It would be a great tool to share with new hires along with your company code of conduct in onboarding and training.
More About Allison
Allison Davies is a writer, photographer and content creator who has worked for Regional Tourism Organization 7 in the Communication Assistant role for 5 years. As a trained photojournalist, she worked for many local DMOs on both writing and photography projects before joining the RTO7 team full time. Today she uses those skills to help support tourism operators by marketing the region through social media and web content. She has an English Literature degree from McGill University and a Photojournalism Diploma from Loyalist College. In her free time, Allison loves to shoot sports and continues to write for several magazines on a freelance basis.
Amanda Pausner, Experience & Administration Coordinator, RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Porter Fundamentals
Total Course Length: 29 minutes
Though I do not work within the accommodation sector, everything that is taught in this course is applicable to any career within the travel industry. You need to have excellent customer service skills, be a good communicator, a problem solver and an ambassador.
The porter, concierge or service agent, different hotels use different terms, are the first and last impression of an accommodation. The guest experience received needs to be high quality and very positive. It takes a guest 7 seconds to form an opinion, that is not a long time, so be sure to use the 10/5 rule to ensure a great experience. Within 10 secs of the guest approaching you make direct eye contact and within 5 secs of them approaching you, greet them, verbally and with a smile.
It is important for porters and front desk agents to have a good knowledge base of all there is to see and do, where to eat and important landmarks/natural assets within the destination. For the hotel you are the ‘’expert’ in the eyes of the guest and an ambassador for the region.
This course is 29 minutes in length, with 10 bite sized lessons, very attainable.
As Albert Einstein said, “Only a life lived to the service of others is worth living”.
More About Amanda
Amanda has worked in the tourism industry for over 23 years. She joined the RTO7 team in 2018 in her current position as Experience & Administration Coordinator. She assists with administration duties, programs offered by RTO7 and, over the last two years, has led the T3 Accelerator Coaching Program, which supports small businesses in Bruce, Grey and Simcoe Counties. Previously, she worked with Grey County Tourism for 16 years, managing operator relations and working as a media relations specialist, showcasing what the area had to offer. While taking the Tourism Management course at Georgian College, Barrie she spent her summers with the Owen Sound Transportation Company (MS Chi-Cheemaun Ferry). In her spare time, Amanda enjoys travelling with her family of four and working in her many veggie gardens.
Robyn Hewitt, Senior Communications Coordinator, RTO7 / BruceGreySimcoe
Typsy Pick of the Month: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Total Course Length: 4 minutes
Feeling a bit strapped for time this week, I decided to review a short lesson and thankfully, came across the Typsy Mentor Sessions under the Discover tab. What a find! There are incredible, inspirational videos here on many different topics, and they’re all less than 8 minutes. In Teamwork Makes the Dream Work, Executive Chef, Louis Tikaram talks a little about his career path, and how he used travel as an opportunity to gain diverse experience in restaurants around the world. Now based in West Hollywood, he teaches the importance of teamwork as a part of his employee training. A few things jumped out at me in this video. The first is how involved Louis is in his kitchens, really leading by example and giving his staff hands-on training. The second was that by providing his staff with a sit-down meal during their shift, he was also giving them the opportunity to bond outside of the kitchen. By building trust and through ongoing communication, Louis has built a cohesive team that all contribute to the success of the restaurant. Two thumbs up!
More About Robyn
Robyn joined RTO7 in August 2021 and has recently been promoted to Senior Communications Coordinator. She brings a diverse background with almost 20 years of experience in various capacities of sales, marketing, and partnership development in the hospitality and tourism industry. Much of her experience is within the hotel sector where she specialized in the leisure travel trade, selling multiple properties within the Marriott family of brands. In addition to the communications role, Robyn oversees the RTO7 Implementation Programs (OIP, SIP, RIP), as well as the administration of the Typsy training platform. She received a Business Commerce Degree in Hospitality & Tourism Management at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) and completed a Certificate of Digital Marketing Management through the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto.