PERSONAL BIO
A driven family man with 4 boys, married and a passion for life with strong core values
Born in Leicester and still, in Leicester, the apple has not moved far from the cart. Moved around from south to north as the years have gone on. Now located pretty much in the middle of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. Works perfectly as a springboard to most places in the UK.
School and college reports growing up, always read Gareth can achieve this much but does this much. I was a boy that could do more but did enough. How often do we hear this? The head of the year (Pat Denbon) used to comment to my mother that she was not sure what to do with Gareth. My mother responded with “Get off his back, he will find his own way” 🙂 My mother tells this story to literally everyone.
In truth, school and college were hard. Concentration was a struggle and it took everything to focus to achieve. Did I do my best? Yes, I did, could I have done better. Yes, I could have. I did what I needed to but I had yet to find my passion. Personally, this is key. There is something in everyone that can be unlocked with the right key.
WORK ETHIC
I owe this to my father who drilled into me the importance of cracking on. Up and out and unless deaths door was knocking, I rolled into work.
Job opportunities were plentiful and to be honest could turn my hand to pretty much anything. Starting the working career as an assistant in a leisure centre. Whilst working here I also took an opportunity at a sports shop in Leicester City centre called Sports Direct. It was great to be earning my own monies. Pay packets used to come weekly which was great! I was able to stop my £20 allowance from my parents which then changed to board. What? I’m your child, I shouldn’t have to pay. Too right, I should. The value of monies was taught early and from then it was all about what was next.
After a few years at the leisure centre, I ran a bar, a pub and a 24-hour gym. After this was a stint at a castor warehouse. You know the little wheels on the bottom of your sofa. I can remember the owner driving around in his flashy BMW so there is money in those castors. Got the sack from here! Now here’s a story. Got a call one day to deliver castors to a warehouse in Leicester. Jumped in the van and delivered the castors quickly to the customer who was over the moon with the responsiveness. Reversed the van out of the car park and right into the MD’s brand new 4×4 pickup. Took the front bumper off and caved the van back doors right in. Disaster!!! Got back and the owner fired me there and then! I was gutted.
Not one to be deterred and with the attitude of I will not be signing on in mind, joined an agency. During my 2 months stint, I hung the huge doors in the Hinkley court with two guys from Liverpool. The other temps didn’t turn up! Laboured for a week on a building site and also worked for Leicester City County Council transferring their vehicles from one location to another. This job I loved. Being a lover of all things with wheels and petrol, I got to drive vans, tractors and small bin lorries.
THE BIG BREAK
Believe in your own abilities and go out and get it
It was 1998 and decided that my path had no direction. What was it that I wanted to do? What was it I had an interest in? Like many young people today, I had an interest in computers. Today it is all about being a YouTube star but back then Google hadn’t become popular. For me, it was about programming. I went to the library and hired programming books. Spent hours writing code out to get something to display on the screen. This is how it started and was hooked. From here, paid for a Java qualification which gave me a good solid base. All programming languages are derivatives from Java or C.
In the year 2000, an opportunity came up to build web tools for an industrial tooling company. I got on really well with the marketing manager and I suppose again this goes to show people buy people. He certainly didn’t check what I knew because, to be honest, I knew nothing.
The first day I sat there in front of my PC looking blank at the screen and the senior developer guy wheeled over and said “you don’t know what you are doing, do you?”. Proceeded to give me a Pascal Turbo book and said read this front to back. You have 48 hours before anyone notices.
That was it, how the career started. No one found out. Learnt Python, PHP and other languages by just developing tools for this company. From here there have been a string of positions that have seen my career go from a junior developer, senior developer, director of digital and then head of digital. A career that has spanned 21 years and can say I started before Google became popular.
STARTING A BUSINESS
Always pushing the boundaries and struggling with the word no.
It was 2018 and I got the opportunity to attend a course called “The seriously excellent management course”. Yes I know, the name isn’t great. I was sceptical, to say the least. It was run by a guy called David Cotton. I have always struggled with attention but David kept my attention for 3 days in a box room with no windows. Fascinating throughout and actually a trained hypnotherapist. There were a few times we came out into breakout sessions feeling like something had happened that we weren’t aware of 🙂
The underlying message throughout the three days was JDI (Just Do It). It is now ingrained into me and is how I live my life. I came back from the course completely re-energised. Got approached by a hotel looking for a digital signage solution and can only say had a light bulb moment. From that day, everything changed. I was on a mission, developed day and night and launched DisplayHub through a company I started called Safedata Logistics. Networked all the time, got my business out there and our product. In September 2018, I attended the Hotel Tech Live Show with DisplayHub and whilst there saw that there were companies launching concierge solutions from kiosks to robots. Whilst lovely looking, my initial thoughts were cost and ROI. How much would a hotel have to spend upfront to get something like this up and running? What could I do that utilised the smartphone but without an app because I knew that we didn’t want apps anymore?
CONCIERGEHUB WAS BORN
We were one of three companies globally who launched an app-less version
Mobile ordering and mobile order and pay were yet to explode at this point. It was nice to have but not essential. Weatherspoons had launched an app that was becoming a success but the majority of pubs and hotels were yet to see the benefits. We were essentially like this but without the app. My background in development was all about removing barriers. We had some early adopters that really shaped the product. Aimed initially at just hotel room service. Started with the pain points and we started to fix issues within a hotel ordering process.
In 2019 we started Hospitality Digital Services. Safedata Logistics just didn’t relate to our customers so the new business made sense and a stronger platform for our products.
We had a number of fantastic sources within the hotel industry who just brain dumped on us on how it should work. ConciergeHub then moved into banqueting and serving the hotel in various other areas. We completed a number of large integrations with the likes of LightSpeed and StayNTouch and we started to get a lot of interest from other hotels.
Roll on 2020 and the pandemic starts. Our hotels shut down but we had this product that could really help. We were top of Google at this point before the world and his wife started paying for Google Ads. Very quickly we transitioned into cafes, bars, pubs and takeaways. Pretty much any business wanting to serve F&B through mobile ordering. We develop quickly and in a very agile way. We grew our features and functions beyond what the likes of Deliveroo and UberEats were doing. Always ahead of our competitors we set out our plan to stay ahead of the curve.
HDS has one focus. To be the first product globally to have everything under one SaaS solution. We stand unique in the market already and have a range of services all geared around reducing costs, improving revenue opportunities, streamlining services and bettering customer and internal communications. We listen well and implement changes quickly and efficiently. Everything in ConciergeHub is from feedback and desires from our customers. This is how we have grown so quickly. Our customers now range from hotels, pubs, bars, restaurants, takeaways and corporate business. We are becoming an all in one solution that businesses all over the UK are adopting because of our flexibility.
Everything we launch is app-less, contactless and cloud-based.
EPOS launched in January 2021. We were being asked about EPOS all the time and integrating everywhere we installed mobile ordering. It made sense to build our own. We didn’t reference any other product on the market. There is a reason for this. They all have their floors. All square peg round hole products. ConciergeHub EPOS is the first EPOS that will fit any business perfectly. If it doesn’t work we will make it fit like a glove. That is our promise.
It is also EPOS but has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. Viewable in three ways. Your business may be a busy bar, nightclub or pub. EPOS can change the layout for speed purposes. Reducing the options and turning orders quicker. It can also be run in self serve mode. Viewed on a kiosk screen, allow your customers to order themselves and pay either via contactless card or via QR and their own phone through GPay or Apple Pay.
PMS (Property Management System) what a beast this is!! We know we have to build one as everything we are doing is leading into this. We never underestimate! Our mantra is underestimate and overdeliver. Luckily we have over 30 hotels in the UK now and this resource is incredibly amazing. Talking is key and asking questions like “what is the process?” and “How would you like it to work?” is key. What works for one hotel will help another. The features are building and with all things ConciergeHub, it will be thought through and comprehensive. We have plans for an early release in Q4 of 2021 but in reality, the majority of features will come in 2022.
At this point, ConciergeHub will be a global first and with our suite of products, will stand proud knowing that we are unique on the market. A range of cloud-based and app-less services, all served through our SaaS solution. Hospitality Digital Services will continue to develop services that will help and support businesses across the hospitality and retail sectors.
from Hospitality Digital Services 