The Restaurant Mom Wraps Up Workshop Series

July 25, 2011 - PRLog -- MyKidsPlate.com is the kid-friendly national dining authority featuring restaurants that are kid-friendly and educating restaurants on how simple it can be to do a better job with families with kids. The Restaurant Mom, Julie Casey, founder of MyKidsPlate.com, is the industry’s leading expert on kid-friendly business.

With the opening of LEGOLAND Florida approaching this fall, The Restaurant Mom was brought in by the Central Florida Visitors & Convention Bureau to conduct a series of six workshops concerning what it means to today’s parents to be considered a kid-friendly business, how to prepare your staffs to welcome the family customers, and how to incorporate kid-friendly strategies to attract these new visitors within simple budget parameters.

“I was thrilled that they asked me to do it,” said Casey. “It was very forward thinking of them to bring me in. I was honored to share our research that has clearly identified parents’ “hot buttons”. When the research began four years ago, it was focused on restaurants, but we have found that much of the input from parents correlates to most business categories.”

The workshops were coordinated with the area Chambers of Commerce in the Polk County vicinity. Members of the Chambers were invited along with non-members to these free seminars conducted in April and May at various locations throughout the county. Many categories of businesses attended the workshops from a water recovery company, to insurance, assisted living, and attractions.

“Julie’s workshop was a real eye-opener filled with great ideas that will help us better accommodate young families,” Cassie Jacoby, Director of Communications at Bok Tower Gardens. “We learned so much about what matters to moms, kid-friendly features and evolving social media trends in tourism marketing that we plan to continue working with her as a consultant!”

Casey shared the top 30 attributes important to parents and broke them down by categories, providing examples of how to successfully tackle certain attributes within your own business. She explained that while they can hopefully expect an increase in family customers from the opening of LEGOLAND, that these strategies would be effective for families right now, with the existing business in their own backyard.

“I’m really excited about the opportunities being presented to Polk County businesses with the opening of LEGOLAND. Regardless if their customers are visitors or local families, businesses will benefit by incorporating family-friendly strategies.”

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MyKidsPlate.com was founded by Julie Casey, The Restaurant Mom, in 2007. She is the industry's leading kid-friendly expert. To find out more, go to www.TheRestaurantMom.com.