The Modern Hotelier #148: Building Relationships at BITAC | with Rich Viola
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Steve Carran: Now we are joined by Rich, Viola. Rich, thanks for sitting down with us. How you doing today?
Rich Viola: Doing. Fantastic. Good? Really good to sit down with the two of you. Thanks. I have been a fan of the show, admiring what you do and first time we got a chance to really sit down and and chat a little BITACt.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. So Rich, can you tell us a little BITACt more about your role at Vitech?
Rich Viola: Well, 
it started, uh, 21 years ago, founded the concept of what B is, and it was actually by accident. It really started. What happened originally at By is we started one of the first online web applications, which was Hotel Interactive with the intention of getting a daily news resource instead of magazine out to the hotel industry.
And then we said, we'll have take advertising, but is there something else we should be doing? And the more we spoke to our subscribers, they said. Maybe there's a different way to do conferences. So we were covering conferences, we were covering trade shows,
Yeah.
and came up with a number of things that are maybe to create a different kind of conference experience.
And there's so many different aspects getting into it. But what's really interesting, more than anything, it's how things have evolved when we thought we were just originally just trying to do something a little different, maybe a little more productive. I think by today is probably more important than it even was 21 years ago than we started.
It is so important in terms of communication. Communication has become a premium. It is harder and harder to reach people, and people say, how come people don't call me back? How 
come people don't respond to my emails? How come people don't respond to my texts because we're so overwhelmed with stimulation?
It's now become 24 7. We never totally disconnect from our smart devices. So it's not that people want, don't wanna respond to people, I think they don't have really time.
Steve Carran: Okay.
Rich Viola: I dunno if you're seeing the same, are you guys seeing
David Millili: Yeah, no, so I would say with, with some people I've even talked to here, but I've, I've talked to in other situations it is, you know, when I first left the hotel business and got into tech, there was a, there was some technology, the internet was taking off, but now I. There's so much information out there that I think people just almost tune out because it's just too much.
So for me, that's what I like about this event. So what would you tell somebody who couldn't be here, why they should be here at Vitech?
Rich Viola: Well, I think it's about quality time. You know, you go to events and people say, you know, you build relationships, exchanging a business card. Shaking a hand is not really building a relationship, and I think that the word connectivity or connect with someone is being slightly abused, so to speak, right?
Because it's not about a keystroke, it's not somebody accepting your LinkedIn invitation. It's really getting to know people. That's what it's about. We, you know, we spend so much time at work, unfortunately more time working 
than playing. Yeah. Although we all wanna change that. Yeah. And some people are doing a better job than others.
I'm not there yet. I'm trying 
hard. 
David Millili: Yeah.
Rich Viola: But it's getting to know people. And I think what BITAC does is go below that surface to truly build a relationship at our events. You are not just meeting people, you're living with people. You are spending almost three days living with people, getting to know them. You're dining with them, you're doing different activities, but you're really getting below the surface.
For example, through our round tables, it may seem simple. So we, uh, we, we say basic things like talking about where people are from originally, 
right? 
What's your background? What about their career A little BITACt. Usually when you go to, uh, an event, you say you see somebody, you say hello, you shake their hand and you see them six months later, a year later.
How are you? I'm doing great. How are you? But are you really getting to know that person?
Steve Carran: Right, right.
Rich Viola: So what we try to do is do different experiences. It is somewhat organic, but we give kind of a format or forum where we give lead people by giving them trigger points and opportunities, a forum to really do it without working so hard at it.
We make it easy for you to do that. So for example, there was somebody from me coming to or event, and you know, initially I'd see this person, he was a president of a major hotel company. How are you? How have you been? Great. How's the family doing? Great. He didn't even know who my family was. I didn't even know who his family was, but 
it sounds good, right?
David Millili: Yeah.
Rich Viola: Yeah. And you know, how's business good? You know, everything's okay, you know how it is out there, whatever. But because of kind of the round tables we do within the event, the event within the event. We have the assigned seating at every meal, small groups, and we have these opportunities. So I too had that opportunity with this person whom I knew for seven years and found out where he was from originally.
And it turns out he was from the adjacent town where I grew up. 
He lives on the west coast. 
I live on the East coast. I still do, but I had no idea. And the questions went on, like, okay, that's great, you live there and I don't wanna say, what year did you graduate high 
school? cause I didn't really wanna tell what year I graduated high school was really the truth.
So we got into this conversation and it turns out that, you know, we graduated the same year from 
high school. I said, no, I didn't wanna tell them, tell 'em go how deep or how he looked or how I looked. That's another story. But then we got on with the conversation a little deeper, and he is Spoke about how he loved playing soccer.
He played soccer in high school. I said, so did I. And he says, so what school was it again? And I said, yeah, in New Jersey, Northern New Jersey. 
He said, 
yeah, I went to the same school. He said, what year again was it? And I told him, and he said, wait a minute. We played one another in the county 
championship game.
wow, 
I remember this. 
And wait a minute, did you play defense? I said, yes, I did. 
He said, 
I remember you. I 
said, no way. I don't remember me 
then. 
And it, it, it went 
on from there so that our relationship was totally transformed 
to a different place. 
And because of that, our business relationship. Also was enhanced.
It took it to another level. We were able to go below that surface, not just because of the personal side. It led to the business side. 
So we really had 
me more meaningful discussions and we were, we could really found that we could help one another a little more. And it wasn't so difficult to say, Hey, rich, what do you really think of this? 
David Millili: Right. 
Rich Viola: So it was fun. It became fun, and that's what we do here. We're creating friendships.
Steve Carran: yeah.
David Millili: That's great. 
Steve Carran: it's
so funny. 
You tell that story because almost the exact same thing happened to our producer John. He was talking to somebody, realize they're from the same town of 700 people. 
So it's crazy. 
It is crazy.
Rich Viola: people. 
And how would you have known? You don't
Steve Carran: Exactly. 
Exactly. So this is what I think is so unique about the culture at by, this is my first one, but you know, now we're over it.
We're interacting over online LinkedIn messages, you know, communicating that way. And here we're actually in person having real conversations and sometimes that type of culture can be hard to get people talking when we're used to being behind screens so much. Where do you think is so special about BITACotech where people come out of their shell more and do open up and just be a little BITACt more personable than if they're at a more traditional conference?
Rich Viola: Well, we share 
up front with people who said, this is not gonna be your mother's or 
your father's or your cousin's conference experience. In fact, there's other events that do one-on-one meetings. They exist. There's a lot that's become mainstay. When we did at the time, there weren't many there. There really didn't exist.
But it's changed because it is an effective way to do business. But that's not what makes BITACotech unique. Anybody could do a one-on-one conference. It's everything else. So we tell people up front. Like for example, if someone is a hotelier, we say if you are going to an event to exchange business cards 
and 
kind of network, this is not the event. If you are looking for an event, that really could be a transforming experience to take your organization to a whole nother level, but you have to step outta your comfort zone, which is not easy to do.
Steve Carran: Mm.
Rich Viola: It's not about standing up and puffing out our chest and sharing our stories, the corporate stories, it's going below the surface.
And we say to people, if you are willing to take that step, I promise you it'll be worth it. we've had 
people come to the events and they kind of put their head down, even though we tell 'em this and, and they look at our reception line, you know, at a meal, what we do. And at first they're saying, yeah, hi, how are you?
Welcome. By the time the event's over, they're smiling
David Millili: come.
Rich Viola: and, and if everything like the assigned seating. The last meal. Sometimes we keep an open forum with, we'll say open seating, the last one. Sometimes we do, sometimes we, we have an owner's event that really true owners come to the event. We've had owners and CEOs say, uh, rich, uh uh, where do we sit?
I say, well, it's open seating. He goes, I don't know where to go. Well go with some. You'll meet. So who does somebody you bond with a little more this half or sit any place. You're welcome. So it's more of a culture 
than a conference
David Millili: Yeah.
Rich Viola: and it's an open culture. It's a welcome, it's not cliquey, you know, and not at all.
And that's what people tell us over and over again. It's not about a click. And by having small groups of people, six at a table no more. And I've seen events where they say, oh yeah, we have a networking breakfast. You walk in a room, nobody's there.
Steve Carran: Yeah.
Rich Viola: And then when they're, you know, people take their scrambled eggs 
and they take their fruit 
and they take their yogurt and they take it down.
It's like Forest Gump on the first day of school. 
David Millili: Yeah. 
Rich Viola: You know, where do
Steve Carran: Yeah.
Rich Viola: I sit on the bus? Right. I don't care if you're the most aggressive, if you're Tony Robins no one likes to say walking up to a table and just say, you know, here I am. You know, who are you? It's the, it's so much easier for all of us to look for people in the room that we know and feel comfortable with, and the reality is that's gonna inhibit our growth.
And growth is not about some textbook. To me, we learn from one another. Books are great. We have, there's some amazing books out there, but really it's truly getting to know people, seeing their smile, finding out who they are, and celebrate who they are. And that's what we try to do is celebrate people and give them that voice.
And sometimes people get dominated. You see at the, you see other events. You have one person's a little more aggressive than the other, and 
that's great. Everybody kind of looking at that and they're kind of holding court. And I get it because some people really just, people gravitate to those people. But maybe that's not so comfortable for everybody.
Maybe they have something to say and that's what really BITAC is that we try to achieve. And people say that we indeed do that
Yeah.
and it doesn't get old. By having that voice of having that voice out there by doing it in small groups, one-on-ones, small groups of people, and mixing it up a little BITACt and forcing people to say, no, you're gonna sit here in a nice way.
They love it. They love it. And it's not just that, you know, even even the way we do game night, right? We do game night. I've gone to events where game night is, let's say. Please. Hopefully no one listens to this and gets offended. There's some, I've heard events where they did tug of war on the beach. Could you imagine professionals 
putting on a, 
you know, 
David Millili: saving suit 
Rich Viola: and getting on the beach and having a tug of war and falling in the sand?
It's real people. It's happened and it has happened. No. We want everybody to feel very comfortable, and I don't care if you're 20 years old or 75 years old, it's all the same. So we do things that are different. There's, and there's other things they do. Let's say, you know, other games that they have, and let's say they think, oh, let's, let's do, I don't know, casino Night's a famous one. Right? Or scavenger hunt. I'll tell you. Scavenger hunt, yes. We 
early on did scavenger hunt, but we listen, we surveys are important. It's important for us to listen to. So we did early on in the history, we've done scavenger hunt and people say, oh, they were amazing. But some people can't walk. You know, they, they have trouble.
Maybe they just had, maybe they're having problem with their knee and I'm talking somebody again because of age. I'm talking somebody who had maybe a sports injury.
David Millili: Sure. Or just pull the muscle or whatever it is, and they can't, so how do you do things that everybody feels comfortable?   
Rich Viola: That's 
what we try to do constantly, 
is 
trying the things that make people feel very good and celebrate who they are because business will come first. Build that relationship. 
You 
get to know people, make it personal at first, 
and business is secondary.
And you know what's really interesting out there is 
the 
companies we work for are important, what we represent. But the real issue is each one of us are really the brand. We're the brand. You represent yourself, you are the brand, and we step out there. That's what it is. And I love when people, you know, come to this event and we see 'em two years later with another company.
And the reality is because it's still them and those relationships carry forward. so we make it fun too. Um, we, really enjoy that. Yeah. I think, I mean, the one thing, you know, having been at this a long time. Two things that you said that really stuck to me is just making people feel comfortable and the, and the kind of the willingness to learn.
David Millili: So one of the things I loved right away. Last night when you, you basically made people feel comfortable by telling them, go sit next to somebody you don't know. So that kind of right away gave them that opening. And I remember I had a C-level position at a company. I won't name the company. And we had a holiday party.
Yeah. And I went and sat with all the developers and all the senior managers went and sat. Themselves, the people that were every meeting every week. And the next day the office manager came up and said, Hey, just so you know, everybody noticed that you went and sat with, with the other people. And that that's kinda just kind of who am I?
Who, who I am. But I think that's what I felt like last night and I felt today that everybody's just really comfortable here.
Rich Viola: That's, that's, that's, that's really good observation. And what you did with the developers. Yeah. And afterwards, how good did that feel? How, how do you think those developers felt that you took the time
to step away and show 'em that level of respect and got to know them a little BITACt? Yeah. Because, you know, it's interesting.
We learn, we learn so much from one another 
about different
things, but really helps 
David Millili: and
Rich Viola: Sales. Sales to me is not selling. Selling is listening and problem solving.
David Millili: Right?
Rich Viola: That's what it really 
is. And you give people a forum and some people, like right now, you know, you know, you sit down with someone and let's say you're a CEO of a company.
Yeah. Your own staff sometimes is reluctant
David Millili: A hundred percent. 
Rich Viola: To say, to really speak what's on their mind. 
David Millili: Yeah. 
Rich Viola: You know? So I think that. There's another thing that's kind of crazy, but in today's world it 
makes sense. 
Well, people have told us people feel safe to be themselves, safe to be themselves. And, and this may seem, kind of crazy 
to say, 
we had an event we did like four years.
David Millili: Oh. 
Your
Steve Carran: beating 
Rich Viola: and um, it was two partners in a design. firm. 
Steve Carran: Liz work on wrapping up your 
Rich Viola: And these two 
partners, uh, were gay 
and they were 
married, 
and 
Steve Carran: two 
Rich Viola: of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. Great. And in the first, when they first came to our events, though, they were quiet and reserved. They were the same people. And then after their first event. Game night and all this, but a couple years later they said, rich, I wanna share something. Say we decided to, uh, you know, to, to rechange vows. And they said that, you know, our family still has not accepted us. So
David Millili: So.
Rich Viola: we had a little celebration and we only had about 30 people at the, at our celebration. Out of the 30 people, 25 were from your event.
David Millili: Wow. 
Because 
we felt the most 
comfortable. 
Wow. That's great. We felt the most comfortable 
in 
your situation, even more than our family. So when people say, Hey, welcome, welcome home or family, yeah. 
Rich Viola: I 
think sometimes it could be overused. 
David Millili: Mm-hmm. 
Rich Viola: But it really could evolve sometimes that feel, people have that sense of family.
You Don't say let's, I don't wanna insult anybody. Say you're 
family, 
but 
if you have a sense 
of   
at the event, at least, have each other's backs, and then really take that a step forward. And 
people may not do business 
the first event. But we love the stories that people say, yeah, and I wasn't ready then, 
but now I am and it's great to see you again. So, so it's more, like I said, it's a cultural experience that we try to create and we want people to feel more than safe, that they feel that they could totally be themselves.
David Millili: Yeah.
Rich Viola: In an environment with without being judged.
Steve Carran: Absolutely. And 
you feel that when you walk in here, it is a very open environment where you do 
feel safe and you wanna connect with other people here because everybody around you, it feels like they're best friends. So it's like everybody that you talk to is so open and welcoming. So I, I am so excited for tonight.
Excited. This is my first game night. Anybody that knows me, I love leisure sports, bocce ball, mini golf, those kinds of things. 
What can I expect 
at game night tonight?
David Millili: Well, 
a lot
of drinking. 
Steve Carran: Okay.
Rich Viola: a lot 
of 
alcohol,
but
it, 
it's actually, no, it's fun. Most, most, 
the 
reality
is most people, no, they're no one's getting really intoxicated. You know, 
I, I'm joking around, but. It's more competitive than you think. I 
love it. 
So 
basically you, you meet somebody and say, you know, they mini golfer, they sink a six foot putt right on their team, team high fives.
They, and you turn around and they say, you know, I've never played golf and my life before. 
Never. I said, wait a minute. 
You never went to mini golf? No, I didn't. And basically say, and I love it, in fact, I'm gonna do this. And then, you know, some of the other things we've done, you know, whether it's, whether it's the Jenga or some of the other things they do,
David Millili: you.  
Rich Viola: it's the D competitive DNA.
And 
some of those folks, 
like that person who s sunk the putt, she goes, I wanna win. I wanna win. Come on, you could do 
David Millili: might 
Rich Viola: And it, it takes the relationships to another level when you're, when you kind of go to war together and, and I mean, we're saying nice, but people have fun.
it's
fun. It's, it's really 
good
Steve Carran: Fun
Rich Viola: where people say to themselves,   
Steve Carran: they 
Rich Viola: encourage each other.
And the other 
thing
is, 
we 
work way too
hard. All 
of us, 
and we're so 
connected, 
they don't have many 
opportunities to 
do anything like
this. Yeah. 
And I know what someone said 
to me well, what? she goes,
oh, we have 
this 
BITACg 
barbecue every year
with our 
family, BITACg 
family 
barbecue. And 
you 
know, I'm not that good at 
cornhole, but you know, I gotta tell you something
now. I'm motivated. I never played. 
David Millili: in my
family. They won't. 
Rich Viola: play. I'm the person that may sit on the sidelines. because He goes, but now I got the confidence by tag. gave me the confidence to go home. I'm gonna buy a cornhole set. I'm gonna practice before I just wrote it off. I'm not 
David Millili: a corn hole player. That is so funny. And it's that kind of thing 
Rich Viola: that puts a smile on my face.
David Millili: So  
Rich Viola: So
it's not vitech when people say 
David Millili: a BITAC 
Rich Viola: rich, you, and 
your
team do this 
or you do that. The way I do this, and I dunno if you heard me say this, the way I like to describe by it's more, think of this, think of a stadium, favorite stadium, and think about during C
David Millili: Oh yeah.
Rich Viola: it was empty.
Steve Carran: Yeah.
Rich Viola: There was no excitement, there was nothing happening. There was no music being played by is that stadium we try to bring together. We're just a forum. We try to bring the right people in the right environment so they can make music, and we love the music that they make, not us. They're making the music and that's what makes it work. Because we just allow people to make music the way they wanna play it. I don't care if it's country, I don't care if it's rock and roll, hip hop, classical, the music comes together nicely and a really nice symphony. And that's to me the most rewarding part. It's not the success stories of business 'cause we know that happens. It's a success story of the relationships that we love to hear. They say, you know, that we met somebody at by and do. You know now our families go together, go away together once a year, and it wouldn't happen if it wasn't by and, and you heard some stories on stage 
today, you heard a few 
of those same kind of thing. That to me is the greatest level of satisfaction is. Knowing that in, this stadium, there's some nice music being played.
David Millili: That is great. This has been great. So I think, you know, first of all, thank you for, for having us. It's been great talking to you. We've had a great time and we're hopefully gonna be at another BITAC soon.
 so.
Alright. Thank you. 
Thank you 
Thank 
Rich Viola: you Thank you Richard. Steve, thank you 
very much. Thank you. Thank you. Keep making 
David Millili: your music.
Alright. Thank you. 
Steve Carran: you