Work With Cassie
Hospitality speaking, operator insight and advisory support for organisations that want to understand independent hospitality better.
Independent hospitality is not hard to reach.
It is hard to reach well.
Small and medium-sized businesses make up 99.6% of the UK hospitality sector, yet too much of the conversation around hospitality is still shaped by the larger, corporate end of the market. That matters, because independent hospitality is not a smaller, less developed version of corporate hospitality. It is something different.
Independent operators are not failed corporates. They are not waiting to become chains. They are founders, owners, hosts, employers, leaders, risk-takers and place-makers. They build businesses with personality, purpose and emotional connection at the centre. They create pubs, restaurants, cafés, bars, small hotels, B&Bs, street food businesses and independent venues that make places feel alive.
These businesses are part of the social infrastructure of towns, cities, villages, neighbourhoods and high streets. They give people somewhere to meet, celebrate, recover, talk, belong and feel human. That is why they matter. And it is also why treating them like a simple sales channel, funding category or underdeveloped corporate market misses the point.
The gap
Suppliers, funders, BIDs, Growth Hubs, corporate partners and sector organisations often want to reach independent hospitality operators. They want to support them, sell to them, engage them and understand what they need. But many struggle to get close enough to the real operator experience.
Not because operators do not care. Because they are carrying too much.
Rising costs, stretched teams, constant decision-making, changing customer behaviour, recruitment pressure, margin pressure and emotional responsibility all shape how operators respond to support, suppliers and opportunities. That is why good products can be ignored, funded support can go underused, supplier messaging can fail to land, and well-intentioned programmes can feel disconnected from the people they were designed to help.
The problem is rarely lack of need. The problem is often lack of trust, timing, relevance and understanding.
Cassie bridges that gap.
Cassie Davison works with organisations that want to understand, support, reach or serve independent hospitality operators more effectively.
She brings something unusually rare to the room: more than 30 years in hospitality, 25 years as an independent owner-operator, award-winning hospitality businesses, a master’s degree in business, a published book, Stand Out Hospitality, and real experience of what it feels like to open the doors, carry the team, watch the numbers, serve the guests, hold the standards and still remember why the business matters.
Cassie understands why operators keep doing this extraordinary work, even when it stretches them close to breaking point. She understands why they love it, why they stay, and why belonging, standards, story and identity are not soft ideas, but commercial foundations.
She also understands the commercial needs of the organisations trying to reach them. That is the bridge. Cassie helps suppliers, funders and sector partners see the independent hospitality market more clearly, design better support, build stronger trust and make better decisions.
This is operator insight from someone who has actually lived the operator reality.
Who this work is for
Cassie works with hospitality suppliers, hospitality technology businesses, BIDs, Growth Hubs, local authorities, corporate partners, trade shows, event organisers, training providers, finance and professional services organisations, visitor economy organisations, sector bodies, membership organisations and independent hospitality operators.
This work is particularly useful if you are trying to grow your presence in independent hospitality, designing support for hospitality SMEs, planning an event, campaign, sponsorship or partnership, launching or repositioning a product or service, finding that operator engagement is lower than expected, investing in the independent hospitality market, or looking for a credible operator voice in the room before decisions are made.
This work is not right if you are looking for
A quick database of operator leads, a sales event disguised as community support, someone to simply endorse a product, access to operators without investing in trust, or a surface-level understanding of a complex market.
Kith & Kin is built on trust. Cassie protects the operator relationship carefully. The best work happens with organisations that want to understand independent hospitality, not just extract attention from it.
Ways to Work With Cassie
For events and visibility
Hospitality Speaker
From £2,500 + VAT
Cassie speaks at conferences, trade shows, leadership events, supplier events, roundtables and sector gatherings. Her keynote is rooted in the themes of her book, Stand Out Hospitality, and in the lived reality of independent hospitality ownership.
This is not a generic motivational talk. It is a clear, powerful and human keynote about the businesses people come back to, the operators who build them, and the commercial value of staying deeply connected to purpose, standards, identity and story.
Cassie’s keynote explores why independent hospitality still matters, what operators are really carrying, why belonging is a commercial advantage, how standards, story and identity shape businesses people come back to, why operators stretch themselves so far for the businesses they love, and why the future of hospitality must become more human, not less.
This is a strong fit for hospitality conferences, supplier events, trade shows, leadership gatherings, partner events and organisations that want their audience to think more deeply about the real value of independent hospitality.
Strategic Partnerships and Sponsorship
By agreement
For organisations that want to have a meaningful, visible and well-aligned impact on the independent hospitality sector, Cassie offers selected partnership and sponsorship opportunities through Kith & Kin.
This may include Kith & Kin Live, operator events, funded workshops, insight-led projects, content partnerships or bespoke sector support packages.
These partnerships are designed for organisations that want to contribute to the sector, build trust and support independent operators in a way that feels credible, useful and genuinely aligned.
They are not designed as sales platforms.
Partnerships may include Kith & Kin Live sponsorship, funded Step Back workshops, operator insight projects, content and thought leadership partnerships, regional support packages or bespoke collaborations around independent hospitality. All partnerships are shaped carefully to protect operator trust and ensure the work creates real value for the sector.
For suppliers, funders and sector organisations
Step Back Workshops for Independent Hospitality Operators
From £7,500 + VAT
Step Back is a pre-designed, funded reset workshop for independent hospitality owner-operators. It is designed for BIDs, Growth Hubs, local authorities, funders, place-based organisations and hospitality suppliers who want to support their customers in a way that feels relevant, credible and genuinely useful.
The workshop gives operators structured time away from the pressure of the business to think clearly about what is working, what is slipping and what needs to change. It is built around the themes of Stand Out Hospitality and the real pressures independent operators are carrying.
Operators leave with one priority issue, one non-negotiable standard, one practical 30-day action, a clearer sense of direction and more confidence in what matters next.
Step Back works because it respects the experience already in the room. It is not about telling operators what they should know. It is about giving them the space, structure and challenge to see what they already know more clearly, and turn that into practical action.
Operator Insight Retainers
By agreement
For organisations that need ongoing access to independent hospitality insight, Cassie offers selected advisory retainers. This work is suited to suppliers, funders, partners and sector organisations making regular decisions about hospitality SMEs.
Retainers may include strategic advisory sessions, operator insight briefings, messaging and positioning review, campaign or event input, board or leadership team challenge, partner strategy, interpretation of operator feedback and independent hospitality market insight.
The value is having an experienced, commercially literate operator voice close enough to challenge assumptions before they become expensive mistakes.
For operators and leadership teams
Hospitality Team Workshops
From £2,500 + VAT per day
Cassie also works directly with independent hospitality businesses and their teams. These workshops are for operators who want to reconnect their team with what makes the business matter.
They are practical, human and built around the same themes that sit at the heart of Stand Out Hospitality: standards, service, belonging, leadership, customer experience, identity and story.
They are particularly useful for teams that need to reset, refocus or understand the role they play in creating the experience customers come back for. These are not corporate training days. They are designed for real hospitality teams doing real hospitality work.
Operator Insight Diagnostic
From £10,000 + VAT
The Operator Insight Diagnostic is a focused strategic day for suppliers, funders, corporates and organisations that want to better understand the independent hospitality operator market.
It is designed for organisations that need to know how their offer, product, support, messaging or commercial approach is likely to be experienced by real operators. Cassie reviews your positioning through the lens of someone who has lived the operator reality and helps uncover where your message is landing, where trust is being built, where friction appears, what your team may be assuming, why engagement may be weaker than expected, and what operators are unlikely to say to you directly.
This is particularly useful before you invest heavily in a campaign, product launch, trade show, sponsorship, partnership, support programme or independent operator growth strategy. It helps you understand the market before you spend more money trying to reach it.
This is not generic hospitality consultancy. It is commercial insight from inside the operator mindset.
NED, Advisory and Strategic Support
By agreement
Cassie is available for selected non-executive, advisory and strategic support roles where there is strong alignment with independent hospitality, operator insight, place, leadership, community or sector development.
This may suit organisations that want an experienced operator voice in the room when making decisions about hospitality, SME engagement, regional support, supplier strategy, events, partnerships or sector positioning.
Why Work With Cassie?
Because independent hospitality is not a market you can understand properly from the outside.
You need someone who understands the commercial pressure, the emotional weight, why operators keep going, and what it feels like to build a business that people love while also carrying the risk, responsibility and reality of running it.
Cassie has lived that reality. She also knows how to translate it for people with commercial objectives, funding responsibilities, products to shape and decisions to make.
That combination is rare. It means she can sit between the operator and the organisation trying to reach them, and help both sides see more clearly.
For suppliers, that means stronger relevance, better trust and a clearer understanding of what operators will actually respond to. For funders and place-based organisations, it means support that feels grounded in the real role independent hospitality plays in places, communities and local economies. For operators, it means being properly seen, properly understood and supported in a way that respects their experience.
What People Say
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Start a Conversation
If you are serious about understanding independent hospitality operators more deeply, Cassie can help.
Whether you are planning a conference, designing support, launching a product, funding a programme, building a partnership or trying to improve operator engagement, the first step is a conversation.
