Flying high from Tech Tastings 2025

What a day! It’s been 48hrs since Tech Tastings wrapped for the year and we’re already looking forward to the next one. 

Tuesday 20th May saw over eighty hospitality professionals gather on the 61st floor of 22 Bishopsgate, with views across London as far as the eye could see for a day of industry talks, product demonstrations and networking. Hosted in Lucky Cat, attendees were welcomed onto the terrace to look down on The Shard, taking in the exhibits from TISSL, Giftpro and storekit before the discussions kicked off.

Beyond the Till: Understanding how POS impacts other areas of the business and can create opportunity

Tech on Toast kicked off the first session of the day by asking the audience a question. “Who in the room feels like their tech is doing enough?” Silence. Zero hands raised. And with that, the discussions were underway. 

Daisy Wilkinson from Black Rock Restaurants and Michael Egdell, Product Manager at TISSL focused on how operators or managers can use technology to improve the flow of restaurants and deliver a positive dining experience to their customers. 

They began by discussing payments, currently driving the biggest impact in the industry and praised the payment abilities of both TISSL Swift and pay by link capabilities, providing customers with multiple easy ways to pay. Daisy spoke about how payments were an “integral part” of her work, and how important it was to both have “an easy to use system for the guys on the floor” as well as something that helps to drive data-driven decisions and opportunities for growth. 

Daisy added: “Businesses will always have risks associated with payments, but it’s important to tune into our customers [to provide them with what they need]. If customers are chasing certain opportunities, it shifts how we’re looking at things. We need to be in tune with our customer demand.” 

This ties into the tech TISSL offers, from Swift to Pay at Table, and how they provide customers with a fast and convenient way to pay, supported by the ability to split the bill in multiple ways and print the receipt directly at the tableside. 

Daisy and Michael continued onto the topic of integrations, with Daisy highlighting how they’re something that need to be working effectively before they invest in any new areas of software. 

“Hospitality is a fast moving industry,” Daisy explained. “Progress happens very quickly and people will let you know if something isn’t good enough, which is why we have to make sure every element of our tech stacks up.” 

TISSL focuses on quality integrations that help improve the overall dining experience, choosing partners with a proven experience in hospitality – like our co-exhibitors at the event, Giftpro and storekit. 

The key takeaway from the first panel discussion of the day was how important it is to have everything in one place when it comes to EPOS technology, and how much can be affected by just one small part of the machine not operating effectively.

Achieving more through collaboration

Giftpro focused their discussion on how we can achieve more from untapped opportunities, including gift voucher sales. They highlighted how to take advantage of seasonality, not only during the obvious periods but spoke of techniques that can create revenue from off-peak times as well. 

The value of branding came up at length as Giftpro reviewed how important it is to be authentic to your brand, creating a lasting impression that sticks with customers for years to come. 

The talk from storekit also followed a similar vein as they discussed at-table tech and how consistency is the biggest problem facing the industry right now, so it really matters what impression each customer is left with. 

Both focused on how we need to trust technology and use it to our advantage, something which strongly resonates with us at TISSL as we aim to integrate with the right partners for our product – like Giftpro and storekit – and provide an experience via our products that ultimately makes every aspect of hospitality easier. 

Exploring the products 

Outside of the panel discussions, we were excited to finally showcase TISSL Swift, the handheld POS device that is set to help customers manage their restaurant from anywhere on the restaurant floor. The stall allowed people to experience TISSL Swift firsthand, the ability to turn tables faster, take payments with ease, view real-time table availability and ultimately manage everything on one device. 

There was a lot of talk throughout the day about technology working together – and most importantly working for you – and that is exactly what TISSL Swift aims to achieve. It puts the whole restaurant in your pocket, helping to deliver a dining experience that will have customers repeatedly coming back for more. 

If you want to find out more about TISSL Swift, you can sign up for the upcoming webinar – taking place Thursday 26th June at 10am – register for your place here.

Set up next to TISSL, Giftpro and storekit showcased their technology and how it can be used to bring additional revenue streams into your hospitality business. Giftpro highlighted how to sell and redeem vouchers directly from the POS, making the voucher journey easier for both staff and customers, whilst storekit demonstrating their order at table functionality, a lifesaver during busy periods. 

Final thoughts from the event 

It’s safe to say the atmosphere was absolutely buzzing throughout the duration of Tech Tastings, from the welcome drinks through to each of the panel discussions and the networking and canapes that followed. 

The lucky winners of the scavenger hunt were announced, having completed the various tasks laid out throughout the day, ranging from checking out the product demonstrations on offer, to snapping a polaroid in front of the incredible view. Congratulations to the participants from Smith’s Bar & Grill, who get to enjoy a meal for two at Lucky Cat, courtesy of TISSL.

We hope everyone – winner or not – had an incredible time at Tech Tastings and we can’t wait to continue the conversations and see where things take us throughout the rest of 2025. 

If you want more information about anything that came up during the day, you can always reach out to a member of the TISSL team – or for that all important demonstration to TISSL Swift, be sure to register for our upcoming webinar [insert link]. 

Until next year!