Pre-Meal for Jun 17, 2026Welcome Conference 2026!

Happy Wednesday!

A couple of weeks ago, I hosted a Zoom Q&A to thank the people who’d preordered Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide.

One of the details we debated when planning the call was whether to keep the chat on. My inclination was to turn it off; between emails and texts and social media, there’s so much competing for our attention! Given that we were expecting nearly a thousand people, I thought turning the chat off would remove at least one of those distractions.

But everyone was on that call for one beautiful reason: because they were passionate about unreasonable hospitality. To deny them access to one another felt downright irresponsible.

So we kept the chat open, and I am so grateful we did.

It was like throwing a party and seeing friends from different parts of your life hit it off. People were pinging each other in real time: “Fantastic question!” or “We worked with a great company for this; happy to share details,” or “I’m struggling with something similar; want to connect?” The jokes were so funny I interrupted myself answering people’s questions to retell them.

Was it distracting? Absolutely—and in the most delightful way.

Watching like-minded people connect and strike up relationships felt amazing and got me thinking about how much I look forward to the Welcome Conference every year. Because that’s what we get to do there (but in person!): people from all over come together to create community and find inspiration from the people on stage, as well as from one another.

Which leads me here: I’m thrilled to announce that tickets for the 2026 Welcome Conference will be going on sale Wednesday, June 24, at 1 p.m. EDT.

For those of you who may not be familiar, Welcome is a gathering of hospitality-focused individuals from across industries who come together in New York for one single day to hear a series of speakers share stories, challenges, and ideas. The goal is to fuel our work and our spirits.

This year, it will take place on Monday, October 5 at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. Here’s the inspirational line-up we’ve put together:

Arthur C. Brooks is a social scientist and one of the world’s leading authorities on human happiness. Professor, columnist, podcast host, internationally acclaimed public speaker, and the author of 16 books, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Meaning of Your Life, Build the Life You Want (co-authored with Oprah Winfrey), and From Strength to Strength.

Melissa Clark is a best-selling cookbook author and food columnist for The New York Times, where she writes the popular column “A Good Appetite” and has starred in over 100 cooking videos. She’s written 46 cookbooks, including the award-winning Dinner: Changing the Game. Her latest book, The Big Book of Dinner, will be published in November.

Dex Hunter-Torricke has advised some of the world's most influential tech leaders including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Eric Schmidt. In 2025 Dex left Big Tech to launch the Center for Tomorrow, a global nonprofit working to build more humane and sustainable societies in the age of AI. He has been profiled by TIME, the Wall Street Journal, Politico and others, and is writing his first book.

Suleika Jaouad is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, artist, and advocate. She documented her odyssey of illness, healing, and self-discovery in the instant New York Times-bestselling memoir Between Two Kingdoms, which has been translated into more than twenty languages.

“Spirit having a human experience. Bionic. Cook.” Cookbook author Yewande Komolafe is a staff writer, recipe developer, and video host at The New York Times, where her column explores the intersection of food, culture, and memory through deeply personal, globally inspired recipes.

Bestselling author, speaker, and executive coach Ryan Leak helps people and organizations unlock purpose, leadership, and lasting growth. He combines practical insight with personal storytelling to inspire high performance in work, relationships, and life.

The most followed mentalist on the planet, Max Major’s viral mind-reading videos surpassed 1 billion views in 2022. He turns his innovative techniques in hypnosis, body language, and influence into unforgettable experiences, on national television and for private audiences around the world.

Eric Ripert is the chef and co-owner of Le Bernardin, an acclaimed restaurant holding three Michelin and four New York Times stars. A bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning television host, he is known for mindful cooking, as explored in his upcoming book Mindful Cooking: Simple Recipes for Nurturing Body and Soul.

Ruth Rogers is the chef and co-founder of The River Café, one of London’s most influential restaurants and a pioneer of ingredient-driven, seasonal Italian cooking. She is also the host of the acclaimed Ruthie’s Table 4 podcast, where she explores creativity and culture through conversations with artists, chefs, and writers.

Duncan Wardle is the former Head of Innovation & Creativity at The Walt Disney Company, where he helped embed imaginative thinking into teams across the organization. Today, he advises companies around the world on designing more memorable customer experiences.

And of course, we’ve got a couple of surprises up our sleeves, too . . .

If you’ve been to Welcome before, you know tickets will go fast—your incredible enthusiasm always outpaces the number of seats we can offer, and we don’t take that for granted! If attending is important to you, we’d suggest being a few minutes early—page open and refreshed frequently—so you have the best shot at securing a spot.

Like last year, we’re limiting each order to six tickets so more people will be able to experience the day, and featuring a tiered pricing structure based on where you’d like to sit in the auditorium. That page on our website has information on all of that and more.

We can’t wait to welcome you,

Will

P.S. Welcome wouldn't be possible without our incredible partners at Resy and American Express. Thanks to them, along with S.Pellegrino, Acqua Panna, CxRA, Pernod Ricard, and La Marzocco, we get to make a day like this happen.