Skip Kimpel is a restaurant and hospitality technology evangelist and an industry known thought leader. Kimpel is currently the CEO and President of Magicgate and has held previous roles as the CIO and senior technology roles for 4R Restaurant Group, Virtual Dining Concepts and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza.

His responsibilities have included all areas of strategy and operational technology not only at the restaurant level but also within the various corporate departments. He views data as the number one asset that a company has at its disposal that allows them to leverage this for focusing on business strategy and solid pro-active decision making. Kimpel is also the creator and host of The Tech Chef Podcast, which is a restaurant and hospitality technology show and is one of the most popular places to get the latest information on operational and technology driven solutions solving for the complications that brands are currently experiencing.

Skip actively sits on the Board of Governors for the Restaurant Technology Network (RTN) as well as the marketing and allied member committees and previous board member for the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association (FRLA). He is also the Chapter President for South Florida of the VR/AR Association (VRARA) and is the chair for their Hospitality Committee, member of the XR Association as well as a Founding Principal Member for the Metaverse Standards Forum. He is heavily involved with anything that is hospitality technology driven and has been instrumental in creating industry standards as well as the restaurant industry’s first standardized open API. He is also passionate about emerging technologies involving XR applications and spatial computing as related to the restaurant and hospitality space.