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Reinventing Fun and Function : A Deep Dive with Mark Bingeman · Behind the Business

• 0:00
  Ian McLean: Welcome to another episode of Behind the Business, presented by Gore Mutual.
• 0:04
  Ian McLean: I'm your host, Ian McLean, President and CEO of the Greater Kitchener Waterdoo Chamber of Commerce.
• 0:09
  Ian McLean: This podcast is recorded on the traditional territory of the neutral Anishinabe and Hoden Ashone peoples.
• 0:15
  Ian McLean: Each week I sit down for candid conversations where we go beyond the boardroom and behind the business to uncover the real stories of Waterdoo Region's business community.
• 0:25
  Ian McLean: Today's guest is Mark Binghamman, president and CEO of Bingamans, a multifaceted entertainment hospitality and event destination that is well known within our region.
• 0:43
  Ian McLean: Mark has led the family business through bold expansions and innovations, transforming it into a vibrant destination with water parks, live events, and new experiences like Put Social.
• 0:53
  Ian McLean: In our conversation, Mark shares his career journey, including his early international hospitality experience and the lessons learned over a family-rooted business.
• 1:02
  Ian McLean: He discusses how he balances the innovation with tradition, the strategies behind new projects, and his vision for the new Bingamans and bold vision for Waterdoo Region.
• 1:12
  Ian McLean: Join me in this episode as we go behind the business with Mark Bingaman of Bingamans.
• 1:17
  Ian McLean: Well, we're excited to have you here today, Mark.
• 1:19
  Ian McLean: Thank you so much for joining us in our new podcast studio.
• 1:22
  Ian McLean: Very cool that you're here.
• 1:23
  Ian McLean: I'd never been upstairs here before, so it's a double whammy for me.
• 1:27
  Ian McLean: Well, we we uh we we transitioned one office into this, so it's uh it's a great way because we start to do podcasts uh and and uh and have the video with it to have this great studio.
• 1:38
  Ian McLean: Listen, um Mark, Bingham's has been a staple in Waterloo Region for generations.
• 1:44
  Ian McLean: So let's rewind to the early early career before um and and follow the the the family history of the business because it's it's this is multi-generational.
• 1:57
  Ian McLean: Um I should have had Lawrence with me.
• 1:59
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:00
  Ian McLean: Uh you studied hospitality internationally and worked with uh major hotel brands, um, like I think it's Marriott and Hyatt.
• 2:07
  Ian McLean: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:08
  Ian McLean: Uh walk us through those early days of your transition into the family business.
• 2:13
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, no, when uh listen, yeah, I always knew I wanted to get in the business, always saw my dad going to work, and obviously as a part-time job, yeah, work.
• 2:20
  Mark Bingeman: So I knew what I want to do with my life.
• 2:22
  Mark Bingeman: So, you know, when I went through high school, went to Michigan State to graduated from there, and when it was time for graduation, I said to my father, I said, Okay, I'm graduating, you know, the spring term, I'm coming home soon.
• 2:32
  Mark Bingeman: What what's my job gonna be?
• 2:34
  Mark Bingeman: And he said, I don't have one.
• 2:36
  Mark Bingeman: And I said, What?
• 2:37
  Mark Bingeman: And he said, Yeah, there's there's no job here for you.
• 2:39
  Mark Bingeman: He said, You better interview and find a job.
• 2:42
  Mark Bingeman: So I was panic struck.
• 2:43
  Mark Bingeman: I was pissed off, but I was panic struck.
• 2:45
  Mark Bingeman: And uh I took interviews like crazy and then ended up with Mary uh with actually Hyatt.
• 2:50
  Mark Bingeman: I had worked for Merriott previously, but then I worked with Hyatt for uh four years ago.
• 2:53
  Mark Bingeman: So where did you do that?
• 2:55
  Ian McLean: Was that in Toronto or wh wh what whereabouts did you do it?
• 2:57
  Mark Bingeman: No, I did it uh well we we interviewed at the school, and then it was the High Regency Atlanta.
• 3:02
  Mark Bingeman: So corporate corporate had said sent me to Atlanta.
• 3:05
  Mark Bingeman: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 3:05
  Mark Bingeman: Oh wow.
• 3:06
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 3:06
  Ian McLean: And so you know Hyatt and Merriott, that's where you got your, you know, in in terms of hospitality, the food side of business, the customer service, the Trevor Burrus, When you know, obviously growing up in the business, you g you you get some of that, but getting that outside experience was a total yeah, for me, it was a total shocker seeing things done differently, seeing things done at bigger scales and and different levels of it.
• 3:26
  Mark Bingeman: So it was just a it was just a a world of good for me for for my growth and training.
• 3:31
  Ian McLean: So and and it has a family business.
• 3:33
  Ian McLean: I've been lived here for a hundred years, or at least since 1971.
• 3:36
  Ian McLean: And so Bingamans has always been part of our family life because of a lot of political events.
• 3:42
  Ian McLean: I remember going to big political rallies at at Bingman's back in the day, but it's been part of your family for generations, not only in the it's been in the community, but it's been part of the family for generations, starting with your grandfather and evolving into now what is clearly a multi-uh faceted destination that it is today, with and we can talk about a little bit about that.
• 4:04
  Ian McLean: What are some of the unique challenges of taking on a family business?
• 4:07
  Ian McLean: Because that that is that you know there's a reason why we have the Center for Family Business, and we, you know, like family-owned businesses have their own unique challenges.
• 4:15
  Ian McLean: What are some of those challenges?
• 4:17
  Mark Bingeman: Well, listen, you have the same challenges every other business has, but then you I layer that on top of that.
• 4:21
  Mark Bingeman: You've got the family dynamics.
• 4:23
  Mark Bingeman: And you know, that's where you know the need for transparency, the need for being upfront, the need for you know, be not only transparency with family members, but also with all of your staff members and key members.
• 4:34
  Mark Bingeman: Because it because there it's it's a whole lot different.
• 4:36
  Mark Bingeman: Because family business is typically like it's not a nine-to-five thing.
• 4:40
  Ian McLean: No.
• 4:40
  Mark Bingeman: Like after you're done work, you go home, and guess what's discussed at the dinner table?
• 4:44
  Mark Bingeman: It was either what went right or wrong that day, or just in general, blue sky and talking about different things, just like when you go on vacation.
• 4:52
  Mark Bingeman: So family business is the the business uh button is never turned off.
• 4:56
  Mark Bingeman: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 4:57
  Ian McLean: And you have partners that are that are non-family.
• 4:59
  Ian McLean: I mean, that that's the other part.
• 5:00
  Ian McLean: You've got lots of lots of players involved, especially the size and scale of what Bingham's is now.
• 5:05
  Ian McLean: You've got lots of people that that you have to manage relationships with.
• 5:09
  Mark Bingeman: Well, you at the end of the day, well, sure, you've got we've got bankers, we've got uh uh other things, but the biggest the biggest component and the most important is our is our management team, all of our people.
• 5:18
  Mark Bingeman: You know, that that HR component and that that management team that helps guide.
• 5:22
  Mark Bingeman: Like I might be the person at the top making the end decision, but uh quite quite honestly, the group makes the decision.
• 5:28
  Mark Bingeman: I just I'm just lucky enough and you know to to be to be leading it on on their behalf.
• 5:34
  Mark Bingeman: But it's it's that group.
• 5:35
  Mark Bingeman: It's not there's there's not one voice that that calls the shots.
• 5:39
  Ian McLean: So over the last number of years, and your leadership, we the there is there's new things that are happening at Binghamans, right?
• 5:45
  Ian McLean: That that weren't there years ago and you keep adding to it.
• 5:48
  Ian McLean: Um what what I mean was that I mean, is it trends and what what customer expectations are that led to that, or is it just diversifying your business?
• 5:58
  Ian McLean: What are how did you decide what those new experiences um that you that you've built and invested in at Bingham's uh well, you know, you still have your the traditions that uh that people have come to expect with Bangman's.
• 6:10
  Ian McLean: How do you how do you strike that balance?
• 6:12
  Mark Bingeman: Sure.
• 6:12
  Mark Bingeman: And you know, probably the biggest number of changes started when we knew the that the that the city and region were putting the road through, right?
• 6:20
  Mark Bingeman: The the new the new road.
• 6:21
  Mark Bingeman: And we knew that w well in advance, for several years in advance.
• 6:25
  Mark Bingeman: And part of the, you know, Lawrence had asked, you know, hey, do we have the product that people want?
• 6:30
  Mark Bingeman: Now that we're gonna have better frontage, because our challenges always were, you know, not having good frontage, people not being able to find us, having to drive around that, you know, crappy road and down the hill.
• 6:39
  Mark Bingeman: I remember those days.
• 6:40
  Mark Bingeman: I remember those days.
• 6:41
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 6:42
  Mark Bingeman: And it although it was quaint, and hey, it was great at the time, but we knew things were changing, the region was changing rapidly.
• 6:47
  Mark Bingeman: And as the region has been changing, even to still today, you know, our growth and change is really at the same pace as the region.
• 6:54
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 6:54
  Mark Bingeman: So when we said no, we don't have the products and things that people want or need, that got us kicked into gear of starting some renovation projects.
• 7:03
  Mark Bingeman: We did the embassy room back then, and then we started doing the ballroom, and then over to Marshall Hall to upgrade, putting in fiber optics.
• 7:10
  Mark Bingeman: So most places have fiber optics.
• 7:12
  Mark Bingeman: Well, we have two fiber services just to make sure for redundancies and other things.
• 7:17
  Mark Bingeman: So when those things were there, and then it was also the water park, and we asked the question.
• 7:21
  Mark Bingeman: We brought in a big park designer just to help guide us through.
• 7:25
  Mark Bingeman: You know, you know, you can't navel games.
• 7:28
  Mark Bingeman: Sometimes you have to bring in outside help.
• 7:30
  Mark Bingeman: And sometimes it's those people that that were that asked the questions that you never either thought to ask or you were afraid to ask.
• 7:37
  Mark Bingeman: And they had said, you don't have proper games room, you don't have this, this is what we had.
• 7:42
  Mark Bingeman: And we couldn't do it all at once because it would have been a just an enormous cost.
• 7:46
  Mark Bingeman: But we took those those thoughts, and as we started growing every year and tweaking, every time we did something, it was for a better goal.
• 7:55
  Mark Bingeman: We had an end game in in in mind.
• 7:58
  Mark Bingeman: So that's when Funworks came.
• 8:01
  Mark Bingeman: You know, we said, hey, we've got you know millions, tens of millions invested in this water park.
• 8:06
  Mark Bingeman: We water park season is 90 days in Ontario.
• 8:08
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 8:09
  Mark Bingeman: So it's you either you make it or you don't.
• 8:11
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 8:12
  Mark Bingeman: Uh and for us it was, hey, if we were to do it all over again, would we do it?
• 8:15
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, maybe we would, maybe we wouldn't.
• 8:17
  Mark Bingeman: But we're there.
• 8:18
  Mark Bingeman: So now let's make it the best.
• 8:20
  Mark Bingeman: But how do we get that amusement component to be year-round?
• 8:24
  Mark Bingeman: So we don't have to keep, you know, we can keep staff longer in those, and that's how fun works was born.
• 8:28
  Mark Bingeman: Right?
• 8:29
  Mark Bingeman: Because we had more washrooms, more concessions, more attractions, a big games room.
• 8:33
  Ian McLean: Aaron Ross Powell So water park the other water park, and then you also have funworks and Kingpin, right?
• 8:39
  Mark Bingeman: Aaron Ross Powell So the FunWorks building was the first to be built.
• 8:42
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 8:42
  Mark Bingeman: And then we built it to add on.
• 8:44
  Mark Bingeman: We purposely did it.
• 8:46
  Mark Bingeman: We added an addition, and then the third edition was the Boston Pizza Kingpin Bowl Lounge.
• 8:51
  Mark Bingeman: Right.
• 8:51
  Mark Bingeman: And that was a much longer.
• 8:52
  Mark Bingeman: And that building is yet to grow into something else to add another component, but another 40,000 feet at some point in time.
• 9:00
  Mark Bingeman: So whenever we do a project, we're always looking at what do we need now, what's coming down the pipe for people that's wanting, but what's next?
• 9:08
  Mark Bingeman: We always leave room for the next thing.
• 9:11
  Mark Bingeman: And at the same point, time, we're not afraid of changing things up because you know, prior to FunWorks, we had the lower end of the park, we had bumper boats, we had some inflatables, we had the jump by attraction, a whole bunch of other activities.
• 9:25
  Mark Bingeman: And a year after we opened FunWorks, we realized no one was using those attractions anymore because they all wanted the new stuff.
• 9:32
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 9:32
  Mark Bingeman: So we started phasing those out.
• 9:34
  Mark Bingeman: Because not everything is good as a everything has an expiry day.
• 9:38
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 9:38
  Mark Bingeman: And you always have to be looking what's the next best thing coming.
• 9:42
  Ian McLean: And I see, I mean, I see that in with my time in the beer business, right?
• 9:46
  Ian McLean: In sp in downtown Toronto when I was working, is restaurants, they either adapt and change what they were doing because there's lots there, and people wanted the newest and the latest and something fresh.
• 9:57
  Ian McLean: So you do have to always keep keep that in mind.
• 9:59
  Ian McLean: Listen, I mean it it's a it's a good segue.
• 10:02
  Ian McLean: Um and you know, our chamber and the rest of the economic development uh partners are all talking about, well, there's a vision for us to be a million people.
• 10:11
  Ian McLean: That decision was made by the province and the region and others years ago.
• 10:15
  Ian McLean: But we're gonna be better part of a million people in the next 20 years.
• 10:20
  Ian McLean: And so we have needs, which I think everyone, whether it's in business or civic life, we need lots more healthcare services and professionals.
• 10:29
  Ian McLean: We need housing, we need infrastructure across the board that are all critical priorities.
• 10:35
  Ian McLean: Um, but one of the things that we're conscious of is saying we're gonna be a million people.
• 10:39
  Ian McLean: How are we a successful community of a million people that's worth living in?
• 10:42
  Ian McLean: And part of that is um is the placemaking part.
• 10:46
  Ian McLean: Like pla places like Bangman's is a is a major tourist destination, so it brings people in, which is great for the economy, um, great experiences for locals.
• 10:56
  Ian McLean: Um but that that when we are a million people, we have to have things that keep people animated and excited about being in this community.
• 11:06
  Ian McLean: Talk about the the that placemaking and livability function of uh of why it's important for a vibrant community like the region of Waterloo.
• 11:15
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, for sure.
• 11:16
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, you know what?
• 11:17
  Mark Bingeman: Uh that's kind that that is at the crux of what we do each and every day.
• 11:20
  Mark Bingeman: And and our growth pattern.
• 11:22
  Mark Bingeman: Um I think our region was on the was on the path to a million, whether the prophet said you had to be or not.
• 11:27
  Mark Bingeman: It's just listen, it's it's a great place to be.
• 11:29
  Mark Bingeman: It's central location.
• 11:31
  Mark Bingeman: Uh we we all know, you know, so I'm speaking to the choir on those things.
• 11:34
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 11:35
  Mark Bingeman: Um but it's yeah, placemaking is it's we need places of significance for people to want to live here.
• 11:42
  Mark Bingeman: And at the same point, you know, they shouldn't feel that they need to go to Toronto, you know, to go.
• 11:47
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, and again, look at look at that now.
• 11:49
  Mark Bingeman: Like it's at now, if you're having going to Toronto for an event, you have budget at least two hours of travel time, sometimes two and a half.
• 11:56
  Mark Bingeman: And if there's an accident, those there's many events I've gone to in the city that I've had to cancel because accident on the 401, yeah, and just hey, we're not going to make it.
• 12:05
  Mark Bingeman: So then turn back.
• 12:07
  Mark Bingeman: Um, so it's those types of things that we need to be doing more of.
• 12:10
  Mark Bingeman: And and you know, we talk about, you know, we hear a lot of people saying, hey, we wish we had this, we wish we had that.
• 12:16
  Mark Bingeman: So we're getting there.
• 12:17
  Mark Bingeman: There's no question, whether it's ourselves and many others that are preparing for that opportunity.
• 12:24
  Mark Bingeman: As the demographics change, as the population grows, we will be adding more and more products and more and more, and and outsiders viewing our region as an in as a great investment because they're seeing that, they want a piece of that too.
• 12:39
  Mark Bingeman: So we think about that that all the time.
• 12:41
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, we beta test all of our products here.
• 12:43
  Mark Bingeman: You know, uh, we obviously we grew, we grew, we added uh Kingpin Cambridge a few years ago.
• 12:49
  Mark Bingeman: Now we were doing it with the K1 in Cambridge, another product with some with partners of ours that we're doing that with.
• 12:55
  Mark Bingeman: We're taking some of those products on the road.
• 12:57
  Mark Bingeman: We're open, we're actually constructing as we speak uh uh Kingpin St.
• 13:01
  Mark Bingeman: Catharines.
• 13:02
  Mark Bingeman: So for us, this is a real great incubator for a lot of entertainment products that we like to take on the road.
• 13:09
  Ian McLean: And I think you're you're hit on something.
• 13:10
  Ian McLean: I mean, it's important uh, you know, being connected to Toronto is it is going to be incredibly important for uh for not only our community, because there's actually more people that come in here to work than go the other way now.
• 13:22
  Ian McLean: So all day two-way go is one of those examples of saying there's a there's a great uh pool of uh of potential customers saying, hey, look, we can go down and it's cheaper, more easier, less uh less busy to come to uh some of the things, whether it's Bingoins or other things back here in Waterdo Region.
• 13:38
  Ian McLean: So uh important to have that connection.
• 13:41
  Ian McLean: Listen, leading, you've um it's a multifaceted.
• 13:44
  Ian McLean: We just we've talked about that uh uh you know, and it's and it's family-owned business.
• 13:49
  Ian McLean: Um uh it it's it's you know, it's not just the operations and for running a good business, but it's also culture and it's about the experiences that you've had and and how you've grown as a leader of an organization.
• 14:04
  Ian McLean: So but when you look back, and you've we've all had mentors one way or the other, whether you call them a mentor or not, the people that have helped you along the way, looking back at your at those that have helped you along the way, have how have they influenced the way that you mentor the next generation, whether it's your own team or others in the community?
• 14:22
  Ian McLean: Because that's one of the the things we all sort of pay it forward, uh, and we're always informed by by those that have helped us along the way.
• 14:30
  Mark Bingeman: Well, yeah, it's I would say there's I've had mentors all throughout.
• 14:33
  Mark Bingeman: When when with my career at Hyatt, with uh you know, going through university, like even still now I'm connected with Michigan State.
• 14:40
  Mark Bingeman: Um I've I go down periodically, I was on the search committee for a new dean, uh, and still some of the old professors and asking how are things, and they're almost wanting to know so they can keep current what's going on out there.
• 14:52
  Mark Bingeman: So it's that item of keeping current that really has has gone forward.
• 14:56
  Mark Bingeman: And even as we go forward, you go forward, you know, our board is obviously uh made up of family members, but we have strategic advisors that are advising the board.
• 15:04
  Mark Bingeman: You know, they're they're gold to us.
• 15:05
  Mark Bingeman: They're they're the ones they're they're the ones, they're not telling us what to do, they're asking the questions.
• 15:11
  Mark Bingeman: Does this does this fit?
• 15:12
  Mark Bingeman: Does this make sense?
• 15:14
  Mark Bingeman: How does this where is the growth on this?
• 15:16
  Mark Bingeman: How is this with the other people?
• 15:18
  Mark Bingeman: And I would say over the years, um, you know, our change in management style has changed dramatically into this management team.
• 15:27
  Mark Bingeman: You know, uh we brought in a performance coach uh uh about a year and a half ago, just working with everybody, just you know, all the key uh department heads in those areas, they know everything what's going on, driving what's going on, because we're looking for exponential growth.
• 15:41
  Mark Bingeman: And in order to get there, you have to have everybody on board.
• 15:44
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 15:45
  Mark Bingeman: And through that, and especially coming out of COVID, you know, when we started, you know, we went down, we were as low as seven staff members.
• 15:52
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 15:52
  Mark Bingeman: At the worst point of COVID.
• 15:54
  Mark Bingeman: And, you know, so we're typically between 500 and 600 employees.
• 15:57
  Mark Bingeman: So we knew the build back was gonna be, was gonna be significant and what was important, what made us us.
• 16:04
  Mark Bingeman: And of course, during that time we we had some time to really talk, talk things out.
• 16:09
  Mark Bingeman: And we use that time.
• 16:11
  Mark Bingeman: We use that time to help with our plants and and and really shape our culture.
• 16:16
  Mark Bingeman: Our our culture was already shaped.
• 16:18
  Mark Bingeman: It was now how do we polish it?
• 16:20
  Mark Bingeman: And you know, what makes us, what do our clients think of us, what's important to our clients, what's important to us, because we're customer-centric, whether it's a corporate client like yourselves at the chamber, or whether somebody just came into the water park for the day.
• 16:33
  Ian McLean: And you know, I I think it it is uh co COVID, I mean, we're sort of past because it all affected everyone.
• 16:40
  Ian McLean: And obviously, hospitality was first impacted and last to really f fully come out of it, and that that was that was just a reality.
• 16:48
  Ian McLean: But I think it also did there were some lessons there that we really took away from from how to how to do things.
• 16:55
  Ian McLean: And um and and so it sounds like you took you used the time to figure figure those things out, and as you say, polish uh polish what was already a very successful um uh business.
• 17:05
  Ian McLean: The Behind the Business Podcast is made possible through the support of our title sponsor, Gore Mutual.
• 17:11
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• 17:18
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• 17:20
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• 17:25
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• 17:31
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• 17:35
  Ian McLean: Listen, you're a major employer, and we just talked about that.
• 17:39
  Ian McLean: You know, you're from the depths of COVID to where you are now, and you're growing, and you've got your it's no longer uh, you know, I'm I'm not sure that it ever really was just local, but it's not local anymore.
• 17:52
  Ian McLean: You're all over southwestern Ontario.
• 17:54
  Ian McLean: I mean, you're you're a lot you're in a lot of different places, whether it's catering and and now in St.
• 17:58
  Ian McLean: Catharines and other places.
• 18:00
  Ian McLean: Uh, but you're a big employer, and you hire lots of um uh students starting out in their careers that get to give them their first opportunity.
• 18:09
  Ian McLean: Um several of our, I mean, several of my my team here at the chamber have worked at the Benguins for you, and and over the years it's it's uh it's been you know, lots of people say, Oh, of course I worked at Bingham's.
• 18:19
  Ian McLean: Everyone, everyone eventu eventually.
• 18:20
  Ian McLean: Sooner or later, sooner or later they were at Bingham's.
• 18:23
  Ian McLean: And um so when you look ahead to the trends in education and training, um how do you think those things are gonna change for the employees that you'll need in the future?
• 18:35
  Ian McLean: Because the because the profile must have changed from 20 years ago to what the type of of employees that you need now.
• 18:42
  Ian McLean: And so education and training and sort of that that new generation um uh of workers is is gonna look different.
• 18:49
  Ian McLean: How do you how do you think uh uh how do you think both training and education is gonna have to adapt so you get what you need uh to to fulfill um the goals that you have as a business?
• 19:01
  Mark Bingeman: So I tell you, the one fundamental has never changed.
• 19:04
  Mark Bingeman: Even with all this current stuff with AI and and everything else, that fundamental is we hire great people.
• 19:12
  Mark Bingeman: You have to be a great person, you have to you have to enjoy people, you have to be able to communicate.
• 19:18
  Mark Bingeman: You know, great people is where it all starts.
• 19:20
  Mark Bingeman: Once we have that, now we can teach them things.
• 19:24
  Mark Bingeman: You know, there's obviously great courses with Conestoga, yeah.
• 19:27
  Mark Bingeman: Other, you know, just the the the scholastic and uh and uh uh uh academic around us is is significant, so whether it's Laurier, Waterloo, uh Guelph, and certainly pulling from others.
• 19:40
  Mark Bingeman: But we still need to teach them how we do it.
• 19:44
  Mark Bingeman: And so for us is once we once we once we hire great people, it's easy to train and and mold great people.
• 19:51
  Mark Bingeman: You know, at any given time, we either have a hundred, somewhere between a hundred and four hundred of our staff are students, whether university students, high school students, like that's how dramatic obviously in the summertime ramps up pretty significantly, but in Christmas time as waiters and things like that.
• 20:07
  Mark Bingeman: Um so it's it's pretty significant.
• 20:09
  Mark Bingeman: And and at any given time, you know, 20 or up to about 20 percent.
• 20:13
  Mark Bingeman: I was asking my HR people this this the other day, up to 20% is their first-time job.
• 20:18
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 20:18
  Mark Bingeman: So for us, we're great training grounds for those, for those people.
• 20:23
  Ian McLean: So the academic, they I mean, they gotta have some of those skills, but you know, customer service and knowing how to get the the customer experience and and how your weight staff and service staff uh are central to that.
• 20:35
  Ian McLean: Is uh that's that's that's the non-academic training part.
• 20:39
  Mark Bingeman: And and you know, and and in in our day and today's day and age, with everybody with their phones and communicating only by phone, it's hard to get you know kids nowadays to get out of their shelves.
• 20:49
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 20:50
  Mark Bingeman: Like there's gonna be someone in front, and when we do customer service training with them, especially the summer.
• 20:54
  Mark Bingeman: Sorry, but I'm glad it wasn't me.
• 20:57
  Ian McLean: No, no, that was me.
• 20:58
  Ian McLean: I can't believe I didn't turn that off.
• 21:00
  Ian McLean: No worries.
• 21:01
  Ian McLean: I'm gonna get in trouble.
• 21:02
  Ian McLean: Yeah, yeah, right.
• 21:07
  Mark Bingeman: No, but but seriously, it's it's that, you know, for them to understand, okay, we're gonna have somebody in front of you.
• 21:12
  Mark Bingeman: You can't look at your phone for assistance or to talk to them.
• 21:15
  Mark Bingeman: You need to say, welcome, yeah, and what can we get for you?
• 21:18
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, and then upselling or other things, or even you know, obviously you go through customer service training.
• 21:23
  Mark Bingeman: Hey, if somebody's not enjoying themselves or has an issue, we want it solved by that line person.
• 21:28
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, you've got carte blanche, solve their problem.
• 21:31
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, we can deal with it afterwards.
• 21:33
  Mark Bingeman: If you think you give in too much or you give in too much, don't worry about that, but just don't let that person because if it gets further up the food chain, it becomes a more it just gets worse.
• 21:44
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, right.
• 21:44
  Mark Bingeman: So solve the person's problem.
• 21:46
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:47
  Mark Bingeman: We had a we had a theme, uh actually it was it was just the other year, you know, make everybody leave as raving fans.
• 21:52
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, if we do that each and every day, that's what's the key to business growth.
• 21:57
  Ian McLean: That's good for any business, whether you're a hospitality business or not, is that for happy customers uh is the best best advertising.
• 22:03
  Ian McLean: Listen, Conestog or uh Bingamans has been a cornerstone of Water to Region for decades, and we've touched on that.
• 22:12
  Ian McLean: And you've supported lots of programs and you know organizations, charities.
• 22:17
  Ian McLean: Um, you know, we've got many events that you're participating in, Oktoberfest and other things over the years.
• 22:24
  Ian McLean: Um what what uh what what uh what what impact does a the the positive community events that are here um mean to you personally, right?
• 22:38
  Ian McLean: To you and the family and to the business.
• 22:40
  Ian McLean: I mean there's two parts of this, and we want a successful community so others can be successful, but having those big events and for other organizations to be successful is just good for for the community, but it's also good for business broadly.
• 22:56
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, I would say for us, that's a you know, we all live in the community.
• 22:59
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, we grew up in the community, we've prospered in this community, you have to give back to the same community.
• 23:05
  Mark Bingeman: And and with that cycle, and I I personally believe in the wheel of fortune, right?
• 23:10
  Mark Bingeman: From six years, what comes around is gonna go around.
• 23:12
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 23:13
  Mark Bingeman: Um sometimes you may not think of it that way, depending on what situations you're going through, but you have to have faith in that, and you have to have faith with with the community.
• 23:21
  Mark Bingeman: And for us, uh whether it's, you know, you know, we've we're very connected with the health of the region, so healthcare, so we're very connected with supporting that and and their different initiatives.
• 23:30
  Mark Bingeman: But even when it's other community initiatives, obviously we've been with Oktoberfest since the beginning, uh, so still working on that and working with them on different items, but it's it's far beyond that.
• 23:40
  Mark Bingeman: You know, there was uh an esport startup trying to get to trying to get space going and they needed some assistance.
• 23:46
  Mark Bingeman: So we thought, hey, listen, we have the we have the ability.
• 23:49
  Mark Bingeman: When we have the ability, we love supporting and showing.
• 23:53
  Mark Bingeman: Um and at some point in time, I'm sure that that'll come back to us too.
• 23:56
  Mark Bingeman: But it's it's we need more of that in our community.
• 23:59
  Mark Bingeman: And I think as we grow, it's a different community today.
• 24:02
  Mark Bingeman: And it's in it will be a different community tomorrow.
• 24:05
  Mark Bingeman: And I think some of that learning of some of the more um uh the more usual suspects of of large family businesses that were supportive, it was expected of them, and as I I I think people expect that of us as well.
• 24:21
  Mark Bingeman: But we do it because we want to, and we do it, listen, yeah, we've got we've got over 500 employees.
• 24:26
  Mark Bingeman: You know, uh we want them to be healthy.
• 24:29
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 24:29
  Mark Bingeman: So we want them when they go to whatever whichever hospital they go to, we want them to have top-notch healthcare because we need them in their seats.
• 24:36
  Ian McLean: Yeah, and if and uh at the end of the day, we're one community and we're all connected.
• 24:39
  Ian McLean: Listen, you you've you've we talked about some of the new experiences, and I'm I'm interested.
• 24:44
  Ian McLean: Uh there's a new one in the tannery, in the communitech building.
• 24:48
  Ian McLean: Um so it's called putt social.
• 24:51
  Ian McLean: So tell us just a little bit about that.
• 24:54
  Ian McLean: But also, you know, I I guess the quite real question is what's next?
• 24:57
  Ian McLean: Because you because putt social is something new.
• 25:00
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 25:00
  Ian McLean: How did you come up with that as being the idea and the location?
• 25:06
  Ian McLean: And and how would that inform the what's next part?
• 25:08
  Ian McLean: Like you're doing that now, but how how will you come up with that?
• 25:12
  Ian McLean: What uh the what's the next thing after that?
• 25:14
  Ian McLean: So talk about putt social because I'm interested.
• 25:16
  Ian McLean: I'm a golfer, so I'm in the right.
• 25:17
  Mark Bingeman: We can't tell you everything that's coming up because then there wouldn't be any, there wouldn't be any surprises.
• 25:21
  Mark Bingeman: But yeah, this Putt Social, believe it or not, we've been looking for something for five years on the upscale mini golf.
• 25:28
  Mark Bingeman: And trying to find it, and ideally trying to find a vendor partner that could create what we wanted created uh without us doing it ourselves.
• 25:36
  Mark Bingeman: Because we're not we're not the tech people, we're not those other items.
• 25:40
  Mark Bingeman: So it's taken five years, and just you know, we're at a we're at a trade show, and listen, we scour the world for things.
• 25:46
  Mark Bingeman: When we travel, we go check things out myself.
• 25:49
  Mark Bingeman: My other other managers go around whenever they're saying they're traveling somewhere.
• 25:52
  Mark Bingeman: So it was, hey, go check out this place that opened.
• 25:54
  Mark Bingeman: I saw this in the trade magazine.
• 25:56
  Mark Bingeman: So keeping current is so important.
• 25:58
  Mark Bingeman: So we're at a trade show, and uh, our head of facilities said, I think I found what we're looking for.
• 26:03
  Mark Bingeman: I mean, where is it?
• 26:04
  Mark Bingeman: It was in the back of the street, you know, monstrous, you know, Orange County Convention Center in a corner.
• 26:09
  Mark Bingeman: I I wouldn't even have seen this thing.
• 26:11
  Mark Bingeman: I said, Where'd you see, where'd you see these things?
• 26:13
  Mark Bingeman: I just walked by and I said, we talked to these people, saw their product, we said, hey, we like it.
• 26:17
  Mark Bingeman: Can you make a few?
• 26:17
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, they're happy to do it.
• 26:19
  Mark Bingeman: It was coming out of Brazil, believe it or not.
• 26:21
  Mark Bingeman: Uh and that's how so that's how we got it.
• 26:24
  Mark Bingeman: So Putt Social is really an upscale mini golf uh and and bar and and restaurant.
• 26:30
  Mark Bingeman: When I say restaurant, snacking foods, you know, it's really about competitive socializing.
• 26:35
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 26:35
  Mark Bingeman: You're gonna go there for a few drinks, you're gonna go there and have some fun.
• 26:39
  Mark Bingeman: Actually, when you when you go there, you check in at the bar, and then you get get ready, and they're saying, great, let's get you a drink to get started, whether it's alcoholic or non-alcoholic.
• 26:47
  Mark Bingeman: They've got a whole bunch of huge mock tail lists, milkshake list, and all those things.
• 26:51
  Mark Bingeman: But the great thing is, is the tech that it's all infused with tech.
• 26:55
  Mark Bingeman: You don't do anything.
• 26:56
  Mark Bingeman: It keeps core for you and plays getting games and does all these other things.
• 27:00
  Mark Bingeman: So it's a for us, it was this was the beta test for us.
• 27:04
  Mark Bingeman: Again, for us, we love beta testing in our region.
• 27:06
  Mark Bingeman: We had we still had that space, which we hadn't have come back from COVID yet.
• 27:10
  Mark Bingeman: And said, what can we do cool?
• 27:12
  Mark Bingeman: Because people still aren't back to the office, unfortunately, fully.
• 27:16
  Mark Bingeman: So knowing that that's going to be a challenge there, we need something that's a real destination driver.
• 27:21
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 27:21
  Mark Bingeman: And that's when we came up with this product.
• 27:24
  Ian McLean: Well, that's it.
• 27:25
  Ian McLean: It sounds like I haven't been in yet, but I I will because corporate groups, huge for corporate groups.
• 27:30
  Ian McLean: Well, uh at the end of the golf season, I'm always looking for something that involves golf during the winter months.
• 27:36
  Ian McLean: So listen, before we wrap up, and this in this podcast series is as I always say is as much about hearing the story of businesses like Bangladesh, but it's also about leadership, right?
• 27:46
  Ian McLean: It's about leaders in our community.
• 27:47
  Ian McLean: And I always ask the same sort of series of questions.
• 27:50
  Ian McLean: Um, because it's always interesting to see different people's take on uh uh of what is what what their growth has uh has led to their growth.
• 27:59
  Ian McLean: So um if you could go back, um what would you tell your younger self if you could go back in time and give yourself some sort of advice?
• 28:08
  Mark Bingeman: Go harder.
• 28:09
  Mark Bingeman: Time is time is a especially now, time is a v such a valuable commodity that I did not realize it in my younger years.
• 28:18
  Ian McLean: I don't know, that's good advice.
• 28:20
  Ian McLean: Who or what inspires you in your life?
• 28:25
  Mark Bingeman: Uh you know, I would say the kindness of others.
• 28:28
  Mark Bingeman: When I see that from our team members that are you know really living that ethos of us of of delivering great experiences.
• 28:35
  Mark Bingeman: And that's that's what we do.
• 28:36
  Mark Bingeman: We deliver exceptional experiences.
• 28:39
  Mark Bingeman: And when I see that, that drives me more because it's it's because I one is people get it, they're getting it.
• 28:44
  Mark Bingeman: But it also drives me to say, okay, I need to do more.
• 28:47
  Mark Bingeman: You know, and it's that yin and yang and supporting one another is is what is what drives it.
• 28:53
  Ian McLean: Uh if you weren't in your career, it's hard to imagine a bangeman not in the bingamans uh uh business.
• 28:59
  Ian McLean: But if you weren't in bingamans, what would you be doing?
• 29:02
  Ian McLean: Aaron Ross Powell Art history.
• 29:03
  Ian McLean: Really?
• 29:04
  Mark Bingeman: I know you have to, yeah, art history.
• 29:07
  Mark Bingeman: Mind officially blown here, I would not have picked that.
• 29:10
  Mark Bingeman: Why that why why my art history You know, I I was in in high school, I got a taste of art history through our the art the art department, through the art class.
• 29:18
  Mark Bingeman: And when I went to university, I had just a couple of uh electives you had to take.
• 29:21
  Mark Bingeman: And I I picked the art history ones.
• 29:23
  Mark Bingeman: And I just, yeah, my own.
• 29:24
  Mark Bingeman: So is it is it uh you travel on?
• 29:26
  Ian McLean: Is it architect- is it like what are some of the things?
• 29:28
  Ian McLean: Architecture or architecture, art.
• 29:30
  Mark Bingeman: I listen, there's not a museum I don't miss or oh yeah, absolutely.
• 29:34
  Ian McLean: Well, you and as much traveling as you're on, you must have seen some some great ones uh along the way.
• 29:38
  Mark Bingeman: I've I've I've been very I've been very fortunate, there's no question it.
• 29:41
  Mark Bingeman: And you know what?
• 29:42
  Mark Bingeman: The best one is always the next one.
• 29:43
  Ian McLean: Yeah, the best one is the next one.
• 29:45
  Ian McLean: That's good.
• 29:45
  Ian McLean: Um and people still read books, uh, whether it's online or in paper, uh, or listen to a podcast.
• 29:52
  Ian McLean: Now I know you listen to the behind the business podcast, but uh, what are you reading or what are you listening to on on podcasts?
• 29:58
  Mark Bingeman: So I am a I am a horrible reader.
• 29:59
  Mark Bingeman: Reader, I'll tell you that from a book standpoint, that's not my thing.
• 30:02
  Mark Bingeman: But I I have an insatiable appetite for industry trade magazines.
• 30:07
  Mark Bingeman: And typically now, now that they're all online, it's a whole lot easier.
• 30:11
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 30:11
  Mark Bingeman: And I can, I can, I can save them.
• 30:13
  Mark Bingeman: I've got I've got a file that says read later.
• 30:15
  Mark Bingeman: And so if I see something and I don't have the time, I always put it in there, and then every Sunday I scan through that and it's there's something I need to pick up on and those types of things.
• 30:24
  Mark Bingeman: But podcasting, there's a there's actually a gentleman out of uh I've he's a friend of mine, uh Basher Wally, who's a big uh hospitality person out of the US, does a lot of podcasts, has his own podcast.
• 30:35
  Mark Bingeman: The future of hospitality is he he is dialed in significantly.
• 30:39
  Mark Bingeman: He's uh he's an immense individual.
• 30:42
  Mark Bingeman: When he he never stays in the same hotel once, more than one night.
• 30:46
  Mark Bingeman: Because his goal is he wants to see whether he's searching for what's the next in hospitality.
• 30:51
  Mark Bingeman: And he obviously runs a hospitality organization.
• 30:53
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah.
• 30:53
  Mark Bingeman: So it's it's those types of people that drive me of, yeah, we may not be doing the same things and exactly in the same same uh lane, but that thought process and that mental process is you know, we can apply that to our business.
• 31:09
  Ian McLean: Um I know uh your favorite business has got to be Bingamans, but what's your favorite other than Binghamans, what's your what's one of your favorite local businesses in the region?
• 31:20
  Mark Bingeman: Gosh, you know, I would say I I I gotta give a shout out Matter of Taste, Don and Fong, the the best coffee in the world.
• 31:25
  Mark Bingeman: I wish they had more outlets for me to get my my my fix, but uh you know, but I always make sure make some time to see them downtown.
• 31:32
  Ian McLean: Good job is always an important start.
• 31:35
  Mark Bingeman: Well, and you know what?
• 31:36
  Mark Bingeman: Uh I love what the guys are doing, uh Wes and John down at uh the Odd Duck.
• 31:40
  Mark Bingeman: Have you been to Odd Doc?
• 31:41
  Mark Bingeman: No, I have not.
• 31:41
  Mark Bingeman: You've got to get down there.
• 31:42
  Mark Bingeman: They're these guys are bringing it to the plate.
• 31:44
  Mark Bingeman: It's uh my hat's off to them.
• 31:46
  Mark Bingeman: They they they're doing a fantastic job and and they need and and you know I gotta say, I've my favorite bagel place, I think, is closed now, Woodside or Fireside.
• 31:55
  Mark Bingeman: I just just off of uh off of Wilson there.
• 31:59
  Mark Bingeman: I hope they're gonna reopen, but uh best place for bagels.
• 32:03
  Ian McLean: There you go.
• 32:03
  Ian McLean: Um and you know, of course, uh people may want to get connected, and you know, whether it's a young person listening to this looking for a job and not realizing that bangamans could be there at the start of their career.
• 32:15
  Ian McLean: Where do where can listeners go to connect with you uh and the business?
• 32:20
  Mark Bingeman: Yeah, you know what?
• 32:20
  Mark Bingeman: It's uh yeah, the easiest thing is follow us online on Instagram, LinkedIn.
• 32:24
  Mark Bingeman: You'll see all the latest things coming up.
• 32:26
  Mark Bingeman: You can always get a hold of us there or you know, check out our website, sign up for our different.
• 32:29
  Mark Bingeman: We've got two different uh avenues of uh of e-blasts that go out.
• 32:33
  Mark Bingeman: One's for the consumer the amusement consumers and the other one is for our corporate.
• 32:37
  Mark Bingeman: Uh a lot of people sign up on both, but it's that's the best way.
• 32:41
  Mark Bingeman: And and listen, anybody wants to get a hold of me?
• 32:43
  Mark Bingeman: It's really easy.
• 32:43
  Mark Bingeman: It's mbingaman at bingamans.com.
• 32:45
  Mark Bingeman: There you go.
• 32:45
  Mark Bingeman: I'm it's easy to get a hold of me.
• 32:48
  Ian McLean: That's good.
• 32:48
  Ian McLean: Listen, uh, I know how uh we talked a little bit earlier about the most valuable commodities is time.
• 32:54
  Ian McLean: Uh, you said in one of your answers.
• 32:56
  Ian McLean: Thank you for some spending some of your precious time with us.
• 32:59
  Ian McLean: We appreciate you joining us today.
• 33:01
  Mark Bingeman: Hey, thanks for having me.
• 33:01
  Mark Bingeman: It's great seeing you guys.
• 33:02
  Mark Bingeman: And any great great job that the chamber's always doing.
• 33:04
  Mark Bingeman: So keep it up.
• 33:06
  Ian McLean: Thank you for joining us for another episode of Behind the Business, proudly presented by Gore Mutual, insurance that does good.
• 33:13
  Ian McLean: New episodes drop every Thursday, so be sure to tune in next week.
• 33:17
  Ian McLean: You can also visit greater kwchamber.com to catch up on past episodes anytime.
• 33:22
  Ian McLean: We'll see you next time as we continue to go behind the business.