Guest Safety– Where Planning Meets Profits

Room 3

12:00 – 12:40pm pm

Whether it’s something as seemingly mundane as preventing slips, trips and falls or food safety practices, to the more extreme situations of handling a medical emergency or having an active shooter plan, guest safety can’t be on the back burner. Restaurants that don’t plan, don’t profit. In this panel discussion industry experts will share their individual expertise on easily overlooked and proactive steps you can take to help ensure guest and employee safety.

Speakers:

Stig Ruxlow, Society Insurance:

Stig is a Risk Control Manager with Society Insurance Company. In the past, he has been employed as a Regional Risk Solutions Service Manager for a national insurer; and a Senior Risk Engineering Consultant with a global insurer. He has 25 years of experience, consulting businesses with the management of safety & health programs and the reduction of risk. Including local family owned businesses to global, Fortune 100 enterprises. He was employed as an Adjunct Lecturer in Safety for the College of Applied Science & Technology, Health Sciences – Safety Degree Program at Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal, IL for a 7 year period. He has successfully led global risk consulting projects, including the successful leadership and completion of onsite risk consulting projects in Germany, China, India, France and Great Britain.

Amy Ratekin, C.O.B.R.A. Self-Defense:

Amy is a 5^th Degree Black belt in Taekwondo and has been instructing students age 5 through adult effective, reality-based self-defense for 18 years with the past 7 years as a professional self-defense instructor with C.O.B.R.A. International Self-Defense Systems. She owns C.O.B.R.A. Self-Defense Iowa with her husband Mark, a 5^th degree black belt, and their three children ages 23,19, and 17 whom are all black belts in Taekwondo and certified instructors in self-defense. Amy is the head instructor and very passionate about teaching students age 5-adult self-defense strategies, Women Empowerment Seminars, ending all forms of harassment, and instructing employees in Avoiding Violence in the Workplace including Active Shooter Response Plans and Strategies. In response to her passion, C.O.B.R.A. Self-Defense Iowa opened the world’s largest full-time self-defense training center in September in Ankeny. Amy believes all people should learn self-defense strategies and techniques. It is her personal mission to make sure all victims of bullying and domestic abuse receive self-defense training, so they may heal and lead lives without fear of violence. She is also active in Des Moines AM Rotary, National Association for Women Business Owners, Ankeny Chamber of Commerce, Fuse of Des Moines, and the Iowa National Guard Officer Association. She enjoys reading, spending time with family, home-schooling her children, and traveling.