SYMPOSIUM FORMAT

This year, we are committed to safely keeping that same energy with a reimagined format. Resistance Served 2021 will be a 48-hour straight stream of the workshops, panels, and demos we are known for. No matter where you are in the world, you will be able to tune in and access relevant and engaging content that’s geared toward our domestic and international audiences. We will be hosting this year’s conference via Twitch. Please follow our twitch Channel.

2021 THEME

The theme for this year’s symposium is Underground Economies. An underground economy refers to economic transactions that are deemed illegal, either because the goods or services traded are unlawful in nature because those transactions fail to comply with governmental reporting requirements.

COVID had yet to happen when we chose this as the theme for the 3rd Resistance Served theme. But it was very timely, as it soon became clear, and as many Americans are starting to acknowledge, we live in two different America’s.

That truth becomes even clearer in the service industry.

When Resistance Served speaks of #undergroundeconomies, we are speaking of the expert knowledge of our ancestors and current community members, which is so often devalued because it does not have the privilege of being cited, recorded, or having the financial access to operate in the same way predominately white ownership gets to.

And while oftentimes our industry conferences engage with the experts of our community, we want to acknowledge that a way oppression works is by defining what is valuable to normative standards, which limits our conversations and our access to the diverse information that members of our community have to share.

We have chosen six topics to cover.

-Farming and land ownership

-Food labor outside of the restaurant

-Cannabis legalization and its future in F&B

-The Sex Economy and its role in hospitality

-Alcohol and white supremacy, Black ownership, and consumerism

-Social Design and Black Spaces in hospitality

These six subjects will only scratch the surface. But as always, the point of #resistanceserved is to challenge our current options and push us into a rigorous, collective workout on how to reimagine the future.

Will you join us?