Solomonov, Nieporent, Samuelsson, Tosi, and More Converge for 2016 Welcome Conference

The Welcome Conference, a hospitality summit created by Eleven Madison Park's Will Guidara and Journee's Anthony Rudolf, is returning to New York on June 6. This year's event will be held at the TimesCenter on West 41st Street. In years past, the conference featured seminars from restaurant industry heavy-hitters including Steve Ells (Chipotle), Nick Kokonas (Alinea in Chicago), Rita Jammet (La Caravelle), Gabe Stulman (Happy Cooking), and Brian & Mark Canlis (Canlis in Seattle). Last year, Danny Meyer gave the closing remarks, which included the line: "And if I can leave you with one thought, it's that being right is completely fucking irrelevant." The 2014 event started with a guy carving a pineapple on stage:

Kicking off the Welcome Conference #wcnyc14 with an epic pineapple carving.

A photo posted by randygarutti (@randygarutti) on Jun 17, 2014 at 7:24am PDT

Welcome Conference 2016 will feature some big name chefs, restaurateurs, and food media people from across the country discussing their work and the theme of "being present."  Here's the lineup:

Chris and Alice Canlis (Canlis restaurant)

Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, Jonathan Neman (sweetgreen)

Donnie Madia (One Off Hospitality Group)

Nilou Motamed (Food & Wine)

Drew Nieporent (Myriad Restaurant Group)

Marcus Samuelsson (Marcus Samuelsson Group)

Michael Solomonov (CookNSolo)

Bobby Stuckey (Frasca Food & Wine)

Christina Tosi (Milk Bar)

Elena Brower (Art of Attention)

Dan White (theory11)

Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods)

The event will feature Joe coffee, breakfast from The Nomad, lunch from Sweetgreen, and treats from Federal Donuts. Tickets go on sale today at noon on the event's homepage — they're $175.  The conference will also be live-streamed.

Here's Danny Meyer's closing remarks from Welcome Conference 2015: