Sep 11, 2026 · 52 min · 13 segments
**OnTrade Show Podcast - The Hosts** In this episode, Justin & Molly are joined by **Lisa Kennedy and Stephanie Heaney** the amazing hosts of **The OnTrade Awards 2026**! 🏆 They share their…
there's an abundance of awards nights all across not just our industry but across many I've been to many we've all been to loads of nights or charity nights and everything else where there's a guest speaker or blah blah blah or there's a host And everything that always gets fed back, and this isn't from my point of view, this is from the people that attend or the people that have been over the last six years, that it is very, very different.
And I've understood that it's very, very different to a lot of them in relation to... we don't hold the lead too tight is probably the best way of describing it but
it's their night to let loose it's the hospitality they're the ones that are always serving everybody
else the guys that are handing out the drinks originally isn't it
but that obviously from a hosting point of view makes it harder I would have thought I mean, I try to not be on the stage as much as I possibly can.
You
no, no.
Loved it.
But I genuinely...
the only reason I can do that is I genuinely don't care it doesn't it doesn't bother me no but you
are like people know you so they want they want you to be involved so it's correct I'm very
conscious of it not being about me even with the show even with this I'm very conscious of it not being about me because it's not an ego trip for me or anything at all it's everything that we do is kind of know about us so I'm always a wee bit you know that I think we've talked about it before the kind of imposter syndrome kind of bit but hugely from a from a hosting point of view the reason I can get up on the stage and waffle or whatever is because I genuinely it doesn't bother me what people's opinions are right I just want people to enjoy it so I don't mind embarrassing myself or doing whatever it takes to try and help that happen right and I
think people understand and appreciate that humility as well that it isn't too polished it isn't too you know yes the night has to run on time and these things typically don't but you know there's a job to be done things have to happen you know you need to understand who's the finalist who's getting the award there's obviously things it can't be a rammy you know
what I mean but all the people who are up for awards are people who know how to give other people a good time so it's like trying to have a serious conversation with a comedian like they're going to throw in jokes things like that that's what it's
about that's you've kind of hit the nail on the head for us about the awards why we do it the way we do it there's we don't want it to be too polished.
We don't want it to be too stiff.
Or we don't want it to be stiff at all because for us, that's not the way the hospitality industry is.
And it's not the way the industry should be communicated to.
But getting back to the kind of point I was talking about, that would come with its own challenges for both of you.
Because...
I think, and people have said it to me, right? And they said it to Natalie before when Natalie kind of hosted a couple of previous shows and I'm sure they said it to Gina as well when she'd done one of the first couple.
And it's evolved even more since then that if you can host the Entree Awards, you can pretty much do any because the room is full of, you know, 600 to 700 people hospitality industry individuals that's had a free bar for best part of two hours that are a bit lively and I specifically don't do anything to curb that liveliness if anything I can encourage
there's an abundance of awards nights all across not just our industry but across many I've been to many we've all been to loads of nights or charity nights and everything else where there's a guest speaker or blah blah blah or there's a host And everything that always gets fed back, and this isn't from my point of view, this is from the people that attend or the people that have been over the last six years, that it is very, very different.
And I've understood that it's very, very different to a lot of them in relation to... we don't hold the lead too tight is probably the best way of describing it but
it's their night to let loose it's the hospitality they're the ones that are always serving everybody
else the guys that are handing out the drinks originally isn't it
but that obviously from a hosting point of view makes it harder I would have thought I mean, I try to not be on the stage as much as I possibly can.
You
no, no.
Loved it.
But I genuinely...
the only reason I can do that is I genuinely don't care it doesn't it doesn't bother me no but you
are like people know you so they want they want you to be involved so it's correct I'm very
conscious of it not being about me even with the show even with this I'm very conscious of it not being about me because it's not an ego trip for me or anything at all it's everything that we do is kind of know about us so I'm always a wee bit you know that I think we've talked about it before the kind of imposter syndrome kind of bit but hugely from a from a hosting point of view the reason I can get up on the stage and waffle or whatever is because I genuinely it doesn't bother me what people's opinions are right I just want people to enjoy it so I don't mind embarrassing myself or doing whatever it takes to try and help that happen right and I
think people understand and appreciate that humility as well that it isn't too polished it isn't too you know yes the night has to run on time and these things typically don't but you know there's a job to be done things have to happen you know you need to understand who's the finalist who's getting the award there's obviously things it can't be a rammy you know
what I mean but all the people who are up for awards are people who know how to give other people a good time so it's like trying to have a serious conversation with a comedian like they're going to throw in jokes things like that that's what it's
about that's you've kind of hit the nail on the head for us about the awards why we do it the way we do it there's we don't want it to be too polished.
We don't want it to be too stiff.
Or we don't want it to be stiff at all because for us, that's not the way the hospitality industry is.
And it's not the way the industry should be communicated to.
But getting back to the kind of point I was talking about, that would come with its own challenges for both of you.
Because...
I think, and people have said it to me, right? And they said it to Natalie before when Natalie kind of hosted a couple of previous shows and I'm sure they said it to Gina as well when she'd done one of the first couple.
And it's evolved even more since then that if you can host the Entree Awards, you can pretty much do any because the room is full of, you know, 600 to 700 people hospitality industry individuals that's had a free bar for best part of two hours that are a bit lively and I specifically don't do anything to curb that liveliness if anything I can encourage
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