About me

I live my life at the intersection of the two primary definitions of the word entertain:

  1. To hold the attention of an audience and keep them delighted.

  2. To welcome guests into a space and provide them with exceptional hospitality.

I was born for both.

I feel most alive in front of a crowd—even one technically "forced" to listen to me. I take the responsibility of keeping them laughing, guessing, and engaged incredibly seriously. This passion has taken me from emceeing Sales Kickoffs for 6sense and Blue Martini Software to officiating twelve weddings as an ordained minister. Most recently, it has manifested in the "Executive Dinner" circuit, where I’ve hosted 35 high-stakes evenings across four concepts for companies like Microsoft, 6sense, and Parloa.

But the performance is only half the story. The other half is rooted in true hospitality. During my 15 years founding and running Wingtip in San Francisco, I turned "hosting" into an art form. Whether I was teaching a member how to saber a bottle of Champagne, performing the ritual of Port tonging, or managing a fleet of custom-commissioned service and cocktail carts, the goal was always the same: to make every guest feel like they were part of something legendary.

When I’m not on the road or behind a microphone, I’m back home in Alameda, CA, likely entertaining a much tougher audience: my wife, two kids, and two cats. If you can’t get enough about me, personally, you can visit amiarad.com.

35

Executive Dinners

700+

Amazed attendees

0

Restaurants burned down

There's Port tonging, and then there's using the Microsoft HoloLens 2 to guide you through the steps of Port tonging, as seen in the Dinner by Dynamics executive dinner in early 2020.
Borrowing an idea from keynote speakers and musical artists at large concerts, we pause to take a group selfie over a toast with a vintage Port.
My dinners tend to have lots of humor. Exhibit A.
An example of making the digital, physical —a magnetic whiteboard with 10 magnets with account information on them for attendees to prioritize the accounts.
Sometimes Port tonging doesn't go exactly as planned, especially if the tongs are not applied all the way below the cork as in this photo.
A dark glass bottle of Warre's 1970 vintage port wine after it has been successfully tonged at the 6sensory Supper in San Francisco in early 2023.

Listen to Ami discuss his approach to evangelism through experiences on episode 31 of the Chief Evangelist podcast.

“Hospitality is much more than customer service; it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.”
— Simon Sinek in the foreword to Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide
“I’ve been to two of Ami’s executive dinners—the one marketing leaders and the one for sales leaders—and I have never been to a B2B event that was that exciting and entertaining. Ami makes it fun, but also made me legitimately understand how the software can impact my business.”
— Nick Cegelski, co-Founder, 30 Minutes to Presidents Club