The latest interview with our guests – Gavin Neate and Mike Clapper
Gavin Neate is the Founder of WelcoMe and a leading voice in inclusive customer experience. Having spent 18 years training the blind and visually impaired in their use of their guide dogs , Gavin gained a profound understanding of the daily barriers faced by disabled people. He realised the problem wasn’t a lack of willingness to help, but a lack of immediate, actionable knowledge for front-line staff.
To bridge this gap, Gavin created WelcoMe, an award-winning platform that alerts venues to a visitor’s specific needs before they walk through the door. By transforming how businesses approach accessibility, Gavin helps organisations improve guest and customer loyalty, optimise operations, and unlock massive unrealised revenue.
He partners with major brands across retail, travel, and tourism to replace awkwardness with confidence. Gavin’s mission is clear: to build a world where exceptional customer service is seamless, proactive, and universally accessible to everyone, everywhere.
Mike Clapper is the Founder and CEO of Able2Global and creator of The Inclusioneer Framework, a hospitality growth strategy built around better design, operations, and guest experience.
As a full-time wheelchair user, Mike has experienced the hospitality industry from both sides of the guest experience. His belief is simple: accessibility isn’t a regulatory obligation. It’s a revenue and guest loyalty strategy, and the industry is leaving real money on the table by treating it like a compliance checkbox. He works with independent hotels, hospitality brands, and operators to improve revenue, guest loyalty, direct bookings, and operational performance.
Mike is also the host of The Inclusioneer Lab, a platform exploring the future of hospitality through the lenses of innovation, human connection, and experience design. His work has been featured in industry conversations around hotel operations, guest experience, and the business case for inclusive hospitality.
The problem isn’t empathy. It’s execution
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