Travel South Dakota, in partnership with the South Dakota Retailers Association, is excited to bring in James T. Robilotta for the 2026 Spring Customer Service Seminars (formerly known as Spring Hospitality Training). James will travel across South Dakota May 5-7, sharing his message to frontline workers in five communities. There is no cost to attend any of the sessions. Locations & times are listed below.
Note: National Travel & Tourism Week 2026 is May 3-9.
What You'll Learn
Choosing to Care: How curiosity creates community in the workplace
No organization wants its people to be apathetic—toward the work, the people, or the community. Community ignites loyalty and drives retention in both in-person and hybrid workplaces, and is built with one simple thing: curiosity. Curiosity is the opposite of apathy. Events are ideal opportunities to authentically connect, reflect, validate, and innovate. In this hysterical and motivational keynote we will talk about how to ask better questions, change the way we hear people’s stories and insights, and adapt the mindset of curiosity. Let’s stop the apathy and the assuming and start learning about each other because curiosity creates community.
Locations & Times
Rapid City — Tuesday, May 5 @ 9-10:30 a.m. MT — The Monument (LaCroix Hall C), 444 Mt. Rushmore Road N
Hill City — Tuesday, May 5 @ 1:30-3 p.m. MT — Hill City Center, 227 Walnut Avenue
Chamberlain — Wednesday, May 6 @ 8:30-10 a.m. CT — AmericInn, 1981 E King Street
Aberdeen — Wednesday, May 6 @ 2:30-4 p.m. CT — Aberdeen Community Theatre (Walker Hall), 417 S Main Street
Sioux Falls — Thursday, May 7 @ 9-10:30 a.m. CT — Monick Yards, 605 E 8th Street
Registration
Registration is not required for these sessions. There is no charge to attend. (These free sessions will only be presented in-person. No livestreams or recordings will be available.)
Meet the Speaker: James T. Robilotta
James Robilotta, CSP, is a leadership author, motivational speaker, emcee, and trained improv comedian. After years of building, training, and leading teams, James followed an entrepreneurial dream and built two successful businesses. The first is an organization that incorporates freestyle rap into improv comedy (a success story for another day). And the second is his speaking and coaching business (a success story for today).
James has been speaking internationally to willing and unwilling audiences since 2009 and has found that quality humor is the secret to hosting powerful conversations that make a genuine impact. His attendees leave feeling recharged, introspective, and ready to get out of their own way. With years of research (and a few too many real-life case studies within his work), James has learned everything he can about fighting apathy and building strong company cultures. He uses this insight to help leaders manage and retain talent and give feedback that sticks, and to help organizations create community buy-in using curiosity.
James’ cornerstone concept is that we as humans can’t learn from people who are perfect, we can only learn from people who are imperfect. And companies like American Express, GE, Accenture, and Afterpay have gravitated toward this message and found the insights to be invaluable in shifting the way their people show up for each other. James is working to bring humanity and community back into the workplace. He is on a mission to ensure that people are seen, heard, respected... and giggling a little, too.
See more on James' website, JamesTRobo.com.
FOR INFORMATION
For more information or with any questions regarding the Spring Customer Service Seminars, please contact Bailey Tysdal, Industry Training & Legislative Relations Manager, at 605-773-3301 or [email protected].