Young Hoteliers Summit exceeds all expectations

　　At 8:00 am on Monday, March 21st 2011, 45 delegates from 13 hospitality management schools from across the globe gathered at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausannne (EHL) to participate in this year’s Young Hoteliers Summit.

　　The Creativity Challenge, this year provided by The Rezidor Hotel Group and presented by Andrea Fell, Director of People Management for The Rezidor Hotel Group, read: “In a society that is moving towards virtual interaction, how do you keep a brand connected with its customers?” The delegates, who were put into mixed groups, immediately began to brainstorm and had only six hours in which to decide upon an inspired solution to the challenge. The groups would have the opportunity to propose their presentations in front of a jury comprised of Andrea Fell, Director of People Management, Jan Spooren, Director of People Development and Jacques Dubois, Chief Operating Ofiicer, all of whom were representatives of The Rezidor Hotel Group, as well as Hilary Murphy, Professor of Strategic IT and E-marketing at EHL. The winning team of the creativity challenge was rewarded with a one-week trip to the Rezidor Business School in Copenhagen for their LOTS business program.

　　Throughout the morning, the students were guided by Frederic Delley, Business Incubator Manager at INTEHL, who gave a workshop on “Rapid Problem-Solving Techniques”, as well as by coaching workshops from Rezidor representatives. The delegates and all other attendees of the summit where inspired by a motivational speech on “the road to success” by Mr. Kurt Ritter, President & CEO of The Rezidor Hotel Group and also an alumni of EHL. He shared his passion and experiences in the hospitality industry, to which he was already exposed to as a young boy and highlighted that it was “a profession of a million details, but yet not rocket science”.

　　Later in the day, delegates had the opportunity to attend a “Benchmarking & Market Shares – Success Indicators” workshop by STR Global, a Presidential Partner of the Summit, or a session lead by David Sadigh, Managing Partner & Co. founder of IC – Agency, on “why and how luxury brands should embrace social media”; all in the aim of generating ideas to their creativity challenge solutions.

　　In the evening, YHS participants were enthralled by Jean-Claude Biver’s speech, CEO of Hublot, who spoke about exploring different paths to finding your own individual passion: “Choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life” were the words that Mr. Biver chose, quoting Confucius.