HOSPACE, which is utilising extended reality to deliver a smaller scale physical conference to a much wider audience, is still set go ahead next Thursday 19th November, despite the recently imposed lockdown – thanks to its innovative technology enabling the talks to be safely projected to an external audience, while physical attendees abide by social distancing measures.

Following the theme Hospitality in the COVID age: Survive and Thrive, topics covered will include hospitality finance in the COVID era, technology, collaborative working, IOT in hospitality, empowering talent, professional development, and understanding guest behaviour to maximise opportunity.

Very much reflective of the issues currently impacting the sector, leading hospitality voices will offer insight as to how the wider industry is coping, as well as guidance on some of the steps needed to weather the ongoing challenges.

The programme is geared around recovery in hospitality and the line-up includes financial and legal updates for hospitality, insights from leading hoteliers, advice on technology to support a socially distanced new world and the absolute necessity of collaborative working as the key to success.

Those speaking on the day are set to include:

  • Conference opening – Jane Pendlebury, CEO of HOSPA, Sally Beck, General Manager of the Royal Lancaster London and Harry Murray, President of HOSPA and Chairman of Lucknam Park.​
  • Finance overview – Mark Edwards, Audit Partner at BDO and Robert Barnard, Partner at BDO
  • Technology update – Andrew Evans, CEO of Keystep Solutions and Ricky Kapoor, UK Managing Director of Palm Holdings
  • ‘The Interview’ will see Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality interviewed by Mark Lewis.​
  • Collaborative Working – The key to success; revenue sales and marketing – Kirsty Beasley, Market Development Manager at Profitroom, Steve Lowy, CEO of The Residence Apartments, Liz Callaghan, Director of Revenue at the Cheval Collection and Michael Heyward, Managing Director of Heyward Hospitality Solutions
  • An overview of the employee landscape – with full legal update – Carolyn Brown, Partner of RSM UK Client Legal Services and Joanne Taylor Stagg, General Manager of The Athenaeum​
  • Professional Development from HOSPA – Debra Adams – Head of Professional Development at HOSPA
  • Understanding our guests’ behaviour to maximise opportunity – analytics provided by Rob Payne, Sales Director, BT Wi-Fi and Brad Powell

  • The workshops and talks will be conducted live at the Royal Lancaster London, with HOSPA then projecting these around the world to remote attendees. The use of Extended Reality will provide a more authentic experience – going above and beyond the usual setup for a webinar or online conference.

     

    Jane Pendlebury, CEO of HOSPA, said: “Both the latest lockdown and the last few months have underlined the importance of working together as an industry. HOSPACE 2020, as a hybrid affair, means it’s both safe to attend and extremely beneficial, thanks to the wealth of hospitality insight and knowledge on offer to a sector in need.”

    She continued: “We’ve seen so many events having to be cancelled and indeed, we were worried at one point as the November lockdown was announced that HOSPACE would be the latest casualty. However, with hotels allowed to stay open for business purposes, the Royal Lancaster London was still able to host, which means we’re in a position to deliver high quality advice and industry knowledge via a line-up that provides an abundance of experience across a broad range of hospitality functions.”

    She concluded: “The conferencing technology provided by the Royal Lancaster London enables us to deliver an event that goes far and above what one would normally expect. We’ve all been overloaded by video calls since the pandemic began, so HOSPACE is set to be presented in an engaging and novel way that puts safety first. We’re very much looking forward to it and hope you can join us.”

    To find out more information, to book tickets and attend, please visit www.hospace.org

     

    More information on HOSPACE and its programme can be found via www.hospace.org, while www.hospa.org provides more information on HOSPA’s wider offering.