Now is the time to… reflect, engage and set goals

In January, 475 hotel professionals arrived at Intercontinental London – The O2 for the Hotel General Managers’ Conference 2019.

Reflection to enable positive change, discovering the potential in people and being courageous enough to strive for your goals were the main topics across the two-day event, aptly titled ‘Now Is The Time To…’. Opening the conference, Master Innholders chairman Danny Pecorelli FIH MI, said: “Never has there been such time for change in our industry. Our customers and our workforce are changing and maybe our government is changing, so our industry needs to change.”

David Guile, executive leadership and business coach, outlined the importance of reflection to enable performance to improve. Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality talked about what the organisation was doing to support the industry. Identifying that hospitality had a turnover of £130bn last year – double that of financial services – making the government realise how important the sector was to the economy.

Keynote speaker Marcus Child gave an inspiring talk on the subject of personal power. sharing his own experience and tips on how to meet challenges and aspirational goals. Day two started with Stefan Wissenbach’s session on employee engagement.

Senior lecturer at École hôtelière de Lausanne Ian Millar, covered the top technology hypes and hot trends that will impact hotels including 8K televisions, dedicated mobile apps and in-room robots. Within his session ‘The Market’, David Bailey, senior director – head of client solutions, CBRE Hotels provided insight into the state of the industry. Keynote speaker Rob May provided an accessible outlook on cyber security and the latest threats to businesses.

Founder of The Black Farmer and entrepreneur Wilfred Emmanuel- Jones closed this year’s conference programme with an inspirational talk on how he achieved his life-long dream and how being courageous and embracing jeopardy will support your career.

You’ll find the more articles in the March/April edition of Housekeeping Today UK. Subscribe for your edition or browse online here.

Housekeeping Today UK is the place for keeping informed in the hospitality and cleaning industry. Click here to view housekeeping news.