Now in its fifth year, Passion4Hospitality 2015, which took place on 19 March at Novotel London West, provided an excellent platform for hospitality management students at the start of their careers.
The all-day programme included inspirational stories from a variety of operators at all stages of their careers, speed networking and one-to-one careers advice, the student debating competition and the HOTS Business Game to successfully operate a virtual resort hotel.
The debate
The subject of the debate was: “This house believes that social media is a force for good for hospitality managers.”
Gillian Hayes FIH, vice chair of the Institute of Hospitality Executive Council and moderator of the live final, said that the quality of public-speaking and persuasive skills and the marshalling of research displayed by all the teams had been very high, but only two could go through to the live final.
Teams from the University of Derby (Victoria Colman, Aditya Prasad, Elsje Hugo) and Hotelschool The Hague (Charlotte Loijson, Olivier van der Koelen and Piet Degen) went head-to-head in front of a large audience of academics, industry leaders and students.
Arguing for the motion, The Hotelschool The Hague team highlighted social media as a powerful marketing tool which allowed small businesses to compete with large ones.
Arguing against the motion, The University of Derby team underlined that the majority of the population is not represented on social media and a consequent failure by hospitality managers to target the older demographic could be costly. They also highlighted the high percentage of fake online reviews and the problems these caused.
An audience vote declared Derby the winners of the debate and the three students received their trophy from Michael Sloan FIH, general manager of the Novotel London West.
The judging team was led by Gillian Hayes FIH and consisted of Sally Messenger FIH, WordSkills Projects Director, North Warwickshire & Hinckley College; Petra Clayton FIH, managing director, Custard Communications; and Lewis Greenwood AIH, graduate trainee manager at BaxterStorey and member of the Bournemouth winning team in the 2014 debate.
HOTS Business Game
The HOTS Business Game consisted of a competition to successfully operate a 200- bedroom Mediterranean hotel over a period of six months. Teams from Manchester Metropolitan University, Bournemouth University, Plymouth University, University College Birmingham and Westminster Kingsway College competed on the day.
For the second year running, a team from Bournemouth University achieved the highest level of profitability and was declared the winner.
The HOTS Business Game was administered by Peter Russell, operations manager of HOTS (The Total Simulator Company), and Debra Adams MIH, head of professional development at arena4finance.
Speakers and participants
- Speakers and participants on the day included:
- Peter Avis MIH, general manager, Babylon, The Roof Gardens
- Ian Doughty MIH, director, Turpin Smale
- Sally Beck MIH, general manager, Lancaster London
- Janine Desai, regional HR director, Hilton Metro
- Liz Hartstone FIH, managing director, Liz Hartstone Executive Search
- Stuart Johnson FIH, general manager, Brown’s Hotel
- Howard Field FIH, Hotels Sector Specialist Advisor
- Jason Smith MIH, managing director, Yummy Jobs
- Justyna Bednarz, hospitality manager for Aramark at Microsoft
- William Sloan, chef de brigade, The Ritz
- Anthony Cardwell, chef de brigade, The Ritz
- Kiril Topalski AIH, deputy manager, The Restaurant Group
The teams
- Eight teams participated in the debating competition:
- Sheffield Hallam University
- The Hotelschool, The Hague
- Bournemouth University
- Cardiff Metropolitan University
- University College Birmingham
- Manchester Metropolitan University
- University of Derby
- University of Brighton