Now in its sixth year, Passion4Hospitality 2016, which took place on 14 March at Novotel London West, provided networking and advice for hospitality management students at the start of their careers.
The all-day programme included inspirational stories from operators, speed networking and one-to-one careers advice, the student debating competition and the HOTS Business Game to successfully operate a virtual resort hotel.
Speakers and participants included:
- Liz Hartsone FIH, Hartstone Executive Search
- Emma Langford and Tim West FIH, Lexington Catering
- Matthew Dixon MIH and Paula Frey, Corinthia Hotels
- Sally Main AIH, Harbour & Jones
- Adam Rowledge MIH, The Georgian House Hotel, London
- Wendy Bartlett MBE FIH, Bartlett Mitchell
- Peter Avis MIH, Babylon at the Roof Gardens
- Miles Pooley FIH, The RAF Club
The subject of the debate was: “It’s not worth spending money on staff training. The hospitality industry has such high staff turnover; they all leave as soon as they are trained.”
The finalists from the University of Brighton and HotelSchool The Hague (Joe Gulizzi, Frauke Schuren, Mandy Ho) went head-to-head in front of an audience of academics, industry leaders and students.
Arguing for the motion, The HotelSchool The Hague team said, instead of training, companies need to focus on creating positive corporate cultures that emphasise the personal development of their employees. They argued that the industry’s approach to training is too similar to that of training dogs and this makes people leave because they don’t feel valued.
Plymouth University (Kirsty Chiu, Julia Lau, Sammi Cheung, Kimmy Yuen)The University of Brighton team, arguing against the motion, emphasised that ignoring training puts lives and reputations at risk ( for example, 40% of credit card security breaches occur in the hospitality sector; which could be prevented by better training). They concluded that one important way to make people feel valued is to train them.
An audience vote declared Brighton the winners of the debate and the three students received their trophy from Michael Sloan FIH, general manager of the Novotel London West.
The HOTS Business Game consisted of a competition to successfully operate a 200- bedroom hotel, setting up rate, revenue and marketing strategies.
A special mention must go to Jovanie Tuguinay, a final-year student at Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School, near Sydney, who completed the heats by Skype and then travelled from Australia to take part in the final.
The other teams came from Manchester Metropolitan University, Bournemouth University, Plymouth University, Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Brighton.
The team from Plymouth University achieved the highest level of profitability and was declared the winner.
Passion4Hospitality 2016 was generously sponsored by Fresh Montgomery, Harbour & Jones, Acquire Services, Accor Hotels, Arena4Finance, HOTS, Bartlett Mitchell, Corinthia Hotels, The Savoy Educational Trust and the Council for Hospitality Management Education