The last few months have been quite hectic and for myself personally one main change that has happened was that in May I was elected as Chairman for the Institute of Hospitality London Branch, so I have been busy working with the committee to organise events for our members. One area that I am passionate about is developing individuals so that they can become Hospitality rising stars, and I recently wrote an article in Hotel Industry magazine on just that topic called “Stay on Top of Your Game”

So looking at Continuing Professional Development I often get asked how can this be demonstrated, and other than what I have written about in the above article, I would also like to add that being a member of a professional body can also help with networking and building contacts to take your career further. The various membership grades available from these organisations will also demonstrate your commitment to your industry. I recently upgraded my membership of the Institute of Hospitality to become a Fellow which entitles me to put the designatory letters FIH after my name.

At one of our recent events we ran a CPD presentation on “Sustainability” and heard from Ed Franklin from the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Maria Ana Neves from Plan Zheroes and they gave a very interesting talk on what hospitality organisations can do with their surplus food. Our members that attended this were also presented with a CPD certificate. So my question to you is – what are you doing to demonstrate your professionalism and continually develop yourself?