Passion 4 Hospitality
Today I attended the Institute of Hospitality’s Passion 4 Hospitality Student Conference which was held at the Victory Services Club. There was a full line up of industry speakers – including myself.
Peter Ducker, Chief Executive of the Institute of Hospitality opened the conference and then Sally Prescott from “Zest For Life” gave an inspirational introduction on “Sowing the seeds of passion”. Following on from this we heard the career stories from Jonathan Raggett from Red Carnation Hotels, Julian Brackenbury from Celebrity Cruise Liners, Patrick Harbour from Harbour and Jones and Liz Smith Mills a Hotel Consultant. We then heard about the opportunities the industry can give from Simon Baker, HIT Training and two chefs Ronald Diro Dzepasi and Rhiannon Ball from The Lancaster Hotel London.
The next activity involved a speed dating exercise where the above panelists and other industry leaders, as well as myself were able to talk to students about working in the industry and our experiences, and the students had the opportunity to get up close and personal and ask us questions about our careers.
After Lunch Chris Penn gave a very informative and engaging talk on the “Evolution of Hoteliers”. Then it was my turn, although in this slot I was talking in my capacity as Vice Chairman for the Institute of Hospitality London Branch, and gave an short interactive session on “Hospitality is more than just hotels” which is the theme for our next Student Learning and Development Forum to be held in November 2013 as well as informing the students about the Institute of Hospitality’s London Coaching Programme. A video of this can be found here on Youtube.
Peter Ducker then explained about the Janus Foundation and the Hospitality Guild spoke about Higher Apprenticeships in Hospitality Management. This was then followed by the Passion 4 Hospitality Debating Final which was between students from London Metropolitan University and students from The Hague Hotel School in The Netherlands. Both teams gave some great arguments for and against vocational experience versus academic qualifications for a manager in hospitality. The winners were The Hague Hotel School.
The day was rounded off by the keynote speech from Stuart Johnson, Hotelier of the Year 2012 from The Browns Hotel.
All in all a very informative and inspirational day which set out what it aimed to achieve which was to “ignite the flames of passion for a career in hospitality”
A great group of speakers certainly worthy enough to ignite a passion for hospitality within anyone involved with or aspiring to join the industry. Well done IOH!