This weekend I was delighted to be invited back to attend Portugal’s Future Hotelier Summit 2018 which was held at the 5 star resort hotel Monte Da Quinta in the Algarve. The summit is a competition for Portuguese hotel students to compete for a place to represent Portugal at the Young Hotelier’s Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland. There were 14 universities taking part, with 42 student delegates, 30 speakers, 300 attendees and 40 sponsors. This year I was one of their mentors.

Whilst at the summit, I also took the opportunity to present my book ‘Star Quality Talent – Inspiring Hospitality Careers’ to the students alongside Peter Giacomini’s book ‘The Cardboard Suitcase’ which showcases his life in the hospitality industry.

How does the competition work?

The summit’s aim is to create a platform where the future generation of Portugal’s hospitality industry can exchange ideas, participate in discussions with industry leaders, widen their horizons, gain insightful knowledge and access to the industry they will be joining.

The Summit is held annually over 2 days. The delegates are nominated students from the top universities in Portugal studying for a hospitality degree. The students are hosted at the Resort and engage in a weekend filled with an industry challenge, keynote speakers, panels and workshops.

On arrival the students delegates are put in to mixed teams of 3 working with students from different universities. They are introduced to their challenge at the start of the conference. The first day is full of presentations that they need to attend and throughout the day need to get to know their team members. It is only in the evening of that first day over dinner that they get to meet their assigned mentor.

After dinner the students are left to work together through the night on their challenge. The next morning is filled with more workshops for them and they have to submit a 2 minute video pitch and presentation material by lunchtime on that second day. These are judged and the finalists have 10 minutes to present their idea to the audience and judging panel.

The winners of the hospitality challenge will then have the opportunity to participate in next year’s Young Hoteliers Summit at the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in Switzerland, which will be sure to be a once in a life-time opportunity.

What was this year’s challenge?

This year the students working in their teams had to introduce themselves as an organisation and ‘Create an innovative hotel concept that is suitable for all generations’. Below is the 2 minute video pitch that the students I was mentoring put together in the short time frame they had:

What ideas do you have that fits this challenge?