The hospitality experience is being shaped by guests’ demands for convenience, authenticity and memorability. Designers, consultants and principals are working hard to reflect the values and brand messaging into any of the surroundings or experiences that guests come in contact with. Good designs are impacting the value creation and form communities that result in high retention rates.

As the pandemic dramatically changed how, if and why we travel, the current business environment is prone to have investments cut in areas that used to be untouchable. Covid brought about a rethink on brand positioning, customer value, experience that is coupled with risk management from ownership, operations to service delivery. The industry’s multitude of challenges impacts a clear vision for the future in hospitality experience and what it should look like in the next decade. Join us for a conversation on:

• The best new hotel and F&B concepts coming out of Covid
• Connected experiences: Winning features and products to incorporate
• The owners’ perspective
• Refreshing concepts or timeless classism?
• Does the destination determine the design?
• Delivering lifestyle for Millennials and brand image
• Can you marry large audiences or with bespoke, private individualism?

After record-breaking disruptions to the global hotel industry, traditional year-over-year comparisons have been rendered far less actionable when benchmarking hotel performance data. Each of the four world regions showed a year-over-year decline in hotel pipeline activity at the end of the second quarter, according to June data from STR. Among countries in the region, China has the most rooms in construction (308,062), followed by Vietnam (31,161). Join the session to understand the outlook for hotels in the region.

As the hospitality industry has undergone significant transformation, much of it driven by innovative technology, a growing awareness for the environment as well as a need to restructure operations to reduce costs, increase efficiency and deliver on better experiences, this AHRA panel is to discuss their vision for the next 5 years for ASEAN. The ASEAN Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHRA) roundtable will discuss themes of:

• • Regenerative Travel

There appears to be a major push into “regenerative travel”. Beyond just green initiatives, owners, developers and operators are creating hotels that integrate with the environment in which they are built, ecologically, economically, culturally, and operationally. This is not just for resorts, eco hotels and wellness hotels, guests are delighted by hotels in all sectors that try to integrate, provide a unique experience that is true to the destination and that is genuine.

• • Guest Experience

Changing expectations of the guest and how team members, products and services must change to meet these expectations. Guests now expect higher levels of hygiene and empathetic service because of COVID, but also experiential travel, from location, to design, form, décor and architecture, to food creativity, service efficiency and communication – always available, personal and on demand.

• • Technology

While many hoteliers, and more so technology providers, are talking about how technology can meet the guests needs, in my opinion this is a sales pitch. This is a service industry that requires personal contact, always has been, always will be. The role of technology is to facilitate that personal service, without replacing it. Technology can play a significant role in providing new channels of communication at all points in the guest journey, including pre-arrival communication with the property, facilitating additional service offerings pre arrival, online ordering, booking, revenue management and digital marketing. If we think of these technology advances in terms of how they benefit the guest, we can soon see what value they have, rather than implementing “technology for technology’s sake”. Just because you can create it, doesn’t mean it’s of value.

The hotel stay of the past has checked out, so join us for an exciting exchange between the industry leads of the ASEAN Hotel & Restaurant Association (AHRA) on a return to business with a purpose.

This thought-leader roundtable organized by Food Service Consultants International (FCSI) is to discuss the future of foodservice in APAC with an exciting lineup of experts who will deep dive into the following: Free standing independent branded restaurants:

The list of “tech-ed up” solutions for hospitality is long: Conversational AI, augmented and virtual reality, concierge bots, facial recognition technology, electronic payments, security and privacy issues, self- service automation, voice technology and many others; the convergence continues to digitize hospitality yet seeking to not lose the human touch. The next-gen technologies like AI, robotics, automation, mobility and IoT are removing low-skilled jobs from our industry and will create a raft of new skilled roles. What are the implications and opportunities?

This roundtable is to discuss which and how next-gen technologies are to help operators in the areas:

• Next-gen power tools for day-to-day operations
• Data and deeper personalized guest experience
• Innovating experiences vs digital detoxing
• Experiential marketing and novel entertainment
• Meta and VR: gimmick or game changer?
• Press pause on tech investment or power through a downturn?
• Smaller hotels, OTA and revenue management

We often hear about the smart, the connected, the kitchen 4.0, but the benefits for chefs and operators have been few and far between. Covid may have accelerated certain trends and further emphasized efficiency, automation and integration, however the viability of upgraded systems needs to be balanced with costs, purpose and especially quality of food.

While fully automated kitchens don’t seem to be a reality anytime soon, smart systems are increasingly making their way into operations. As professionals are adapting to new F&B requirements, we want to have the finger on the pulse and discuss:

• Automated kitchen processes for productivity vs ensuring high food quality: Is digitalization really changing the rules?
• How to achieve the best operational workflow with the optimal kitchen design plan
• Must upgrades for equipment, technology and kitchen
• Cost viability for upgraded kitchen equipment: What are the ROIs for new technology
• Kitchen 4.0 or Chef 4.0?
• Challenges and opportunities for technology in the kitchen

Hospitality management and foodservice are digitizing. Skills and staffing are at the heart of a successful business today and understanding or developing new digital skills not only makes one stand out but will also strengthen career prospects. This seminar is to discuss the changes from the staffing and skills perspective:

• Convergence of technologies and skills transformation
• Up-skilling, re-skilling of staff
• Outlook, opportunities and government’s Initiatives in Singapore
• Skills, service and reverse mentoring
• Removing low-skilled jobs from the industry and creating new skilled roles

This Masterclass is for anyone who is interested in turning food waste into energy and fertilizer instead of paying for disposal or using a lot of electricity or water to get rid of it. In this masterclass, we will explore what the state of the art is in food waste collection and why anaerobic digestion is the most sustainable method for treating food waste. Anaerobic digestion allows both the energy and the nutrients contained in the surplus and leftovers to be used. The workshop will allow foodservice consultants to understand how the hospitality industry can benefit from this technology. Michael and Hannes will also touch upon when the vision that commercial kitchens generate their own energy and fertilizer from their food waste may become a reality.

The Masterclass consists of three parts:

• Options for food waste recycling in general
• Anaerobic digestion
• The commercial kitchen’s perspective on food waste collection and treatment

Effective kitchen ventilation for healthy, sustainable, and hygienic commercial kitchens is key for any modern set-up. Join us for this seminar to understand how to optimize the kitchen layout design for exhaust airflow reduction, using intelligent systems to measure cooking activities and automate operations, improve air distribution.