20 Mar 2015 by Ian Doughty

I attended the Passion4Hospitality event yesterday, hosted by The Institute of Hospitality. The event was attended by hospitality students from universities across the UK and Europe, including Sheffield, Derby, Plymouth, Bournemouth and The Hague Hotel School.

The day included keynote presentations from the industry from The Ritz and Browns Hotel, Liz Hartstone Executive Search, Yummy Jobs and Babylon.  A Speed Networking session was attended by ourselves, Turpin Smale, Aramark, The Restaurant Group and The Lancaster, giving the students quick overviews from across the industry. Throughout the day teams completed in a HOTS Business Simulation game, which involved operating a theoretical resort hotel. It was good to know that all the teams made money! The overall winners in a close competition were the team from Bournemouth University. 

The afternoon session included The Passion4Hospitality Debating Competition Final, between the Hague Hotel School and the University of Derby. The subject debated was "This house believes that social media is a force for good for hospitality managers", with The University of Derby arguing against and the Hague Hotel School arguing for. The arguments were the most persuavive from Derby who come out on top.

I joined a panel discussion "Get your Career off to a Flying Start" with Peter Drucker, Chief Executive, Institute of Hospitality and Kiril Topalski from The Restaurant Group. Kiril and I have been taking part in the Institutes pilot mentoring programme as mentee and mentor. We discuused how the programme was going, the benefits of mentoring and how the programme could be developed. I was fortunate to have an excellent mentor early in my career and now on the other side of the fence it has made me challenge my views and given me a fresh perspective.

I came away from the event, impressed by the calibre and enthusiasm of the students and  encouraged that the future of our industry looks to be in safe hands.