Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS 2014) Draws to a Close

Over the past 1.5 days, the 53 delegates of the Young Hoteliers Summit have worked

on the FRHI Hotels and Resorts Challenge: providing innovative ideas to implement the employer value proposition of CONNECT – GROW – LIVE, to bring together the three brands of Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel as one family.

Before the challenge was revealed on Tuesday night, the delegates from 26 schools on

5 continents, bringing together the best hotel management schools globally, attended many keynotes, engaged in panels and participated in focus groups and workshops on relevant industry topics today. These topics include OTAs, technology, stakeholder management, hotel acquisitions and recruitment issues in hospitality today. With speakers such as Matt Smith, FRHI Hotels and Resorts, Cyril Ranque, Expedia and Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the UNTWO, the learning opportunities were reflected for the partners as they spent time with the delegates to understand their perspectives on brands, recruitment, graduate programs and more.

The final presentations took place in front of a FRHI Hotels and Resorts jury of Jennifer

DiRaddo (Manager of Campus Recruitment), Matt Smith (Vice President, Talent & Learning), Pierre Botteron, (Vice President, Human Resources – Europe Region), Christian Hoffmann (Manager Human Resources, Europe). Before announcing the winners, Mr Smith told delegates he was delighted with the input, and that "We will be able to use at least one idea from every team here tonight". The implementation of ideas presented will be followed up on and presented online in the next months. The winning team of Dennis Davidson, Hotelschool The Hague; Alexia Douyon, ITH Quebec; Alessandro Cagliesi, Les Roches Switzerland; Kerry Bell-Cross, Stenden South Africa; Teresa Lohr, Washington State University were overjoyed with the recognition and choice of their innovative ideas.

The Young Hoteliers Summit 2014 has now ended, but we can look forward to the

putting into practice of the proposals, as the delegates return to all corners of the globe to pass on their experiences.

About FRHI Hotels & Resorts 
FRHI Hotels & Resorts (FRHI) is a leading luxury hotel management

company that operates more than 105 hotels globally under the Fairmont, Raffles, and Swissôtel brands. The company's distinctive portfolio of luxury and upper upscale hotels features celebrated icons, world-class resorts and stylish city center hotels. Some notable hotels include the Raffles Singapore, Swissotel The Bosphorus, The Fairmont San Francisco and London's The Savoy. Focused on growing its distinctive hotel brands, the company is also developing new hotels in key locations around the world including exciting projects in China, Russia, India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The company also manages Fairmont and Raffles branded estates and luxury private residence club properties. For more information, please visit frhi.com.

About the Young Hoteliers Summit

The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) was founded in 2010 by five students of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), who shared the vision of fostering innovation in the industry through insightful discussions between thought leaders and hospitality students. Today, YHS has become the largest student-run summit in the world, inviting over 30 speakers, 80 delegates and 20 partners to its event every year. During the summit, the delegates have to solve the YHS Challenge set by the summit's most esteemed partner, the Challenge Provider. The team behind YHS consists of over 40 students from EHL Hospitality Business School, speaking over 25 languages and coming from 28 countries. They prepare the event for an entire year. 

Friederike VON BUNAU
YHS Global