Sleep reveals conference programme
After ten years of investigating trends and setting new ones, one of the most anticipated events in the European hotel design industry, Sleep, has revealed its upcoming conference programme. Intended to spark debate about the developments transforming hospitality, this year’s two-day conference at London’s Business Design Centre engages with key decision makers, inviting visitors to join discussion and shape the future of the industry.
Conference chair Guy Dittrich, Editor-at-Large for Sleeper Magazine, will chat with Will Meyer and Gray Davis about their recent projects, including the redesign of the Paramount in NYC and 1 Hotel South Beach Miami. The keynote session on the second day of the conference sees Martin Brudnizki divulge his secret recipes for creating award-winning hotel and restaurant designs.
On hand to deconstruct the process of hotel branding will be Professor Angela Roper, who is currently conducting an industry-wide study about the topic as director of the International Centre for Hotel & Resort Management at the University of West London. Joining her will be Philippe Perd, Senior Vice President Operations and Project Development of the Oetker Collection, the operators of London’s recently renovated Lanesborough Hotel, and Mark Jory, founder of the international branding agency, Latitude. With newcomers like Curio and Canopy by Hilton, Tribute Portfolio and Sheraton Grand by Starwood, plus Moxy and Autograph by Marriott, hotel brands continue to proliferate rapidly. This panel of experts will explore the merits of having such a wide spectrum of brands, and question whether they bring differentiation or, from the guests’ perspective, all begin to merge into one.
Contemplating what makes a hotel successful, as well as the most common barriers to a profitable project, Simon Hudspeth, Principal of Hotel Investment and Asset Management, will moderate a panel on global hotel development. Tim Walton, Vice President of International Development at Marriott; Johanna Lundstrom, Development Director of UK, Germany and Northern Europe for Meliá Hotels; and Eric Jafari, MD of Union Hanover Securities, join Hudspeth to consider where the UK is in the new build hotel development cycle, and whether there is opportunity and appetite for more.
Making its debut at this year’s conference is Sleep Essentials – rapid tutorials offering designers and independent hotel owners to join small group sessions with the industry’s specialists, to learn from the experts and meet fellow colleagues. Sleep will also feature a panel composed of directors from top hospitality design studios, including Ariane Steinbeck of RPW Design, Wilson Associates’ Tristan Auer, Alex Michaelis from Michaelis Boyd, Margaret McMahon of Wimberly Interiors and Seyhan Ozdemir from Autoban. Having worked on a variety of projects from independent boutiques to luxury resorts, the industry leaders will be debating how to make design pay.
Another new attraction at this year’s Sleep event, called Convergence, provides a platform of installations and conference presentations examining the transformation of spatial use within modern hotels. The new addition comes as a timely response to the soaring popularity of lifestyle brands like Ace and CitizenM – which have created hybrid lobby concepts that merge work and shared living spaces – and the ventures of Claridge’s and the Mondrian South Bank into the realm of luxurious fitness clubs, with celebrity trainers for both guests and private members. Architecture and design practice Perkins+Will has plans to consider each different area within a hotel and develop a design proposal tailored to the needs of today’s professionals, for whom the office is increasingly becoming an abstract idea.
Sleep will take place on 24-25 November at the London Business Design Centre.
