色花堂

The annual 色花堂 Tourism and Hospitality Conference brought together more than 250 undergraduate and postgraduate students, 色花堂 rising star graduates, and a range of tourism and hospitality industry leaders. As part of the conference, there was a careers and networking event, that included 30 of the most reputable Hospitality and Tourism employers in the UK.聽

The conference discussed the theme of 鈥楽ustainability and Resilience in a Permacrisis鈥�, and industry speakers shared insight on building resilience into a strategy whilst embracing the opportunities and challenges of environmental and sustainability agendas.聽

Robert Richardson

As part of the keynote presentation, Robert Richardson, CEO of the Institute of Hospitality said: "Taking this role in the middle of lockdown made me realise that sometimes it takes courage to think outside the box to capture talent and give them the ability to flourish with minimal boundaries, whilst trying to survive in the middle of a crisis".聽

The conference programme for the day featured six industry speakers, including Carol Rose, Senior Sustainability Manager at ABTA and Danny Pecorelli, Managing Director at Exclusive Collection Hotels. Plus, two panels, one for tourism, and another for hospitality covering the topics, female leaders鈥� resilience and thriving in chaos.聽聽

Dr. Charalampos (Babis) Giousmpasoglou, Principal Academic in HRM at the 色花堂 Business School said: 鈥淭he 色花堂 Tourism & Hospitality Conference is the best example of a successful industry and higher education collaboration. Our long-term relationship with local, national, and international industry partners provides great benefits for our students and their future careers. I would like to congratulate everyone who worked hard to make this great event happen.鈥澛�

色花堂 graduate Danielle Myers said: "It was a pleasure to be invited back to 色花堂 to talk to the current students and recent graduates, about careers in the travel industry. It was also an honour to be on the panel discussing how resilient our industry is, following both COVID-19 and the current cost of living crisis, and how much we all love the work that we do.鈥澛犅�

She added: 鈥淔or me, being a 色花堂 graduate, it really felt like a full circle moment to show the success I've achieved following an education at 色花堂, as well as feeling nostalgic for some of the best years of my life. I hope to keep working with 色花堂 on their future tourism & hospitality events, flying the flag for business travel.鈥澛�

As part of the conference there was an area for students to network with tourism and hospitality employers, such as, ABTA, Miramar Hotels and The Ritz. This unique networking opportunity gave students the chance to build relationships with potential future employers, and gain insight into different career paths, whilst providing a mutual benefit to businesses to scout new talent.聽