EHL student team wins Master Innholders competition
EHL was the winner in this challenging new competition for hospitality management schools, launched as part of the Master Innholders General Managers Conference 2010. The theme - “Y Innovate?” - required students to prepare a 10-minute video about innovation in hospitality and to put it on YouTube. The form of the competition was as innovative as its subject, and well suited to EHL students’ technological prowess and creativity!
Five other hospitality management schools took part in the inaugural challenge: Oxford Brookes University, Bournemouth University, Birmingham College of Technology, Sheffield Hallam University and Westminster College. After two rounds of judging, the EHL team was declared the winner by an expert jury that included a representative of the Master Innholders, a representative of Springboard UK., and Professor Keith Goffin of Cranfield University.
The EHL team then left on its prize-winning study trip to London where they presented their work live at the Conference, learned about new hospitality trends and issues, enjoyed exploring the two trendy, high-tech hotels at which they stayed during the Conference, and were presented with their award during a ceremony at the Jumeirah Carlton Hotel.
The Master Innholders Conference is the hospitality industry’s leading annual discussion forum – inspired by general managers for general managers. It is organized by the Master Innholders – a company whose roots go back to the medieval guilds of the 16th century and whose aim today is to reinvigorate traditions and support improving standards within the industry. For the past two years, the Conference has been telecast live, as a result of the initiative and involvement of EHL professors Ian Scarth and Ian Millar. Thanks to the telecast, the Conference has become interactive: this year, viewers could tune in to see the student videos, watch the EHL team collect its award, and follow the many interesting presentations.
The winning team
The EHL team was made up of four final-year Bachelor students:
- Matthew Brandt, a Canadian student living in Switzerland, in the resorts and leisure stream.
- Lisa-Jane McBain: The only girl on the team, also in the resorts and leisure stream. She is Scottish but has lived all over the world, and her heart is in Hong Kong, a city she deeply loves.
- Emile Crettex: a Swiss/Colombian in the finance stream, who has lived in over 7 countries.
- Jason Netos: A Swiss/Greek who has lived in Greece, Switzerland and Australia and who is in the marketing stream.
The competition required 8 weeks of intensive preparation – in addition to the normal EHL heavy courseload. Why did the students decide to enter?
We decided to take part in the competition because we liked the challenge and thought we could contribute to the competition. The team meetings were mostly fun and full of very creative and innovative ideas. It was a lot of work. To win after all the effort was extremely rewarding… The prizes were great!
The most important thing for me however was the company of the team. We went out together and had a blast in London. It was pure fun!
