IHI HNN May 2022 Issue by Irish Hospitality Institute

HNN HOSPITALITY NETWORK NEWS

IHI National Hospitality Business Management Game 2022 Winning Team from GMIT; Emer Leonard, Julia Rodriguez de la Fuente, Ellen Ryder and Skye Stagno Navarra

MAY 2022

HNN CONTENTS 4 President's Note 6 Classic Drinks Wine Trends 9 New Members 10 Visit to Center Parcs for Business Game Winners 12 Great National Group announce the appointment of Dermot Kelly to the Board 14 Irish start-up makes the cut for Sodexo Accelerator Programme 18 Crystal Air Celebrates 25 Years in Business 20 West Cork Chef Academy; A Grassroots Initiative

PRESIDENT'S NOTE

Dear Member, Like many of you, I was delighted to hear last week the Government announce the 9% VAT rate will be extended for the hospitality sector until February 2023. This will provide muchneeded support to our industry as we continue our crusade to rebuild our businesses. Along with that bit of good news, I am very excited to inform you all that the IHI Hospitality Management Awards and Founders Evening will be back this year on Thursday, 24th of November at the Clayton Hotel Burlington Road. The IHI Board along with the IHI team are ecstatic to bring back this very renowned awards evening. It is a "can't miss" in the industry calendar, so please be sure to make a note in your diaries. Details regarding nominations will be sent out next month and nominations will open on the 4th of July. Limited sponsorship opportunities are still available, so please contact tina.maree@ihi.ie for details. The IHI team have promised a bigger and better event after two years of hiatus so as they say, watch this space! Plans are also underway for summer BBQs in Munster and Leinster towards the end of June and details will be shared soon. Just yesterday, we held our 56th Annual General Meeting and I am delighted to welcome our new Board Directors; Lynn McLoughlin MIHI, The Gibson Hotel, Mark Dunne MIHI, Mount Juliet Estate and Eveanna Ryan MIHI, Connacht Hospitality Group. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our retiring Board Directors, Edward Stephenson FIHI, Detta Melia FIHI and Muireann King MIHI for their contribution over the past number of years. All the best,

Brian Bowler IHI President 4

Save the Date The IHI Founder's Evening & Hospitality Management Awards are back 24th November 2022 Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please call Tina Maree on 01 6624790 for details.

Welcome to our new Members

Emma Jacobs People & Culture Manager The Montenotte Hotel Dr Andrea Moloney Lecturer Atlantic Technological University

Welcome New Business Partners

MF Services provide and support complete access systems for Hotels and their guests, including hotel locking systems and hardware, automatic doors, CCTV, carpark management systems and electric vehicle charging. Our products are designed to improve the guest experience and provide management and owners with both peace of mind and opportunities to generate extra revenue streams by offering a wider range of services to patrons. All our systems have evolved with the needs of our customers and we can now offer locking systems that let guests use their smartphones to access rooms and entrances along with parking systems and EV charging points. All elements integrate with your guest access system to form a complete solution from the street or carpark through to your guest rooms. All our installations are carried out by industry trained and certified installers and we hold all the relevant security and standards based certification to stand over our work. We support all our customers with a nationwide 24/7 service team and are always happy to visit sites to deal with challenges. With over 37 years of service focused business behind us you know your in good hands with MF Services. For more information or an on site consultation on how we can help you, please contact our team at 0214348996 or check out our website @www.mfservices.ie 9

National Hospitality Business Management Game Winners travel to Center Parcs

The winning team at the Irish Hospitality Institute National Hospitality Business Management Game 2022 from GMIT (now ATU), Emer Leonard, Julia Rodriguez de la Fuente, Ellen Ryder and Skye Stagno Navarra enjoyed their wonderful prize of an overnight stay at Center Parcs last week. The team were met by the senior management team who very kindly gave their time to sit and discuss their various roles, careers and responsibilities with Center Parcs. The entire team at Center Parcs were so great and we would like to say thank you for taking the team on the extensive tour and for answering all their questions and of course a very special thank you to Daragh Feighery MIHI, Village Director, Center Parcs Longford Forest for organising the prize.

Great National Group announce the appointment of Dermot Kelly to the board.

“We are delighted to announce that Dermot Kelly has been formally appointed to the board of Great National Hotels and Resorts Group. Dermot who is a graduate of GMIT and a hugely respected Hotel Operator of over 20 years, has been appointed as Group Commercial Director, where he will oversee our hotel management division and take his seat as a director of the Group in advising on all areas of our business.” David went on to say that Dermot's expertise, vast experience, exceptional knowledge of our industry and all aspects of hotel ownership and management will be a great addition to the group. The leadership shown by Dermot in heading up our task force at Great National so successfully during the pandemic, alongside his role as Chairman of the Shannon Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation, in tirelessly helping colleagues during that time, was just extraordinary and we look forward to his great expertise in supporting the companies very strong growth plans over the coming years. Dermot Kelly responding to his appointment said “I am delighted to take on the role as Group Commercial Director and to be appointed to the board of Great National Group. I am looking forward to supporting our existing hotel properties and joining an exceptional group of very talented and experienced people throughout the Group We and all the industry are operating in very challenging times and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, critically with recruitment and the increased costs of operating the business, so to continue to develop, retain and grow our teams will be key to how we deliver the overall customer experience.”

Irish start-up makes the cut for Sodexo Accelerator Programme Irish founded start-up Wayleadr is one of five companies to be accepted into the Sodexo UK and Ireland Accelerator programme in partnership with innovation specialist L Marks.

Wayleadr, the solo Irish company to make the cut, will now take part in a 10-week programme to road-test its proposition as part of Sodexo’s aim to collaborate with start-ups in developing innovative new solutions in the areas of smart buildings, employee experience and sustainability. The software as a service start-up reimagines the last mile of commuter journeys by connecting smart buildings with smart vehicles, saving time, rightsizing real estate spend and curbing carbon emissions.

Julie Ennis, CEO, Corporate Services, Sodexo UK and Ireland with Jason Popplewell, CCO and Val Cassidy, head of partnerships and integrations with Wayleadr, at the Sodexo Accelerator pitch day in Dublin

Over 400 start-ups applied to the progamme launched in January 2022 and Wayleadr was one of 21 selected to pitch their business propositions to Sodexo at live events in London and Dublin. The 21 start-ups pitched their innovations (virtually and in-person) to an audience of Sodexo senior leaders, operational teams as well as the organisation’s experts in areas such as sustainability, employee engagement, marketing, supply chain as well as market consultants. In order to ensure solutions relevant to its operations were among the finalists, Sodexo opened up the pitches to its colleagues around the business by live-streaming the events and enabling colleagues to have a say through an app-based voting platform. 14

The other finalists are: Asseticom - a pioneering digital solution that advances asset data collection and building surveying. Hark Systems - a technology company specialising in helping enterprises to improve efficiency and reduce waste by providing visibility and automatic control over assets such as energy metres, building management systems and industrial systemsAdvanced Bacterial Sciences (ABS) - developing next-generation bacterial treatments for waste and water management, pollution remediation and agriculture that boost efficiency, cut maintenance and running costs and regenerate natural systems. Infogrid's AI Building Intelligence Platform makes buildings healthier for occupants, more efficient for managers to operate and more sustainable for the planet. The five finalists will now work with Sodexo teams on a ten-week programme that will enable them to test, refine and adapt their business propositions in a live operational environment. They will be mentored and supported by Sodexo’s subject matter experts, and work within the transformational mindset of the company’s Vital Spaces workplace value proposition. Julie Ennis, CEO Sodexo Corporate Services, UK & Ireland said: “We were delighted with the quality and volume of applications we received for the programme. The pitch days were very exciting and action-packed. “Technology enabled several the start-ups to pitch remotely and by live streaming the event we were able to invite colleagues from across our business, not just in the UK and Ireland, but from around the world to watch the pitches and be involved in the selection process via the voting platform. “The feedback and votes from both days helped us decided on the final five and we look forward to the finding out how these get on during the next stage of the programme, which will test their solutions in our live operations.” Sodexo’s Accelerators innovation programme has already launched in China, Brazil, India, France and Sweden. For the UK and Ireland programme Sodexo has partnered with L Marks an innovation specialist with experience of running over 70 programmes with some of the world's leading companies. Through its extensive global network and rigorous scouting methods L Marks was able to uncover the most promising early and growth stage companies that are operating in food services and facilities management and supported Sodexo in the final selection.

The West Cork Chef Academy; A Grassroots Initiative Karen Healy The West Cork Chef Academy was a notion. A practical solution to a well-established challenge; chef shortages. Add in a rural location and it was a real recipe for frustration and concern. Having visited Rick Stein’s restaurant in Cornwall a few summers before and read about the Chef programmes run there, I had a lightbulb moment. There were remarkable similarities between Cornwall and West Cork. Food provenance and passion for local artisan food was part of the fabric of life in both places. As I sat in the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery in September 2021 between lockdowns, I floated the idea with Neil Grant, the General Manager. He instantly got onboard, his passion and enthusiasm for the local area and its food producers was infectious. That same day we phoned Sally Barnes of Woodcock Smokery to ask if she would come onboard and she didn’t think twice; ‘absolutely’ was sung down the phone ‘count me in.’ One of the takeaways from the pandemic for me was how people had collaborated and we really wanted that to be a part of the experience. We contacted local hotels who had been actively involved in promoting the industry and asked if they wanted to be part of a pilot. Fernhill House, Clonakility, Inchadoney Resort, Liss Ard Estate, Skibbeeren, Eccles Hotel, Glengarriff, Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore, Emmet Hotel, Clonakility, and Blue Haven Hotel, Kinsale all saw the value of ‘growing our own’ chefs and where delighted to be onboard.

We knew we wanted these young chefs to complete a programme that would leave them inspired. We wanted to include visits to local food suppliers, to show the effort and passion these people put into the produce they in turn would be cooking and preparing for customers. Each hotel proposed amazing food experiences for these young chefs from fish smokeries to sea kayaking for seaweed and 7-course tasting menus and everything in between. The course launched on 4th April and will run for 6 months. Each delegate will get additional mentoring back at the home hotel of their choice. They work 4 days a week, with college one day a week and are paid full time by their hotel. They say it takes a village. The West Cork Chef Academy is a testament to hoteliers working together to create something really special.

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