US: More than 130 hospitality leaders gathered in New York last week for a vibrant and thought-provoking Serviced Apartnent Summit Americas.
Day one of the two-day event involved tours of innovative co-working spaces (NeueHouse and The Assemblage) followed by a tour and lively drinks party at AKA Times Square.
A full day’s conference at Convene on Park Avenue featured sessions on data and market analysis, franchising, new business concepts, investment, branding, distribution, development and more. In keeping with organiser International Hospitality Media’s mission to “do things differently” the day began with a mind nourishment session from “Jedi of Calm” Kathleen Booker, and two sessions were organised in workshop format, with the room broken down in to smaller groups to encourage collaborative debate and knowledge sharing.
The audience consisted of established players and start-ups from as far afield as Italy, Peru and the UK.
Serviced Apartment News editor George Sell said: “The event was a great experience, held in an inspiring new venue and with an absorbing agenda, but the most notable thing for me was the number of new faces in attendance, often from young, dynamic hospitality companies who are providing a service which is a hybrid of the best the serviced apartment and short-term rental markets have to offer. We often find ourselves talking about the increasingly blurred lines between hospitality segments, and nowhere have I seen this so clearly demonstrated as at our New York event. For every Oakwood there was a Domio, for every BridgeStreet a StayNovo. Airbnb were here in numbers, and Niido’s Harvey Hernandez shared the stage with AKA’s Larry Korman. Things are changing fast and it is exciting to witness it.”
To download speaker presentations from the Summit click here.
Attendee feedback:
“I love the setting, I love meeting the people here, it’s been very engaging and I’m really looking forward to meeting some more cool people.”
Joseph DiTomaso, co-founder, AllTheRooms
“It’s a great conference. The way it’s structured means there have been opportunities to sit down and have lots of meaningful conversations, which is the foundation of how we move forward, get deals done and do business.”
Bill Hall, SVP of franchise operations, Red Roof
“This has been an amazing conference. We’ve met lots of quality companies and people, and are looking forward to coming to the Europe Summit in the Summer and to be coming back and getting involved with some of the panels here in the future.”
Jay Roberts, CEO and co-founder, Domio
“It’s been great, you have representation from the larger, more traditional operators as well as the new and emerging aparthotel operators. It’s fantastic to see them interacting with each other and it’s been great to be here.”
Ariel Maidansky, CEO and co-founder, Envizzo</p
