Day Two
11:00-12:00
Quietness With Attitude
We start Day 2 on a more introspective note.
‘Wellness’ has been a staple topic on hotel conference stages for the last 10 years, and we still feel compelled to include it on ours. Covid pressed ‘fast forward’ on the mental health and wellness conversation, removing social taboos, and heightening people’s awareness of wellbeing, their own and of those around them.
And in between the 2020 UK lockdowns we met nestwell, a group of people who have set about (re)defining wellbeing in hospitality whilst creating an agreed standard. Their international collective of design studios for HIX will create immersive installations within the event whilst presenting these concepts on stage.
Think slow design, silent architecture and design for wellbeing. Thankfully, this conversation isn’t going away and remains firmly on the agenda as hotels and guests’ journey towards an enlightened understanding of wellbeing.
12:15-13:00
Redefining materialism: Bethan Ryder in Conversation with Tom Dixon
Founder and eponymous Creative Director, Tom Dixon, is a restless innovator who rose to prominence in the 1980s as a maverick, untrained designer with a line in welded salvage furniture. A master of material innovation, his experimental hands-on approach to design has driven an illustrious 40-year career which has evolved into a globally renowned luxury brand, with representation in 90 countries.
Tom continues to push boundaries, unearthing new materials and reinventing classics as part of the creative process in his quest to offer responsible and timeless design solutions. Design touches every aspect of our lives and nowhere more so than in forming memorable hospitality spaces. In 2007, Tom launched his interiors agency, Design Research Studio, and has since created numerous spaces including the Mondrian Hotel in London, the Drugstore Brasserie in Paris, The Manzoni restaurant in Milan and his own multidisciplinary HQ in Kings Cross which includes the Coal Office restaurant.
In this conversion we’ll discuss some of Tom’s latest projects including his Liquid range for VitrA, plus the importance of materiality in creating hospitality spaces, how design is a multisensory discipline and ask can designers make a difference in a post-pandemic world.
14:15-15:00
Truth, Trust and Loyalty
You want the truth? The truth is that this session isn’t technically about hotel design.
In fact, Dexter is not from the world of hospitality at all. As the former speech writer for Google, Head of Communications at Facebook, SpaceX, and now for The Oversight Board (the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg’s that makes high profile content moderation decisions), Dexter knows a thing or two about building community and brand transparency.
At HIX he’ll be exploring truth, trust and loyalty in a world of misinformation and instantly responsive social platforms.
For hotel developers and designers these are generation-defining issues and the key to understanding tomorrow’s customer, Generation Z.
This session is not about marketing offers or loyalty points, it’s about building a meaningful relationship with your first ‘digital-native’ guests.
15:15-16:00
To the Lighthouse
‘Here, where the light is brighter and the wind is wilder, the ocean saltier and the seafood fresher’. The lights go down as we close our talks.
Erik Nissen Johansen tells a story worthy of any Northern European wonder tale. The story of a celebrated hotel designer who buys an island in an outpost of a windblown, barren and exposed Swedish archipelago. Amid winds of 1000 miles per hour, he turns the old Pater Noster Lighthouse into a boutique hotel experience. For more than 100 years, this building gave hope and guided seafarers through treacherous waters, it was home to the lighthouse keepers and their families, a small-scale community.
Now, once again the doors to the old master’s home open, welcoming a new generation of seafarers, nature lovers and pleasure seekers. A safe haven on an island perceived as uninhabitable. An inspiring hospitality metaphor for our times.