Innovate or Disappear - The Future of Hospitality, Presented by Brick & Wonder and ILC | Lena Khalifeh

 I joined this conference on May 14th as a recommendation by a friend. As someone who loves to travel, and explore new places and restaurants, the title stood out to me. In these uncertain times, I am constantly reminded of how many different industries are suffering, and how the only focus now is survival mode. The conference was hosted by Brick and Wonder, a membership collective focused on connecting and supporting real estate and design professionals, and Independent Lodging Congress, a place for independent hotels to connect with other visionaries and thought leaders from the lodging sector. It quickly started off by stating the obvious, everyone has been feeling this existential threat, and although were all in this together, it seems as though were being driven apart.


The mediator posed a series of questions for the various speakers, RP Eddy from Ergo, Ryan Simoneti from Convene, Mathew Goodrich who’s an interior designer, Aliya Khan from Marriot, and Scott Williams from Nantucket Project. The first question posed asked whether their focus at work was on survival, maintaining supply chain, protecting employees and consumers, and so on. Ryan Simonetti explained that for the team at Convene, the first part of the pandemic we faced was really focused on the health and safety of their employees and consumers. They immediately shut down all their locations, even prior to SIP, and the business went into survival mode undergoing all the tough processes such as lay off and furloughs. On a more optimistic mode, he said that now the focus is on

“what we need to do as a business and platform to be relevant and continue to create value for our customers.”
He continued to say that it is crucial to
“focus on innovation moments” because in times like these there is “such an opportunity as trends tend to accelerate.”
Aliya Khan then followed up with a very interesting question:
“how does one retain the ability to be sensible but to also dream.”
Her question was phrased in an intriguing way because everyone is so focused on being practical and easy, but how should businesses plan to re-open in a way that makes people comfortable, but also creates inspiration. She referenced a model that went viral on social media referred to as the “Amsterdam Glass Cabin Model” to emphasize how the best design often comes out of the worst of situations. She wants businesses to really reimagine a way that doesn’t compromise but is also a memorable and experiential, she says,
“let’s find fun and intuitive ways to start helping people navigate as we go through this new journey.”
Mathew Goodrich stepped in to point out that a lot of the business models in this specific industry (restaurants and hospitality) are not operational at any capacity. Everyone is thinking of new ways to communicate new behaviors in a natural way. There is this new sense of personal space that needs to be respected, and whether you’re a restaurant owner or design firm, it seems to be that the words “premium” and “safe” are not synonymous.


The Panelists:

  • RP Eddie – Founder and Chairman at Ergo
  • Ryan Simonetti – Co-founder and CEO of Convene
  • Mathew Goodrich - Interior Designer
  • Aliya Khan – VP of Design at Marriot
  • Scott Williams – President at Nantucket Project


A brief presentation showed by RP Eddy demonstrating likely scenarios coming out of this pandemic:   


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