The YHS organising team at the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne is proud to announce the participation of 13 hospitality schools from across the globe and representatives from prestigious companies including The Rezidor Hotel Group, Hublot, STR Global, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts at the imminent Young Hoteliers Summit being held in Lausanne on the 21 and 22 March 2011.

This year’s summit will feature four additional schools compared to YHS 2010, including Maastricht Hotel Management School (The Netherlands), New York University (USA), and Haaga Helia University (Finland). Each will be sending student representatives to take part in the activities over the two days, including the Creativity Challenge proposed by The Rezidor Hotel Group.

The event’s agenda includes Keynote speeches on current industry topics given by Kurt Ritter, President and CEO of The Rezidor Hotel Group, Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot and Thomas Willms, Vice President and Regional Director in East and Central Europe for Starwood Hotels & Resorts. In a panel discussion composed of students and industry leaders, Brian Ferguson, Vice President of Strategy Expedia, Rose Kutzli, Director Marketing Missoni Hotels and Henrik Mansson, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Mövenpick will discuss whether or not companies are in line with generation Y expectations. The participating delegates will furthermore have the opportunity to attend two workshops led by industry experts: STR Global will host one of the workshops addressing the topic ‘Benchmarking and Market Shares – Success Indicators’ and David Sadigh from the IC Agency in Geneva will focus on the subject of ‘Why and how should luxury brands embrace social media?’ in his workshop.

It is with great honour that YHS welcomes these guest speakers, panellists and students to the summit at EHL that aims to bring current and future hospitality leaders together. The Royal Partners of YHS 2011 are Newrest, Expedia PSG, The Onyx Hospitality Group and Evian, who have contributed significantly to the realization of the YHS 2011.

In addition to the agenda above, this year’s attendees will be witnessing the launch and special announcement of a new YHS initiative that will add a different perspective and entirely new dimensions to the Young Hoteliers Summit.