Hoteliers Conclave

Hoteliers Conclave '07'

Hotel Association of India organized the Hotelier's Conclave- a first of its kind, event in New Delhi from 23/24 August 2007. The conclave brought together owners and General Managers of Indian Hotels - veterans of the industry and budding professionals with the policy makers of the country.

The Conclave was inaugurated by Smt. Ambika Soni, Union Tourism and Culture Minister. In her inaugural address, the Minister observed that the tourism sector is now being considered as an industry, which would create a large number of employment as well as help in uplifting the standards of the local population. She said that according to a study, 42 million jobs have been generated directly or indirectly in past three years through tourism. We need 150,000 rooms in all categories of hotels by 2010 and for services in these rooms more than 2 lakh jobs have to be created.

Shri S. Bannerji the newly appointed Secretary, Ministry of Tourism also addressed the inaugural session of the Conclave.

Ms. Priya Paul, in her presidential address highlighted the serious bottlenecks of land scarcity, high taxation rates and infrastructural inadequacies, which are hampering growth of tourism sector. She struck a note of optimism in the future growth of the sector by a "more focused and collective public private partnership between the Government and the industry to overcome the constraints and harness the immense potential of tourism sector to contribute to the growth of national economy".

Mr. Nakul Anand, Vice President, HAI proposed the vote of thanks to the Minister of Tourism and Culture, the participants and dignitaries who attended the inaugural session.

Dr. Ghassan AIDI, President, International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IH&RA), Paris; Dr. Carlson Lewis Jenkins, Managing Director and Principal, International Hotel management Institute, Luzern (Switzerland); Mr. Claus Sendlinger, CEO, Design Hotels and Mr. Chandu Chhadha, Managing Director, Chhada, Siembieda & Associates, Hong Kong were among the international experts who shared their perception of hotel industry's requirements in their respective areas of expertise.

After the inaugural ceremonies were dispensed with, the delegates got down to serious business.

The programme of the Conclave was designed with great care and thought to encompass all pertinent issues related to the Industry's growth and development in the country. It was divided into eight inter-active sessions.

Glmpses of the Event :

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The details of session themes and panelists who led the discussions are as follows:

DAY - ONE Thursday, the 23rd of August 2007

Session I: "A View from the Top"

Panelists: Mr. N. K. Singh, Mr. Raymond Bickson, Dr. Ghassan AIDI, Ms. Jyotsna Suri, Ms. Priya Paul, Mr. Nakul Anand

Session II : "What Does The Customer Really Want?"

Panelists: Mr. Vir Sanghvi, Ms. Nandini Verma, Mr. Himmat K. Anand, Mr. Gautam Khanna, Mr. Suhel Seth, Mr. Mahesh Chauhan

Session III : "Marketing India"

Panelists: Mr. Ajoy Misra, Mr. Arjun Sharma, Mr. Kapil Kaul, Mr. Amitabh Kant

Session IV : "Strategy : Balancing Development with Operations"

Panelists: Mr. Manav Thadani Panel Discussion : Mr. Ajay Bakaya, Mr. Rajiv Kaul, Mr. Sanjay Sethi, Mr. Uttam Dave, Mr. Jamshed Daboo

DAY – TWO Friday, the 24rd of August 2007

Session V : "Retaining & Rewarding Talent"

Panelists: Mr. Ajoy Misra, Dr. C.L. Jenkins, Mr. Dhruv Prakash, Mr. Elango R, Dr. Roy C. Wood

Session VI : "Food for Thought - The Way the World Will Eat"

Panelists: Ms. Rashmi Uday Singh, Mr. Rahul Akerkar, Chef Hemant Oberoi, Chef Manjit Gill, Mr. Anjan Chatterjee

Session VII : "Design in Hospitality"

Ms. Priya Paul, Mr. Chandu Chhada, Mr. Claus Send linger

Session VIII : "The Corner Room"

Mr Gautam Anand. Mr. Jagmohan Misra. Mr. Ranvir Bhandari, Mr. V. V. Giri, Mr. Kapil Chopra, Mr. Rohit Khosla

The conclave concluded on a light note with hotel general mangers from hotels sharing some humorous incidents from their experience of managing hotels in the final session tiltled "The Corner Room"

Given the resounding success of the first Conclave, it has been decided to hold the Conclave on a regular basis as HAI's signature event. The Second Hotelier's Conclave is scheduled to be held in New Delhi from 24th to 25th August 2010.

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