Lausanne | On 5 and 6 July, the campus of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne will be hosting a conference entitled “Hospitality & Leisure: Business Advances & Applied Research”. This conference will offer researchers and players in the hotel sector an opportunity to exchange their points of view on matters as enthralling as the development of the Chinese hotel industry, the latest innovations in the gambling sector or the hotel industry in times of crisis (political disturbances, terrorist attacks, etc.). These two days, organised jointly by the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and the University of Indiana (USA), will alternate between plenary meetings and workshops and will bring together from all over the world personalities recognised in their respective sectors.

The purpose of this conference, which will be devoted to advances in the hotel and leisure industry, will be to examine the added value of applied research in this sector and to define the advantages and the difficulties of the “ applied research - trade circles” relationship.

Various workshops will be organised around this debate, inter alia, on topics such as:

• Human resources (How to attract and keep the best talents)
• Innovation and creativity (Innovation in gambling or culinary products)
• Environment (Integrating social responsibility into the hotel and leisure industries)
• The new hotel and tourist challenges on the Chinese market.

All sorts of subjects, from placing one-arm bandits in the rooms of a casino in order to maximise profits to e-fitness, not to mention human resource management in periods of crisis, will be covered by famous specialists. The opening of this conference will be attended also by Mr. Peter Lorange, Chairman of IMD and professor of strategy, and Mrs. Sequaris, Chairperson of HOTREC (which represents hotels, restaurants and cafés at European level, embodies 36 national trade and employers' associations and defends the interests of the sector in 22 European countries). Mrs. Eva Brechtbühl, a member of the Management of Switzerland Tourisme will also be present.

At a time when new technologies and new hotel markets are recording unprecedented growth, the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and the University of Indiana were keen on bringing the latest forecasts of applied research and recent developments in this area to the attention of professionals working in the hospitality industry.