EHL Innovation Rewind

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Last month’s EHL Open Innovation Summit in Lausanne felt less like a conference and more like a living lab: alongside 385 participants from 20-plus countries we sat shoulder-to-shoulder with hospitality, food, and travel visionaries to tackle seven real-world innovation challenges. Over 1.5 intense days, 48 speakers, enterprising students, and 15 tasting-table start-ups showed how AI, sustainability, and human-centered design can—and must—co-exist. From forest walks that slowed our pace to lightning labs that sped it back up, the experience proved that tomorrow’s hospitality is tech AND human, profitable AND purposeful. The spirit of open collaboration ran deep, turning knowledge-sharing into hands-on co-creation and setting a new benchmark for regenerative, systems-level change. We left energized, convinced that this was just the first chapter of a much larger movement catalyzed by EHL’s Innovation Hub.

EHL Innovation Rewind: Sarah Marquis on Why the Future of Travel Must Be Felt, Not Engineered

While attending the EHL Open Innovation Summit in Lausanne, we met with Sarah Marquis, National Geographic Explorer, to talk about the future of travel and what makes it truly meaningful. In our conversation, she reflected on the importance of emotional connection, the irreplaceable value of walking, and how real travel is never about technology but about presence, feeling, and being part of the natural world.

EHL Innovation Rewind: Michael Levie on Middleware, Microdata and the Jam Session Spirit of CitizenM

At the Open Innovation Summit hosted by EHL, we sat down with Michael Levie, Founding Partner at CitizenM Hotels. We asked him a few questions about where he sees the biggest tech shifts coming in hospitality and what makes CitizenM stand out in the way they work. Michael talked about middleware, microdata and why moving to the cloud is not enough. He also explained how the culture at CitizenM is like a jam session and how that energy still lives on today.