The Young Hospitality Summit (YHS) is an annual conference hosted by Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, that focuses on the hospitality industry in commerce, entrepreneurship, and social responsibility.
The March 13th – 15th summit included various activities, from thought-provoking discussions to various networking opportunities, and the YHSChallenge where teams worked to create a solution to the case presented.
With this year's theme, "Circularity", YHS 2023 brought together 40 speakers, 74 delegates from 38 institutions, and guests from around the world to present their vision of the future.
Congratulations to Sarah Botzenhart, our 5th year Hospitality & Tourism Management (HTM) co-op student! Her team took home a 2nd place trophy from the international summit!
Sarah was selected amongst a field of strong students in HTM, demonstrating both outstanding academic skills, extra-curricular involvement, and strong work experiences that prepared them for their engagement with other top students on the international stage. After being shortlisted by HTM faculty, she was then selected by the executive committee of YYS in Lausanne, Switzerland. Thank you to Dr. William Murray for his support and guidance to our YHS competitors.
In this Q&A session, Sarah describes her YHS experience, highlights, presentation and advice for future students interested in the competition.
Describe your YHS experience.
YHS truly was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity and the greatest experience I could have ever hoped for! The guest speakers were incredibly passionate industry leaders, who were truly inspiring. Meeting and working with motivated and engaged hospitality students from all over the world was very unique and provided me with lifelong memories. I am so grateful to the Lang School of Business and Economics and the School of Hospitality, Food & Tourism Management at the University of Guelph for this chance to attend YHS! A special thank you also goes out to Professor Murray, along with all other HTM faculty, who have guided and supported me throughout my academic journey over the past five years!
What was your presentation about?
This year’s challenge presentation was about the NEOM project in Saudi Arabia and explored innovative solutions in the five dimensions of culture, public spaces, mobility, technology and interfaces, and entertainment. The overall theme of the challenge was circularity. My team’s (Team 14) approach to the presentation was rooted in simplicity and connectivity and we prioritized spiritual and mental health and well-being by exploring ideas such as daily meditation practices, circular pine forests, an activity-based incentive system, virtual reality technologies, and cultural heritage festivals. We backed up our ideas with reliable industry evidence and connected them to the everyday Neom citizen’s journey from a hospitality perspective.
What was the highlight of the Young Hospitality Summit?
My personal highlight of the YHS was the ability to meet so many amazing personalities from all across the world. Collaborating and getting to know my team was such a great experience as we all had different backgrounds, educations, and presentation styles. Presenting our case in front of such a large audience was quite intimidating to me, however, I am incredibly thankful for the experience as it allowed me to become more confident as a public speaker. Finally, my team making it into the Top 3 groups and participating in the final Q&A session with the panel judges was very exciting. Taking home second place overall was incredibly rewarding.
Do you have any advice for students considering this competition in the future?
I strongly recommend future students to apply for YHS as it truly is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The hospitality lessons learned at YHS are genuinely valuable and participating in the challenge allows students to grow immensely. Students will rarely receive the opportunity to meet and work with hospitality students, who are all incredibly motivated and smart, from dozens of different nationalities and schools. Apart from the hospitality perspective, students will get to visit the Lausanne area in Switzerland, which is absolutely beautiful!
