Delegates gather in Transylvania for Regenerative Hospitality Summit 2024

 

14th July 2024

Delegates from across Europe and the US gathered in Transylvania, Romania, from 5th to 8th May 2024, for the Regenerative Hospitality Summit.

Co-hosted by the Oxford Cultural Collective and Ulster University, the event explored the regenerative potential of the hospitality sector, to help communities, places and natural eco-systems thrive.

Discussions focussed on a number of issues, including:

• The inadequacies of established approaches to ‘sustainability’ in the face to multiples crises facing the planet and humanity.
• The need for a fundamental shift in mindset, including in business, to see ourselves as contributors to the living systems of which we are a part.
• The need to adopt local, place-based contributions to regeneration, which are engaging, empowering and impactful.
• Approaches to releasing the innate potential of hospitality to create conditions within which people, places and natural ecosystems can flourish.
• The business case for adopting a ‘higher purpose’ for hospitality, focused on its regenerative capacity.
• The role of higher education in promoting the regeneration agenda.

The summit opened with a powerful contextual contribution from OCC Patron Anna Pollock, known as a champion of ethical business practice and a pioneer in the field of regeneration, and Bill Reid, Principal of Regenesis, a renowned regenerative design, living systems and education organisation based in the US.

Over the next couple of days, a series of ‘in conversations’, facilitated by Donald Sloan, focused on the work of key delegates and opened up broader discussions about hospitality-led regeneration in a range of urban and rural locations. Contributors included Michele Shirlow, CEO of Food NI, the body responsible for developing and promoting Northern Ireland as food and drink destination; Skye Gyngell, Executive Chef of Heckfield Place, a hotel and estate which incorporates a regenerative farm; Peter Millican, Chair of Parabola, a ‘place making’ development and investment agency which is creating a new 50-acre cultural and business quarter in Edinburgh; Eugen Vaida, Director for Romania of the King’s Foundation, which is leading regenerative development in rural locations across Transylvania; and Professor Ioannis Pantelidis, Head of the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Events Management at Ulster University, co-host of the Summit.

In addition to providing opportunity for valuable discussion and the formation of new professional alliances, the aim of the summit was to be a catalyst for new and impactful projects. A number of large-scale initiatives are now in planning, inspired by the summit, and announcements will follow soon.

 

 

The Regenerative Hospitality Summit was generously supported by the Savoy Educational Trust, Ratiu Family Charitable Foundation, Connected NI and Ulster University.