Once a year the hotel project people get together, it's not that they're shy or particularly anti-social - they're just busy people, doing all they can to make sure the projects get delivered on time.

And so when they do get together in one place, there's a lot to talk about: new projects, new products, new challenges. It is a truly dynamic industry and if you don't come out of your bunker occasionally to look around, you will miss something.

The 7th HI Design EMEA brought 227 of Europe's busiest hotel project Specifiers and Suppliers to Split, Croatia last month. Delegates were also able to meet TOPHOTELPROJECTS Director, Christian Berke who was representing at his first HI Design as official Event Partner.
 
95 Buyer delegates from the leading Design Agencies and hotel groups attended, all senior decision makers with live, confirmed projects throughout the EMEA region. They come for very good reasons: to source the best products and get to know the people behind them; to soak up as much fresh regional knowledge as possible and to savour a rare chance to catch up with one another. They also come to enjoy the world class Seminar Programme: an overview of the international hotel project pipeline, a Personal View from keynote speaker Patrick Reardon, a fascinating journey into Nanotechnology, led by Dr. George Elvin and finally the HI Design panel took us through the life of a project from Vision to Reality. For information-hungry Design Professionals, it's the most intensely productive 3 days possible.
 
The 85 Supplier company places were sold out months before the event. One look at the Buyer list will help to explain why. But it's not just the quality of the Buyers that makes this event unique: it's the quality of the access that counts. 2 full days and 3 evenings away from projects in a very special bubble. It allows people to get to know each other. It's where new partnerships are born and where existing ones can develop.
 
Here's a statistic to ponder:

98.9% of the attending Suppliers said it is likely their company will be specified for future projects after attending HI Design. The rest simply felt it was too soon to say.
 
1564 meetings took place over the 2 business days. That's an incredible amount of information being exchanged. The 65 Buyer companies each had a table, ready to meet as many qualified Suppliers as they reasonably could. This was just the start. The Supplier Showcase provided a bustling bazaar of the latest Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment for time-pressured specifiers to touch and feel. David Rooney, Design Director at Luxe Interior International put it well: 'The Showcase acted as a logical extension of the meeting process. One could specify from the selected supplier with complete confidence.'
 
And after each intensely productive day, the pace changes. The mood changes too as the evening networking unfolds. This is where delegates realise they're in the company of friends, new and old. And as the sun descends over this very special gathering, the hotel project people really start to enjoy the gentle, purposeful buzz and realise that finding the right hotel project partners just got a whole lot easier.
 
Serving the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions, HI Design brings the hotel project people together on neutral ground to talk business. Please see our website for date and venue details of next year’s event
 
www.hidesign-emea.com

The 4th HI Design Asia will happen in Bali in November. Limited places remain - be quick!
 
www.hidesign-asia.com

HI Design EMEA and HI Design Asia are official Event Partners to TOPHOTELPROJECTS, TOPHOTELCHAINS, TOPHOTELANALYTICS and TOPHOTELLEADS, the leading research company for international hotel data.

www.tophotelprojects.com