Innovation in Hospitality Awards

A module in innovation could lead to future careers for budding entrepreneurs and final year Hospitality Management students. The module and subsequent assignment saw industry experts from hotel chain Jury’s Inn and food service and facilities management leaders Compass Group provide input during the module; as well as two awards at the end for the most innovative products.

Winning the Jury's Inn award were James Jenkins, Carla Jinks, Samuel Burns and Dylan Joshua with their concept Inforota. Based on experience whilst on placement and in their part-time jobs they identified a gap in the market, creating an on-line staff rota system that could improve staff scheduling and be seen on mobile devices so that staff and supervisors could access rotas whilst on the move.

Christine Parker and Deborah Ayers from Jury's Inn praised their idea for meeting a real need yet being simple and using existing technology. In fact, like all the best ideas, they wondered why hadn’t anyone thought of it before?

The winners of the Compass Groups award had their eureka moment whilst sitting in the pub. Samantha Davenport, Paul Goodhead, Charlotte Reynolds and Lisa Grainger who, at the time, were all employed part-time in the pub industry were sure that their combined experience would help them come up with an innovative idea. That idea was Slopeaze a new drip-tray concept designed to facilitate the measurement and control of beer wastage. Having made a prototype they tested and received feedback through experimental research in local bar operations.

John Payne and Bill Withers from Compass Group were extremely impressed and thought that the Slopeaze product had the potential to save pub operators a sizeable amount of money.

We look forward to perhaps seeing these innovations in action in the near future.