Hospitality Design - August 2010 - 48

perspectives
By Stacy Shoemaker Rauen

competition

thinking BIG
This year’s Radical Innovation in Hospitality Award, co-sponsored by the John Hardy Group and Hospitality Design (HD) magazine, was a series of ﬁrsts for the annual competition. With roughly 30 entries from eight countries (almost 40 with student entries), it was the largest turnout in its four-year history; the live audience vote that determines the $10,000 grand prize winner moved from Hospitality Design Boutique Exposition & Conference (HD Boutique) in Miami to Hospitality Design Exposition & Conference (HD Expo) in Las Vegas; and instead of selecting two ﬁnalists to duke it out through live presentations, the esteemed panel of jurors had to bring back three to vie for top honors. “It was just three really excellent and three very different submissions—we decided we could not narrow it down to two and needed to bring all three out to give them a chance to win,” says John Hardy, president/CEO of the John Hardy Group, who served on the jury with Claude Amar, principal, the John Hardy Group International; Michael Medzigian, founding partner, Watermark Capital Partners; Jena Thornton, vice president, hotels acquisitions, Kennedy Associates; Simon Turner, president, global development, Starwood Hotels & Resorts; and James Woods, principal, Keen Partners. “Each one of them either met a real need in the real estate marketplace or they had a unique innovation that the marketplace may be inﬂuenced by sometime in the not so distant future.” “The [ﬁnalists’] concepts portrayed what the future of the industry is gearing toward as the demands and needs of future travelers change,” says Turner. “Gen Y will be the biggest consumer group in history, which will require an evolving and distinct take on design, technology, service, and sustainability—all of which were also addressed through the winners this year.”

Grand Prize Winner: Mosaic
The team from Irvine, California-based WATG—Krystal Solorzano, Jerod Costner, and Karen Mitri—wowed the judges with their submission of Mosaic PATHWAY (Portable Adaptable Temporary Hotel With Alternative You-ses), an outgrowth of temporary relief shelter that delivers affordable, pop-up multi-use hospitality, but sealed the deal with the audience with their dynamic presentation. But perhaps the concept’s overall success lies in the extensive brainstorming process that led to it. “We invited everyone [at WATG] to participate, from accounting to HR, not just the design staff or the designers that stay in these hotels, but the regular person who walks the street,” explains Solorzano, adding that they held three different sessions each with about 15 people. Three different ideas came about—a disaster relief insurance hotel, where people build a mobile hotel room into their insurance policy in the event of a disaster; a cultural emersion hotel, which played on the voluntourism trend; and an open market hotel model, similar to the way the Apple app store works—people can go online,

Clockwise from right: A rendering of WATG’s Mosaic prism set in a remote place; a luxury resort prism; and a food hub for a disaster relief setting.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - August 2010
