HX: The Hotel Experience Starts Sunday

Did you know that the former International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show, set for this weekend, Sunday through Tuesday, November 8-10, at the Javits Center in New York, is more than a century old?

Rebranded in 2015 as HX: The Hotel Experience, what we’ve all known for years as IHMRS is North America’s largest trade event for hotel and foodservice owners, executives, directors, and GMs from across the hospitality spectrum as well as manufacturers and marketers of all things hospitality.

Co-located with Boutique Design New York, a trade fair tailored exclusively to hospitality design professionals, the two shows combined have 900 exhibitors and expect 18,000 visitors. On the exhibit floor, they’re creating three stages for educational sessions and demos; they are HX OnStage: Hotel, HX OnStage: Restaurant and HX Tech. Robin and I will be there emceeing, moderating and presenting a few of the more than 100 educational sessions the show is offering.

From 1-2 p.m. on November 8, Steve Carlson, FCSI, President-Rippe Associates, Minneapolis; Matthew Reis, Sr. Assoc. FCSI, Principal-Tallinger Associates, Buffalo, N.Y.; and Des Hague, Partner-William Caruso & Associates, Denver, are presenting the inside story on their foodservice design projects recently featured in the 2015 FCSI-The Americas Project Showcase. They’ll talk about the design challenges that arose on the projects and favorite new equipment finds, and offer project management advice based on what they learned while working on these foodservice facilities. One of the featured projects is the Javits Center itself, so make sure to grab a meal from the new Marketplace café.

For those who haven’t had the opportunity to see Robin deliver his exclusive Equipment & Supplies Market Forecast: President’s Preview—his annual, day-long, eight-part presentation on the business to come in the next year and beyond—you’ll have a chance to catch a synopsis during HX.  He’ll give an overview of the foodservice market and equipment trends and forecast the business climate in the coming year in a presentation at the HX: OnStage Restaurant stage from 10:15-10:45 a.m. on Monday, November 9.

Bienvenu, the winning Foodservice Pioneering Concept, comes to life at Booth 3201. It’s an innovative small-plates concept that literally unfolds from a 7-ft.-square box (that looks like a hotel foyer table). It includes a work counter, cold case, sink, register, wine case and seating and can go into any nontraditional foodservice space. Design collaborators from Colburn and Guyette, Rockland, Mass., and Bruner/Cott, Cambridge, Mass, will be on hand to explain the concept and there’s a special reception on Monday at 2 p.m. to recognize and congratulate this year’s first-, second- and third-place winners.

Also on Monday, from 3:30-4:30 p.m., Fred Klashman, Publisher of TotalFoodService, and I take on the role of Alex Trebek in the Jeopardy-styled “Test Your Foodservice IQ.” Two games will pit a trio of two-member teams against one another as they test their knowledge on everything from major foodservice equipment companies to food in cinema. Teams comprise pairs of dealers, manufacturers’ reps, consultants and operators including friends from Posternak Bauer, Eastchester, N.Y.; Pecinka Ferri, Fairfield, N.J.; and Romano Gatland, Amityville, N.Y. Winning teams get $500 to donate to a charity of their choice.

For a full take on all of the sessions and events at HX, go to thehotelexperience.us.

See you there!

Beth Lorenzini

Editor-In-Chief