The School of Service Management's Division for Hospitality and Culinary Arts recently hosted the 18th Annual International Research Conference for CHME (the Council for Hospitality Management Education) at the Cavendish Hotel, Eastbourne.
This year, which is actually CHME's 30th year, we welcomed distinguished keynotes speakers from both academia and industry. Professor Gary Akehurst, discussed the new challenges facing applied academics following the RAE2008 and recognising the increasingly competitive environment for publishing and research grants. We were also very lucky welcome Grant Hearn, Chief Executive Officer of Travelodge, who shared his thoughts on how to compete in these difficult economic times, including his best guess for when the upturn would come. We were joined by David McHattie, Chief Executive of the National Skills Academy for Hospitality, who shared his vision and aspirations for the academy and the sector.
On the Friday we were also privileged to welcome Mike Stapleton and Bob Cotton, plus local industrialists Lewis Hamblin (Executive Chef, South Lodge Hotel, East Sussex) and Hilary Knight (Development Manager - Sussex Enterprise and A Taste of Sussex) along side Mike Rimmington from Sheffield Hallam University, who lead a lively and informative debate on the subject of Sustainable Supply Chain Management.
Helen Atkinson (Conference Co-Chair and Division Leader: Hospitality and Culinary Arts) confirmed the conference had been a great success with over 110 delegates attending over three days. "We aimed to encourage partnership with industry through the engagement of many key industrialists in the conference, whilst pursuing academic excellence with the inclusion of key speakers and a high standard of papers and journal association"
In addition to these keynote events, there were 58 papers presented (in parallel sessions) organised across four themes, i) Cultural and Critical Studies in Hospitality, ii) culinary Arts and Technology, iii) Developments in Applied Hospitality Management Research, and iv) Research and Practice in Teaching Learning and Assessment; each with an associated academic journal. We worked hard to gain journal associations for our various streams and are pleased to announce the papers which received commendations.
It wasn't all hard work, we also had fun with two contrasting evening events to distract and relax delegates after a hard days work. On Wednesday evening we had a Black and White themed dinner and Charity fundraising event with casino, where delegates paid to play and the winners received a range of prices including a weekend break in the Cavendish (kindly provided by the Bonnington Group) plus tickets to the Tennis (donated by Eastbourne Borough Council. This evening was highly successful, Steven Goss-Turner said, " We were very pleased to raise £420 for our adopted charity, Hospitality Action". (Hospitality Action, the industry benevolent organisation - helping hospitality people who have fallen on hard times) and to welcome Steve Lowy, founder and managing director of Umi Hotels, who also provided sponsorship for the conference. On Thursday our sumptuous Gala Dinner at the Grand Hotel (part of the Elite group of hotels), included the presentation of two more CHME fellowships to Professor Andrew Lockwood and Professor Stephen Ball, CHME thanked.
Helen Atkinson confirmed the conference success, "We received great feedback from our delegates who thought CHME2009 was a "fabulous three days". View the online photo gallery of the event. " We hope that many delegates will remember the great hospitality on offer in Eastbourne and the great academic debates too".
CHME
School of Service Management News
June 2009
