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- The Sleep Event
- Celebration at Grosvenor House, London
- Russia and CIS Hotel Investment Conference, October 2008
- Eco-Build Event
- Hotel & Leisure Design & Construction Conference: April 2010
- Visit to Belgrade: 2-3 June 2010
- Hospitality Architecture + Design Conference: Macau, June 2010
- REBEC: 21-22 June 2010
The Sleep Event
ReardonSmith continued its close seven-year association with The Sleep Event in 2008. In the course of this collaboration, the Event has been steadily expanded from a hotel design awards scheme into a two-day conference and exhibition, as well as the awards, all focused on hotel architecture and design Europe-wide. Over the two days, more than 4,000 people attended the exhibition, held for the first time in the Business Design Centre in London, and 850 guests travelled to the new Sofitel at Heathrow for the Awards dinner.
Patrick Reardon was charged with bringing lively debate to the conference by way of an interview with Sir David Michels, former group chief executive of Hilton International and now senior independent director at Strategic Hotels and Resorts. Mulling over the value that design brings to a hotel, Sir David confessed to being design illiterate himself — he employs others to sanction the designer’s choice of cushions and colours — but he did acknowledge that design could, and should, add to the guest’s all-important sense of comfort. Unsurprisingly, he proved to be sceptical about the longer-term value of fashion-led hotels; the look dates and the celebrities move on, he said.
The following evening, ReardonSmith Architects sponsored the Awards reception at the start of an evening that went on to celebrate some of the most outstanding hotel design of the past year. CitizenM claimed a cupboard full of trophies for its radical new hotel concept, Priestman Goode, Richmond International and 3 Meta also won awards and Pierre-Yves Rochon was honoured for his exceptional contribution to hotel design.
Patrick Reardon and Conrad Smith
