Kew Green Hotels, one of the leading international hotel management companies with over 45 hotels in its portfolio, became a trailblazer in the sector by delivering their inaugural annual leadership conference and awards as a fully virtual event on 4th February 2021. 

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Co-hosted by Kew Green Hotels CEO, Chris Dexter and hospitality ambassador, Fred Sirieix, key note speakers included Kew Green Hotels’ senior leadership team and guest speakers from InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, 80 DAYS and performance coach, Luisa Godfrey. 

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The New Horizons conference took place in a dedicated Virtual Delegate Zone for 135 of Kew Green Hotels’ leaders. The virtual space included a live feed of the event, a social wall for attendees and sponsors to share comments and photos throughout the event and virtual sponsor stands for 15 of the event sponsors to showcase their products and services. The evening digital awards were available to view for all  Kew Green employees and both events were in support of Kew Green Hotels nominated charity, Greenfingers.    

Centred on Kew Green Hotels’ New Horizons, this was the company’s first conference with CEO, Chris Dexter at the helm.  This heralds a new chapter for Kew Green Hotels as they accelerate their recovery, having remained open for essential workers throughout successive lockdowns and as they look ahead to drive domestic and international growth.

 

This conference follows the recent announcement that Kew Green Hotels is expanding into South East Asia having signed seven hotels in Bangkok in addition to the announcement of an exclusive partnership with Light Human Hotels to launch hotels from the end of 2021 in eight international destinations. 

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Interactions between attendees, speakers and sponsors took place via a chat area which saw over 6,000 interactions, a social wall with the hashtag #KewHorizons which aggregated posts from Twitter and Instagram as well as a series of 16 pre-and post-event email campaigns to attendees to raise awareness of the event.

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The event was made possible due to the kind contribution of the sponsors and guest speakers. Halo and Kew Green Hotels developed a campaign to highlight sponsors through email and social media, as well as key touchpoints throughout the Virtual Delegate Zone. Each of the premium sponsors received a personalised virtual sponsor stand which allowed them to feature information about their business and included a show reel video, downloadable documents, images and contact information. Sponsors were able to interact with attendees via direct message, a messages board within their stand and via the chat area in the Virtual Delegate Zone. There were almost 1,000 interactions that took place between attendees and sponsors. 

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In the evening, the digital awards, co-hosted by hospitality ambassador Fred Sirieix and CEO Chris Dexter, recognised the ‘Heroes in a Crisis’ and the dedication they have shown in providing accommodation for essential workers. It was broadcast to all employees via a dedicated landing page, which also featured the social wall and a Spotify Kitchen Disco Playlist.

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Halo supported Kew Green Hotels to deliver this event, including collaborating with Event, Digital and Film Production agency Glasgows. Halo initiated the pitch process which led to the successful appointment of full-service agency, Glasgows, who have extensive experience delivering virtual and hybrid events through their digital events platform, GEM. We worked closely with them to ensure the successful delivery of Kew Green Hotels inaugural virtual conference and awards, being one of the first hotel management companies to do so in the industry.