This next edition is expected to be one full of novelty and innovation. The trade show dedicated to the hospitality industry changes name and becomes Sleep + Eat, thus expanding its area of interest to include décor for coffee bars, restaurants, and night clubs. But that’s not all: for the first time the conferences, a fundamental component of the event, will take place in the National Hall of London Olympia, in the new Eat Theatre.
Sleep + Eat aims to demonstrate the trends, new developments, and aspirations of the hospitality industry through the products displayed by the brands which will occupy the stands of Olympia London. More than 150 companies will participate in the fair, fifty of which will be presenting their new 2018 collections to the public.
Alongside the traditional Sleep Set, with new installations for each edition, will be Eat Set, in which three new interactive projects that are in keeping with the 2018 theme of “Recognisable and New” will be presented: Echo Architecture will take visitors on a journey to a restaurant on the Cornwall sea; “Anticaff” by 3Stories will revolutionise the traditional concept of coffee; and the nightclub designed by Shalini Misra will provide an area for fun and festivities with a pinch of nostalgia.
ECHO Architecture
3Stories, AntiCaffEugene Sellors, the head of Echo Architecture, explains the meaning of the installation designed by his studio: “Dining is all about responses. We don’t just experience the food, service, and table settings. Our memories are made up of a collection of emotions, created by a dialogue between the senses and the connections we feel with those breaking bread with us. This is what we want to deliver in our Eat Set. Ours is a multi-sensory concept that uses state-of-the-art technology alongside sensitive design, intelligent lighting, 3D soundscaping, and emotive food samples to create individual experiences that are unique to each guest and time of day.”
The Sleep Set project will also be very interesting. Australian architectural firm Denton Corker Marshall, AB Concept from Asia, the international studio of Yasmine Mahmoudieh, and HBA London have contributed to the creation of all-new guestroom concepts.
Denton Corker Marshall, West Ham VisualAs always, the trade show will include the Sleep Conference: a series of talks that will be introduced by Andrew Zobler, founder and CEO of the American Sydell Group and included in Bloomberg Businessweek’s list of the 50 most influential people in the world of business.
Guy Dittrich, curator of Sleep Conference, explains: “The Sleep Conference is a gem for anyone interested in emerging ideas, success stories, and insights that are rarely aired at hotel industry conferences. It’s intimate in style, and that means there are also great meeting and networking opportunities to be had. It always reminds me how lucky we are to work in the hotel design and development sector.”
In addition to what was on the program in past editions, Eat Conference will make its debut. Meetings and conferences organised by curator Heleri Rande will animate the trade show and make it possible to put forth new ideas and discuss the new trends that are driving the sector. On the agenda are topics such as ‘The reinvention of afternoon tea’, ‘The merging of independent restaurants and hotels’, and ‘How to keep up with changes in the sector’.
