HOSPITALITY ON DISPLAY IN THE BIG APPLE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM HX AND BOUTIQUE DESIGN NEW YORK
Earlier this week we got to check out the cutting edge of the hospitality world when we visited HX: The Hotel Experience (formerly known as IHMRS) as well as Boutique Design New York. These co-located trade shows were a great source of industry trends, up and coming ideas and fascinating conversations about what hospitality can be.
So if you weren’t able to go this year, or are just curious about the shows, here are some highlights from our experience:
We were definitely impressed with the overall creativity on display this year. As marketers we don’t deal with room set up, but seeing what design elements are popular for rooms right now was inspiring and gave us some ideas to use in our creative process.
Okay, it’s a little nerdy but speaking of creativity, we appreciated the Star Wars homage represented at the Innovative Carpets booth!
Lights! Lights! Lights!
A hotel room’s look consists of hundreds of different pieces including wall color, flooring, furniture and even linens. Every part of a room influences the feeling you get when you step into it. One piece of room aesthetics that was prominently featured this year was lighting.
Lighting and color play a huge role in the design of indoor space.
This booth specialized in chandeliers and offered a number of creative designs for all ranges of hotel styles and audiences.
This chandelier in particular stood out. It’s easy to miss at first but if you look closely you’ll see that it actually uses musical instruments as housing for the light bulbs. We can easily see this type of design incorporated into a musically themed boutique hotel or hotspot in a musical city like Nashville.
Design Goes Green
There was a noticeable trend of green design at BDNY and HX. Not only green in the sense of incorporating energy savings and eco-friendly elements but also green meaning that it of took inspiration from the appearance of nature.
This display was an example of a floral and nature inspired design combined with modern sensibilities.
“Garden on the Wall” took the idea of green design a step further by offering a product that used real plants to serve as wall covering. It’s easy to imagine this being used in a hotel lobby, smoothie bar or fitness center. The nice part about it was that due to the design and types of plants used “Garden on the Wall” doesn’t require any maintenance. Though the plants are real they are not living but actually preserved through a special process.
Beyond Booths
Besides the trade show floors, educational and speaker sessions were a valuable part of BDNY and HX as well.
The session pictured above was a speech about hotel branding by Erich Joachimsthaler, founder of Vivaldi Partners. His main point was that hotel brands fall somewhere within three characteristics; self expression, self reward and authenticity, and that hoteliers must only focus on two of them to be effective.
From a visual and creative perspective we can’t ignore the building that the shows were hosted in. The Javits Convention Center itself was a beautiful example of modern design and just being in the place seemed to help put us in a mood for innovative thinking.
The hospitality world is headed in a great direction! The combination of culture, technology and innovation present at BDNY and HX this year proves that the industry is moving in an interesting direction. We can’t wait to see what the exciting trends will be next year.
What are your thoughts on HX and Boutique Design New York? Leave us a comment in our comments section below!
