UKHospitality - Shaping the Future Summer Conference

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) and Association of Licenced Multiple Retailers (ALMR) merged earlier this year to create UKHospitality, a new association representing 700 operators across 65,000 sites.

The merger came out of the joint work undertaken by the BHA and ALMR on Brexit and National Living Wage after influential members grew frustrated that the sector’s concerns weren’t being heard at the highest levels of government.

The new body has said it has three clear objectives: firstly, creating a tax system which is fit for purpose, reflects the realities of business in the 21st century and allows a level playing field for high street and community-based businesses, which now compete with online companies; secondly, a regulatory regime which allows the hospitality sector to focus on growth rather than red tape and finally, to develop the hospitality workforce of the future.

Earlier this week 'Shaping the Future' Summer Conference took place, the first UKHospitality conference since the new merger.

Building on the success of the BHA Hospitality and Tourism Summit and the ALMR Spring Conference, the event amalgamated the best and most timely discussions from the accommodation, food service, leisure, pubs and bars sectors. Shaping the Future gives the industry a single platform for the voice of the hospitality and tourism sector and is the perfect stage for setting out the plans for championing the UK's hospitality business interests.

'Shaping The Future' brought together the most senior figures in the hospitality and tourism industry, agenda-setters, members of the Government and media. 

The agenda was packed full of insightful and forward thinking sessions, with an array of fantastic speakers who navigated delegates through the issues faced by the industry and inspired on how the challenging environment can be overcome and positively promote, what is one of the fastest growing and most productive sectors in the UK today. 

Kate Nichols, CEO UKHospitality, opened the conference and set out the vision of 'Hospitality' as being the beating heart of the UK and went on to discuss UKHospitality's mission, goals and priorities:

Mission

• Reduce the cost of doing business responsibly
• Deliver free, fair and flexible market
• Secure the potential for growth & investment

Goals

• Promote the reputation of the sector
• Protect the members commercial environment
• Prevent restrictive regulation

UKHospitality aims to do this by:

• Influencing (campaign on costs)
• Insuring (Defence and Shield)
• Informing (Advice/Guidance)
• Inspiring (Recruit and Retain)
• Insight (Business Building)

Priorities

• Secure a Brexit deal that delivers for future workforce & supply needs
• Champion the high street through root and branch reform of rates to make it fit for a digital economy, so everyone pays their fair share
• Boost productivity by doubling the NIC threshold top take the lowest paid out of tax, support job creation and investment in people
• Foster responsible busineses practice through partnership and self regulation rather than tax and regulation
• Endorsing our innovative, inspirational Sector Deal to develop home grown skills and reduce unnecessary costs

My colleague David Fitzgerald, Director of Business Development at Tahola attended the event and came away with some key points from a selection of speakers during the following sessions:

More than 500 business leaders joined the event from across the sector to discuss the opportunities, reflect on the current outlook and explore the potential for collaboration with government. The message of the day was clear, that from a single platform, Shaping the Future will cement the voice of the industry as a single unified voice for all hospitality businesses.  

If you would like to find out more about Tahola and the solutions we provide to the Hospitality sector, that can help you gain greater insight and intelligence from you data, then please contact us: Leigh.Baillie@Tahola.com

About Tahola

Tahola has been producing elegant and intuitive data warehousing and business analytics solutions to the Hospitality Sector for over 15 years. 

With a proven track record in bespoke business analytics and system integration our Data experts are able to guarantee consistent quality, resulting in significant improvements to your data strategy, helping organisations to truly understand performance, based on the metrics that matter to them. Resulting in the provision of a unique and complete range of information that will improve business performance and ensure a greater insight into their data.

Tahola also offers a revolutionary analytics solution for the hospitality sector. TaholaCloud brings customers closer to their business than ever before. With intuitive and user friendly dashboards and automated integration to a wide range of hospitality systems, customers can track KPIs and drill down to transactions, providing clear evidence of business performance that is updated on a daily basis. TaholaCloud provides organisations with the ability to monitor and control their business on any device in any location, at any time.