BONDX Five Star

The Forum for EMEA's Leading Five Star Hotel Designers

June 8-10, 2021

About

BONDX Five Star is an invitation-only event for world-renowned Designers of Luxury Hotels and product manufacturers who can help take their concepts to the next level.

Spread over 3 days, you’ll have an intensive schedule of 1:1 meetings with the most senior Hospitality Designers with projects throughout EMEA and worldwide. You choose who you want to meet. All meetings are pre-scheduled and guaranteed.

It’s a winning formula that our clients have relied on to drive their sales for over 15 years. We’re talking million dollar deals for some! So don’t let BOND continue to be your competition’s best kept secret… It’s time to find out more.

Until we can meet each other again in person >
BONDX has got you covered!

Great selection of attendees and a chance to make wonderful new contacts. I was not sure what to expect from this event but it turned out to be wonderful, very worthwhile and I would certainly attend again.

Patricia Holler

Senior Interior Design Director

MARRIOTT international

Meet

The primary element of BONDX is the 1:1 meetings

BOND personally invite the most influential Architects and Designers working in the Luxury Hospitality sector.

Attendee applications are vetted to ensure we admit only the most senior designers with upcoming Five Star projects. Attendees are selected from leading Five Star Hotel Groups, as well as Architecture and Design Firms that specialise in luxury hospitality. Only Director-level Architects and Designers are accepted.

You select the Designers you want to meet, then we do the matchmaking and meeting scheduling for you.

Confirmed attendees include:

Anne Becker-Olins

SVP Design & Technical Services - LUXURY Europe

Accor Hotels

Andres Osorio

Associate & Lead Hospitality Designer

OBMI International

Alberto Suárez Garcia

Director of Technical Services (EMEA)

Six Senses Resorts & Spas

Yelda Gokdag, Hilton

Yelda Gokdag

Director of Design, Middle East & Africa

Hilton Worldwide

100% of Suppliers at the last BONDX event said they would come back and do it again

 

< Click here to Request Attendee List >

How it works

The one-on-ones were excellent opportunities to show and discuss a new product direction, get validation on messaging and better understand the architects needs. We met architects that had some immediate interest/need which should provide us with a quick and measurable ROI, something tradeshows seldom do.

Bill Ross

Director

Fiberon

Program

Timings are shown in British Standard Time.

This is a draft program – content and timings may be varied at our discretion.

Tuesday, June 8

11:00 am

Welcome

11:15 am

1:1 Meetings

12:55 pm

Seminar - Business of Beauty

Karim Rashid | President, Karim Rashid Inc.

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Synopsis

Are companies really interested in people and in culture? Do manufacturers discuss personal rituals, the depths of private relationships, the warmth of family, the codes of love, the signs of human emotions, the regard for happiness, freedom, personal expression, the wellbeing of our human existence? And do they address these questions through the product they sell?

Today, designers approach their work from a different perspective. A poetic design has evolved based on a plethora of complex criteria – human experience; social, global, economic, and political issues; physical and mental interaction, form, vision, and a rigorous understanding of contemporary culture. However, manufacturing is based on another collective group of criteria: capital investment, market share, production ease, dissemination, growth, distribution, maintenance and service, performance, quality, ecological issues, and sustainability. The combination of all these components has come to shape our interiors, inform our aesthetic, our physical culture, and our human experiences. These issues shape the business of beauty – its identity, its brand, and its value.

Biography

Visionary and prolific, Karim Rashid is one of the most unique voices in design today. With more than 4000 designs in production, over 300 awards to his name, and client work in over 40 countries, Karim’s ability to transcend typology continues to make him a force among designers of his generation. Eschewing style in favor of designing in the modus of our time, Karim’s designs include luxury goods for Christofle, Alessi, Veuve Clicquot, and Riva 1920; democratic products for Umbra, Paul Mitchell, and 3M; timeless furniture for Bonaldo, Tonelli, BoConcept, and Vondom; exquisite lighting for Artemide and Fontana Arte; high-tech products for Asus and SirinLabs; surface design for Marburg and Abet Laminati; iconic branding for Hugo Boss and Citibank; and award- winning packaging for Method, Paris Baguette, Kenzo, and Eos. Karim’s influence expands beyond product to interiors, including restaurants like Switch in UAE; hospitality design for Park Inn by Radisson Amsterdam City West, Temptation Resort Cancun, and budget hotels for Prizeotel in Bremen, Hamburg, Munster, and Erfurt; public environments like Universita Metro Station in Naples; residential design like Paraiso Bayviews in Miami; and retail design for Fun Factory in Berlin and Munich. Additionally, he has collaborated on innumerable concept exhibitions for clients such as Dupont Corian, Deutsche Bank, PepsiCo, and Audi. Numerous awards and accolades attest to Karim’s contribution to the world of design. He is a recipient of the American Prize for Design Lifetime Achievement award, as well as a perennial winner of the Red Dot award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design award, Pentawards, and IDSA Industrial Design Excellence award. He holds Honorary Doctorates from Carlton University, Pratt Institute, OCAD in Toronto, British Institute of Interior Design, and Corcoran College of Art & Design. Contemporary artwork created by Karim ranges from digital prints to public art/ installation and sculpture. His works are featured in 20 permanent collections in various art institutions worldwide, including Brooklyn Museum of Art, MoMA, and The Center Pompidou. He has exhibited across the globe and is a frequent contributor to the Venice Biennale, as well as exhibiting major retrospectives of his design work in Sao Paulo, Seoul, Milan, and Ottawa. A cultural shaper, Karim is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences globally, aspiring to change the world by making design a public subject. He is also regularly featured in print and digital platforms by media companies like CNN, Vogue, Elle, GQ, The New York Times, and countless more. This reach allows Karim to fulfill his ambition of disseminating the importance of design in everyday life. Karim’s last monograph, XX (Design Media Publishing, 2015), features 400 pages of work selected from the last 20 years. Other monographs include From The Beginning, an oral history of Karim’s life and inspiration (Forma, 2014); Sketch, featuring 300 hand drawings (Frame Publishing, 2011); KarimSpace, featuring 36 of Karim’s interior designs (Rizzoli, 2009); Design Your Self, Karim’s guide to living (Harper Collins, 2006); Digipop, a digital exploration of computer graphics (Taschen, 2005); Compact Design Portfolio (Chronicle Books 2004); and classic titles Evolution (Universe, 2004) and I Want to Change the World (Rizzoli, 2001). Karim established his private design studio in New York City in 1992. He expanded his global reach with a studio in Shenzhen, China in 2014. In his spare time Karim’s pluralistic practice flirts with art, fashion, and music and is determined to creatively touch every aspect of our physical and virtual landscape.
1:55 pm

1:1 Meetings

3:30 pm

End Day 1

Wednesday, June 9

11:00 am

1:1 Meetings

12:40 pm

Seminar - Jack Be Nimble – Adapting Design to Change

David Kepron | Founder – Owner, NXTLVL Experience Design

David Kepron
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Synopsis

The nursery rhyme “Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candle stick” was first recorded in a manuscript around 1815. Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. If you cleared a candle without extinguishing the flame, it was said to be a sign of good luck. Today, a flame that has been flickering has been invigorated in the wake of the global pandemic. Being nimble, quick and proactive in vision-casting future need states of guests will determine a brand’s relevancy.

Cultural mindsets have been shifting over the past few years and these have been hastened in the context of the global pandemic. When brands, their goods, services and experiences, are at odds with evolving culture, they can lose their value even if their legacy stays strong. The concepts of ‘premium’ and ‘luxury’ have historically been based on the inflation of symbolic value over the functional/utility value of a brand’s goods and services. As cultural transformation happens, brands need to learn how to navigate cultural complexity and create a different future that is aligned with the pace of change.

In a post-pandemic travel economy, health, safety and welfare are a baseline in the guest expectation set. Additionally, the hotel industry’s building and renovation process works in cycles of years that is out of sync with how fast the guests’ world is moving. And, an existing franchise system and the economics of hotel development also influences a complex system where simply reacting to cultural transformation often keeps companies behind the exponential pace-of-change-curve.

How do we keep up with the pace of change? How has the past year shifted priorities and expectations about how guests want to commit their time to meaningful travel experiences? How can the hospitality industry design experiences that address changes that have been supercharged over the past year? Can the industry move from a reactive paradigm to using change as a generative long-range strategy for growth?

Big leaps over the flames of today’s candlesticks may imply ‘good luck’ but more than luck is needed. This session will look at the power of design and how it reflects purpose and meaning of a hotel concept and the evolving role of the architect/designer in the making of relevant experiences in a quickly changing marketplace.

Biography

David Kepron is a multifaceted creative professional with a compulsive curiosity to understand ‘why’, ‘what’s now’ and ‘what’s next’. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically focused customer connections at brand experience places around the globe.

David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott’s “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels.

In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies.

As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace.

David currently brings his creativity and insight on brand experiences to an international audience as a member of VMSD magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, as a Board Member of the Interactive Customer Experience Association (ICXA) and Sign Research Foundation’s (SRF) Program Committee.

In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. David also writes a popular blog called “Brain Food” which is published monthly on vmsd.com.

In September of 2020, he launched a new podcast called “NXTLVL Experience Design” which brings listeners daring and different dialogues about “DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” His guests include thought leaders who are driven by a passion to create the ‘New Possible’ and promote new paradigms of experiences into the mainstream.

1:45 pm

1:1 Meetings

3:20 pm

End Day 2

Thursday, June 10

11:00 am

1:1 Meetings

12:40 pm

Seminar - Panel: The Future of Luxury

BONDX Five Star

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Synopsis

Chaired by:
Doug Lansky – Travel & Tourism Expert

Doug Lansky is a tourism development thought leader who advises destinations and tourism companies around the world – from Singapore to Aruba, Google Travel to Amadeus – on strategic branding, marketing issues, visitor experience, industry trends and sustainability.  Doug has a background as a travel journalist, author and editor with 20 years of experience writing for publications that range from National Geographic Traveler to The Guardian to Lonely Planet to Skift, and traveling to over 100 countries.

Panellists: 

Dr. Suzanne Godfrey – Independent Consultant & Lecturer

A brand and communications strategist with more than 30 years’ experience, Dr. Godfrey’s consumer insights and business knowledge extend across a range of business sectors, geographies and cultures. She has worked with multinational companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Danone and Coca-Cola, as well as SMEs and start-ups, luxury and premium brands and educational establishments. She has experience of launching and developing brands across developed and emerging markets, particularly Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. She combines professional marketing and communications experience with an academic background that includes a deep understanding of consumer and purchasing behavior within the contexts of marketing, the environment, luxury, and hospitality. She believes in developing purposeful brands to create more meaningful growth, developing brand ideas that have cultural resonance in the markets in which they operate, as well as collaboration and co- creation enabling shared value creation. Dr. Godfrey also teaches luxury brand management and hospitality; brand strategy, marketing and marketing communications and consumer behavior to executives, plus students at business schools, hotel schools and academic institutions globally.

Federico Toresi – Global Vice President Design, Luxury & Premium Brands, Accor

Federico leads the team defining the design and product strategy and creates standards and concept guidelines for Accor’s luxury and premium brands, overseeing design initiatives to evolve their design, performance, guest experience and market development. A qualified architect with over 20 years of experience in hospitality, he delivers experience driven luxury projects and has overseen the development of innovative destinations. Federico’s strategic team is the key link between the Luxury, Premium, Lifestyle & Partner Brands and the Regional Design & Technical Services Teams, working closely with Operations, Marketing, Brand and Development, facilitating concept creation with the necessary market adaptations globally.

1:45 pm

1:1 Meetings

3:20 pm

End BONDX

Why BONDX?

We invest in your success:

You’ll have the support of a dedicated member of the BOND team from day one. They’ll guide you through the experience, and make sure meetings run smoothly. We’ll also provide Online Meeting Success training ahead of the event.

Experienced event organisers:

1:1 events are our business. Not a side gig. Our experienced team know how to run meetings like clockwork.

Higher calibre of attendees:

We have a team dedicated to architect invitation and quality control. We know our architects inside out, meaning you’ll meet the most senior architects with the best projects.

We keep it simple:

You’ll get a simple, focussed, virtual experience with no complex systems or distractions.

Venue
BONDX is a Virtual Event

Everything takes place through the BONDX website; a simple platform that makes it easy to follow your meetings schedule, attend webinars and discover attendees. Your dedicated member of the BOND Team will take care of you throughout.

Further information will be supplied on sign up.

Apply to Attend

Vendor packages include:

  • Chosen number of 1:1 architect meetings
  • Virtual Sales Training webinar
  • Company profile on event website, including document and video upload for all architects to see
  • Delegate profile on event website
  • Event Directory containing contact info of all attendees after the event
  • Dedicated BOND customer success manager to guide you every step of the way