Four speakers you don't want to miss at The Lobby 2021

The Lobby is a Nordic event focusing on the ever-changing movements in the hotel industry, with the aim of bringing people together and presenting ideas and perspectives that can inspire and challenge the hotel business.

Ahead of the Nordic hotel event next month, here is a preview of some of the industry experts who will be sharing their insights during the full-day event at Villa Copenhagen in Denmark, August 24^th. 

Bjarke Ingels – Founding Partner, Bjarke Ingels Group

Keynote speaker Bjarke Ingels founded BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group in 2005 after co-founding PLOT Architects in 2001 and working at OMA in Rotterdam. Ingels defines architecture as the art and science of making sure our cities and buildings fit with the way we want to live our lives. Through careful analysis of various parameters from local culture and climate, ever-changing patterns of contemporary life, to the ebbs and flows of the global economy, Ingels believes in the idea of information-driven-design as the driving force for his design process. Named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine in 2016, Ingels has designed and completed award-winning buildings globally.

Alongside his architectural practice, Ingels has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Rice University and is an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. He is a frequent public speaker and continues to hold lectures in venues such as TED, WIRED, AMCHAM, 10 Downing Street, the World Economic Forum and many more.

Ilse Crawford – Founder, Studioilse

Ilse Crawford is a designer, academic and creative director with a simple mission to put human needs and desires at the centre of all that she does. As founder of Studioilse, together with her multi-disciplinary London-based team, she brings her philosophy to life. This means creating environments where humans feel comfortable; public spaces that make people feel at home and homes that are habitable and make sense for the people who live in them. It means designing furniture and products that support and enhance human behaviour and actions in everyday life. It means restoring the human balance in brands and businesses that have lost their way. As former Head and founder of the department of Man and Wellbeing at the Design Academy Eindhoven, Crawford’s mission extends to nurturing a new generation of students to always question why and how their work improves the reality of life.

Guy Heywood – Chief Operating Officer, Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas

Guy Heywood joined Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas as Chief Operating Officer following eight years as Chief Operating Officer for Alila Hotels and Resorts.

With over 30 years of experience within the international hotel and tourism industry, Heywood started his journey down under in Australia as the restaurant and lounge manager at InterContinental Sydney. He then moved on to The Regent Sydney, followed by Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi and Four Seasons Hotel Singapore in a similar capacity. In 1997, Heywood joined Aman Resorts as General Manager of Amankila in Bali, and quickly rose through the ranks to become the Area Manager for Amanresorts Indonesia, based at Amanusa. He then moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to act as country manager of Aman resorts Americas and Caribbean, based at Amangani.

When Australia beckoned again after so many years away, Heywood moved back to be the group general manager of Voyages Hotels and Resorts in Cairns, looking after the renowned properties of Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Longitude 131° at Uluru-Kata Tjuta and El Questro in the Kimberley, among many others. Heywood, who has a hotel diploma from Cornell University and holds Australian and British citizenship, is always on a quest for meaningful experiences via travel adventures.

Suzanne Oxenaar – Artistic Director, Seven New Things

By constantly developing new concepts and setting up collaborations with artists and designers from all over the world, keynote speaker Suzanne Oxenaar creates cultural landmarks. From 1998 to 2018, she was responsible for the initial metamorphosis of the historic building of Lloyd Hotel into an icon of Dutch design and the establishment of the Cultural Embassy. Many similar projects followed: in collaboration with renowned Japanese and Dutch designers, Oxenaar artistically led the realisation of the pop-up hotel ‘Llove Hotel’ in Tokyo in 2010. Only one year later, alongside a team of young fashion graduates, she creatively directed the development of original textiles, room concepts and furniture pieces for Hotel The Exchange, an iconic fashion hotel in the centre of Amsterdam. Oxenaar currently supervises the visual transformation of Amsterdam’s bridge houses into the unique mini-suites of SWEETS hotel – together with the architects of Space&Matter – and the continuation of Hotel The Exchange’s legacy.

Originally a curator who specialised in art in public space, Oxenaar has curated and produced many large-scale projects with Mondriaan Foundation and SKOR (Foundation for Art in Public Space). Furthermore, she is co-founder of Beautiful Distress House (located in Amsterdam-North) and art residency Het Vijfde Seizoen in the psychiatric hospital Altrecht (Den Dolder). Whether working on an exhibition or a concept hotel, she treats each as a stage that inspires and facilitates cultural exchange.

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