TV news piece about the Hospitality Innovation Lab and robotics

Midpoint in the semester - 8 solid innovations

Last night marked the midpoint in the semester for Hospitality Lab. The evening also marked the class session where the eight student teams presented two of their innovative ideas. While I can't reveal the extraordinary ideas yet, I can share some of my observations about this talented group of millennial dreamers.

The first thing that is apparent is how differently they view the world and in particularly the business of hospitality. Their lens into the experiences that ultimately drive satisfaction from guests and revenues in the hotel are very different from the baby boomer or gen x. I recall sessions in my career where new innovations were described by their ability to "wow" the guest or impress them with advanced technology...this is not the case with the millennial inventor. Instead they see unbounded opportunity where status quo is an old Latin term of little relevance to them. They don't feel the need to incrementally improve and in fact all 16 ideas presented demonstrated a departure from that incremental innovation theory. The ideas spoke to their own personal behaviors, their likes and their perspective on travel and hospitality. The sociology of the millennial hospitality innovator is fascinating.

The millennial innovator also does not see solutions from a technology perspective, they see technology only as an enabler not as a solution in itself. They are truly digital natives, in that they have always known the Internet, the smart phone and social media. These things have no "wow" potential in them, they are simply factors that enable a higher level of engagement with each other or between a hospitality brand and it's guests. You cannot wow a millennial with technology, period. You cannot engage them with the same thinking you use today. They proved this theory last night.

The ideas ranged from the incredibly simple to large scale. They see hotels not as boxes for honeymoons and conventions but as places where you live temporarily, places that can facilitate whatever it is that you are doing. They become part of the travel journey and no longer the destination.

The remaining half of the semester is devoted to taking the highest scoring idea of the two they presented and then developing a prototype or a simulation to prove the concept in a start up pitch format. The hard work of taking a dream and executing on a minimum viable scale now begins. Along that path, I will include mentors who can help, guide and advise them as they put real design effort into these ideas. And at the end, produce something wonderful.

Session 3 - UNLV Hospitality Lab

Leading a first ever hospitality innovation lab requires some rather innovative thinking. To ensure the students were guided on the journey in developing and applying innovation to the hospitality industry, I designed the course to follow an approach where each session builds upon the prior session and ultimately prepares them to start developing an idea. In most cases of startup innovation this may be contrary to conventional practice.

The course itself is divided into four modules with each module filling approximately 4 class sessions. These sessions overlap and follow a logical sequence to the final pitch presentation, much like a startup pitch to an accelerator except that all of the pitches will be applied innovation to hospitality and all teams will have followed the same path.

Now in the first module we are sharing knowledge. Knowledge of both the hospitality industry and of innovation itself. In addition, we educate them on value propositions and a business model. I think it it is critically important for the students to view innovation in the context of the customer, the competition and the unique nature of the hospitality industry. The objectives as you can see above are to build a level of background knowledge of the hospitality industry and then refine that by zeroing in on the key problems for example, a long line at check in or engagement of millennials. My intent was to narrow the scope of ideas to ideas that actually solved significant problems in the industry. Second to that was to identify the major opportunities to innovate for example, robotics or predictive analytics. This foundation would therefore be strong and the student teams would be prepared for the second module: ideation.

Coming up with ideas is the easy part.

So I don't hang them out on this, I bring in mentors at this stage. True hospitality experts who can help mentor the teams on their possibilities. Provide them with the key insights or the go/no-go feasibility checkpoint on disruptive ideas. This actually take us to the mid-point in the semester where the student teams pitch their ideas to a panel of industry experts who score the ideas on a standard set of criteria similar to a pitch night but with more structure.

The highest scoring idea per team then becomes a project for the balance of the semester. Their deliverable on the last day is a final pitch, more refined and based on either a simulation of their idea or a prototype test plan.  What happens after that, well thats beyond the scope of my post but suffice it to say, I see this becoming integral to the startup process.

Session 2 of the Hospitality Innovation Lab - the deep dive

The bar is high. Very high. Not only from the perspective of building upon the highly successful legacy of the Gaming Institute's prowess in generating innovation to the casino industry but also the expectations of this supercharged group of students. So, what does one do? Go for it!

Through the extraordinary cooperation and support of Caesar's Entertainment Group, we took a deep dive into their millennial targeted integrated resort, The Linq, on the Vegas strip. We began the evening with a series of presentations designed around the three key themes in our applied innovation program:

1. Mobile Platforms and Applications
2. Big Data
3. The Guest Room Experience

For Mobile and Big Data, we received a couple of outstanding presentations that allowed students to understand the "state" in the large integrated resorts and establish the baseline of one the largest brands in hospitality. Secondly it would facilitate a base understanding of the industry for my non-hospitality majors. Both presentations were outstanding leading to so many questions that we actually had to make that "only one more question" call. 

Following the two presentations the class went hands on, a tour. We started with a stop at the new check-in kiosk's at the Linq's front desk. Not simply to see the technology but to understand its impact upon the guest experience and satisfaction. And then into the elevators for a visit to a standard guest room and one of the Linq's very cool suites. Now visiting a hotel room with one of the leaders of the hotel has benefits in itself but when you also gain a keen understanding of the target market and how the decor and amenities of the rooms are designed with that target audience in mind, well you just elevated the knowledge x 10. As with the presentations a constant flow of questions from the students. 

They were thinking. The ideas were already beginning to take shape.

Over the next two class sessions we will build upon this foundation with a lineup of guest speakers who can elaborate on the themes.  We will be moving the students towards development of their ideas as solutions to problems within this immense industry. Problems that can be solved by innovative minds...more to follow.

Hospitality Innovation Lab Debuts @UNLV

The first session of the International Gaming Institute's Hospitality Innovation Lab @UNLV debuted last night. The class which is the first of its kind will guide students in the development of applied innovations directed at the global hospitality industry. By having the Las Vegas Strip as an extended laboratory, we will have an unprecedented opportunity to transform an entire industry.

The class itself will be focused on three primary "theme" areas for ideation and innovation:

1. Mobile platforms and applications
2. Big data and predictive analytics
3. The guest room experience of the future

I selected these theme areas to narrow the scope for the students and provide them with key insights to apply their innovations in the areas most likely to create economic value for the hotels. 

The class will run for the Spring semester and conclude with a "Shark Tank" like pitch presentation of their ideas to select senior hospitality industry professionals. Who knows maybe the next Uber for the front desk?

more to follow....