The first HOSPITALITY SOCIAL MEDIA SUMMIT (HoSS) edition brought together more than 200 participants across London and online, with senior leaders from global hotel brands, independent properties and restaurant groups, and a faculty drawn from IHG, Kimpton, Hyatt, Meliá and Nespresso
London, UK / Dubai, UAE — The inaugural Hospitality Social Media Summit (HoSS) was held on 3–4 September, combining a live executive summit at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Robert Rothman ’77 London Campus, with an international online programme. It drew more than 200 senior social, marketing, digital, brand and commercial leaders from 14 countries, among them the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Austria and the United Arab Emirates.
Delegates represented global hotel brands and groups including Fairmont, Hilton, Frasers Hospitality, Falkensteiner, Trump Hotels and Springboard Hospitality; independents including Hazlitt’s, The LaLiT London, The Stratford and The Killarney Park; properties affiliated with Preferred Hotels C Resorts and Small Luxury Hotels of the World; and restaurant groups including Emerald Hospitality, COYA, Urban Pubs C Bars and JKS Restaurants; a spread of models and markets suggesting the gap HoSS was created to address is not confined to one market.
Across those businesses, social media teams are increasingly expected to contribute to demand, revenue, reputation and long-term brand value, while the strategy, skills and commercial frameworks surrounding the function have not kept pace.
HOSPITALITY SOCIAL MEDIA SUMMIT (HoSS)
Summit creator Kordie identified that gap early and built HoSS to close it: not a conference but an executive working summit, applying senior-level strategic education directly to delegates’ own businesses to produce decisions, frameworks and outputs teams can use immediately.
Day one was led by Whitney Reynolds, former Global Director of Social Marketing at IHG Hotels C Resorts and co-producer of the Summit. Her full-day masterclass ran from business goals, audiences and channels through to brand personality, content direction, tactics and measurement, each applied to delegates’ own organisations.
Whitney Reynolds said: “The biggest takeaway was realising how ready the hospitality social media community is to elevate this discipline. Starting with strategy and commercial outcomes on day one, then layering in practical tools on day two, gave delegates a foundation for smarter decisions about where to invest. We weren’t simply talking about better content; we were working to demonstrate the influence social can have on hospitality businesses.”
Day two moved from strategy to specialist implementation. Faculty included Laura Ferrari, former Director of Social Media EMEA at Hyatt Hotels Corporation; Santiago García Solimei, former Global Director of Social Media and Brands PR at Meliá Hotels International; and Stefano Della Schiava, former Head of the Nespresso Content Studio, alongside specialist hospitality, performance marketing, content and digital teams.
Sessions covered paid social and direct bookings, AI-assisted workflows, AI content quality, video strategy, international market activation, and social care and reputation, worked through as practical frameworks with delegates.
Laura Ferrari said: “What stayed with us most was the recognition that social strategy has been sitting in the wrong room. The conversation has shifted from ‘how do we make more content’ to ‘how do we make social accountable for commercial outcomes’. That’s not a small shift; it’s a structural one, and the teams who make it will look very different from the ones who don’t.”
Alisa Kremer, Founder of Kordie and the Hospitality Social Media Summit, said: “Across very different markets and businesses, we heard the same underlying challenge: leadership increasingly expects social media to contribute to demand, revenue and reputation, while the commercial frameworks and capability surrounding the function have not evolved at the same speed. That is a wider commercial capability gap, and closing it is exactly what Kordie is being built for. We are grateful to every delegate, faculty member and partner who backed the first edition.”
Delegates retain access to the HoSS Digital Hub, powered by Kordie, holding the programme’s tools, templates, recordings and expert-led learning, education that continues after the room empties.
The inaugural London edition was delivered with SiteMinder as Summit Sponsor, Opposite Land Productions as Video and Content Partner and The Hotel Magazine as Anchor Media Partner, alongside 80 DAYS, Push Group and Giant Leap Digital as Programme Partners. Further editions follow in 2027.
The Hospitality Social Media Summit (HoSS) is an international executive summit for hospitality social media, marketing, digital and brand leaders.
Created by Kordie, it convenes hospitality businesses with practitioners who have built and led social and commercial programmes inside some of the world’s leading hotel groups.
The Hospitality Social Media Summit addresses the widening gap between what social media teams are expected to deliver commercially and the strategy, measurement and capability available to them.
Kordie™ is building the next generation of executive business education for hospitality — specialist, applied and built around the industry’s changing commercial needs.
Through executive summits, specialist programmes and an AI-led knowledge platform, Kordie combines senior practitioner expertise with applied and continuous learning to turn industry knowledge into practical commercial capability.
SOURCE: MEDIA RELEASE / SUPPLIED CONTENT WITH IMAGES
