On the 29th of April 2021, the Hospitality Booster team was delighted to listen to the various pitches during the Innovationfestival Hackdays 2021. This event, hosted by the Hochschule Luzern in collaboration with HotellerieSuisse, OpenData.ch and Tourist Office Lab, tasked over 100 participants from all around the world to tackle various challenges within the Swiss hospitality industry in just about 36 hours. At 2:00 pm CET the various pitches commenced and started with the six data-based challenges and moved to the six non-data-based challenges. Throughout the session, we were presented with 3 fully usable products that the challenge owners will be able to put into action very soon, as well as 4 concept designs that could be realized soon.
Some of our highlights came from challenge 12, 20 and 21.
Challenge 20 had two teams presenting, both with very strong pitches. The one that caught our attention though was a developed spider visual based on the Swisstainable concepts by Schweiz Tourismus. This web shows a variety of sustainability measures and categorizes them. This then results in a visual that is easy to understand and could increase the awareness of sustainable travel to not only the people of the green movement but also the common traveller. It is a simple solution that could have wide-ranging implications and could move Switzerland into a position of strong sustainable tourism.
Challenge 21 tasked a team with finding a way to increase resilience within the hotel industry in Switzerland. What they created was a website that emphasized the collaborative aspects between different hotels and local partners in the surrounding area. This is based on the idea that the use of local suppliers and supporting local businesses, creates a stronger local economy. With this, the hope would be to build a community that can help each other from being disrupted through a major crisis. They also developed a strategy tool and tree which enables businesses to make the right strategic choices in their effort to overcome existing and future barriers.
Finally, we come to Challenge 12 who were also the winners of the Hackdays 2021. They created a usable platform that allows people to gain up-to-date information on the current COVID regulations around Switzerland. Through interactive maps and with the collaboration of local governments, they hope to clear up any uncertainty when travelling within Switzerland. Additionally, they made an easy-to-read page where foreign travellers can see what restrictions they will face when travelling from their country to Switzerland. Through this tool, there is a hope that the recent confusion of the rapidly changing legislative situation can be eased and clarified. As the challenge owner himself said: “We were surprised that this challenge, which initially did not garner much interest due to its complexity, managed to win! I am glad and positively surprised at the excellent solution that was presented by the team.”
We would like to congratulate team 12 for their excellent work and winning the competition!
We are happy to have had such a successful Hackdays 2021 and encourage you to check out the recorded pitches here.
Thanks to all the participants and we hope to see you next year!