HOW Festival celebrates its tenth edition; and invests in the next generation of hoteliers

Ten years ago, HOW Festival was created because the hotel industry lacked a place where the industry could talk to itself.

Ten editions and more than 3000 hoteliers later, HOW will be held from October 28 to 30, 2026 at the Mövenpick Kvarner Bay Hotel, under the slogan Lead. Innovate. Repeat. The anniversary edition doesn't look back. Instead, it launches two projects that will last long after the festival ends.

Young Leader Award: young leader from the region at the EHL in Lausanne

In partnership with EHL Hospitality Business School, the world's leading hotel management school, HOW is presenting the Young Leader Award for the first time this year. The winner will receive a fully funded place on EHL's Hospitality Concept Strategy program in Lausanne: EHL covers tuition fees and HOW covers travel and accommodation.

The award is intended for hoteliers from the region under the age of 35. Ten finalists will present themselves to the jury live at the festival, and the name of the first winner will be announced on the main stage on October 30th.

HOW Forward: mentorship that lasts eight months

Another new feature is HOW Forward, a mentoring program developed in collaboration with EHMA (European Hotel Managers Association). Ten young professionals are being paired with ten experienced industry leaders. The pairs will first meet at HOW and then meet once a month until June 2027.

Programme

The first day brings keynote lectures and global trends, along with Booking.com's travel forecasts for 2027. The second day is reserved for masterclasses, from Michelin-starred restaurant cuisine to sales to MICE clients.

The third day closes with the CEO unpanel with the leaders of regional hotel companies, the presentation of the mentor couples and the announcement of the award winners. Among these are the HOW Good charity welcome cocktail, a pub quiz and the jubilee 10X party, with the famous Ante Gelo and the band.

On stage

The conference program connects the topics of people management, development of hotel brands, gastronomic concepts and technological changes, with guest appearances by experts with experience in the international hotel industry.

He will open the conference with a lecture on the psychology of top performance Dr. Thomas Trautmann, founder of Happy Brains and an expert in neuroscience, ethical persuasion, and leadership development. He will also address the topic of team leadership Marco Truffelli, who has led European resorts such as Rocco Forte Verdura and Borgo Egnazia. His lecture will be dedicated to maintaining focus, energy and trust in teams working under pressure. He brings a talent management perspective Laura Fraefel, global talent director at Aman Group, whose masterclass will cover attracting and retaining employees in the hospitality industry.

He will talk about the development of hotel bars and restaurants, which become an independent reason for coming Robbie Bargh, known as "Gorgeous Robbie", founder of London's Gorgeous Group. The company develops F&B concepts for brands such as Six Senses, Four Seasons, Belmond and The Ritz London, and Bargh will present the experiences through a dynamic overview in an "AZ" format.

The development of the hotel identity will be followed by Youri Sawerschel, founder of the Creative Supply agency, who brings ten lessons from ten years of working on hotel brands and concepts. He will look back on approaches that have proven successful, but also on decisions he would make differently today.

A look at the future of the industry will be presented Simone Puerto, futurist, founder of Travel Singularity and head of new trends and strategic innovations at Hospitality Net. In the lecture Do Hotels Dream of Electric Guests? will highlight five macro trends that are changing the hospitality industry and the way the sector is thinking about its future operations.

Applications for the Young Leader Award are open until October 7th, and for the HOW Forward mentoring program until October 15th. The program, applications and tickets are available at www.howfestival.com.