![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/spark_logo_full.80e9c40df810.png?ext=webp)
What is Spark?
Spark is a physical innovation space on campus, an academic philosophy, and a means to incubate disruptive startups.
Our goal with Spark is to expose our students to the latest technologies and innovative ideas which are driving next-generation hospitality. Through Spark, we let the industry’s future leaders explore the potential of innovation to:
- Enhance the human experience;
- Meet ever-evolving customer needs;
- Drive organizational efficiency;
- Increase revenues;
- And above all to keep their future employer – or their own business – one step ahead of the competition.
Future proofing your hospitality management education
Hospitality was, is, and always will be fundamentally a ‘people’ business with human-to-human interaction at its heart. That’s why we help our students develop soft skills and intercultural fluency alongside their academic and business learning. Today, though, innovation is sweeping through hospitality at an unprecedented pace. We are witnessing a rapid evolution of our industry brought about by new technologies and digital transformation. With change on this scale comes opportunities to evolve the way hospitality experiences are marketed and delivered. How can we ensure - through our BBA curriculum - that our students graduate ready to grasp these opportunities?
Spark for learning
With our industry and technology partners, we create innovation-focused academic projects that are part of the curriculum for every program we teach (see over page for examples). These academic assignments allow our students to prepare for the future by working with early adopters of technological innovations that sit on the cusp of the mainstream. They are real-world projects with real-world potential.
Spark for business
Through Spark, we are also investing directly in the future of hospitality, by supporting disruptive ideas and startups as they make their journeys to market.
Our incubation and pre-incubation services have already signed up dozens of high potential startups. Many of these are led by Les Roches alumni, while others are extracurricular projects of entrepreneurially-minded students.
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/screenshot_2022-07-20_at_41941_pm.aa878744edb1.png?ext=webp)
“Digital technology is making its way into every aspect of the hospitality industry: hotel operations, guest services, communications, revenue management, distribution, CRM and marketing. This necessitates the emergence of a new type of digital transformation leaders and managers, who understand the business applications of technology.”
Max Starkov, Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/screenshot_2022-08-11_at_43204_pm.003a143c7fe8.png?ext=webp)
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/spark_rd_center_1252.bcd5e6b8c8b8.jpeg?ext=webp)
Spark sectors
Our hospitality innovation curriculum is focused on these key technologies:
- AI and face recognition
- Robotics
- WebApp/ecommerce
- AR/VR/XR
- Internet of things (IoT)
- Blockchain
- Product technology
- AI and Big Data
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/screenshot_2022-07-20_at_25751_pm.7356ca29713a.png?ext=webp)
Putting environmental innovations to the test
For hotels, laundering guest towels involves significant consumption of water and electricity. So, from a sustainability perspective there’s logic to replacing the traditional towel with an all-over body dryer that uses a stream of air generated by an economical electrical motor.
But can such an innovation work in practice? Would guests accept it instead of their more familiar towels? A Spark partner is at the forefront of developing body drying devices and is now exploring the potential for the technology to be deployed in hospitality settings.
Working with Les Roches students has allowed our partner to gain insights from a hotel operations perspective, as well as getting individual reactions from an academic group representing a huge variety of different cultures and backgrounds. Meanwhile, a separate student group is looking in depth at the data to assess whether switching to body dryers makes financial sense for a hotel.
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/screenshot_2022-07-20_at_34804_pm.2639dc8e7d3c.png?ext=webp)
How Spark academic projects ignite our students’ learning
At the heart of our Spark philosophy is to Ignite our students’ intellectual curiosity and critical thinking, as they evaluate the potential for innovative ideas and technologies to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Through Spark, we bring together technology companies, industry partners, innovation specialists and our own expert faculty. This creates opportunities for students to work on real-life business consultancy and academic projects, where they can assess - and enhance - innovative solutions for hospitality and beyond. On this page we feature some examples of projects our students have successfully undertaken.
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/screenshot_2022-07-20_at_42009_pm.f8617bb79f94.png?ext=webp)
Student insights to make VR training more effective
Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology which has fascinating potential for hospitality-related training. For instance, how do you train hotel reception staff to deal with inebriated customers in as realistic a way as possible? By placing them in a virtual environment, this tricky scenario can be played out without a drop of alcohol involved!
The technology is still young, however, and there is much scope for development. Through a Spark academic project, our Bachelor students have researched the cultural differences when customers check-in at hotels in different countries. This research will be used to update the VR training solutions for customer facing staff.
![](https://assets.foleon.com/eu-central-1/de-uploads-7e3kk3/48858/screenshot_2022-07-20_at_42021_pm.c207b385e7de.png?ext=webp)