EXHIBITION AREA
On this occasion, interihotel has presented a carefully curated exhibition space, with a total of 184 exhibiting brands that have shown solutions for the hospitality industry. In addition, the organisation has taken charge of the design and configuration of the common spaces, which include the lounge, the cafe, the Agora or the Concept Rooms, among others. This areas have been adorned with product placement from the exhibiting brands, which has served them both to expand their own exhibiting spaces and to generate rest and interaction areas for visitors.
TOP-NOTCH CONFERENCES
In this 2023 edition, 119 speakers have participated amid conferences, debates and workshops. The conferences and round tables have been moderated by Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, an architecture specialised journalist in El País, Marisa Santamaría, an expert in desing innovative trends, Cecilia Camacho, strategic consultant specialised in communication and content creator, and the founder of the magazine Arquitectura y Diseño, Soledad Lorenzo. The Agora space has been the perfect scenario for the talks of speakers of the caliber of Isern Serra, Isabel Pintado (Four Seasons), Manuel Fernández (Roth Architecture-AZULIK), Christian Schallert (Brummell Projects), Géraldine Durieux (Rotor), Felipe Turell (Proyectos Conscientes), Carme Pinós (Estudio Carme Pinós) o Cecilia Tham (Futurity Systems).
The workshops located at the Atelier space have also had a huge success. This sessions, which have a more practical approach, have covered such interesting topics as acoustics, sustainabillity, lighting design or brand strategy in combination with artificial intelligence, amongst others. Moreover, for the second year in a row, the Lounge space has hosted several round tables featuring entities such as Mujeres en Hospitality, the APDI, the COAC or the CODIC, as well as the "Diálogos" round tables, a commitment by interihotel in which professionals from studios and brands from the industry debate the different themes that have structured this edition. 
INTERIHOTEL BCN23 AWARDS
This BCN23 edition has announced six awards categories, in which the winners have been as it follows: the sustainable product award went to Feltina Recycled, by Textil Olius. The innovative product award was presented to System®_Linear lighting plug-in IP54, by Simes. The best stand design award was awarded to EcoCero, with their exhibition space designed by The Room Studio. The best restaurant design award went to Sandra Tarruella, for Restaurant Brutus. The best hotel design award was given to Ilmiodesign for the Hotel Canfranc Estación project. Finally, the jury recognized the professional career of Francesc Rifé in the hotel and restaurant design sector for his undeniable artistic and personal merits.
The jury consisted of representatives for several entities from the design and hospitality industries: Associació de Dissenyadors Professionals (ADP); Asociación Profesional de Diseñadores de Iluminación (APDI); ARQUIN-FAD; Barcelona Centre de Disseny (BCD); Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Catalunya (COAC); Col·legi Oficial de Dissenyadors d’Interior de Catalunya (CODIC); ELISAVA; Gremi d’Hotels de Barcelona; Gremi de Restauració de Barcelona; LCI – Barcelona; Mujeres en Hospitality (MH) y AMBIT Living Spaces Cluster.
INTERIORS LIVING LAB
The Interiors Living Lab, an open innovation space developed by AMBIT Living Spaces Cluster, the organizer of interihotel, has exclusively prepared two unique projects for this edition: physical Concept Rooms and Concept Rooms in holographic virtual reality.
The Capella García Arquitectura studio has conceived and designed the concept and design of the Vitality Haven Concept Room, inspired by the Senator Hotels & Resorts hotel chain. On the other hand, the Eco-Jin Concept Restaurant has been designed and executed by the Francesc Rifé Studio team based on an idea inspired by the UDON Asian Foods restaurant chain. Both projects involved the participation of a total of 23 brands associated to AMBIT, which contributed their products to these spaces.
Besides, the Interiors XR space (Concept Rooms in holographic virtual reality) has allowed attendees to immerse themselves in five conceptual hotel rooms and interact with others thanks to real-time multi-user holo-communication technology, a pioneering innovation at an event from the sector.
RESULTS
interihotel BCN23 "The Journey of Change" closed its doors at 3:00 PM on Friday, October 20, with the attendance of 7,244 interior design professionals, developers, and contract-hospitality industry managers.
2,193 of the registered professionals declared their main reason for attending was to find suppliers for a hotel or restaurant renovation or new construction project, demonstrating the significant business volume generated by the event for participating brands.
The program of activities for the 2023 edition featured a total of 45 sessions of conferences, panel discussions, and workshops with the participation of 119 speakers, setting record numbers for an in-person edition, both in terms of the number of sessions and the number of professionals, considering the high caliber of the speakers and topics.
With these figures, interihotel solidifies its position as a leading event in Europe in the hotel and restaurant interior design sector.
More resources from interihotel BCN23
