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The power of networking during the Hotello of The Year competition

The Hotello of the Year award is given annually in the Netherlands. Winner of the award is the alumna or alumnus from one of the top Dutch hotel management schools, who’s distinguished for her/ his strong work ethic, values, inventiveness, ambition and enthusiasm, and has left her/ his mark by achieving something outstanding in 2021.

This year, three out of the nine candidates participating in the competition are Hotelschool The Hague alumni; Floris Licht, HTH ‘03 and GM of Novotel Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Melle Schellekens, HTH ‘09 and Founder of The Good Roll, and Carlijn Groen-Wijnmalen, HTH ‘12 and Director Food Horecava at RAI Amsterdam. The contestants, along with the other six candidates, presented their pitches to a professional jury and competed for the top 4!

On 1 December, the names of the top four candidates were announced. Among them was also the Hotelschool The Hague alumnus Floris Licht – and we could not be any more prouder of him! Mr Licht shared with us a few words about the competition:

“Taking part in the semi final of the Hotello of the Year competition was great fun, since I had never before done a "Pecha Kucha" type of presentation. Regardless of the outcome, my pitch has already been a great success since in the Q&A session that followed, one member of the jury informed me he was also joining Hotels for Trees, whereby another member of the jury invited me over for a cup of coffee to talk about a partnership. Talking about the power of the Hotello Network!"

Next to Mr Licht, contestants Barbara Kerstens, HMSM '99 and Programme Director of Voeding Leeft, Camille Oostwegel, HMSM '09 and Owner and Managing Director of Oostwegel Collection, and Joachim de Looij, Saxion '06 and Managing Director of BUNK Hotels, will start an online campaign on Monday 3 January.

If you want to learn more about the competition, you can take a look here. You can also vote for them by clicking here.

We wish good luck to all the contestants!