Hotelschool The Hague's Year 4 students brought fourteen weeks of challenge-based learning to life at the second edition of our Challenge Expo, WE ARE WHAT'S NEXT.
The expo is the culmination of a track within our Year 4 curriculum, where students step outside the classroom to tackle real problems facing the hospitality industry. Depending on their interests and ambitions, students chose one of three tracks:
- Consultant for an Industry Dilemma – taking on a genuine challenge set by an external commissioner to transform the sector
- Entrepreneurship – developing and pitching their own business concept
- Consultant for a Placement Company – researching a challenge linked to their own upcoming internship
Across all three, students were asked the same underlying question: how do we innovate the hospitality sector to create hospitality for a better world.
On the day, 200+ students presented their applied research across five themes:
- Taste the Future
- Hospitality That Matters
- Business of Change
- Work Reimagined
- Society & Impact
Together, they filled two floors of Campus The Hague with pitches, prototypes and presentations for faculty, industry partners, family and friends.
WE ARE WHAT'S NEXT
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Dragon's Den judge Hossam Haggag remarked: "Hotelschool The Hague continues to create meaningful learning experiences through initiatives such as the Student Expo. It's inspiring to witness the energy, professionalism and curiosity that define the students and the broader school community."
Real challenges, real partners
None of this happens in a vacuum. Our thanks go to the HTH Research Centre, Food Inspiration, Leiden University, Boothuis Group, WestCord Hotel Group, Travel Forward, EU Lonely/De Regenboog Group, Food Boost Challenge, Corendon, De Plesman, and a number of individual mentors who supported teams directly. All of them brought real industry challenges into the classroom, connecting students to the problems that keep our industry up at night is exactly how we help shape the change-makers hospitality needs.
Recognising the best of the best
To celebrate the creativity, critical thinking and growth potential on display, we handed out Impact Awards across all five themes:
- Business of Change: Iris Tangelder, Job Geilenkirchen & Femke Lambeck (Net Positive 2050)
- Hospitality That Matters: Eva Grunewald & Maha Shamsi (Entrepreneurship)
- Society & Impact: Maura Karamat Ali (Food Inspiration) & Jochem de Ruiter (Research Centre)
- Taste the Future: Teodora Bugeac (Food Inspiration) & Jayden Limjoco (Food Boost Challenge)
- Work Reimagined: Daniel Bos (Food Inspiration) & Jasmijn Hendrike (Corendon)
Expo visitors also cast their votes for a People's Choice Award, given to Femke Lambeck, Fjodor Prent and Iris Tangelder (Net Positive 2050), Maura Karamat Ali (Food Inspiration) and Thomas Schussel (EU Lonely).
"I believe in true hospitality, which is why I chose the Society and Impact Minor (specialisation track). I wanted to make an actual impact with my studies, instead of just going for business and profit."
Bouke van de Wart
Pitching to the Dragons
A group of aspiring entrepreneurs also took their business ideas into the Dragon's Den, pitching to four industry Dragons for direct, honest feedback. Elsewhere, students shared their research insights with visitors in the Experience Theatre, turning weeks of applied research into a live, public conversation.
What's next?
With their challenge work complete, students now head into the second half of Year 4: Launching Your Career (LYCar), the final stretch of their programme, in which they spend fifteen weeks working in a company, on a placement, or on their own venture, applying everything they've learned as they prepare to launch their careers in hospitality.
We can't wait to see where these experiences take them after graduation.
We will be back with the next edition of WE ARE WHAT'S NEXT in Q1 2027. The date will be announced shortly, but if you can’t wait, pencil in 15 January 2027.
