First HoSS edition brought together more than 200 participants across London and online, with senior leaders from dozens of global hotel brands, independent properties and restaurant groups, alongside a faculty with experience behind IHG, Kimpton, Hyatt, Meliá and Nespresso.
The inaugural Hospitality Social Media Summit (HoSS) was held on 3–4 September, combining a live executive summit at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Robert Rothman ’77 London Campus with an international online programme running alongside it.
The first edition brought together more than 200 participants representing 14 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Austria and the United Arab Emirates, alongside delegates from other European markets.
The audience included senior professionals responsible for social media, marketing, digital, brand, reputation and commercial performance within their businesses.
It combined leading global hotel brands and groups, including Fairmont, Hilton, Frasers Hospitality, Falkensteiner, Trump Hotels and Springboard Hospitality, with leading independents including Hazlitt’s, The LaLiT London, The Stratford and The Killarney Park, properties affiliated with Preferred Hotels & Resorts and Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and restaurant groups including Emerald Hospitality, COYA, Urban Pubs & Bars and JKS Restaurants.
That range — from global hotel groups to luxury independents and major restaurant operators — brought very different operating models and markets into the same programme, providing an early indication that the challenge HoSS was created to address extends beyond any one hospitality market.
Across those businesses, social media teams are increasingly expected to contribute to demand, revenue, reputation, customer relationships and long-term brand value. The specialist strategy, skillsand commercial frameworks surrounding the function have not developed at the same speed.
Kordie identified that gap early. As social media moved from a communications channel into an increasingly commercial discipline, hospitality lacked not only a dedicated platform around that shift, but executive education designed for the speed, complexity and commercial expectations of modern hospitality businesses.
HoSS was created to fill it. Rather than a traditional conference, it was designed as an executive working summit: senior-level strategic education applied directly to delegates’ own businesses, moving away from passive learning and generic theory towards programmes that produce decisions, frameworks and outputs teams can use immediately.
Global hospitality experience, applied
The programme brought together award-winning practitioners with experience behind some of the world’s most recognised hospitality and consumer brands, including IHG Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Meliá Hotels International, Maybourne Hotel, Corinthia Hotels and Nespresso.
Day one was led by Whitney Reynolds, former Global Director of Social Marketing at IHG Hotels & Resorts and co-producer of the Summit.
Her full-day strategic masterclass took delegates through the foundations of building a commercially relevant social strategy, from business goals, audiences and channels to brand personality, content direction, tactics and measurement.
Delegates applied the frameworks directly to their own organisations, developing strategic structures and practical outputs designed to be taken back into the business rather than left in the event room.
Whitney Reynolds, former Global Director of Social Marketing at IHG Hotels & Resorts and co-producer of the Hospitality Social Media Summit, said:
“The biggest takeaway for me was realising just how ready the hospitality social media community is to elevate this discipline. Starting with strategy and commercial outcomes on Day One, then layering in practical tools and expertise on Day Two, gave delegates a foundation for making smarter decisions about where and how to invest their efforts. And perhaps most importantly, there was a remarkable sense of collective purpose in the room. We weren’t simply talking about how to make better social content; we were working together to demonstrate the enormous influence social can have on hospitality businesses and to ensure the discipline is understood and valued accordingly.”
Day two shifted the emphasis from strategy to specialist implementation and practical application.
Faculty included Laura Ferrari, former Director of Social Media EMEA at Hyatt Hotels Corporation; Santiago García Solimei, former Global Director of Social Media and Brands PR at Meliá Hotels International; and Stefano Della Schiava, former Head of the Nespresso Content Studio, alongside specialist hospitality, performance marketing, content and digital teams.
Sessions explored areas including paid social and direct bookings, AI-assisted workflows, AI content quality, video strategy, international market activation, and social care and reputation.
Rather than simply presenting ideas, faculty worked through practical frameworks and applications with delegates, connecting specialist expertise directly to the commercial challenges facing their own businesses.
Laura Ferrari, former Director of Social Media EMEA at Hyatt Hotels Corporation and HoSS faculty member, said:
“What stayed with us most from these two days was the recognition that social strategy has been sitting in the wrong room. The conversation has shifted: from ‘how do we make more content’ to ‘how do we make social actually accountable for commercial outcomes.’ That’s not a small shift, it’s a structural one. And the teams who make it will look very different from the ones who don’t.”
Alisa Kremer, Founder of Kordie and the Hospitality Social Media Summit, said:
“Across very different markets and businesses, we heard the same underlying challenge. Leadership increasingly expects social media to contribute to demand, revenue and reputation, while the commercial frameworks and capability surrounding the function have not evolved at the same speed.
“That tells us this is not simply a local or creative challenge. It is a wider commercial capability gap.
“Closing gaps like this is exactly what Kordie is being built for: specialist executive education led by people who have done the work at senior level and applied directly to the delegate’s own business rather than delivered as theory. We are incredibly grateful to every delegate, faculty member and partner who backed the first edition.”
Built beyond the event room
Delegates retain access to the HoSS Digital Hub, powered by Kordie, which holds the programme’s tools, templates, recordings and expert-led learning.
That pairing of an intensive live summit with continued digital learning is central to the Kordie model: education that continues after the room empties, rather than ending with it.
The inaugural London edition was delivered with SiteMinder as Summit Sponsor, Opposite Land Productions as Video and Content Partner, and The Hotel Magazine as Anchor Media Partner, alongside 80 DAYS, Push Group and Giant Leap Digital as Programme Partners.
Further editions follow in 2027.
About the Hospitality Social Media Summit
The Hospitality Social Media Summit (HoSS) is an international executive summit for hospitality social media, marketing, digital and brand leaders.
Created by Kordie, it convenes hospitality businesses with practitioners who have built and led social and commercial programmes inside some of the world’s leading hotel groups.
The Hospitality Social Media Summit addresses the widening gap between what social media teams are expected to deliver commercially and the strategy, measurement and capability available to them.
About Kordie
Kordie™ is building the next generation of executive business education for hospitality — specialist, applied and built around the industry’s changing commercial needs.
Through executive summits, specialist programmes and an AI-led knowledge platform, Kordie combines senior practitioner expertise with applied and continuous learning to turn industry knowledge into practical commercial capability.