Restaurateurs sought for Innovation Working Group to unlock productivity gains

The Hospitality Sector Council is inviting operators to attend a series of accelerator events to address workflow productivity within the UK hospitality industry.

It is seeking operators to take part in an Innovation Working Group to inform the development of technology that will address productivity issues in restaurants and bars.

The group is being chaired by Jane O’Riordan, a Hospitality Sector Council member and current chair of Caravan Restaurants, Red Engine and Turtle Bay. She is calling on operators to join the group's first session to help drive innovation in the industry.

The inaugural event will take place at Oxford Brookes University on 22 May 2024. It will address the challenge of labour productivity and attempt to discover why R&D spend in UK hospitality is so low compared to other industries, inviting those present to collaborate to overcome barriers to technological innovation.

O’Riordan said: “Hospitality is a vibrant and immensely rewarding sector, but it moves at such a pace that we often don’t have time to tackle innovative ways of addressing issues such as workflow productivity.

“We’re excited to be launching this Accelerator initiative with a simple but important goal: to find creative ideas and solutions that will benefit the entire industry.

“I look forward to bringing together operators, innovation experts, technologists, policymakers and professionals from related fields in our first facilitated workshop to develop actionable strategies to tackle labour-related challenges.”

Those interested in joining the Innovation Working Group should complete the online application.