Design Hotels Arena

Focus Filter: The Age of Re-Engagement

WHEN

September 20–22, 2017

WHERE

Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon offers an enticing mix of history, culture, and a glorious cityscape featuring wide boulevards, river views, and Moorish alleys bathed in a comfortable Mediterranean climate. Traditional yet modern, this future-oriented European capital, with its creative new born-from-crisis vibrancy, builds the right context for this year’s Arena*, Focus Filter: The Age of Re-Engagement. Inspired by our friends at leading foresight and consumer behavior consultancy The Future Laboratory, the latest edition of our annual members conference takes on the need to connect, engage and interact more deeply.

Especially in our age of digital distraction when the human capacity for concentration is being significantly challenged, brands must endeavor to cultivate in-depth focus in order to stand out. With a panel of experts and speakers from various industries, we will explore the benefits, challenges and opportunities currently facing the hospitality sector and discuss meaningful ways we can re-focus on what’s relevant to us. In addition to exciting presentations and panels, there will be multiple casual gatherings and opportunities to meet and share ideas with like-minded hoteliers from across the world.

Design Hotels™ looks forward to welcoming you in Lisbon!

Presentation Recap

An inspiring panel of experts descended upon Arena* this year to discuss the many challenges and opportunities currently facing the hospitality sector today. In order to dive as deeply as possible into what it takes to stand out and thrive in an interconnected, globalized marketplace, our presenters included everyone from hoteliers, social entrepreneurs, and creative directors, to brand marketing experts, thought leaders, opinion shapers, content creators, and beyond.

OVERVIEW

Arena* 2017 Program

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Curious who attended?

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Speakers at Arena* 2017

This year’s inspiring panel of experts and speakers explored the benefits of connecting, engaging, and interacting in a deeper more effective manner, one that comes from filtering out the extraneous and focusing on what is relevant.

OVERVIEW

Monocle
On the Attribute of a Good City

Partners

“Portugal is becoming young again”

Despite being one of the oldest countries in Europe, Portugal, as its president recently noted, “is becoming young again.” This visually stunning Old World destination is driven today by a creative spirit of rebirth and reinvention that is transforming its cultural landscape. The forward-looking government now prioritizes entrepreneurship and supports the start-up field, and Portugal today is multicultural, tolerant, and thinking globally, which enables it to build bridges where others build walls.

The statistics may still suggest an indebted economy facing austerity measures, but look beyond the financial reports and you’ll discover a thriving business environment led by innovation, small businesses, and a new cosmopolitan generation. According to Monocle’s recent Portugal Survey publication: “Portugal hasn’t found oil. It found itself!”

Crisis & Creativity

A bold new space for showcasing art, architecture, and technology that promotes debate, critical thinking, and international dialogue, Lisbon’s MAAT museum presents its latest exhibition, “Tension & Conflict: Video Art after 2008.” The exhibition gathers the works of 22 artists from around the world who have filmed their personal views on the effects of the great recession, its associated political turmoil, and the less visible social consequences of those events.

In a display that turns the museum into a variety of filmic spaces, artists present protests, demonstrations, news, and poetic visions in frequently unexpected ways. Moving through the space, one witnesses the troubling events of the past while experiencing the present in a new light.

September 20, 2017

Welcome Cocktail
at Memmo Príncipe Real

Set in the heart of Lisbon’s trendiest neighborhood, Memmo Príncipe Real captures the city’s grand history and its surging new vitality through a contemporary style. Add to this a stunning city view from the hotel’s terrace and we had the perfect spot to kick off this year’s Arena*.

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September 21, 2017

Conference Day I
at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos

Day one of our get-together took place at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. One of Lisbon’s most impressive structures and a living historical treasure, this landmark serves as Portugal’s premier opera house.

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September 21, 2017

Dinner & Party
at Bica do Sapato

With actors/restaurant owners John Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve setting a stage overlooking the Tagus River, Arena* attendees gathered here for a memorable night of impressive views, authentic food, and a boisterous party.

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September 22, 2017

Conference Day II
at Museu Nacional dos Coches

Located in Belém, the Museu dos Coches exemplifies Italian neoclassical design that was created by acclaimed Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes Da Rocha. Here, in an ultramodern space, Arena* attendees got an up-to-the-minute look at modern-day hospitality.

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September 22, 2017

Arena* 2017
Closing at MAAT

Boasting an undulating form that connects its grand roof with a promenade on the bank of River Tagus, Lisbon’s stunning Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology has become the city’s top new cultural center. Here, Arena* attendees gathered for a scenic get-together on the MAAT rooftop.

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September 22–24, 2017

Arena* Owners Weekend in Cascais

The Owner’s Weekend brought many of our Originals to Cascais amid a pristine natural setting offering breathtaking views, a surfing workshop, a sailing regatta, a sound meditation, and above all a stimulating environment where our hoteliers could bond and learn from each other.

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