By Denis Sheehan FIH, Managing Director, Accessible Hospitality Alliance
The aha Forum, in Partnership with Thomas Franks took place last week at the Urban Farmer Project in the City of London. The event backed by brand leaders across our industry and the world of entertainment welcomed people living with disabilities, accessibility advocates, and catering and hospitality operators to explore how a hospitality world that welcomes everyone can become reality.
The day witnessed panel group discussions, interviews, keynotes, and seven roundtables enabling everyone attending to take an active part in discussing and debating how our industry can become more accessible. Both in terms of guest experience and creating teams of colleagues that are an authentic reflection of society.
The day started with a 100% turn out flowing progressively through the afternoon which seemed to evaporate, such was the application to matters on the agenda.
In the evening everyone was treated to a selection of fabulous food from the Thomas Franks chef brigade, accompanied by a choice of fine wines and champagne from Hatch Mansfield.
The evening enjoyed a short musical set by Emmanuel Kelly, opening with Coldplay’s Yellow, a tune Emmanuel’s more than familiar with having performed alongside Chris Martin and Coldplay on their 2024 World Tour. He then shared poignant insights to some of his most challenging life experiences, how he sees them as inspiration and opportunity, adding fuel to the worlds of entertainment and hospitality coming together to build a bridge to universal accessibility. The set concluded with My Sky, his own composition which he will also perform next weekend Main Stage at the Isle of Wight Festival 2025.
We collected an incredible amount of footage and photographs from the event, so this is just the first attempt to review it and more will follow soon.
I would like to thank all of our Sponsors, our Advisory Board, our Ambassadors, and every single person that helped put Accessible Hospitality Alliance together, made The aha Forum possible, and all the people who took part last Wednesday, especially Luciana Patron and the front and back of house teams that looked after us all so wonderfully.
At this point I am going to hand the review over to a selection of people that attended and took part, with much more to follow in future coverage.
“What an incredible afternoon! The guest speakers, the roundtable discussions and finishing the day listing to Emmanuel Kelly’s incredible voice – it was all fantastic.
“I left with pages of notes, lots of ideas, new connections, and feeling inspired and motivated to support and be part of a movement, not a moment!”
Amy Bowden, Business Development Manager, Genuine Dining
“What I experienced today is the ‘genesis’ for change. I was inspired by the resilience and humility of the extraordinary people in the room. I left with takeaways summarised by three words, Action, Change, Movement.”
Sheridon Mascoll-Parker, Business Development Director, Guarantee Laundries
The screen grabs from LinkedIn above are a small selection of feedback from The aha Forum, in Partnership with Thomas Franks, to keep informed of Accessible Hospitality Alliance developments you can follow the LinkedIn page here.
If you would like to be part of our next event in London in October you can register your interest here.
