#HTNEXT: Learn How St Giles Hotels Engages Guests Using Virtual Reality
HT-NEXT will offer attendees "Lightning Chats: Bolts of Insight in 20 Minutes" on April 12. During these sessions, attendees will have the chance to hear speakers discuss important topics. One such speaker, Abigail Tan-Giroud, Head of St Giles Hotels, Europe, UK & North America, will lead a session titled: "Engaging Guests by Enabling a Digital Journey."
Centrality is key to St Giles Hotels’ strategy. The brand’s positioning is built on it, and it is one of the main drivers when selecting hotels to be part of its expanding portfolio. St Giles 360 leverages virtual reality to engage guests and to see from their perspectives, what it actually means for them to “Be Central” in London, New York, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Penang and Sydney.
In this Mini-Talk, Tan-Giroud will share how the company engages guests in the campaign from the creation and sharing of immersive content, to procuring guests’ videos, and what role virtual reality will play in the company’s overall customer engagement strategy. Tan will explain the process from conception to next phases as well as how St Giles 360 crosses a microsite, app and social media channels.
Abigail Tan-Giroud is not your average hotelier, because apart from being born into a renowned hospitality family and having deep roots and passion for the industry, in her spare time you may find her flying a helicopter, playing the electric guitar, boxing at 6am, or doing some form of sport, riding a motorcycle, completing Tough Mudder, or most likely, eating.
Her youth, energy, and adventurous nature are what drive the uniqueness of the brand and company culture, as she believes that passion and excitement has to live in everything that we do, especially our work. Passion has to be nurtured, and hospitality needs to be a way of life and not simply a job. As she would put it, passion for people, and her team are her passion.
Growing up in Penang, Malaysia, she gained exposure to the hotel and real estate industry at a very young age – her grandfather and his brother ran one of Malaysia’s real estate dynasties and her father is now the managing director of the publicly listed IGB Corporation, the parent company for St Giles, which owns nine hotels worldwide, and over 6000 rooms globally under separate brands.
Abigail entered the family business during summer breaks from school as an apprentice and officially joined the St Giles team as Director of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Investments in 2009, involved with the purchase of two New York properties and assisting with negotiations and transition preparations. In 2014, she became St Giles Hotels’ Head of UK, Europe and North America.
In this role, Abigail oversees the two New York properties, The Tuscany - A St Giles Signature Hotel and The Court - A St Giles Hotel as well as the London hotels, St Giles Heathrow and St Giles London. In London, she is also part of the core team for the development of a mixed-use development project on a 1.81 acre in the Southwark area, slated to open by 2020 with a 400-room four-star hotel, luxury residences, retail, a medical center and office towers. Abigail is also responsible for sourcing new acquisition and management opportunities and is the driving force behind the brand and culture development of the St Giles brand.
Hotels with a Heart, a charity initiative which is the brainchild of Abigail, was born out of the desire for St Giles Hotels to not just be a portfolio of hotels in cities but to be a collection of people, faces, and lives, and having a positive impact on the communities surrounding the properties. Hotels with a Heart is not just a CSR program on the side, it lies at the core of the brand. Through fundraising efforts that the staff personally get involved in participating and organizing, the initiative raises funds primarily for underprivileged children, and education.
Abigail holds an undergraduate degree in business management, and a Masters degree with Distinction in international management and innovation from the University of Exeter.
HT-NEXT unites two industry leading events, Hotel Technology Forum and HTNG North America, into one immersive networking and educational event for hotel executives and solution providers. HT-NEXT is where business and technology meet.
To learn more about and register for HT-NEXT, visit http://www.ht-next.com.
Centrality is key to St Giles Hotels’ strategy. The brand’s positioning is built on it, and it is one of the main drivers when selecting hotels to be part of its expanding portfolio. St Giles 360 leverages virtual reality to engage guests and to see from their perspectives, what it actually means for them to “Be Central” in London, New York, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Penang and Sydney.
In this Mini-Talk, Tan-Giroud will share how the company engages guests in the campaign from the creation and sharing of immersive content, to procuring guests’ videos, and what role virtual reality will play in the company’s overall customer engagement strategy. Tan will explain the process from conception to next phases as well as how St Giles 360 crosses a microsite, app and social media channels.
Abigail Tan-Giroud is not your average hotelier, because apart from being born into a renowned hospitality family and having deep roots and passion for the industry, in her spare time you may find her flying a helicopter, playing the electric guitar, boxing at 6am, or doing some form of sport, riding a motorcycle, completing Tough Mudder, or most likely, eating.
Her youth, energy, and adventurous nature are what drive the uniqueness of the brand and company culture, as she believes that passion and excitement has to live in everything that we do, especially our work. Passion has to be nurtured, and hospitality needs to be a way of life and not simply a job. As she would put it, passion for people, and her team are her passion.
Growing up in Penang, Malaysia, she gained exposure to the hotel and real estate industry at a very young age – her grandfather and his brother ran one of Malaysia’s real estate dynasties and her father is now the managing director of the publicly listed IGB Corporation, the parent company for St Giles, which owns nine hotels worldwide, and over 6000 rooms globally under separate brands.
Abigail entered the family business during summer breaks from school as an apprentice and officially joined the St Giles team as Director of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Investments in 2009, involved with the purchase of two New York properties and assisting with negotiations and transition preparations. In 2014, she became St Giles Hotels’ Head of UK, Europe and North America.
In this role, Abigail oversees the two New York properties, The Tuscany - A St Giles Signature Hotel and The Court - A St Giles Hotel as well as the London hotels, St Giles Heathrow and St Giles London. In London, she is also part of the core team for the development of a mixed-use development project on a 1.81 acre in the Southwark area, slated to open by 2020 with a 400-room four-star hotel, luxury residences, retail, a medical center and office towers. Abigail is also responsible for sourcing new acquisition and management opportunities and is the driving force behind the brand and culture development of the St Giles brand.
Hotels with a Heart, a charity initiative which is the brainchild of Abigail, was born out of the desire for St Giles Hotels to not just be a portfolio of hotels in cities but to be a collection of people, faces, and lives, and having a positive impact on the communities surrounding the properties. Hotels with a Heart is not just a CSR program on the side, it lies at the core of the brand. Through fundraising efforts that the staff personally get involved in participating and organizing, the initiative raises funds primarily for underprivileged children, and education.
Abigail holds an undergraduate degree in business management, and a Masters degree with Distinction in international management and innovation from the University of Exeter.
HT-NEXT unites two industry leading events, Hotel Technology Forum and HTNG North America, into one immersive networking and educational event for hotel executives and solution providers. HT-NEXT is where business and technology meet.
To learn more about and register for HT-NEXT, visit http://www.ht-next.com.