Hello everyone,

Today I would like to present “NEWH”. The Hospitality Industry Network that I have discovered a few months ago, when I joined as a student. This week, I decided to become an active member while attending my very first event (more details later).

Source: http://newh.org

NEWH provides scholarships, education, leadership and business developments.  You can find local chapters in USA, Canada (Toronto and Vancouver) and one in Europe (London, UK). NEWH are professionals as well as students who are engaged in architecture, interior design, sales, purchasing, production, education, distribution, management of Hospitality, Food services, Senior Living and other related industries.

1. Students

As a student we can join every chapter for free!! (comparing to other organizations it is a very good deal for every student). In my post I will focus mostly on the Toronto chapter. The process of applying for a membership was easy. I had to register by filling some basic information like my address, area of studies and other details about my education. After a couple of days I received an email confirmation of my membership.

This is the package of information that I had received after a couple of weeks applying for my membership submission. You can find here basic information about your chapter, as well as upcoming events such as the 2017 Leadership Conference in Denver. This is my dream to participate in this event, as I will have an amazing opportunity to not only learn more about NEWH and the industry, but to meet new people (this was the reason to join NEWH – learning. We are always learning new things throughout life!)

From then on I was able to attend events with a student membership discount (which is much cheaper!).

2. Events

On Tuesday, April 12th I had an amazing opportunity to participate in the “3 trends in social medias” event that had taken place at the Hotel Gladstone in Toronto. The Event started with an hour of networking where professionals could discuss and exchange their business cards. The food that was served was very tasty and we had a nice choice of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages.

source: http://newh.org/events/toronto-newh-social-media-trends/

If you missed this event, don’t worry. Another one (according to the website) will be on May 24th “Mixology Workshop”.

As NEWH is an international organization, you can also travel to the USA to participate in different events. The list you will find here. Just choose a chapter of the type of event you are interested in.

On June 7th, 2016 I will be going to Pittsburgh where I will participate in the Regional Trade show. It will be an amazing opportunity to meet new industry professionals and also to volunteer, as I was asked to volunteer for the registration of guests. I’m looking forward to it!

3. People

As we all know, events are the best opportunity to network. During my last event, I met very interesting people from the industry, who told me about their work and about their companies. It was very interesting to learn more about the Interior Design industry. If you are a student, I think that meeting new people from your industry should be a priority for you. Don’t hesitate to talk with anyone during events as it could be an amazing opportunity to develop your future (network, network and network!).

4. Education

As mentioned before, learning was the main reason to join NEWH. They organize a lot of events in different chapters concerned about learning and developing skills. A lot of discussions, panels and meetings with experienced people. I had this amazing opportunity to learn about Trends in Social Medias. I was always sure that as a young person that grew up with Facebook and Twitter, I already knew everything about the internet. I was mistaken. Wendy Hicken, who was presenting the topic of social medias, opened my eyes and guided everyone on what we should be paying attention to while posting pictures on our company’s Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

If you think that NEWH is for you! Don’t hesitate to contact them and apply for membership! They also have a few scholarships during the year that you can apply for!

Some informations:

NEWH main website – http://newh.org

Toronto Chapter – http://newh.org/chapters/toronto/

NEWH Toronto Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/NEWHToronto/?fref=ts

NEWH Toronto Twitter – https://twitter.com/NEWHToronto

and Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/newh_toronto/

Thanks for reading,

Kasia Walkow