35° A.E.H.T. Annual Conference Presentation

Senigallia capital city of European hotel schools, let’s start…

OPEN: the Biodiversity and Restart Innovation Forum

On  March the 19th 2022, at the Rotonda a mare in Senigallia, was held the closing evening of the three days of the Association Européenne des Ecoles d'Hotellerie et de Tourisme (AEHT) for the modalities of meeting and competitions next autumn between students from different countries, hosted by the Panzini School. Senigallia will welcome 350 students and 750 guests for an event that combines tourism, culture and food and wine. Three keywords: biodiversity, innovation and restart. 

With a special thought for the population and students of Ukraine and Russia

"The spaceship has left" and it will land in October in Senigallia, the European capital of hospitality and catering 2022. The path to the 35th edition of the AEHT Annual Conference, the most important annual meeting of the tourist-hotel schools of the 33 European countries participating in it, has begun. From October the 17th to the 22nd 2022 Senigallia will welcome 350 students and 750 guests for an event that combines tourism, culture and food and wine. On March the 19th the kick-off was given with a conference at the  Rotonda a mare, whose roof was lit in yellow and blue, to express the solidarity of the AEHT to the Ukrainian people.

Biodiversity, innovation and restart: towards October

The Minister of Education, Patrizio Bianchi, opened the meeting with a video message: "I am delighted to be taking part in this opening of the 35th annual conference of the European Association of Hotel and Tourist Schools. An important initiative that links a key sector for Europe and even more important for Italy, a sector where the difference is made by the people with their education, their formation, the ability to grow together and bring to the table also all their history and their tradition".

In Senigallia, the judges of the competition from all over Europe, the president of the Association Européenne des Ecoles d'Hotellerie et de Tourisme (AEHT), the Portuguese Ana Paula Pais, the vice-president, the Dutch Remco Koerts, and the whole Panzini School worked for three days, from March the16th to the  19th, to define the modalities of the meeting next autumn. The event of October, in fact, with respect for biodiversity and attention to innovation, will mark a new restart after the sharp slowdown imposed by the pandemic from Covid 19. Panzini school has also  presented its website in different languages, to which students can subscribe and a web page with the virtual tour of the sites and equipment.

The conference

The three days ended on Saturday, March the 19th, with a conference at the Rotonda of Senigallia attended by institutional figures. The Minister of Education, Patrizio Bianchi, said in video that this year’s competition, in addition to the value of people, wants to highlight precisely "the attention to the heritage of biodiversity and innovation that are fundamental for the restart".

"Thank you, therefore, to all those who have come from all over Europe, here in the Marche region, to be able to witness first of all the importance of working, studying and living together, which is fundamental at this time when the winds of war are pressing our very civil life. Let this be a collective testimony of our affection and closeness with our Ukrainian friends," concluded Bianchi.

Rossano Sasso, Undersecretary of Education, has connected live with the Rotonda a mare of Senigallia and stressed that "this important event represents the synergy between institutions and territory, the vitality and dynamism of a training of excellence that has guaranteed immediate job opportunities. In October I will certainly be there, to see the restart. My best wishes to all the young people who will participate in this competition: who participates in events of this kind comes out grown up and the group becomes more united".

Representing the Marche Region, , with delegations to Education and Youth Policies the Councillor Giorgia Latini said: "The institutional greetings of the Minister are an honor and we are proud that this great competition takes place in the Marche, and precisely in Senigallia, with its concentration of culinary talents. An event that has a particular importance because it is hosted in the region with the largest organic district in Europe, presented at Expo 2022 in Dubai. A cultural biodiversity too: we feel like a plural region. The new “Legge sui borghi” aims at creating cultural festivals where tourism, culture and food and wine come together to tell the story of our places". 

The city council member has remembered that in the Marche there are eight Hotel Schools and that the Region has previewed important investments in the field of the tourism: "The pandemic has stopped the increase of the field, but only temporarily. In fact, with the new testimonial of the region, the coach of the national football team Roberto Mancini, Marche is now popular in all Europe and in the whole world". A ferment confirmed by the fact that there were two cities in the final for the Capital of Italian Culture 2024, of which one, Pesaro, won.

For the president of AEHT Anna Paola Pais, "the hospitality that Senigallia, the principal of Panzini Alessandro Impoco and all his staff have shown in these days will return in October". Pais said that "it is an honor to return to Italy, one of the most active countries in the AEHT, and precisely to the Panzini of Senigallia". The former headmaster Alfonso Benvenuto, in fact, was one of the promoters of the AEHT, from 1988 to 1990 he represented all Italian schools, and in 2000 he was elected vice-president of the association. "We hope that Italy will be the inspiration for the relaunch of all, that in October together we can return to compete respecting each other," concluded Pais.

Even Massimo Olivetti, mayor of Senigallia, recalled that the European conference in October marks the restart after "a moment of great difficulty". "We are going to overcome it - he continued - and I hope it will be an opportunity to be able to be together again, to relaunch one of the souls of Senigallia and its tradition: hospitality and tourism. The Panzini School is a pride for Senigallia, we are indebted to the entire structure, a real wealth for our city, which goes beyond the two starred chefs in the city. It is the mentality that this school has given to its students that makes us proud of what Senigallia represents in the world, a mentality that this competition will surely enrich".

The president of the Province of Ancona, Daniele Carnevali, stressed that "this forum is an opportunity. After five years this competition returns to Italy - he said - and this is the demonstration that when the organizations collaborate you get great results. We as a province will provide comfortable locations and we have invested over a million Euros in facilities to welcome students . I hope that in October the students from Russia and Ukraine will also be able to compete, this time in hospitality”

The director of the Regional School Office Marche, Marco Ugo Filisetti reiterated how much the Region believes in the AEHT project. "It is an honor that young people from different countries of the world exchange ideas, beliefs, and unite their different vocations right here in the Marche. An experience that enhances diversity, innovations, for a restart that is respectful of nature. With the games you participate in the construction of Europe, bringing a new hope. Without hope, there is no plan, no restart and no future. This hope thanks to the October games becomes a certainty".

"The spaceship left yesterday. Where it will land on October the 21st for the "Gala dinner of the prizes" we still cannot reveal  - has emphasized Alessandro Impoco, principal of the Panzini School.  In fact, the topic of the conference in October will be  'Interstellar cruise', a formula that encompasses our work and our perspectives: bring our girls and our boys to look up, with curiosity and courage. These are the prerequisites with which the students of Panzini are preparing to leave everyone open-mouthed, showing how they are at the avant garde in the tourism and food and wine sector".

Close to the institutions and to the Panzini, then, are all the associations enrolled in the Chamber of Commerce of the Marche, that has worked in order to put together the tourism associations and the tourist-hotel schools, true "life blood for our businesses” as the delegate Massimiliano Polacco recalled. "We must make the Marche a strong point for tourism and hospitality, but in October the Marche will also be a reference point for global brotherhood".

The new website for registration and virtual tour

We have presented our website, developed by Spaggiari, through which students can register for competitions and acquire all the necessary information: open-marche-aeht.com. Inside, you can also take a virtual tour of the Panzini School and preview the sites that will host the bartender competitions, culinary art, pastry and hospitality, as well as all the tools that can be used in competitions. The virtual tour, at the web address https://panzini.ambientivirtuali.it/open2022/, created by the technicians of Etic Srl, has transformed the students of Panzini in real avatars that accompany the visitor to the School, to remember that students are the heart of the AEHT project . Thanks to the virtual interaction, it will also be possible to study the products and producers and get to know the tourist and industrial eno-gastronomic network of the Marche region, protagonist of the Forum of biodiversity innovation and restart to be held in October. For the activity of press office and promotion of the initiative, the Panzini School avails itself of the collaboration of the Journalism Training Schol in Urbino, which sees the active participation of students in synergy with the teachers and students of the Hotel school.

See you in October then, from the 17th to the 22nd, at the Panzini School in Senigallia!