“Invest in yourself and in your surroundings.”

In today’s world of business, an idea only thrives when it is adopted and shared by many. It is with this in mind, that we have thought of bringing people from the same industry, with ambitious mindsets together in one event.

On September 13th, 2018, HoCoSo hosted its first-ever networking event in Zurich, at the Hotel St-Gotthard’s Manzoni bar, which provided excellent food, ambience and service. The event was on an invitation-only basis and among the invitees, we hosted senior professionals from Marriott International, Credit Suisse, Manz Privacy hotels, UBS and many other companies.

HoCoSo’s team joined from all around the world to welcome their guests and showcase some of the latest projects the company has been working on since its initiation three years ago. Jonathan Humphries, Owner and Chairman of HoCoSo, based in Zurich, kicked off the evening, by introducing some of the projects, which included:

Borderless working

Zurich Networking Event HoCoSoJohannes Koelbl, Research Director, and Irene Zijlmans, Project Director, are both based in Switzerland. Kilian Volbach, Concept Development Coordinator and Camiel Verhoofstad, Hotel Analyst Intern, both flew in from Berlin where HoCoSo has opened its second office this year. Katharine Le Quesne, Senior Director joined from London and Rhea Watfa, Marketing and Media Manager, from Beirut.

HoCoSo believes in a new way of working and collaborating. Bringing talented and experienced people together, whilst giving them the quality of life and flexibility to live and work as they please, only to be able to serve their clients better. It goes without saying, that in order to be creative, it is necessary to experience new concepts, new brands, new environments.

Zurich Networking Event HoCoSo 5One of the many reasons why HoCoSo opened its second offices this year at St-Oberholz, in Berlin, a historic building in Mitte, is that it is considered one of the first iconic co-working spaces. Katy Zühlke, Head of Project Management for St-Oberholz, was the evening’s guest speaker. She explained the concept of co-working and brought to light many ways in which it could be associated with the hospitality sector. Co-working attracts the lively professional, who might travel often and is not likely to stay in his / her office, as well as the work-from-home professionals and startup companies. The concept basically consists of a shared workspace: desks, meeting rooms,, decent coffee, wi-fi, and most importantly, flexibility. And from those basics, it is evolving quickly, adapting with the growing demand. Katy unveiled a recent concept that consisted of a local bank branch opening a co-working space.

Such informal networking opportunities are hard to find, in today’s heavily programmed and scheduled professional world. Hoteliers, investors and other interested parties sometimes meet, for brief moments at large exhibitions but are constantly pressured by their agendas and have but little time to really discuss and brainstorm business development ideas and innovations. HoCoSo’s first ever networking evening sought to solve this situation.

Serviced Apartments Summit RECHARGE

Another special guest, Piers Brown from International Hospitality Media  – IHM – in the UK, was present that night. IHM hosts the yearly prestigious Serviced Apartments Summit, an exclusive conference specialized in the serviced apartments sector, extended and short-stay.

In a few months, IHM is hosting the Serviced Apartments Summit RECHARGE: a unique networking conference oriented towards serviced apartment, apart-hotel, extended stay and short term rental business, featuring a prestigious collective of leaders. Taking place on the 22nd and 23rd of January 2019, in Berlin, this event is sponsored by HoCoSo. For more information on SAS RECHARGE, click here.

HoCoSo’s networking event was an interesting and stimulating evening, which allowed the invitees to grow their network and benefit from a casual exchange of contemplations. The team is looking forward to organizing the event’s second edition next year. Stay tuned to know more, sign up to our newsletter.

About HoCoSo


Swiss-based HoCoSo, brings together teams of global experts to create tailor-made solutions for client projects. Jonathan Humphries, Chairman and Owner of HoCoSo, and his direct team specialize in the extended-stay hospitality market, the boutique sector, and resort developments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). We create innovative and future-oriented solutions for each of our clients across the following three fields of services: