Kerzner Global Conference 2024

Last week was a milestone gathering for us at Kerzner International. Our Board Members, Global Leadership, General Managers, department heads from both resorts and Global Office, and partners from around the world convened at our second biennial Global Conference, held at the inspirational @Museum of the Future and newly opened One&Only One Za’abeel. Over five days, as a growing global company, we reflected on our journey – celebrating our successes and the power of our brands, as well as focusing on the strategic and ambitious road ahead to achieve our Vision 2025. We celebrated having leadership from all four of our brands represented – Atlantis, One&Only, SIRO, and Rare Finds – and for Kerzner, reflecting on the incredible pace of change and achievements reached over the past years, and defining the future we envision among us and across all of our brands.

The theme of the Conference was Leading with Excellence, and how we must stay true to our vision and mission, and make sure to consistently improve the quality of our guest experience, as this is what will set us apart. We heard from our Chairman, His Excellency Mohammed Al Shaibani, who delivered an opening keynote, speaking passionately, sharing his great wisdom on how to build and maintain a successful company. In my address to colleagues, I spoke about the importance of acting with courage, it is part of our DNA at Kerzner to be bold and entrepreneurial, this is a mindset that we need to embrace across all areas of our business. I emphasised the importance of delivering everything that we do with excellence, prioritising exceptional quality, and forging deeper emotional connections with our guests and our partners. This is what will make Kerzner one of the most desired employers in the world, attracting and retaining global talent.

We chose to dedicate the first two days of plenary sessions to hearing from external speakers, from outside of our business and outside of the hospitality industry. By looking beyond ourselves, opening ourselves up to new ways of thinking from innovators and creatives from across industries, we can learn from and play our part in the cultural narrative and ever-evolving luxury market.

On days 1 and 2, we heard about the intersection of sports and culture and unleashing the cultural zeitgeist from @Darnell Strom and @Tania V. Moreno . @Sian Westerman shared her insights on how to build sustainability into a luxury business, both operationally and culturally. @Jeremy Jauncey joined us to share his wealth of travel experience and reflections on his uncompromising dedication to health and wellness, and how our new brand @SIROHotels is addressing this gap in the market by focusing on fitness and recovery, allowing guests to live without compromise and achieve their maximum potential. @Imran Ahmed’s story of finding his way to become the seminal voice of the fashion business was not only inspiring, but he also represents the cross-industry insights and expertise that is essential for our own hospitality sector to understand. Luxury fashion brands not only command the loyalties of and deep, emotional connection with the same customers we also hold dear, but they also constantly reinvent, innovate, and respond to change.

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On days 3 and 4, we shifted into internal updates from our different department leaders, covering everything from an update from Development on our Company’s growth - in 2023, we signed more deals with new partners than we ever have in Kerzner’s 30-year history - through to an insightful session from HR, where we analysed the tangible correlation between colleague engagement and guest satisfaction. We delved deeper into our brands and what makes them unique in a crowded and competitive landscape, and the impact that SIRO, our dedicated fitness and recovery brand, is having on the wellness industry, despite only launching to market in mid-February.

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The guiding principles we discussed this week are those I also look to practice daily – prioritising quality, aiming for excellence, having the courage to take bold decisions that drive the top-line, and seeking connections among our colleagues and customers that truly make our business personal and emotional.

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Our momentum is strong, with a strategic and ambitious plan to curate brands that are pioneering, industry-leaders, and deliver experiences that are truly singular and uniquely Kerzner. This will take all of us, seeing ourselves individually and together as innovative entrepreneurs, with unrelenting commitment to excellence in all we do, to the quality of our standards, and the collective bold actions to drive Kerzner to the top of our industry. We are on our way.

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I am proud in where we have come together, and I could not be more energized coming away from this week for what our collective future holds. Thank you to all of you who joined us from far and wide, particularly our speakers: our Chairman, His Excellency Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, @Tom Urquhart , @Darnell Strom , @Tania V. Moreno , @Dr. Christian Busch , @Jake Rosenberg , @Rosemin Opgenhaffen , @Jeremy Jauncey ,@Sian Westerman , and @Patrick McGinnis . And finally, a huge thanks to everyone on the Kerzner team and the One&Only One Za’abeel and SIRO One Za’abeel teams for all your efforts in organizing and hosting us this week.