The Global Restaurant Investment Forum 2017 (GRIF), the world's leading event for the restaurant investment community, has partnered with AccorHotels for its fourth edition.

GRIF, which will be held from April 10-12 at Fairmont The Palm in Dubai, will provide a macroeconomic overview of the food and beverage industry and tackle issues such as concept development, finance and lending, investment feasibility, scaling up for sustainable growth, creating a food culture and catering to the digitally-focused customer.

The event brings together more than 300 industry professionals for interactive culinary tours, vibrant networking receptions, a franchise master class and a stimulating conference programme that gets to core of investing in the restaurant and food service industry.

Jennifer Pettinger-Haines, managing director, Middle East, Bench Events, organiser of GRIF, said: “GRIF facilitates investment decision-making within the restaurant space and showcases the hottest concepts from around the globe. When selecting our partners, we are committed to supporting companies looking to make a real impact in the industry. AccorHotels is making bold steps to revolutionise its F&B and we are excited to witness the unveiling of new concepts from the hotelier at GRIF.”

Dedicated to sharing best practice and innovative insights, the impressive line-up of speakers for the 2017 edition of GRIF includes Amir Nahai, CEO Food & Beverage, AccorHotels, who will be interviewed live on stage about the international hotelier’s F&B strategy on April 11.

Speaking ahead of the event, Nahai said: “Rethinking and redefining our food and beverage offer is a critical element of AccorHotels’ transformation and we are committed to demonstrating that hotels can be market-leaders in the restaurant business. With close to 8,000 restaurants around the world, our goal is to position our F&B offer as a truly differentiating factor for our guests, our partners and our employees.

“Our focus is on ensuring food and beverage is more localised and less commoditised,” added Nahai. “It is about creating concepts tailored to each marketplace in which we operate and developing home-grown F&B. The question we ask ourselves about every concept is, ‘does it matter to our guests?’”

The topic of restaurant conceptualisation will be an important one at GRIF 2017, where panel sessions include: What’s Hot in the Restaurant World; Creating a Food Culture; Demystifying Restaurant Development; Hotel F&B; Smart Design; and The Blueprint to Developing a Successful Concept.

Nahai added: “Our merger with FRHI Hotels & Resorts has certainly accelerated our focus on F&B and provided additional know-how, talent and systems in this specialism. It’s therefore very exciting to host GRIF at Fairmont the Palm, a hotel for which we are currently creating a very exciting new restaurant, bar and beach club concept.”
 
He concluded: “GRIF is one of the leading international restaurant investment conferences in the region and at AccorHotels, we are committed to furthering the development of the industry globally to meet the needs of today’s diner.”

In addition to the high-level agenda, GRIF 2017 will present the second edition of the Global Restaurant Awards, which give recognition to the businesses behind the world’s leading restaurants and brands. - TradeArabia News Service