CETT Barcelona School of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy wins European Mise en Place Cup 2024 — Photo by HotelloTOP

The 16th edition of the European Mise en Place Cup (EMCup) took place on Sunday 4 and Monday 5 February in Maastricht. The theme of this edition was "When artificial intelligence meets human intelligence - The rise of a new generation". The winner of the EMCup 2024 is CETT Barcelona school of tourism, hospitality and gastronomy from Spain, followed by HIM Hotel Institute Montreux from Switzerland and Hotel Management School Maastricht, the Netherlands. These top 3 competed against 23 other European hotel schools for two exciting days. During this competition, a total of 115 students gave everything to win that coveted 1st place and show their ideas about 'AI meets human intelligence'.

EM Cup 2024

26 renowned international hotel management schools from 14 different European countries participated in the 16th edition of the European Mise en Place Cup. Each and every one of them gave their vision on 'artificial intelligence' and 'human intelligence' and how these can go hand in hand in the hospitality industry. The talented students answered the question of how the hospitality industry can have the best of both worlds by perfectly combining AI and human interaction. The 115 driven students took up this challenge and inspired the Business Jury with their ideas on the theme. This year's Business Jury consisted of 80 hospitality professionals from 46 international companies.

Competition days

The student teams introduced themselves in advance with the most creative introductory videos to draw attention to their EMCup participation and this year's theme. In addition, the 26 teams wrote white papers that were assessed by the members of the Business Jury.

During the competition days, the students gave various pitches to the Business Jury. Starting with the pitch they had prepared in advance. During the competition, the teams were given an in-depth assignment to expand their pitch. All these pitches were assessed by the Business Jury and a ranking was determined based on the scores for their pitches. On the second day, after noon, only the TOP 10 best scoring teams were allowed to give their final pitch in an official Dragon's Den setting. The teams presented their final pitches to the audience and the dragons, consisting of 4 experts in the hospitality industry; Peter Ducker - Independent Hospitality Consultant, Yin Oei - Living Tomorrow Group, Billy Skelli-Cohen - ZIEN Group and Michelle Wells - PPHE Hotel Group.

Building a network is key

The EMCup is not only a competition, but also an opportunity to meet inspiring people from the hospitality industry and like-minded people. Students get the opportunity to expand their network, make contacts and possibly shape the start of their (international) career. That is why the first day of the competition is all about networking, with workshops and assignments in mixed groups and a Networking Dinner at the Hotel Management School Maastricht to stimulate interaction between the participants. On day 2 it was up to the teams from the hotel schools to convince the jury that they deserved the coveted EM Cup. The competition ended on Monday with an Awards dinner at the Rebelle in Maastricht.

Winners EMCup 2024

Learm more at emcup.eu.