RECHARGE 2023: Lisbon event recap

Portugal: IHM held its fifth annual RECHARGE event in Lisbon, hosted at coworking venue Heden Santa Apolónia.

RECHARGE is an in-person event which relocates every year to a different European city. It is hosted by International Hospitality Media (IHM), the publisher of four B2B hospitality and real estate media brands: Urban Living News, Boutique Hotel News, Serviced Apartment News, and ShortTermRentalz.

For 2023, the fifth edition of RECHARGE took place in Lisbon following previous years in Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Berlin.

Day one involved property tours around the city, including two disused warehouses which are currently undergoing development: Unicorn Factory Lisboa and Marvila Warehouse. The latter site served as the workshop case study on day two, where RECHARGE attendees were tasked with the creative challenge of redeveloping the warehouse. 

Additional property tours included the student housing complex Lumino, coworking venue Heden Rossio, and a drinks reception at the five-star boutique hotel The Vintage.

Day two kicked off with a morning run or Bloody Mary masterclass. After an overview of hotel performance from Ryandeep Bains at STR, several panel discussions explored the opportunities presented by technology for hospitality and real estate, as well as changing business traveller behaviours.

Presentations were then hosted by Leo Colgan at IMS on enhancing the guest experience, followed by Rob Parker at Vita Group highlighting the key findings from the company’s Future Living Report.

After lunch, a poll revealed that 91 per cent of attendees voted that their companies are not scaling down growth plans in 2023 due to economic uncertainty – an optimistic figure which provided context for a panel discussion on investor sentiment. The session segued into a conversation about the value of a brand in the living sectors. 

A closing presentation from Sean Worker at T5 Strategies shared some inspiring examples of sustainable innovation in real estate. 

All presentations from RECHARGE 2023 can be downloaded here. Thanks to IHM’s sponsors Charles Hope, YAYS, Corporate Housing Factory, Heden, IMS, ServicedApartments.nl, LikeMagic and PriceLabs for supporting the 2023 event.

RECHARGE 2024 will return in January in Belfast.