Design of service spaces often lends itself to the complexities that are driven by often competing considerations and requirements of key stakeholders. The investors or ownership brings their vision of what the space should look like in the form of a narrative or brief that the design team is expected to build upon to initiate the process, it will be safe to state that the ‘design team’ will then typically bring their understanding of what the ‘patron’ would like to see in a form that can be presented for approval of the design with required level of detailing such that the decision makers can now witness the expression of their vision or ideas about the space.

Designing spaces for service industry domains like hotels & resorts, food and beverage retail locations, kitchens, retail spaces, airports, hospitals and many others is all about finding the right balance between creative expression that would define the look and feel of the spaces and the critical need for these spaces to also respond to ‘operational requirements’.

In effect achieve equilibrium between the aesthetics and functionality such that the ‘customer experience’ is of high quality at all times. The diverse range of services and products being offered is quite vast, this requires the design teams to build a strong understanding of the needs and expectations of all stakeholders starting from the patron or ownership to the operational leaders, the employees and off course the customers that they intend to attract to their facilities to serve and retain.

Papers presenting research that responds to the complexity that designing high quality service spaces both front of the house (customer facing) and the others that represent the back of the house areas, integrating the quintessential tussle amongst the key factors to consider will be well received under this track.

Design of transport facilities like Airports, Bus Stations and Railway Stations in India in response to the changes in service expectations
Aesthetics vs. Functionality, how can both win together in the service design process
Energy efficiency and operational functionality should define designs rather than aesthetics
Customer centricity can become real only when service design is customer informed, customer selected and customer validated
Sustainability implications for design of restaurant and kitchen spaces

Over designing service spaces with focus on aesthetics can be a costly mistake, time for
Futuristic design and its focal elements sustainability, functionality, minimalist and cost efficiency
Technology imprint on service design
Design of open exterior spaces that can factor in an era of epidemics
Educating designers for tomorrow- what must change for them to be relevant and ready for the next decade

The covid-19 pandemic is having a major impact on tourism, travel and hospitality; however, there is a hope that the global hospitality and tourism industry is preparing for a dynamic come-back, a major restart!

Also, recent developments in various fields such as technology (RAISA- Robots, Artificial Intelligence, Service Automation), environmental sustainability issues, tourism supply and demand, emergence of new destinations, globalisation of the tourism

industry, innovative management approaches, designing and marketing visitor experiences, are having a major impact on tourism, travel and hospitality. The search for critical success factors in the ever-changing tourism industry is always required, and its impacts are of critical importance for tourism, travel and hospitality management and education.

Best Practices in Enhancing Tourism with Authentic Hospitality, How hospitality has reacted to the crisis (Terrorism, Health crisis like Coronavirus, etc.)
Innovation in Hospitality, Tourism and Events Industry
Building Bigger Ecosystems: Unlocking the Power of Human and Technology
Where does ‘traditional marketing’ stand as the hospitality industry in India responds to digital marketing options? Next-Generation Customer Experience: Human Touch vs. Smart Touch
Identifying external considerations that can impact hotel operations and the hotel sector?
Understand how hotel operation has responded to the forces of globalization and technology at local and international scales

Appreciate the interdependencies and necessary skills for successful hotel operations. Evaluate the service encounter within the hotel experience
Social media and hospitality reputation management (the new challenge for Hotel indicative themes for the track)
Managers to provide and maintain a high standard of service in the new social media world)
Other areas such as policy, planning, performance, development, management, strategy, operations, marketing, and consumer behavior.

With the growing population, the need to feed people is increasing by the day, on one hand where there are people who could not afford proper meals: there is a lot of food wastage. It is increasingly becoming a challenge to have a proper balance between food production and consumption. Moreover, with the current food production and processing techniques, there are health challenges, while the consumers are complaining about the quality, the producers grumble on profitability.

To counter such challenges and issues, sustainability, sustainable practices and backward integration may play a vital role. Therefore, the papers and submissions could be around all the aspects that touch upon the food, sustainability, backward integration, tools and techniques, entrepreneurs, restaurant innovation, food creativity and innovation, modern agricultural practices etc.

Food ethics; production and consumption
Regional and seasonal food production and its impact of restaurant profitability
Consumers perception on healthy eating habits and its impact on food businesses
Innovative approaches, methods, and tools to measure culinary sustainable practices
Food price inflation and food wastage

Media, celebrity chefs and their role in creating awareness of sustainable culinary practices
Optimizing resources in agriculture and food production / processing
The future of Food: food technology, innovative techniques, human resource, consumption pattern, vegetarian, vegan and other dietary patterns
Role of regulatory frameworks and complementary policies in the implementation of culinary sustainable practices
Improving traceability and transparency of food operations