Celebrating independent hospitality across Dorset and the South West. Martin's Bar & Restaurant, Highlands End Holiday Park, Bridport. Free to attend.
XP Hospitality Dorset takes place at Martin’s Bar & Restaurant, Highlands End Holiday Park on Tuesday 13th October 2026, a day built around the people shaping independent hospitality across Dorset and the South West.
The programme brings together operators, technology leaders, and sector thinkers for honest, peer-led conversation about where independent hospitality is heading and what that means in practice. Sessions cover guest experience, direct bookings and life beyond OTA dependency, hospitality technology, and what it takes to build a brand that lasts.
The format is peer-led throughout, built around questions operators are genuinely sitting with rather than presentations designed to impress. There are no sales pitches and no obligations, just a room full of people who care about independent hospitality, talking honestly about it.
A collection for Shelter takes place on the day.
Kimberley leads UK, Ireland and South Africa sales at TigerTMS, a hospitality technology company behind mobile guest services platforms used across hotels, holiday parks and smaller independent venues.
She’s bringing a technology partner’s view of the guest journey. Where tools like mobile check-in and guest messaging are actually earning their place for independent operators, and where the hype outpaces the benefit.
Lawrence is Managing Director of Bright Blue Day, a guest experience consultancy he leads alongside a fellow MD, working with independent hospitality businesses on the moments that shape how a guest feels about a stay.
He’ll be talking about the small, specific moments that make or break a stay, and how independent operators can start improving them from Monday morning, budget or no budget.
Tom is part of the team at Upperdog, a Bournemouth-based digital marketing agency that works across web design, development, branding and paid media, with a particular focus on hospitality and leisure businesses across Dorset and the South West.
His session cuts straight to it. What independent hospitality businesses are actually getting right and wrong in their digital marketing, and where the quick wins are hiding for operators without a marketing team behind them.
Seemin leads engineering at Prima, and founder and director of re:connect events CIC. a community interest company that organises the grassroots tech conference called re:connect.
Coming at this from outside hospitality entirely, she’ll be sharing what strong technical teams and real communities actually take to build, and what independent operators can borrow from how the tech sector approaches talent and culture.
LinkedIn | Prima | re:connect
Jon is part of the team at Travel Chapter, one of the UK’s largest self-catering and holiday cottage booking agencies, working with independent cottage and holiday home owners across the South West to manage bookings, guest relationships and revenue.
He’ll be talking direct bookings versus OTA dependency, and what it takes to build a large-scale independent operation that owns its own guest relationships rather than borrowing them from a booking platform.
Matt works at the intersection of technology, creativity and sector change, with a long-standing connection to Bournemouth University’s innovation community.
Expect an outside-in view of where hospitality technology is heading, and how the sector can get ahead of change rather than reacting to it.
Travelling any distance? A few options nearby:
The Place Hotel, Edinburgh, Tuesday 15th September 2026. 9:30AM til 3:30PM.
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XP Hospitality Devon raised £315 for Shelter. Hannah Vischer joined us to share what homelessness really looks like in 2026, and why it matters to the hospitality sector.
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Laurence Cornwall-Watkins on how AI is reshaping creative work, content and marketing workflows right now.
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