Keeping ahead of industry trends, catering to the changing needs of guests and fostering young talent is what has defined the Weatherdon Corporation since 1975.
As testimony to innovation and inspiration the Weatherdon Corporation recently launched the Weatherdon Project, in association with the International College of Management Sydney (ICMS), designed to foster young talent in the hospitality industry and give insight into the design, manufacture and marketing of hospitality products.
The winner had to successfully complete a project brief to develop an innovative and feasible product for the hospitality industry and show how it could be marketed.
Weatherdon Corporation said Sydney local, Chelsea Loewensohn, who is in her second year of a combined Bachelor of Business and Hospitality Management degree, was the “clear-cut first with her simple and perspicuous luggage rack and scales”.
Loewensohn said she was thrilled to have been selected the winner with her innovative product.
“I travelled overseas with my family when I was younger, more recently stayed in budget places with friends and I have a part-time job in a hotel,” she said. “This combination of experiences gave me a bird’s-eye view of different markets and their needs.
“What everyone has in common is the loathing of paying for overweight luggage and not knowing what their baggage weighed until they got to the airport.
“My idea was a luggage rack with inbuilt scales. I haven’t yet had to pay for overweight luggage but I have become expert at juggling clothes between suitcases at the airport in a last minute scramble and wearing, instead of packing, my heavy clothes in all climates,” she said.
Weatherdon Corporation Managing Director, Robert Weatherdon, said the project was a way for the company to support the growth of the Australasian hospitality sector.
“Weatherdon’s association with the ICMS aims to encourage a new generation of professionals to share ideas and have a real opportunity to put innovative perspectives into practice,” he said.
Loewensohn received a Mac Pro computer and the opportunity to spend time at Weatherdon’s head office in Sydney.
Weatherdon Corporation is a leading supplier of customised goods to more than 600 hotels in Australia and New Zealand.