IAN SLEEPS OVER IN ISTANBUL

GLM’s MD, Ian McKee, has just arrived back, sleep deprived and highly stimulated, from Sleeper Magazine’s fourth annual Sleepover event hosted in Istanbul – an ancient and magical meeting place of east meets west.

Every year, this international publication devoted to hotel design, development and architecture hosts a select group of hotel owners, innovators, developers, operators, architects and designers for an overnight stay in an exciting new hotel.

They gather to enjoy a series of tours, talks and social events which give a unique insight into the host city, and the wider worlds of hospitality and design. This year industry experts converged on Istanbul, one of the world’s greatest cities and one of the fastest growing. The event serves as an opportunity to network and share ideas about the future of the hotel industry.

Attending again this year were our long time collaborators and brilliant interior design firm, NoChintz.   Perhaps not surprisingly, GLM and No Chintz’ highly innovative project John O’Groats had not gone unnoticed by the assembled.

The event took place in Serge Trigano’s (of Club Med) new boutique hotel, Mama Shelter, in Istanbul’s buzzing Beyoglu district.  Billed as an ‘urban bazaar,’ this is the first hotel outside France for this quirky, affordable lifestyle brand. The weekend’s events included cocktails and dinner at the brand new Soho House Istanbul, a boat tour along the Bosphorus providing a unique perspective of Istanbul’s hospitality market and hotel projects along the water, and a walking tour of boutique hotels near Mama Shelter.

For Ian, this pulsing city of east meets west provided a gourmet feast of contemporary design.  Where’s next?