MCLEAN, Va. — Hilton has unveiled its Innovation Gallery — an incubator and experiential showcase for cutting-edge product developments that will shape the future of Hilton hospitality.
Located next to Hilton’s global headquarters at Hilton McLean Tysons Corner, the 4,300-sq.-ft. gallery is open to invited guests, including Hilton team members, hotel owners and technology partners. The space, designed by the LAB at Rockwell Group, showcases a variety of technologies, design elements and dining concepts, ranging from noise-cancellation and sleep-inducing devices for guestrooms to more functional and sustainable materials. The products on display have been recently launched or are under testing, with many developed through Hilton’s partnerships with companies in various industries, including IBM, LG, Amazon and Tesla.
“Innovation has been in Hilton’s DNA since entrepreneur Conrad Hilton purchased his first hotel and pioneered the industry nearly a century ago,” says Jon Witter, Hilton’s chief Customer officer. “Today, we honour our legacy of innovation with the opening of the Hilton Innovation Gallery — a space for us to incubate, test, scale and showcase the products and processes we’re creating to enhance our guests’ experiences and redefine the future of hospitality.”
Hilton has created an immersive experience in the gallery, which mirrors the guest’s experience of a hotel by embedding custom architecture, experiential technologies and cutting-edge materials throughout. Upon entering the space, visitors will make their way through five experiences, including the Product Showcase, Food & Beverage Concept Studio, Virtual Reality (VR) Stage, Darkroom and Innovation Theatre.
The Product showcase allows visitors to interact with physical and virtual products that Hilton is exploring for use in hotels. Examples of current installations include Nightingale, a noise-masking product; Somabar, a personal mixology solution; Meural, a customizable digital-art display; and Pilot, a real-time translation solution.
The Food & Beverage Concept Studio is a show kitchen showcasing and demonstrating the latest restaurant concepts developed by Hilton’s food-and-beverage team, along with technology to film and webcast.
The VR Stage is a dedicated space for visitors to use virtual-reality headsets to experience new Hilton concepts. At launch, visitors will be able to view model rooms from two of Hilton’s newest brands — Tru by Hilton and Canopy by Hilton.
The Darkroom is a model guestroom dedicated to showing cutting-edge material technologies that have the potential to yield better quality, sustainability, design interest and operational returns.
Finally, the Innovation Theatre serves as a gathering space to brainstorm, collaborate and intersect around innovative ideas. The design highlights the functionality and social aspects of a modern gathering space while leveraging immersive high-end presentation technology solutions for sound and lighting.
