Claire Smith

Managing Director, ABDA Design

Claire Smith is an enthusiastic and popular speaker who shares her knowledge on all areas of hospitality design. From creativity to design trends, sustainability to accessibility, Claire’s presentation style is engaging and inspirational with experience of both face to face and virtual events.

Having spent her entire career working in hospitality, Claire is passionate about the importance of creating incredible hospitality experiences. As someone who started working for her family business in the early stages of her career, she took on a variety of roles in the hospitality design sector before working her way up to managing director level at ABDA. Claire is no stranger to hard work. She has overcome many challenges, and broken boundaries, to succeed in her industry making her perfectly placed to pass on her knowledge and expertise to others.

Claire enjoys the variety that comes from working in hospitality design and in particular at ABDA. Her career has spanned over 25 years working on a huge range of projects across hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, leisure and heritage venues.

Claire finds inspiration everywhere, whether it is places she visits, food she eats, people she talks to or even books and magazines she reads. She regularly shares her views on hospitality on social media and has a strong presence on LinkedIn where she comments on key industry issues. Claire is also a regular on the hospitality and design speaking circuit having been involved in events such as Hotel, Restaurant & Catering (HRC), The Restaurant Show, Institute of Hospitality webinars and is frequently asked to contribute on design specific panels and round tables.

In recent years, Claire has teamed up with consumer psychologist, Karen Fewell to explore the science of design. This dynamic duo have impressed hospitality audiences with their insight on the impact of psychology on hospitality design. These sessions provide audiences with food for thought and scientific evidence on how effective design can drive sales for your business and create memorable moments for consumers. When speaking, the angle can be adapted to suit your audience whether that’s a group of hospitality operators or architects and designers.

Another subject which Claire loves to speak about is well-being and she regularly develops her knowledge on mental health topics so she can support her team and industry peers. Claire loves how a strong and effective design can make consumers feel more positive when enjoying hospitality experiences.