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CHRIE Denver Conference Report 2011

Close to 500 delegates attended this year’s I-CHRIE Conference at the Grand Hyatt in Denver, Colorado. Deans and Directors, Professors from major universities such as Cornell, Michigan State University, Purdue, University Nevada Las Vegas, Oklahoma State University, Hong Kong Polytechnic, Oxford and Brookes, University of Surrey and many more presented their research and attended key note lectures and workshops. The industry was present with HR recruiters from the large groups Marriott, Hyatt, Sodexo, Aramar, Darden, Whitelodging,etc.

Key note speakers included Ed Fuller President and Managing Director International Lodging Division, Marriott International Inc. Ed’s visionary leadership and long-range thinking has proven instrumental to the organization, founding a network of more than 350 hotels with 179 currently under construction across 70+ countries worldwide. His book “You Can’t Lead with your Feet on the Desk” is a testimonial of Ed’s impressive career. Richard Scharf, President and CEO of the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau gave some insights on the competitiveness of attracting MICE business to your destination, while Stephen Carley CEO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Inc highlighted the challenges of the casual dining sector. The Deans and Directors visited the School of Hospitality Management at the University of Denver where Kevin Reddy, CEO of Noodles & Company described their concept of fast casual dining with a mix of line up to cashier and service at the table. Noodles & Company has experienced a double digit growth, from 122 restaurants in 2005 to 245 locations to date. The Industry session with Steve Hood from Smith Travel Research provided an explanation of the STAR property reports and how an educator can use a comprehensive set of sample property and corporate reports to provide real-life management experience in the class room.

This year’s award recipients were : Rocco M. Angelo, Florida State University for the Howard B. Meek Award, Karen Liebermann, Johnson & Wales University for the Stevenson W. Fletcher Achievement Award. The John Wiley & Sons Award for Innovation in Teaching went to Mehmet Erdem, University of Nevada Las Vegas while the Lifetime Research Achievement Award went to H.G. Parsa, University of Central Florida.

The EuroCHRIE federation took center stage with Susan Fournier being installed as President of the I-CHRIE Executive Board of Directors. Robert Wetterauer took over the EuroCHRIE presidency from Jouni Ahonen, while Maureen Brookes was elected to the post of Vice-President, joining the Board with Secretary Paul Jackson and Herve Fournier, Treasurer. http://www.chrie.org/

View the conference photos

Source: Herve Fournier IDC Switzerland Blog

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This page was updated on Monday, June 13, 2011 22:17