Mar 31: HSMAI "Table of Eight" March 2008

Our HSMAI South Florida chapter’s March meeting was held at Michael’s Kitchen at the Newport Beach Resort in Sunny Isles. The evening began with a networking reception followed by an educational presentation by Armando Lopez, president, Navigant Marketing, and then dinner.

During the reception, I had a chance to chat with Harry Hogan, former GM of the Oakland Park Inn. He is currently “available”; Spoke with Mark Akst, recent GM of the Hyatt Place in Fort Lauderdale. He is also currently exploring opportunities; Met Pamela Gadol, National Sales Manager of Expo Convention Contractors Inc; Also met Catherine Resek, Strategic Planning Director, Navigant; As well as, Patricia Robinson, CEO of Hospitality & Tourism Associates. Her Miami company is celebrating 26 years!

At dinner (the food was wonderful), had the pleasure of dining with Dave Crory, VP of Business Development, Cendyn. Their company does internet marketing. Dave told us about a great online product that hotels can use when responding to requests for meeting planner information. No more mailing those kits in bulky packages! Dave, who was the lucky winner of our evening’s raffle, graciously treated our table to adult beverages. Dave resides in Oregon, but is in South Florida often as the company is based in Boca Raton. Also at our table from Cendyn was VP, Operations, Jochen Esser. We exchanged names of our favorite Boca restaurants. Francesca Smith, the Regional Acct. Manager for Venere.com joined us at the table. Her company is the largest online hotel reservation network in Italy (the number 2 in Europe), but has a large American clientele. She’d like to direct some of this business to Florida hotels. (By the way, they generated over 3.6 million room nights for affiliate hotels world wide).Let me know if you want Francesca’s contact info. In the small world department -- Jochen and Francesca found out that they were originally from the same off-the beaten track area in Germany.

The educational portion of our meeting was so wonderful, that I took some copious notes. I’m going to devote two future blog articles with a summary of the key points. You’ll get to read just a taste of what you missed by not being at the March meeting. See you at the April meeting at the Mai Kai. Oh, and don’t forget to save the date of our 25th annual auction on June 12.