School of Hospitality Management Monthly Update: October 2006

This October Monthly Update from the School of Hospitality Management at Penn State serves to keep you informed and interested in the news as it happens - for alumni, industry, faculty & students.

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Alumni in the Classroom '06...

In case you haven't seen the Alumni in the Classroom web page, click here for Full Story & photos

James Broadhurst's Miles of Smiles....

James Broadhurst ('65), chairman and chief executive officer of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group Inc., was the featured speaker at the Penn State Forum held at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on the University Park campus. Broadhurst spoke on "Making Smiles While Building a Business." A 1965 graduate of Penn State, Broadhurst is vice chair of the Penn State Board of Trustees.

Jim Broadhurst

Mr. Broadhurst's speech, "Making Smiles While Building a Business" produced smiles across the room from President Graham Spanier to students employed by Eat'n Park.

The follwing is the text of Mr. Broadhursts speech:

The focus of my talk today is "Making Smiles While Building a Business." In order for you to appreciate the significance of smiles in our business, I'd like to give you a little background about Eat'n Park Hospitality Group...

We began in 1949 as a restaurant with a carhop service in a small suburb south of Pittsburgh. Over the past 57 years, we've expanded our geographic footprint, with restaurants in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. And in each decade since our founding we've added a new dimension to the dining experience to keep our guests smiling and returning frequently.

In the '50s and '60s, it was car hops and Big Boys, milkshakes and strawberry pie. In the '70s we became a family restaurant with soup'n salad bars and a popular place for all-night dining. And breakfast buffets and inhouse bakeries serving Smiley cookies came in the '80s along with newer and more attractive restaurants to compete with our casual dining neighbors. Our menu has continued to evolve to include light'n delightful features, fresh bakery products and today's popular expresso-based drinks and gourmet coffees. Our Chai Tea and mocha java milkshakes are unbelievably good! We added a restaurant concept we call the Park Classic

Diners in the '90s, which emulate the popular roadside diners of the1950s. And in a couple of weeks we'll be celebrating the first anniversary of the opening of Six Penn Kitchen, a neighborhood bistro in the heart of downtown Pittsburgh.

In 1995, while remaining focused on our Eat'n Park brand, we decided to expand the scope of our business beyond restaurants. We introduced through Parkhurst Dining Services, on-site catering to corporate headquarters and college and university campuses. You'll recognize clients like Bayer Corp., PNC, National City, Highmark, the Pittsburgh Steelers, St. Vincent College, Carnegie Mellon University, Bucknell University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

We made another strategic move in 1999 when we purchased CURA Hospitality, a start-up company based in Allentown that focuses on contract dining services in senior living communities. This was a natural extension for our business since our restaurants have a strong base of senior guests. We're fortunate to have clients like Longwood at Oakmont, Sherwood Oaks, Luther Crest, Homestead Village and Phoebe Berks.

Parkhurst and CURA are both experiencing exciting growth and have now expanded into the additional states of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. To reflect that growth, earlier this year we grouped the two business units into a division we call On-site Brands.

Today, almost six decades since our founding, we have 80 restaurants, more than 100 On-site Brand accounts, 10,000 employees, and we serve over 1 million guests, clients, students and residents every week.

So what do smiles have to do with Eat'n Park Restaurants, Park Classic Diners, Six Penn Kitchen, Parkhurst Dining Services and CURA Hospitality? Smiles define our personality, and smiles permeate our corporate culture.

I'd like to share a personal story with you.

When I was a boy, I lived in Titusville, a small town north of Pittsburgh. Every day, I walked to and from school, and I'd pass a little shop called Warner's Bakery. Now this was a few years ago, more like 50 to be exact, before the age of flashing neon signs and fancy window displays. This place looked more like a garage. Warner's Bakery was a small storefront attached to a home. In spite of the lack of retail presence, the bakery was highly regarded for the quality of their goods. On my way home from school every day I stopped at Warner's Bakery and bought myself one cookie — the same cookie — every day. It was a small round sugar cookie, and in the thick icing on the top of the cookie was painted a smiley face. It cost a nickel.

Until the mid-1980s, that smiley cookie was nothing more than a pleasant memory from my youth. But in 1986, we decided to build small bakeries inside Eat'n Park Restaurants. There was only one problem: we didn't know anything about the bakery business. The only bakery I knew was Warner's Bakery. So I returned to Titusville to visit Ellsworth Warner. I sat down with Mr. Warner and shared with him my childhood love for his smiley cookies. I asked him if he'd be willing to help us learn how to develop high quality baked goods. This kind man not only said, "yes," but he allowed me to send an employee to work with him in his bakery. We paid her salary and promised her a career opportunity rolling out our new bakeries.

Mr. Warner trained her and gave her all of his recipes. And as you might have guessed by now, this was the genesis of Eat'n Park's now-famous cookie that has evolved into a wonderful symbol and personality for our entire company. We now bake 10 million Smiley cookies annually. In fact, Smiley just celebrated his 20th birthday, and he has helped our company to own the word "smile" in the minds of our consumers.

As you know, sometimes smiles are the result of immediate gratification, and sometimes it takes a little longer to make someone smile.

At Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, we earn fast smiles in many ways.

Every member of our team embraces a philosophy made famous in the book, "Service America!" If you're not serving the customer, you'd better be serving someone who is. That means that the satisfaction of our guests is everyone's motivation. So we hope that all selections on our restaurant menus cause people to smile. We hope that all of our guests enjoy their dining experience so much that they smile throughout their stay and as they leave.

We try to bring smiles to our team members through competitive compensation packages, scholarship and educational assistances programs, and a good working environment. We also enjoy friendly competitions, on the softball field, at the bowling alley and on the basketball court. And over the years we've tried to provide personal fulfillment through activities that have included our walking club, yoga classes, spa retreats, exercise protocols and the Eat'n Park Singers, a popular choral group supporting fund raising for children's hospitals.

We bring smiles to the residents of the communities we serve by contributing at least five percent of our pre-tax profits to community organizations, including children's hospitals, United Way organizations, educational institutions, cultural and civic programs and countless neighborhood churches, schools and fire departments. And we provide relief services during disasters as we did in delivering meals to the relief workers in Shanksville, Pa., following the 9/11 disaster. The crash site was a just a short distance from our Somerset and Johnstown restaurants.

And certainly, I smile a lot because I love what I do, and I get to work with my wife, Suzy, and my three sons. We are proud to say that three of the five of us are Penn State alums. We do allow the other two in the house, but they have to use the back door.

So these smiles are genuine, meaningful and easy.

But some smiles take longer. They require tough decisions and determination. The adage, "Short-term pain, long-term gain" seems to apply. Let me explain.

At Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, we believe we have a moral obligation to use food and dining, not just as entertainment, but also as an essential ingredient in a healthy lifestyle. On an ongoing basis, we have to evaluate how to balance what's in the best interest of the guest vs. what's in the best interest of the growth of the company. Let me give you two examples: menu modification and environmental modification.

Let's first talk about menu modification. We are attempting to make our menu selections as healthy as possible. We're providing healthy portions. We're eliminating MSG from our recipes. We're providing more options that include fresh vegetables and fruit. We've implemented a program we call Farm Source through which we purchase at least 20 percent of our food from local farms and regional food companies that are located within the neighborhoods where we do business. And we've implemented an alert system that reminds everyone in the back of the house when a guest has a food allergy. We've introduced an Eat'n Smart component to our menu that features entrees with no more than 360 calories, 13 grams of fat and 100 milligrams of cholesterol.

And we're bringing our message into the community. For instance, this Saturday we're partnering in two events in Pittsburgh that focus on childhood obesity. One is a family event that will feature a variety of activities to teach parents and children easy-to-use techniques that will help to ensure healthy lifestyles. The second event is the Childhood Obesity Summit, a related educational event that hopes to expand upon the existing pool of knowledge about childhood obesity. We also have a special dinner this Saturday evening at the Carnegie Science Center featuring products from the local farms in our FarmSource Program.

But maybe the most important menu modification we've made is that we've begun eliminating trans fatty acids. Anyone who spends time in a kitchen knows that it's the fat that adds much of the flavor. So we had to determine how to reduce the trans fat content while maintaining the flavor our guests have come to know, expect and enjoy. We engaged in extensive research to help us. In fact, much of our research into how to make the switch was done right here at Penn State, under the leadership of Peter Bordi.

With research as our guide, we moved from using hydrogenated oil to canola oil. As a result, all of our fried products including chicken fillets and French fries, for instance, now have zero trans fats.

But, while we are extremely proud of the publicity we have received about eliminating trans fats, we know we still have a huge challenge ahead of us — our Smiley cookie. Tampering with the taste profile of our Smiley cookie is very dangerous. Many of us remember the disaster when Coke tried to introduce new Coke by changing a very popular, old recipe.

On your table you'll notice a plate of Smiley cookies, half are blue, half are green. I'd like you to taste both at some point during the next few minutes. And we'll get back to Smiley later.

'Food as fuel' is an important mantra to us. Daily, we're all inundated with news of our nation's declining health — largely as a result of poor food choices. Consider that obesity is now being diagnosed in children at near-epidemic rates. More than simply being overweight, children who are obese can develop a myriad of additional health problems, including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and adult-onset diabetes. The risk of developing juvenile diabetes is higher than for all other severe chronic childhood diseases. In fact, juvenile diabetes affects more than one million children and adolescents across the country.

We at Eat'n Park want to contribute to breaking the cycle. We're focusing our efforts across the spectrum, but we know that if we can help to change the taste palette of our children now, the long-term effects for them and their children will include longer, healthier lives. And that will make people smile. It's hard earned, but it will be heart felt.

I mentioned another example of deferred gratification — environmental modification, or in other words, what to do about smoking in restaurants. This is one of the hot topics in the hospitality industry. We're hearing more and more about cities, counties, hospitals and hotel chains becoming completely tobacco free. All bars and restaurants in New York City are totally smoke free. Marriott, Sheraton, Ritz-Carlton and Westin — all have become totally smoke free.

This summer, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona released a report detailing the dangers of smoking. In it he said that smoking is the single greatest avoidable cause of disease and death. His study also concluded that secondhand smoke causes disease and premature death in people who do not smoke.

Let's look at the statistics.

— Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent.

— They increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent.

— Almost 60 percent of U.S. children between the ages of 3-11 are exposed to secondhand smoke. That's almost 22 million children.

The Surgeon General's conclusion is that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilating our buildings has helped greatly over the years, but these actions cannot completely eliminate exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke. Of course, this is not an issue at Parkhurst Dining Services or Cura Hospitality where smoking is not permitted in the dining facilities in corporate offices, college dining halls and senior care facilities.

So what's a restaurant to do? Is it our responsibility to provide guests with an environment of their choice, including the opportunity to enjoy a cigarette after dinner? Or is it our responsibility to protect our team members and non-smoking guests from any exposure to gases that are proven to cause health problems? Where do we find the balance?

Because we believe Eat'n Park has a moral obligation to promote health and wellness, we are seriously considering converting all of our restaurants into smoke-free environments even before legislation requires the change.

But, we know this is a business decision that is risky. Business in the short term will decline, especially in our type of restaurant where anywhere between 10 percent to 25 percent of our guests and employees are smokers. Some guests who smoke will choose to visit smoker-friendly restaurants and bars instead of Eat'n Park, especially in urban and blue-collar communities where our restaurants are very popular. Some of our team members will quit because they won't be permitted to smoke on the premises. But, while these may be significant losses, we truly hope and believe they will be short-term losses.

We will be contributing what we can to improving the health and well-being of our guests and team members by creating a healthier dining environment.And we will be taking an extra step to help our team members through this transition by encouraging them to enroll in company-sponsored exercise and smoking-cessation programs. Ultimately, we will help our disappointed guests and team members to begin smiling again. Hard earned, but heartfelt smiles.

Increasing the health value of menu items, creating smoke-free environments — it's risky for Eat'n Park Hospitality Group to take such bold actions. But, we are committed to doing what we believe is in the long-term best interest of the people we serve. And we believe that, ultimately, we will remain a healthy company by doing our part in helping to keep our guests and team members healthy.

Now let's get back to our friend, Smiley. I'd like to ask you to be part of my taste kitchen. By now you should have tasted both the green Smiley and the blue Smiley. By a show of hands, how many people like the green Smiley better? How many people like the blue Smiley better?

audience members vote for their favorite Smiley cookie

The green Smiley is the original recipe; the blue is a trans fat-free recipe. I'm sure you'll agree that there's definitely a difference in taste. We haven't introduced the new Smiley yet because we haven't perfected this recipe to the point where the tastes are indistinguishable.

We hope we can.

But what if we can't?

President Spanier tests the Smiley cookies

Do we continue to serve the Smiley with trans fats? Or do we eliminate the 20-year-old icon of our business and replace it with a new, different Smiley that's trans-fat-free? Or do we serve both and leave the decision to the guest? What's our ethical responsibility? And what if that responsibility is contrary to the profitability of our business?

These are exceedingly difficult questions to answer. But I can tell you this: Eat'n Park Hospitality Group has a long history of making smiles while building our business. And we will continue to do so.

We're banking on all smiles, especially those that are hard earned and heartfelt.

Hospitality Executive of the Year

image of Richard J. Schnieders

Richard J. Schnieders, president and chief executive officer of SYSCO, Inc., has been named the 2006 Hospitality Executive of the Year by the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society (PSHRS). Schnieders will be recognized as and will receive the award during the 45th Hospitality Executive of the Year Award Dinner, which will take place at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, on Sunday, November 12, 2006 in conjunction with the International Hotel, Motel and Restaurant Show in New York City. The annual New York event and dinner are Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society events to support of the School of Hospitality Management.

Bert van Hoof, director of the School of Hospitality Management, expressed his delight in the Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society's decision to recognize Mr. Schnieders at the. "It is a great honor to have Richard Schnieders, president and CEO of SYSCO, included in our portfolio of successful and mindful corporate executives who link together education and business," he said. "Building these relationships sustains the bridge between academia and business."

SYSCO, the global leader in selling, marketing and distributing food products to approximately 400,000 customers who prepare food away from home operates from distribution facilities throughout Canada and the United States. SYSCO's product lines are as diverse as the 47,500 employees who support its daily operations. The company generated sales of approximately $33 billion for its fiscal year that ended July 2006.

"SYSCO Corporation is clearly 'best in class'," said Dave Scypinski, senior vice president of industry relations for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide and president of PSHRS. "We are ecstatic to have a person of Rick's stature become a member of the Penn State Hospitality Hall of Fame which celebrates excellence in leadership and service within the hospitality industry ˆ all attributes that Rick exemplifies in his position at SYSCO Corporation."

Mr. Schnieders joined SYSCO's Executive Development Program in 1982. While there, he progressed to a variety of managerial and executive positions including director of supplies and equipment, vice president of merchandising and executive vice president. In 1989 Mr. Schnieders was named president and chief executive officer of Hardin's-SYSCO and subsequently was appointed chairman of that operation.

In 1992 Mr. Schnieders was asked to move to SYSCO's corporate headquarters in Houston as senior vice president of merchandising services, where he developed products and programs with SYSCO's key global foodservice manufacturers and processors. In 1997 he was promoted to senior vice president, merchandising and multi-unit sales, with additional responsibilities for marketing systems and services to SYSCO's large multi-unit customers in the restaurant, health care, education, and hotel customer segments. Later that year, he was elected as a director of SYSCO Corporation.

Mr. Schnieders was appointed executive vice president, foodservice operations in January 1999. In January of 2000 he assumed the added duties of chief operating officer, and in July 2000 he was named president and COO of SYSCO Corporation. In January 2003 Mr. Schnieders was named the fifth chairman and chief executive officer in SYSCO's history.

Under Schnieders' command, SYSCO has created an environment which develops, implements, and integrates "best business practices" in four distinct, yet related areas: leadership, workforce, supplier and community. "Diversity contributes significantly to a competitive advantage and allows us to achieve our mission of helping our customers succeed," says Mr. Schnieders.

In addition to his responsibilities at SYSCO, Mr. Schnieders holds board positions at Aviall Inc., the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, and the University of Houston's Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, the Culinary Institute of America, the University of Minnesota's Food Industry Center, and the Greater Houston Partnership.

The Penn State Hotel and Restaurant Society (PSHRS) was created in 1948 by alumni and friends of the School of Hospitality Management (SHM) in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development. PSHRS and the school created the Hospitality Executive of the Year Award in 1960 to honor individuals who exemplify the successful leadership characteristics that both strive to instill in students and convey to alumni and colleagues.

"Mr. Schnieders joins an impressive list of Hospitality Executives at Penn State's School of Hospitality Management," says Harvey Kamp, director of alumni relations of the School of Hospitality Management. Last year's award recipient was James S. Broadhurst, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eat‚n Park Hospitality Group, Pittsburgh, PA. Previous winners include: Robert F. Cotter, president and chief operating officer of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., Allan L. Schuman, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Ecolab, Inc. Michel Landel, president and chief executive officer of Sodexho, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, chairman and CEO of Carlson Companies, Inc.; Joseph Neubauer, chairman and CEO, ARAMARK; Henry R. Silverman, chairman and CEO, HFS Incorporated; Herman Cain, former president, Godfather's Pizza; Raymond Schultz, former president and CEO, Promus Hotel Corporation; J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and president, Marriott Corporation; Barron Hilton, chairman and president, Hilton Hotels Corporation; and Walter J. Conti, a member of the Penn State Board of Trustees retired owner of Conti's Cross Keys Inn and Pipersville Inn in Doylestown (Pennsylvania) and creator of the distinguished Conti Professorship in the School of HRRM.

Mr. Schnieders and his wife, Beth, reside in Houston and are the parents of two grown daughters, Caroline and Margaret.

Conti Professor Visits Campus

Bjorn Hanson photo

Dr. Bjorn Hanson, global hospitality industry partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York City and the 2006 Walter J. Conti Professor of Hospitality Management in Penn State's College of Health and Human Development visited University Park campus on October 4th & 5th. Dr. Hanson met with faculty and students. Walter J. Conti, for whom the professorship is named, was also present to host Dr. Hanson.

Conti is a well-known restaurateur and industry leader from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He is the retired owner and chief executive officer of Conti's Cross Keys Inn and Conti's Pipersville Inn, both located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Conti has held various leadership positions in the National Restaurant Association, including a term as chairman (1981-82), and he is a "Diplomate" of the association's educational foundation.

Well known for his consulting and econometric and statistical research, Dr. Hanson joins a distinguished group of Conti professors at Penn State's School of Hospitality Management. "Conti professors are selected from among the greatest innovators and leaders in the hospitality industry," said Bert Van Hoof, director of the School of Hospitality Management. "We are honored that Dr. Hanson has accepted this appointment. The faculty, staff and students of the School of Hospitality Management enjoyed spending two days with him."

Conti professors supplement Penn State's School of Hospitality Management faculty with industry knowledge and expertise, serve as advisors to the director of the School, and interact with students in educational forums. They visit the School on a regular basis to present guest lectures in hospitality management and to speak at graduate and undergraduate colloquia.

Dr. Hanson receiving the award

Dr. Hanson is an author and frequent speaker who has been quoted in almost every major business periodical and industry journal including: Financial Times, Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Fortune, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and The New York Times and has made numerous appearances on CBS, NBC, CNN, CNNfn, CNBC, FOXfn, WCBS, PBS and other television and radio systems. He has served as international president of the Cornell Society of Hotelmen and was the Cornell Hotelier of the Year in 1994. He is the chair of the executive board for New York University's Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management and The Cornell Center for Hospitality Research Advisory Board.

Dr. Hanson holds a bachelor's degree from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, an M.B.A. from Fordham University, and a Ph.D. from New York University. He holds Certified Real Estate Counselor (CRE), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Food Service Consultants International (FSCI) professional designations.

Waterford Hotel Group Teams with Penn State School of Hospitality Management

Furthering its commitment to career development for all associates, Waterford Hotel Group has partnered with Penn State University to form a Leadership Development Institute to form The Waterford Institute for the Advanced Management of Hospitality Operations.

The certificate series is designed for managers desiring to improve their effectiveness as they move into the management of increasingly complex operations. The development series will be offered to managers employed at hotels professionally operated by Waterford Hotel Group. Waterford will also offer the training to managers at their corporate headquarters.

"Our associates are our greatest asset and investing in their future through career development is one of our top priorities," stated Len Wolman, chairman and CEO for Waterford Hotel Group. "Penn State's hospitality management program is among the best in the country. We are honored to have the opportunity to form a corporate/university partnership that pulls on the vast resources and extensive experience of such a highly-acclaimed university," added Wolman.

The institute is delivered in three, 2-day modules during which participants develop practical skills in core competency areas they have identified as key to their development with respect to the successful leadership of others including communication, leadership and coaching, human performance management, customer focus, continuous improvement, and financial management. Penn State faculty members develop and deliver the development institutes while working closely with Waterford's senior management to link the academic contact to Waterford's mission and best practices.

Waterford's first class of 30 participants recently completed the first of three modules. Upon successful completion of each 2-day program, participants receive a Penn State Certificate of Completion and earn 1 CEU (Continuing Education Unit) for every 10 hours of instruction. Upon program completion by this class, Waterford plans to select a new class of participants. Bart Bartlett, of the Penn State faculty, says "For me, the opportunity to work with industry practitioners is a very positive two-way street; as I facilitate and help managers to think about ways they can manage their hotels more effectively, I am learning about current practice, and hearing anecdotes and examples that I can take back to my undergraduate classroom. We see the Waterford-Penn State relationship to be mutually beneficial, and are delighted to be involved in the Waterford Institute."

About Penn State University

The School of Hospitality Management at Penn State founded in 1937, has an enrollment of over 800 students in undergraduate and graduate programs and over 30 faculty members. The School's Center for Professional Development and Applied Research in Hospitality, has a world-wide reputation as a leader in the collection, analysis and dissemination of knowledge regarding the Hospitality industry. CPDARH's personnel are faculty members of the School of Hospitality Management. "This faculty is required to have at least 10 years of industry experience, which helps to guarantee that the programs delivered to industry are both academically sound and focused on practical applications," says Ruth Ann Jackson Center Director. "The Center looks to select industry partners who share the same strategic vision, which is to support the professional and personal growth of those individuals who will become the next generation of leaders in the hospitality industry."

About Waterford Hotel Group

Waterford Hotel Group, Inc. is a national hotel management firm currently operating 29 properties in 9 states. The company also operates the Connecticut Convention Center through its affiliate, Waterford Venue Services. With corporate offices in Waterford, CT, Waterford Hotel Group is one of the most successful management companies in the hospitality industry. The company's nationwide roster of properties consistently achieves exceptional market share and returns well above industry averages. This outstanding record of accomplishment is based on strategic growth, intimate knowledge of industry trends, and providing value for customers and investors.

SHM & US Army Join Forces in Germany...

The Army Lodging Training Contract went on the road to Italy and Germany. A team of faculty including Ms. Ruth Ann Jackson, Dr. John Park and Dr. Bart Bartlett visited US Installations in Italy and Germany.

The Center for Professional Development and Applied Research in Hospitality (CPDARH), headed by Ruth Ann Jackson, delivered a program focusing on Supervisory Skills and Customer Service for Hotel Team Leaders.

"Many of these folks make the trip to University Park several times a year so it was nice for us to visit them and see their operations," said Jackson. "We were also able to attract some folks from Edeweiss Lodge, a full service resort operated by the Army in Garmisch Partenkirken, Bavaria Germany, that had not previously attended a SHM Army Lodging class."

Companies interested in working with the Center for Professional Development and Applied Research in Hospitality can contact Ruth Ann Jackson at ral10@psu.edu

SHM among first academics to attend TheTradeShow

A small group from the School of Hospitality attended Travel Retailing And Destination Expo (TheTradeShow) held in Orlando, Florida. The 3-day, global, in-depth networking and educational event powered by ASTA and ITB Berlin, unites travel suppliers and buyers from all over the world, representing every segment of the travel and tourism industry. The show is produced and backed by ASTA, ACTA, Adventures in Travel Expo, American Express, CLIA, IGLTA, Messe Berlin, NACTA, NTA, the Travel Institute National Forum, See America, TIA, USA Today and USTOA. Sponsors bill it as "the trade show event for travel decision makers."

Dr. Vivienne Wildes and a small cohort of undergraduate students were among the first to represent academic institutions at TheTradeShow. The purpose of the trip was to forge new relationships, seek scholarships opportunities, and to explore possibilities for further research dollars.

"We are excited to open TheTrade Show to universities with a travel and tourism interest," said Tiffany Ball, marketing director for ASTA located in Washington DC. "This is the beginning of what promises to be a relationship that ASTA has long wanted to explore."

Students learned about intricacies of the trade, networked with travel and tourism representatives from across the world, and opened up possibilities for future relationships. Among the highlights was a banquet hosted by China Travel"The best part was seeing students learn how far the tentacles of tourism reach," said Dr. Wildes. "There are many relationships yet to be forged."

Alumni in the News

Trump Entertainment Resorts announced that Gregg Caren ('84) was named VP of hotel sales for the company. Caren will be responsible for coordinating the sales for more than 3,000 hotel rooms across the company's properties in Atlantic City, NJ. Caren joins TRMP from SMG, a worldwide conference and entertainment venue management company where he was most recently VP of operations and business development

Monthly Update Archive

Send us your news - we'll include it in the School of Hospitality Monthly Update. Contact Vivienne Wildes at vjw100@psu.edu