Officials of the California Lodging Investment Conference have released its final slate of speakers and updated its sponsor and exhibitor lists. Scheduled for March 10 at the JW Marriott Anaheim Resort, the one-day event is expected to draw approximately 300 attendees, including representatives from 11 brands, six lenders and other third-party hotel professionals.
“Prior to this update, we already were more than pleased with our existing roster of speakers and panelists,” Craig Sullivan, founder and president, CLIC, said in a statement. “We have since added expert speakers from Virgin Hotels, Prospera Hotels, Kay Lang + Associates, Twenty Four Seven Hotels, the Latino Hotel Association, and JMBM. Groups as varied as the International Hospitality Institute to Sonesta continue to sign on as sponsors as well. With this stellar line-up, we expect this to be one of our most informative and useful conference to-date.”
Some of the new speakers are:
- Mike Castro, SVP, franchise sales and development select service brands—U.S. and Canada at Sonesta Hotels.
- Vanessa Mange, director of acquisitions and development, West Coast and Latin America at Virgin Hotels.
- Allie Hope, Virgin Hotels.
- Ajesh Patel, president and CEO of Prospera Hotels.
- Swati Valbh-Patel, senior vice president of development and design of Prospera Hotels.
- Ron Kim, COO of Prospera Hotels.
- Kay Lang, president and CEO of Kay Lang + Associates.
- David Sudeck, partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell.
- Ryan Mazelli, managing director, commercial of Ygrene Energy Fund.
- Gary Gray, chief investment officer of Twenty Four Seven Hotels.
- Lynette Montoya, CEO of the Latino Hotel Association.
New sponsors include International Hospitality Institute, Sonesta Hotels and Twenty Four Seven Hotels. New exhibitors include G6, Beddingo, HR Construction Group, Kohost and Corning Optical Communications.
The newly announced groups join such industry veterans as Suzanne Mellon, senior managing director/practice leader, HVS; Jenny Redlin, founder and principal, Partner Engineering and Science; Jackie Collins, senior director, Arthur J. Gallagher’s Real Estate and Hospitality Division; and Glenn Haussman, president, Rouse Media.
Scheduled discussion topics will include hotel brands, an overview of the California hotel market, hotel development, hotel lending and hotel investment opportunities. The conference also will announce Deal of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.