Hello, ICHRIE

Fran Brasseux, Chief Executive Officer, ICHRIE

Dear ICHRIE Members,

What a week we had at the Annual 2023 ICHRIE Summer Global Conference in Phoenix!  If you were not able to join us, please know you were missed! I hope you will all block for next summer the dates of 24-26 July for the 2024 ICHRIE Global Conference in Montreal, Canada!
 
In Phoenix, we had over 370 attendees from 144 hospitality schools and programs and 29 companies/associations. Over 20% of our attendees were from 17 different countries with 57 schools sending 2 or more of their educators. We welcomed members from Turkey, Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Jordon, China, Croatia, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, France, Chile, the United Kingdom, Scotland, and the United States. We had – as agreed in person and by all the social media posts – a remarkable conference, great speakers, demonstratable collaboration with industry, amazing awards, and excellent research, education, Special Interest Groups, Federation meetings, Iposters, and Symposiums as well as the return of the ICHRIE Education Innovation Center (EIC) – in all over 200 sessions in 2.5 days! We also felt a real sense of place this year with our opening with Native American dancers, and our closing with the very special reception visit to the Heard Museum, the premier Native America Art and Culture Museum in North America.

We owe so many people a sincere thank you starting with Mary Jo Dolasinski, this year’s extraordinary Board Director of Conference, and our ICHRIE staff, Amie Grayson, on scheduling and registration, Darla Hancock, on social media, awards, and special interest groups, and Juli Leonardo, on registration and all things customer service, and the good fortune to have the return of Kim Severt on the mobile app and midnight ticket detailing!  Additional thank yous go to Eric Weiss, AHLEI, and Ralf Burbach, for pitching in on opening day on just about anything, including bag stuffing, and to Robert Cannon and Fred DeMicco and their students from NAU for pre, during, and post-work on whatever was needed in Arizona!  It does truly take an academic village to bring our conference to life, and we have to say thank you also to Mahmood Khan at VA Tech, and his students for his leadership and their work for the EIC, and to Ali Faison and Kashif Khan from USF, for their help with videography.
 
When you see the pictures, you can’t help but note the audio-visual magic from that stage backdrop design of the very appreciated and talented ENCORE team, an ICHRIE partner with their Senior Vice President, Customer & Industry Engagement, John Rissi, as a member of our new ICHRIE Industry Advisory Board, and with us everywhere, to ensure all our audio-visual went as planned.  So, you know, we deemed AV perfect, and earned ENCORE a special ICHRIE Appreciation Award for their support for both Washington DC, last year, and Phoenix, this year.
 
My own special memory from Phoenix will be the work of Joy Dickerson, and Kim Williams on the “Time of Remembrance” a new tribute at our ICHRIE Awards Evening to our members who regrettably passed in the last year.  Thank you, Joy and Kim, for the planning, and to the following members for their tributes:
Rick Lagiewski, RIT for George Alley, RIT
Catherine Curtis, for Dan Cormany, FIU
Mahmood Khan, Va. Tech for Howard Feiertag, Va. Tech
Jean Hertzman, NMS, for Pat Moreo, USF
Ruth O’Rourke, DSCC, for Linda Forristal, UMES
  
All the above, would not be possible without our sponsors, so let me close by thanking them on all our behalf:
ICHRIE Heroes
ENCORE
Co-Star Share Center
Florida International University (FIU)
The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State)
University of Houston (U of H)
University of Nevada, at Las Vegas (UNLV)
ICHRIE Diamond
AHLEI
ICHRIE Ruby
Hyatt
Northern Arizona University
Texas A&M
University of North Texas
ICHRIE Emerald
AHLA
University of New Orleans
ICHRIE Sapphire
Cal Poly Pomona
DePaul University
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Johnson & Wales University
University of Alabama Online
University of Delaware
ICHRIE Friend
University of Hawaii at Manoa
 
Welcome to our new President, Chrystel Masdupuy, and a very sincere thank you to our outgoing President, Ralf Burbach, and to our Immediate Past President, Joy Dickerson.
 
Together, industry and educators, we are stronger.
 
Sincerely,
 

Fran Brasseux
Chief Executive Officer
ICHRIE