Tune in to the most recent AHLA Check-In episode with President & CEO of the AHLA Foundation, Kevin Carey! As a familiar face on the Suite Spot, Kevin stops in to give us the latest and greatest developments and advocacy work taking place at the American Hotel & Lodging Association.
Be sure to watch now to know what current events are impacting the hospitality industry.
Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embee. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree for another AHLA industry check-in this time with a familiar guest, Kevin Carey. Familiar guest, but a little bit different position. We're gonna talk about that in a second. But he is the Chief Operating Officer at AHLA and President and CEO of the AHLA Foundation. Kevin, welcome back to the Suite Spot,
Kevin Carey:
Ryan, terrific to be with you again. It's
Ryan Embree:
Great to have you. Like I said, you know, you've been on a couple times we've talked about that, but this time in a new role with AHLA, congratulations, by the way, on that. Can you share with our audience a little bit about the new role, maybe a day to day and what you get the pleasure of doing every single day, as President and CEO of the AHLA foundation?
Kevin Carey:
Well, I'd be happy to. It's definitely keeping me busy, but it's a good busy, and very much a rewarding, busy as well. And in my new capacity, where I get to lead the foundation, I get to work alongside a dedicated group of colleagues, Jen, Eliza, Kara, and Lindsay, to also a committed group of industry leaders, who were on our board of trustees, and the organization that we help to advance is one that's focused just on that front on advancing the people of the industry, our workforce, so day in, day out, having that teamwork and collaboration, but also working with our industry leaders to put the people forward on the industry front, and to work to support not only our current employees, but also to identify the future workforce is a vital role and very engaging.
Ryan Embree:
So critical. Right now, you're right, we've had conversations about it. We're gonna touch a little bit on this episode, but, you know, I'd see AHLA foundation all the time, the work, the stories that you guys are putting out there, you travel the country just got back from the lodging conference a couple days ago. But, you know, for those hoteliers who, you know, see the brand, they see some of the stories, you know, can you share maybe some of the origin story of the AHLA foundation and really at the foundation, so to speak of its mission over there?
Kevin Carey:
I'd be happy to. The foundation has been around for 72 years. It was founded in 1953, as a scholarship fund. And over that tenure year and arc and of its existence has done terrific work. What I've also shared recently as we've been working through a process with our board of trustees as looking at our future direction is that in many respects, this is a young 72-year-old organization. And by that I mean a number of the most prominent and highly visible initiatives that the foundation is involved in right now, whether it's our forward initiative or No Room for Trafficking. These are programs and initiatives that have really been created, launched and grown over about the last three to five years timeframe. So, while we've got a proud, uh, tradition and history, we also have a number of, of very important new initiatives. And the work we're doing to advance the industry's workforce and to ensure the people are front and center is really vital in the current environment. As we think about the industry's future growth prospects.
Ryan Embree:
Well, it's an incredible legacy. And to be able to, that's what you want out of advocacy and foundational work is you wanna be able to say, we're introducing new initiative strategies,
