HFTP Blog
March 31, 2017

Dispatches from HFTP Global: Midwest Regional Conference

Blog Education Events HFTP Membership
Written by HFTP Publications

Written By: Susan Savkov

As it was my first visit up to the Midwest, I was really looking forward to attending the Midwest Regional Conference March 16-18, 2017 in Bloomington, Minnesota. Bloomington is a suburb of Minneapolis and the conference was located at the at the Radisson Blu hotel which is right next to the Mall of America. Just to give you an idea how big it is, to walk around one level is 1.15 miles of the mall and nine Yankee Stadiums can fit inside the Mall of America. It is a big mall.

The conference was hosted by four HFTP chapters including Greater Detroit, West Michigan, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Greater Milwaukee which included members and industry professionals from the area in both finance and technology. I really enjoyed meeting everyone, hearing about what they do and what their HFTP membership means to them.

HFTP Global Immediate Past President Arlene Ramirez, CHAE, CHE, CHIA, MBA attended the conference and spoke in the education session on “CAPEX vs. OPEX in the Hospitality Industry.”

The conference featured a welcome reception on Thursday in the hotel restaurant with attendees and speakers getting to know one another.

The full day of education started on Friday morning with enthusiasm expert Joshua Evans getting the audience motivated with his presentation “Employee Engagement,” and discussing how we can all become more enthusiastic in our careers and lives.

[caption id="attachment_9658" align="alignnone" width="690"]
Arlene Ramirez, CHAE, CHE, CHIA, MBA, HFTP’s Global Immediate Past President presenting at the education session.[/caption]

The education session continued with a variety of speakers who discussed leading hospitality topics which included “Technology and Private Clubs,” “Legislative and HR Update,” and “CAPEX vs. OPEX in the Hospitality Industry” presented by Ramirez.

The Minneapolis area FBI did an interesting presentation called “Digital Forensics,” about a business email fraud scheme which has targeted businesses and especially controllers to process scam wire transfer payments. Emails will look like they come from the CEO or other top executive of the company asking for the controller to process a fake wire transfer.

After the education ended for the day, attendees met later that evening for a fun dinner at Dick’s Last Resort located in the Mall of America. The education continued on Saturday with topics including looking at your club’s status from a member’s point of view, how to deal with situations of conflict and protecting against online fraud.

I was very appreciative of the hospitality from the organizers of the conference and the attendees and I hope to return back to visit our HFTP members in the Midwest.

Susan Savkov is the HFTP Membership Marketing Manager. Contact Susan at [email protected] or +1 (512) 220-4028.
conference education HFTP HFTP Chapters HFTP Member Benefits HFTP members HFTP membership HFTP Midwest Regional Conference hospitality leadership membership