Hotel Brokers International (HBI) recently held its 56th annual meeting in Las Vegas at the Tropicana. Conference events included workshop-type sessions, brokerage best-practice discussions, presentations from industry franchisors and lenders, and review of industry data.
Standout program speakers included Mike Muir, vice president of North American development for Best Western International; Kelly Ryan, loan officer at CDC Small Business Finance; Roger Bloss, president and CEO of Vantage Hospitality Group; Dan Uhl, vice president of lending at PMC Commercial Trust; and Bill Linehan, EVP and CMO, Red Lion Hotels.
“Programs such as this meeting provide member brokers opportunities to increase their market expertise and fine-tune their brokerage skills,” says Tony DeGeorge, president of HBI, and principal broker of Greene, Canfield, DeGeorge, Ltd. “Every session on the program is designed to benefit the HBI broker in their daily profession, from the networking events to the variety of guest lectures and roundtable discussions.”
Some 2014 top-performing hotel brokers and hotel brokerage offices announced by DeGeorge are Joseph P. Kennedy, president and lead broker of Crystal Investment Property, recognized for structuring the 2014 Unique Deal of the Year; and Dick Lopez, CHB, president of Lodging Brokers Network, recognized for his brokerage achieving the award for Record Number & Dollar Volume of Transactions.
Top sales associates categorized by their by U.S. region were also recognized and included Bill Moyer, Donohoe Real Estate Services for the U.S. Eastern region; Darin Brock, CHB, Brock Hotel Group for the U.S. Central region; and Steve Ferrarini, CHB vice president of ProCom Lodging Brokers for the U.S. Pacific region.
Additional award categories include top brokers by U.S. region, sales associate of the year, new associate of the year, and broker of the year.
