Members of the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management Dean’s Advisory Council, Sergio Rivera, Wendy Kallergis, Jerry Montgomery and newly appointed Council Chair, Lani Kane-Hanan, participated in an Industry Panel Session at the Southeast, Central & South American Federation of the Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education’s annual conference.
The conference, which was held at the Chaplin School on March 9 and 10, brought together hospitality educators and industry experts to highlight research and innovation in hospitality education, and gave students and faculty from hospitality management programs across the region the opportunity to present their research and receive feedback from peers.
For Kallergis, current President and CEO of the Greater Miami & The Beaches Hotel Association, hospitality management education has increasingly become a focus.
“I probably spend about 35 to 45 percent of my time getting involved with education now,” she said. “I think that the whole mission of this conference is so interesting – getting everyone together to just talk. It was a wonderful mix of both faculty and students.”
Kane-Hanan was a member of the Dean’s council for several years before her recent appointment as Chair. In her current role as Executive Vice President of Resort Development, Revenue and Inventory Management and Product Innovation at Marriott Vacations Worldwide, she keeps a finger on the pulse of new technologies in the hotel industry.
“Today, the curriculum [at Chaplin] is so rich in developing critical thinking and problem solving skills, as the school continues to enhance their STEM offerings.” said Kane-Hanan. “ I think our programs are impressive in this area, and getting better all the time. Innovation is born when awareness is matched with curiosity and the ability to view challenges as opportunities.”
A focus of the panel was innovation in hospitality, and many of the questions from faculty centered on the current needs in the industry and how educators can best prepare students to fill those roles.
Montgomery, who is currently serving as Chief Human Resources Officer for Carnival Corporation, places great value on the impact he’s been able to have on the curriculum at Chaplin.
“Anytime you get smart people together, it works in everyone’s best interest,” he said. “We’re trying to continue to build a better curriculum at Chaplin, and there’s certainly a back-end benefit for us. The better the curriculum, the better the students are going to be when they graduate.”
In addition to sharing insights and answering questions for conference attendees, Rivera, Director of ILG and CEO of the Vacation Ownership Segment, enjoyed hearing from hospitality educators about the challenges and opportunities they see in the classroom.
“We on the receiving end of industry have to also adjust and modify our way of thinking to make sure we have the proper alignment and the right way of thinking,” he said. “I think it’s a two-way street between industry and education, so this was a great opportunity to think about the kind of world we have to create to be able to receive these young leaders.”
For more information about CHRIE or the SECSA, visit chrie.org.
