HospitalityLawyer.com Blog

The 2011 Hospitality Law Conference is set for Wednesday, February 9, 2010 - Friday, February 11, 2010.

What?

The annual Hospitality Law Conference is the only hotel law and restaurant law conference of its kind.  Industry leaders offer in-depth analysis and insight into the latest international legal, safety, and security trends and issues affecting the hospitality industry.   

Who Should Attend?

Hotel and restaurant in-house counsel and private attorneys practicing in the hospitality industry who want the most current, in-depth legal developments should attend. 

Executives of lodging, real estate, restaurant, and club operations will be interested in our Lodging, Real Estate, and Food & Beverage Tracks. 

Hotel risk managers and hotel loss prevention directors won’t want to miss the Loss Prevention & Risk Management Track. 

For IT professionals, comptrollers, accountants, and CFOs, the conference offers the only Information Protection and Privacy (including PCI-DSS) Workshop for hotels, restaurants, and country clubs.

Where?

The Hospitality Law Conference will be held at the Omni Houston Hotel, Houston, Texas

Details and Speaking Opportunities

This year’s conference begins with the Preconference Workshop on Wednesday, February 9.  The two-day Hospitality Law Conference begins on February 10.   

Attend the conference and receive opportunities to win a $1000.00 American Express gift card and a $500.00 American Express gift card.  If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please email HospitalityLawyer@hospitalitylawyer.com or call (713) 963-8800.

For updates please visit, www.hospitalitylawconference.com. 

HospitalityLawyer.com, the industry’s web-based resource for legal, safety, and security solutions, today announced that the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference was an incredible success, receiving excellent reviews from attendees.

Three hundred attendees from across the country and around the world attended this one-of-a-kind conference in Houston, Texas. The two-and-a-half-day conference focused on the following core topics:

• Current Real Estate Issues in the Industry
• Information Privacy & Protection, including PCI-DSS
• Lodging & Fundamentals of Hospitality Law
• Food & Beverage
• Labor & Employment; and
• Loss Prevention & Risk Management. 

“The conference gives attendees the information and resources they need to stay ahead of the fast-changing laws pertinent to our industry,” said Stephen Barth, founder of HospitalityLawyer.com, noting conference attendees include hotel and restaurant in-house counsel, hotel and restaurant lawyers, loss-prevention personnel, risk managers, and hospitality owners and operators.

For the complete release on the conference, please click here.

Couldn’t make it to the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference? To purchase conference materials (Conference Summary Notebook and USB Drive with papers and PowerPoints) for $199.00, please contact Claudia Aslin.

HospitalityLawyer.com is pleased to announce the 2010 recipients of the Anthony G. Marshall Hospitality Law Award and the Thom Davis Loss Prevention Lifetime Achievement Award. Please join us as we honor these recipients at the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference.

Albert Pucciarelli, Chair of the Hotels and Resorts Practice at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP, has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the Anthony G. Marshall Hospitality Law Award. The Marshall Award is given in recognition of pioneering and lasting contributions to the field of hospitality law.

John Szczepanski, Senior Director of Risk Management at White Lodging Services, has been selected as the 2010 recipient of the Thom Davis Lifetime Achievement Award. The Award recognizes a person who has committed his or her career to improving safety and security in the hospitality industry. The Award (formerly the Hospitality Loss Prevention Lifetime Achievement Award) has been renamed after Thom Davis, who passed away in late 2009 after dedicating more than 30 years of his life to hotel security and loss prevention management.

For the complete release on Pucciarelli and the Marshall Award, please click here. For the complete release on Szczepanski and the Thom Davis Award, please click here.

Pucciarelli and Szczepanski will be honored at the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference, during the Awards Luncheon on February 4.

Don’t miss the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference and honor these industry leaders.

Helpful conference links:

• Conference Registration
• Conference Brochure
• Conference Website
• Conference Agenda
  

Don’t miss the only conference devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries.

Early registration ends today, January 11. Register today to receive discounted registration rates.

Program Topics:

• Information Protection and Privacy, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards Workshop
• Hospitality Real Estate Transactions Workshop
• Hotel & Restaurant In-House Counsel Workshop (in-house counsel only)
• Food & Beverage Breakout
• Human Resources & Labor Relations Breakout
• Lodging and Fundamentals of Hospitality Law Breakout
• Loss Prevention and Risk Management Breakout
• General Sessions, including:
  • Information Protection & Privacy: The New High Stakes Game
  • Critical Issues in Payment Card/Merchant Relations
  • It’s Not Easy Being Green
  • The Franchise Debate
  • A Primer on Representing Airlines and Cruise Ships
  • An Ethics Sampler - Five Top Mistakes to Avoid

HRCI and CLE Available.

Helpful links:

Conference Brochure

Conference Website

Conference Agenda

Early registration for the 2010 Hospitality Law Conference ends January 11. Don’t miss the only program devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries. Register Now to take advantage of discounted rates!

The 2010 Conference will kick off on Wednesday, February 3, with a Pre-Conference Workshop and will feature the following sessions:

• Information Protection and Privacy, including Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards Workshop – including PCI compliance, forensic investigations, and data security
• Hospitality Real Estate Transactions Workshop – including workouts, special service providers and how recent economic events have affected the real estate industry.
• Hotel & Restaurant In-House Counsel Workshop – including bargaining with credit card companies, protecting proprietary data, unions, and antitrust issues

The Hospitality Law Conference will shift into full gear on Thursday, February 4, with breakout sessions on a host of relevant and timely topics:

• Lodging and Fundamentals of Hospitality Law - including management contracts, OTAs, taxation issues, and more
• Food & Beverage – including the tip credit, Truth in Menu, selling alcohol, and alcohol sponsorship issues
• Human Resources and Labor Relations – including wage and hour issues, sexual harassment, OSHA, and the Fair Labor Standards Act
• Loss Prevention & Risk Management – including bed bugs, insurance litigation, claims, and various liability issues

Don’t miss the Wine Tasting & Product Showcase on Thursday, February 4, to be eligible to win a $1,000 American Express gift card. Stay until the end of the conference to be eligible to win a $500 American Express gift card, which will be drawn during the Closing Remarks on Friday, February 5.

Accreditation:

MCLE accreditation for up to 16.0 hours (including 1 hour of ethics) is available.

This program has been approved for 4 (General) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

Helpful Links:

• Online Registration
• Conference Brochure
• Conference Website
• Conference Agenda

In light of the recent issues at Miami’s EPIC Hotel, which has moved guests after a European guest died from Legionnaires’ disease, HospitalityLawyer.com wanted to provide resources for hotels on Legionnaire’s disease. For more information on the developing story in Miami, please click here.

The 2009 Hospitality Law Conference featured the panel “Something in the Water,” which explored Legionella, Norovirus, and other agents that can be issues for hotels. For the conference excerpts on Legionella, please click here.

The HospitalityLawyer.com Loss Prevention Newsletter archives also has an article discussing a 2000 Legionella outbreak in Ocean City, Maryland, which resulted in litigation.

Need a solution? Forensic Analytical is a great resource for Legionella issues.

The annual Hospitality Law Conference is a one-of-a-kind opportunity designed for participants to share legal insight and best practices, and to gain a better understanding of the latest industry developments. It is the only program in the country and in the world devoted exclusively to legal, safety and security issues impacting the hotel, restaurant, and travel industries.

“I have found the Hospitality Law Conference to be the best in the country,” said Dale Kingman, Former Presenter and Partner at Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell.

Adding to those sentiments, Matt Brokl, Associate General Counsel for BuffaloWild Wings, said the 2009 conference was “the best conference I attended this year.”

Private attorney, David Denney, with the Law Offices of David T. Denney, P.C., has said, “The information presented and relationships developed at the conference benefit my practice all year long.  I make a special effort to attend each year to refill my bank of resources and renew my contact with other industry professionals.”

For the complete Conference Agenda, please click here.

For the complete Conference Announcement, please click here.

Regional Seminars to Present In-Depth Updates on Hospitality Legal Issues
Unique to East Coast, Central Region, and West Coast

HOUSTON, TEXAS, April 1, 2009 – HospitalityLawyer.com, the industry’s web-based resource for legal, safety, and security solutions, today announced it is expanding its one-of-a-kind Annual Hospitality Law Conference to include three new regional Hospitality Law Seminars.   The regional seminars will explore operational and legal issues, from franchising to food and beverage liability concerns to labor and employment to real estate law, unique to each region.

The first regional seminar is scheduled for June 1-2, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Pier 5 Hotel, with additional seminars scheduled in Chicago and San Diego. Each seminar also will feature leading speakers from each region, including Elizabeth DeConti of Gray Robinson, Andrew Loewinger of Nixon Peabody, Jay Krupin of Epstein Becker Green, and Fisher & Phillips for the East Coast.

“Given some of the travel restrictions that have been put in place due to the economy, we decided to bring the education closer to our constituents.  The regional seminars also give us an opportunity to focus on regional and state differences,” says Stephen Barth, Founder of HospitalityLawyer.com.

Targeted Information:
At the core of these new regional seminars will be three distinct tracts: one focused on legal issues, another on operational issues, and a third on PCI compliance.

The Hospitality Law for Lawyers and Paralegals Track will address such topics as:

• A Labor & Employment Update;
• Protecting Your Intellectual Property; and
• Real Estate Issues, including workouts, bankruptcy, and construction

The Hospitality Law for Operators Track will include the following:

• Your Legal Duties As An Innkeeper/Restaurateur;
• Accident Prevention & Accident Response – The Evidence Trail; and
• Perils on Property:  Recognition and Mitigation Strategies.

The final Hospitality IT Meets the Law:  Focusing on PCI Compliance Track will highlight:

• 10 Deadly Myths and Solutions for PCI Compliance;
• Post-Breach Remedies; and
• Card Information Replacement Technology (CIRT) Security.

Networking Opportunities:
HospitalityLawyer.com expects the regional seminars to foster a community among hospitality practitioners. “A driving force behind HospitalityLawyer.com is to enable the sharing of best practices and the creation of an ongoing dialogue between legal practitioners and professionals within the hospitality industry. These smaller regional gatherings will provide an opportunity for all hospitality professionals to get to know each other, and to share their ideas and concerns at a level that’s closer to home,” said Barth, noting that participants will be encouraged to continue that crucial dialogue after the seminar with the help of the HospitalityLawyer.com regional attendee list, which will be distributed at the conclusion of each seminar.

Registration & Accreditation:

HospitalityLawyer.com has requested CLE accreditation for up to 11 hours for this program from the following states: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.  It has also requested other accreditations, including HRCI, which is now pending approval.

To register or to obtain additional information on these seminars, please visit www.HospitalityLawyer.com.

Seminar Alliances:
The seminar is presented in coordination with in coordination with the General Counsel Committee of the AH&LA, the Loss Prevention Management Institute, Best Western, BDO Consulting, the International Bar Association, Arthur J. Gallagher, Cardiac Science, the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management, Shift 4, and the Maryland Hotel Association.

About HospitalityLawyer.com:
HospitalityLawyer.com is the leading global network of people, products and services that deliver legal, safety and security solutions to the hospitality industry.

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