LOS ANGELES & LAS VEGAS | Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP (JMBM), one of California’s foremost full-service law firms, today announced that its 18th Annual Meet the Money® Conference, sponsored by the Firm’s Global Hospitality Group®, will be held May 6-8, 2008. Considered to be the “Gateway to Hotel Finance,” connecting providers and consumers of debt and equity capital for hotel deals, the event is expected to bring together hundreds of hotel financing experts, hotel developers, and hospitality insiders to “do business” at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa, in Las Vegas.

Everybody wants to know if anybody is still lending in today’s credit crunch environment. And, what does it take to get financing to buy, refinance or develop a hotel or hotel mixed-use project? According to Jim Butler, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and chairman of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group®, “I have grilled our speaker candidates for Meet the Money®, and we have a lot of financing sources that are emphatic — They have money to put out. They are active now. And they are coming to Meet the Money® to find the right borrowers or investment opportunities.” In other words, this event is specifically designed to help hotel owners finance hotel acquisitions, refinance hotels, and provide the capital stack for hotel development or repositioning.

The opening session of the Conference will feature special presentations by Bobby Bowers, Smith Travel Research Senior Vice President for Operations, who will provide lodging industry trends; Mark Woodworth, PKF Consulting Executive Vice President, who will offer a hospitality industry forecast; Suzanne Mellen, Managing Director of HVS, who will discuss hotel values and CAP Rates; and Daniel H. Lesser, CBRE’s Senior Managing Director, who will provide insights on the U.S. hotel investment market. This year’s Meet the Money® is the place where:

• Developers and owners find capital solutions
• Capital meets serious investment opportunities
• Value gets created, deals are struck, and solutions are uncovered

Kicking off with a welcome reception on the evening of May 6th, the conference’s two-day, all-inclusive program will offer informative panels entitled, “Alternative Strategies for Troubled Times, Survival Strategies, Workouts & Opportunistic Investments”; “Who’s Funding Now?” and “How Independent Operators and Boutiques Create Value,” just to name a few. For more information about the conference, to register or learn how to become a Meet the Money® sponsor or exhibitor, please be sure to visit www.jmbm.com/mtm or contact Kathy Lubecki at 310-785-6707 or at KLubecki@jmbm.com.