A farm-to-table styled restaurant, atop barge-decks, docked in waterfront cities and a startup aimed at providing automated robotic solutions for restaurant kitchens were among the pitches presented during the 12th Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition, an annual entrepreneurship event that presents cash prizes for the top three finalists.
Hotel Internet Services (HIS), a full-service provider of internet services and solutions for the hospitality industry, today announced the successful implementation of its hospitality-engineered BeyondTV GuestCast platform by The Dorm Hotel located in Ithaca, New York. A newly opened property that already holds a reputation for providing its guests with the latest in luxury experiences at an affordable price, The Dorm Hotel with its adoption of BeyondTV GuestCast can now also guarantee a uniquely enjoyable and convenient experience for each guest from the comfort and safety of their individual rooms.
Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, a AAA Four Diamond Award-winning property tucked into Cornell University's vibrant campus and overlooking downtown Ithaca and Cayuga Lake, New York, has decided to implement key Infor Hospitality applications to meet and exceed modern guest expectations. These applications include Infor HMS, Infor EzRMS, and Infor Sales & Catering.
Canopy by Hilton, Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) lifestyle hotel brand, announced today the opening of Canopy by Hilton Ithaca Downtown. Owned and operated by Baywood Hotels, the seven-story, 131-room upper upscale property is located steps from Ithaca Commons and within minutes from Ivy League Cornell University and prestigious private school Ithaca College.
Roger Hill '87 and Andrew Fay '87, cofounders of the Gettys Group, have been named the 2019 Cornell Hospitality Innovators by the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration (SHA). Hill and Fay will receive their awards at the 11th annual Cornell Hospitality Icon and Innovator Awards gala, Tuesday, June 4, at the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has established an empowerment fund at the School of Hotel Administration in honor of their former chief executive officer, J. Allen Smith '80, MPS '86. The J. Allen and Katherine Smith / Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Empowerment Fund will provide a holistic program supporting underrepresented minority and first generation students to help ensure their current and future success. This includes mentoring, professional development, and career guidance.
Marriott International, the world's largest travel company, has teamed up with Cornell University's globally recognized School of Hotel Administration to launch the Marriott Global Design certificate, a custom corporate program centered on the Marriott approach to hotel planning and design.
Dr. Ravi Mehrotra, co-founder, president and chief scientist of IDeaS Revenue Solutions, was named to the board of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE) at Cornell University's S.C. College of Business Hotel School. Along with his role leading IDeaS, Mehrotra is a noted author, speaker and innovator in the fields of predictive analytics, forecasting and dynamic-price optimization. As a new PIHE advisory board member, he will help steer the future direction of the Institute, engage its student body through teaching and research, and participate in other academic and social programs in the S.C. Johnson community.
Economist and compensation and labor market scholar Kevin F. Hallock, the Kenneth F. Kahn '69 Dean and Joseph R. Rich '80 Professor in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, has been named dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced Oct. 2.
For the students of the School of Hotel Administration, participating in Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC) represents the pinnacle of what it means to be a Hotelie. For the alumni, it is a chance to reconnect with the school, network with other industry professionals (and perhaps even hire an intern or two), and luxuriate in the rare opportunity to be wined and dined by the students of the world's premier hospitality school.
On Friday, the School of Hotel Administration rescinded a 2017 award honoring Steve Wynn, a gambling industry mogul and the former finance-chair for the Republican National Committee after he was accused of sexual misconduct several weeks ago.
The MMH Leadership Development Program (LDP) is a weekend-long event that connects current students in the Master of Management in Hospitality program with top-tier alumni from the School of Hotel Administration. These alumni are all highly regarded in their respective industries and volunteer their own personal time to come back to Cornell for the weekend. LDP is one of the many opportunities the Hotel School gives its students to connect with alumni and develop their leadership skills.
Dean Kate Walsh of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration (SHA) and Dean Soumitra Dutta of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business will address the Cornell community on Friday, March 17, to provide updates on the state of the school and college and plans for their future. Dean Walsh and Dean Dutta will deliver their addresses as part of the 92nd Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell, a hospitality industry conference held on the Cornell campus.The recent $150 million gift from H. Fisk Johnson '79, MEng '80, MS '82, MBA '84, PhD '86, chairman and CEO of S. C. Johnson, has raised additional questions about how SHA will benefit under the new college and how administrative changes will affect the school's curriculum. The deans hope that their speeches will provide the traditional yearly update on the state of SHA as well as clarifying how the school fits into the larger Cornell SC Johnson College of Business structure.The speeches mark the beginning of a weekend-long business conference, running from March 16-19, discussing how hospitality companies can "Face the Future, Preserve the Past" in a constantly evolving industry. Immediately following Dean Dutta's speech, keynote speaker Sabato Sagaria '97, chief restaurant officer of Union Square Hospitality Group, will deliver an address on no-tipping policies and their potential to revolutionize the restaurant industry.
H. Fisk Johnson '79, M.Eng. '80, M.S. '82, MBA '84, Ph.D. '86, and SC Johnson have committed $150 million for Cornell University's College of Business, which comprises the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, the School of Hotel Administration, and the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. It is the largest single gift to Cornell's Ithaca campus and the second largest gift to name a U.S. business school.
The School of Hotel Administration (SHA) at Cornell University announces that Cheryl Boyer is the new president of the Cornell Hotel Society (CHS) for 2017. Boyer will lead the executive board of CHS, the 88-year-old alumni association that represents SHA graduates in more than 53 active chapters worldwide. Boyer’s 12-month term as president began January 1.
A joint venture between Urgo Hotels & Resorts and Ensemble Hotel Partners announced the opening of the 10-story, 159-room, full-service Marriott Hotel in downtown Ithaca, New York. Located at the eastern entrance to the Ithaca Commons, a newly renovated pedestrian indoor and outdoor mixed-use development and entertainment district anchoring the downtown core, the hotel sits on the doorsteps of Cornell University and Ithaca College. The joint venture developed and owns the project, and the hotel will be managed by Urgo Hotels & Resorts.
Capping off a morning of homecoming celebrations, the Board of Directors for the 92nd Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC) announced the theme of this year's conference as "Face the Future, Preserve the Past" during an HEC- hosted brunch for returning alumni. HEC—the oldest tradition at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration (SHA)—will return March 16-19, 2017 at SHA and the Statler Hotel in Ithaca, NY.Hotel Ezra Cornell is a three-day, student-run business conference for hospitality industry leaders and members of the Cornell community from across the globe. A 92-year SHA tradition, HEC is one of the oldest traditions at Cornell and an unparalleled introduction to the students, faculty, and alumni of the preeminent hospitality program in the nation. Featuring some of the most talented individuals in the business, the conference will discuss the latest developments in hospitality and include leisure events for attendees to network with other professionals and meet the students who will be leading the industry in the future.This year, HEC will explore change: while shifts in the industry can be unexpected or uncertain, every organization has to evolve to maintain their competitive advantage, while still honoring the values that made them successful in the past. Striking the right balance is of critical importance as HEC enters a new phase in its nearly century-long history, with HEC 92 being the first to be held since SHA became part of the new Cornell College of Business. This year's program will cut through the anxieties of change and look at how HEC, SHA, and the hospitality industry as a whole can maintain their identities—and value—as they navigate the ever-changing business environment.Leading this conversation will be the keynote speaker for HEC 92, Mr. Sabato Sagaria '97, chief restaurant officer of Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). Conference attendees will hear firsthand how innovation and experimentation have helped USHG remain an industry leader and stay true to their principles of providing the best service experience possible.Please visit www.hotelezracornell.com for more information. Join the conversation on Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram.
The Statler Hotel on the Cornell University campus is pleased to announce the promotion of Thomas Gisler to director of food and beverage. Gisler had served as executive chef of the Statler since 2005. In his expanded role, he will leverage his substantial culinary wisdom and experience as he oversees both front-of-the-house and back-of-the-house food-and-beverage (F&B) operations at the hotel.
Two student teams' presentations were so strong that the judges in the Cornell Hospitality Business Plan Competition declared a tie. Both teams will be awarded the first-place prize money of $25,000, the largest prize package on campus specifically for current Cornell University students. The co-winners in the 2016 edition of the competition are Team Last Second Beach and Team Maidbot. Team Chill won third place, with a prize of $5,000. A total of five student teams, which have been working on their plans for the entire academic year, presented their business concepts to a judging panel of entrepreneurs. The competition was held during the annual student-run event, Hotel Ezra Cornell. Team Last Second Beach plans to offer a mobile app that aggregates and presents the best options for travelers seeking to take short beach vacations such as all-inclusive resorts and cruises, thereby fulfilling consumers' needs and giving distributors a targeted, low-cost distribution channel. Aimed at hotel operations, Maidbot is a robotic vacuum cleaner that would speed room turnaround by assisting room attendants in cleaning rooms and public spaces. Team Chill's plan is for a chain of Italian ice shops allowing for personal self-service customization. The teams are composed of primarily students at the School of Hotel Administration. Students from other colleges including the Johnson School, the ILR School, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the College of Engineering also participated in the competition. The winning teams are:Last Second Beach: Owen Buehler ENG '16, Zach Demuth MMH '16, Harrison Goldstein ENG '18, and Khalid Ladha MMH '16;Maidbot: Alex Levy SHA '18; andChill: Hanna Basra SHA '17, Joseph Bell SHA '17, W. Spenser Cardenas SHA '17, and David Luo SHA'17. The Hospitality Business Plan Competition is part of the experiential learning programs of the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at the School of Hotel Administration (SHA). This years' total of over $35,000 in prizes is the largest yet for the competition. The purpose of the competition is to educate the student teams and give them experience in conceptualizing, researching, and articulating a business idea, all skills they will need to successfully launch a business. Throughout the competition, SHA faculty advise the student teams, as do the members of the institute's extensive entrepreneurship network. In determining the top concepts, judges considered factors such as whether the target market size for the concept is sufficiently large and attractive for the company to eventually reach scale, and whether the proposed business model makes sense, so that the company can actually make money. The final presentations had to be clearly articulated and supported with data relating to potential demand and market barriers. The competition is supported by gifts from the title sponsor, Stephen Thomson '82, and the originating sponsor, the Sun Family, Stanley '00 and his parents Dennis and Betty. Additional sponsors include platinum sponsors Greg Dollarhyde '80, MBA '81, Hersha Hospitality Trust, and Marriott International; and silver sponsors Elizabeth Shingleton Glomsrud '00 and Barbara Foote Shingleton '75.
The 91st Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC 91) at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration (SHA) will highlight the professional work of the student body through a student restaurant concept lunch, an entrepreneurial student showcase, and a special presentation about the Bay Club Company's unique internship program that targets SHA students. - On March 19, 2016, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the Statler Auditorium foyer, conference guests will experience a student-developed restaurant project come to life as the HEC culinary department teams up with a group of four SHA seniors to adapt its pan-Latin-influenced concept "Tia Mia" for a realistic operational setting. - On March 19, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Taylor/Rowe Room of the Statler Hotel's Taverna Banfi restaurant, student entrepreneurs representing seven of SHA's most innovative and promising startups will present their visions and business models in an interactive showcase. - On March 19, from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. in the Statler Amphitheatre, Victor Woo (executive vice president, the Bay Club Company) will discuss how this growing active lifestyle and hospitality company has managed a successful internship program that mutually benefits both the firm and the dozens of SHA students it hires. "Tia Mia" Restaurant Concept Lunch "Tia Mia" is a restaurant concept that was developed by SHA seniors Megan Trillo, Bonnie Fine, Kathryn Sabol, and Stephanie Hsu in HADM 4510 - Restaurant Development. With the help of HEC, this team will see its idea come to life as guests enjoy their take on pan-Latin cuisine during lunch on Saturday, March 19. To prepare the idea for a real-world operational setting, the group worked with HEC to host a practice pop-up event in February for faculty, staff, and students. Tia Mia was designed to be a casual restaurant, bar, and lounge, catering to the rising population of young professionals working in and around Long Island City, New York. The restaurant would focus on lunch, happy hour, and dinner during the week with a particularly strong focus on dinner during the weekends to target these key demographic groups. Serving pan-Latin cuisine, the concept centers on the idea of authentic food and flavors with a modern twist.Entrepreneurial Student Showcase Since its founding, the School of Hotel Administration has been the birthplace of some of the hospitality world's most exciting entrepreneurial concepts. HEC 91 is proud to feature seven of SHA students' most promising startups in this showcase. These companies take on diverse industries ranging from dining to travel planning, and navigation to hotel operations. The companies featured in this showcase include Maidbot (presented by Micah Green '17, CEO and co-founder), Dos Amigos Tacos (presented by David Farahi '16 and Jorge Bouras '17, co-owners), Yorango (presented by Adam Kirsch, CEO), Navo (presented by Andrew Proskikhin '17, iOS developer), MilesAhead (presented by Rob Karp '19, president), Cayuga Crunch (presented by Alex Stauch '18, founder), and Dumpling House (presented by Arvin Jiang '18). Bay Club Internship Program Presentation Founded in San Francisco, the Bay Club Company (TBCC) is leading the charge in the creation of modernized country club membership, while transitioning from a fitness focus into a true hospitality enterprise. In 2014, the thriving company set out to launch its first internship program with one thought in mind: Develop Bay Club Happy interns. The TBCC team, led by president and CEO Matthew Stevens, wanted to craft a program unlike any other—one that would provide a unique experience for the country's top hospitality students and combine meaningful work and career development with competitive pay, perks, and bonuses to help them understand and explore the brand and want to return for a full-time opportunity upon graduation. Summer interns receive firsthand experience working at the clubs on specific projects, such as creating operational guidelines, analyzing retention data, and doing comparison analyses of operational software options. Additionally, the interns work together on a large-scale project that helps the company evolve its brand. Victor Woo will discuss how they have managed to create a successful program that provides both long-lasting benefits to the company and a memorable learning experience for the students. Please visit www.hotelezracornell.com for more information about the program and other conference events. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.About Hotel Ezra Cornell