New platform launches with first comprehensive hotel development summit to focus on Green.
| Author of www.HotelLawBlog.com
8 October 2007
Hotel Lawyer: Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro LLP (JMBM) are co-sponsoring the only hotel summit designed to provide senior hospitality executives with a comprehensive program that examines both the compelling economic benefits and some of the daunting practical challenges of going green. It is a topic that is confronting the hospitality industry like never before, and The UNLV-JMBM Hotel Developers Conference 2008, which brings together the hotel industry’s top leaders and its most experienced developers, is committed to creating a platform for hoteliers to learn what it means to go green. To that end, the key topic of the conference, held on March 11-13, 2008, will emphasize economics, current case studies, costly mistakes, brilliant successes, financing and valuation issues, consumer trends and offer a “how-to” (or “how not to”) approach relating to GREEN HOTEL DEVELOPMENT.
Attracting internationally recognized keynotes — Daniel C. Esty, Yale University professor and co-author of Green to Gold, as well as David Gottfried, a developer for 20 years who then founded the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and wrote Greed to Green — the entirely carbon neutral conference, will be held March 11-13, 2008 at the Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada. Topics to be covered will include:
• What does it mean to go GREEN? Who’s doing it? Why?
• The hard economics of GREEN building: Sticks and carrots.
• Case studies: From boutique hotels to mainstream developments:
CityCenter, Gaia, Orchard.
• Demystifying LEED. LEED in the trenches. Beyond LEED.
• How to use GREEN design, technology and materials to operate a sustainable hotel.
• Men in Black Unveil “The GREEN Hotel of Tomorrow”.
• Practical advice from industry leaders and GREEN pioneers.
• Financing green hotels.
“With one of the premier hotel programs in the world, UNLV is pleased to become this annual event’s signature sponsor,” said Stuart H. Mann, Dean of UNLV’s Harrah Hotel College. “We look forward to working closely with JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® to establish a new platform (with this event and others) that will no doubt spark discussion of important issues, while leading the implementation of cutting-edge innovations and solutions in the hospitality industry. We see this new platform as continuing to provide a regular channel of innovation and creativity.”
Mann went on to say that he sees the platform for the 2008 all-green conference as a natural extension of UNLV’s mission, stating that it opens new opportunities for faculty and students, keeping them involved in one of the most exciting hotel markets in the world. “I see this conference helping connect students with practical work experience and job opportunities,” said Mann. “It will also renew and revitalize innovation in the hotel industry.”
Jim Butler, hotel lawyer, author of www.HotelLawBlog.com and chairman of JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® stated how pleased JMBM is to be working with Mann and his UNLV team. “As a service to the hotel industry, the hotel lawyers at JMBM have been presenting annual hotel conferences for almost 18 years,” Butler pointed out. “We share UNLV’s focus on industry service, pragmatism and innovation. With that common vision, we look forward to UNLV’s co-sponsorship helping us take this platform to a whole new level.”
Butler went on to add that he cares about the environment, but is much more of a pragmatic, business-oriented hotel advisor and lawyer than an environmental activist. “Even from that perspective, it is clear to me that 2007 marks the ‘tipping point’ of the green movement,” he said. “If hotel developers don’t start surfing on this green wave, they may drown in lost opportunity.”
About UNLV’s Global Village for INNovation
UNLV recently announced that a $30 million gift was given to the Harrah Hotel College by Harrah’s Entertainment which will allow the university to move forward with plans to develop a far reaching mixed-use academic building and hospitality development project on campus. The project, named Global Village for INNovation, will serve as the launching pad for the world’s preeminent hospitality technology research facility. It will allow both technology providers and hotel operators a central location to test and study evolving technologies and “Green” programs in an actual operating hotel and conference center. Global Village for INNovation at UNLV will serve as the nexus for international research that will be conducted at other UNLV Harrah Hotel College satellite campuses. For more information, contact Dean Stuart Mann at: Stuart.mann@unlv.edu.
About JMBM’s Hospitality Group
JMBM’s Global Hospitality Group® creates legal and business solutions for hotel owners, developers and lenders. Comprised of more than 50 hotel lawyers, the Group has handled more than $87 billion of hotel transactions around the globe. In the last 5 years alone, the Group has represented clients in more than 100 hotel mixed-use projects. For more information, visit www.JMBM.com or www.HotelLawBlog.com. To contact Jim Butler directly, call 310.201-3526, or via email at jbutler@jmbm.com. Jim’s blog can be accessed at www.HotelLawBlog.com.