EMEA Regional Meeting — Reykjavik, Iceland

February 25^th – 28^th, 2016

Four days in Reykjavik among Hotelies turned into a spectacular weekend filled with adventure, history, and a look to the future of the industry. Organized by Alumni Deiv Salutskij ’77 and Martti Palonpera ’77, MPS ’94 — the event had approximately 100 attendees from all over the world, who participated in a Viking Dinner, soaked in the exquisite geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon, and went on a day trip to the geysers in Thingvellir National Park.

However, the trip wasn’t all play. The Cornell Hospitality Summit on Friday morning delivered updates on the College of Business, an informative presentation on the growing trend of tourism with the participation of the Minister of Trade and Tourism, the SVP Business Development for Iceland Air Group and Michael Widmann, PDP ‘00, Managing Partner PKF, and an insightful presentation on the sustainability in hotel operations by lecturer Jeanne Varney.

Thousands were raised for scholarships at the auction and our organizer Deiv was surprised with a special thanks for all his years of service and the naming of the scholarship in his honor. Congratulations also to outgoing Regional VPs Christian Walter PDP ‘08 and Alison Hargreaves ’00.

While perhaps the taste of dried mako shark will be easy to forget, the rest of the weekend will not be — thank you to all who attended for such a successful long weekend!

Save the date for the 2017 EMEA Meeting in London June 15-18th, under the new leadership of RVPs Jeffrey Scott ’91 and Michael Cortelletti MMH ’99.