The Modern Hotelier #33: The Crew Goes to the Independent Lodging Congress in Denver 2023
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 It's really just a great collection of people. Yeah. Um, and people in the hospitality, the, the, the different verticals in the hospitality industry that come together for this event. It's different than any other event. Yeah. Uh, around the globe, quite frankly. Welcome to the second season of The Modern.

Hotelier, the fastest growing hospitality podcast. Both hosts were named Top 100 Most Powerful People in Hospitality and voted fourth most popular podcast by the International Hospitality Institute. Each episode will get to know an industry expert and we'll discuss the latest trends in hospitality to help you.

The, Modern Hotelier.

Okay. Jacqueline Nunley, Salesforce. Great to have you. So is this your first I L C? No, actually it's my third. Okay, great. Good. So what's your favorite thing about ilc? It's your third one. What keeps you coming back? I think it's the tours. It's getting to know the cities that you are in and you know, visiting different areas that really inspire what hospitality is all about.

Yeah. And then it's the incorporation of not just about the hotel, it's about the architecture, it's about the art, it's about the design, it's all of it that comes together. Sure. And that's the unique thing about I L C? Absolutely. Absolutely. Great. And so how did you get involved in hospitality? Oh my gosh.

Um, I kind of made my, my passion for travel, my career. So I started traveling very, very, very early in my career, just for fun. Right? And then I got involved and I was like, isn't there a way that we could actually get technology to make travel easier? So, um, I moved to the Middle East. I, uh, worked in hardware for a little bit.

And then got so inspired by what was happening on the internet. I moved to software and the rest is history. Great. So just traveling around the world. That's great. Staying at hotels, living and working four hotels. It's been great. Not too shabby. Not too shabby. You said one of your favorite things about I L C is how they incorporate the city.

Yes. What has been your favorite thing you've done in Denver, or the coolest thing you've seen in Denver so far? So last night we went to dinner. So we have, you know, the family dinners, but we went to dinner at a really interesting sushi place in a neighborhood that was very cool, eclectic. Modern, historic, and that was really, really great.

But, um, what I enjoyed most was the place that we went last night after dinner. It was across the road. It was a tiny little coffee shop, and we walked in and they were just students like, you know, studying for the exams. Right. You know, they're really coming up to finals now. So they were all like really concentrated.

And it was just nice. It felt like a really local spot. Mm-hmm. Where you were let into a little bit of a secret and felt what it was like to be in Denver. So that was my favorite pot. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Well, thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the show. Thank you so much for having me.

Walter Eisenberg Stage Hospitality Group. Great to have you. Is this your first I l c? It is not. It's not good to a few of them, so. Okay, great. What's your favorite thing about I L C? Why do you keep coming back? I think the energy of the people like-minded, right? All, all people thinking about the independent lodging space and you know, that leads into, I think, a lot of innovation and creativity.

Absolutely. It's fun. That's great. How did you get your start in hospitality? Uh, started as a dishwasher at the age of 14. Wow. Um, and, and uh, just kind of fell into that as a summer job and. Fell in love with the business and been doing it my whole life. I busboy for me, but similar route. Yeah. You just gave a talk on adaptive reuse.

Do you have a project that kind of sticks out to you or one close to your heart that you know you really enjoyed doing? I. Certainly I think we've, I've enjoyed all of them. Yeah, they're, they're fun. They're all different. Um, and I think that's one of the great things about adaptive reuse is that you, you never know what you're kind of getting into when you start.

So that's, that's part of the fun. Yeah. Union Station, which is, is a block or so from where we are today, um, is probably the most significant project we have done. It. It was saving. The most prominent historic building in the state of Colorado. And, uh, that's been super rewarding and, and really kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Awesome. And, and Sage is obviously based outta Denver. Yeah. Any secrets or any, uh, insider tips on where to go in Denver? One of your favorite spots? Uh, so I'll be, I'll be promoting our own business, but I'll do it. Do it. Um, the cruise room inside the Oxford Hotel, uh, uh, it's a, it's a really cool bar.

Bottled after, uh, uh, a bar on the Queen Mary, hence the name Cruise Room. Yeah. Opened. The day prohibition was repealed. Yep. And it looks the same today as it did then. I have been there and it is incredible. So it Very cool. Awesome. Well thank you for stopping by Walter. We really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Have a good one. Uh, Nate Grim. I, uh, with two of my best friends own, uh, little hotel down in Carra Springs called Kinship Landing. Uh, we try and give the most local, hyper localized experience, um, that a hotel can we frequently talk about. You know, we were just talking about owners versus renters, right?

They treat it a little differently. We want to have. Our tourists act like a local, but also enjoy a local experience. So great kinship planning. We love it. It's going great. All right, great. So we're excited about being here in Denver at I L C. Is this your first I L C? This is our first, yeah, this is my first, yeah.

Wow, that's really good. Yeah. So, so I already know the answer, but how did you find out about I L C? Oh, from you, Steve. Hey, look at that. Oh, you're quite the salesman. Hey man. I know. We'll, welcome. Got something right up your alley. Yeah, it was great. Welcome to your first aisle seat. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us how you got, how you got involved in hospitality, in the, in the hotel project.

Yeah. Uh, I was, um, I consider myself a recovering accountant. Okay. Uh, that was my background, uh, by trade, graduated. Uh, and somehow made my way into a position that I had no business being in at 24. Right. Helping develop a, uh, public-private partnership right across from, uh, Pepsi Center Now Ball Arena here, uh, in Denver, public-private partnership with the university and, uh, Marriott.

So we, it was a mixed use. Uh, building with half the building be an academic space for the hospitality program. Great. And, uh, then, uh, function as owner for that for about eight years. And then right before I left, highlighted my career, we sent about $2 million of, of scholarships back to the university for students.

That's from really good. So anyway, great project. That's great. And then throughout those eight years I. Figured I really like doing hospitality. Built a guest house on the back of my, my house here in Denver and, and we short-term rent that just so that we can host people. Yeah. Um, and then decided, uh, pretty quickly that I really wanna do my own thing.

And then kinship landing, that's a whole nother origin story that's super fun and involves a, a world around the world trip with best friends where. We came up with some of the concept in Iceland when we were backpacking next door. Waterfall. It was great. And we knew that we wanted to bring, uh, a hyper localized experience of where, where a guest stays.

And he says, why am I getting all of the secret trails? Why are you telling me this? Locals are not supposed to do that. And we want to invite them into the best of what the area has. And then ex expect them to treat it well. Like, like a local. Right. That's cool. So that's kinship landing. We started. Gosh, right.

20, uh, January 21. Who's while ago. It's been covid. That was great. Yeah. Yeah. Highly suggested ho Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Yeah. Um, how do you develop that hyper-local experience? Yeah. Like how do you get locals in Colorado Springs? Yeah. To come to your hotel, hang out in your bar and, you know, act like a, a tourist almost.

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, in our first floor, we have a really cool restaurant and, uh, bar. We have an awesome event space. Um, we do a lot of events, but first and foremost, it starts with your staff. So if you treat your staff like family, they're gonna treat everybody that walks in the doors, family. And so one of the things that we talk about of anywhere from our housekeepers to our bartenders, our housekeepers, we call 'em our hospitality leads cuz right?

They're the first ones that, that our guests get to experience our brand. Really, you know, you can have a smiling, uh, front desk coast and that front desk coast can make this person feel like a million bucks and they get up to their room and it's mediocre from a cleanliness or from a thoughtfulness perspective.

And that's like the background that they're seeing of your brand. They're seeing behind the curtain and they're seeing, oh, this is what they're really about. So anywhere from the, the frontline workers, man, those are the people that live and breathe our brand and those are our locals. So they're having their friends come in, they're having the people that, um, are the influencers that, that have some say and some social capital in the, in the area.

Those are the people we want in our space. And if we're. Inviting that in and making an environment where our staff wants to hang out, where the bartenders wanna hang out after shift. If we're creating a culture where our, our front desk people want to hang out at, well, by the way, they're, those people are locals and they're gonna have their friends there after their shift.

Right. And so at any given point, kind of our success of that, any given time of, of day, during the week, about 90% of the people on our first floor are lobby or restaurant bar. They're all locals. And so that incredible. And they're the ones that can are then the community and brand ambassadors to, to everybody else, right?

Absolutely. Absolutely. So you're probably the person, perfect person to ask this next question. Uhoh, you live in Denver. Yeah. What is the best thing about this city or to do in this city? For the people visiting in Denver? Yeah. Oh man. Denver is vibrant from just creativity. Yeah. And the, the, the. A lot of times the strength is also the weakness, right?

One of the weaknesses of, of, I would say is, is the independence, right? But also what a strength, like we get so many cool, cool things down here that um, you know, you wouldn't have otherwise. And, uh, you talk about River North. Man, walk down there and see the murals. Like one of my favorite things is grabbing a lime scooter or a lift scooter and just cruising and seeing the murals, uh, concepts like, uh, one of my buddies did.

Uh, improper city. Shout out to Hank Grant, improper city. Uh, but. Basically providing the community, uh, framework for people to come and connect. Because in a city like Denver, it's, it's sometimes hard to find community, right? Or it's a bigger city, a little bit more independent minded. And so when you come and, and you can find these places like Improper City or Ramble, shout out to Ryan Diggins.

Yeah. Of great job with, with that, um, of having these little community hubs. Um, there's just vibrancy down here. I love Denver. I don't. I don't, I think there's maybe like one other, two other places in the, in the world I could live other than Denver. But um, And at the, at the core of it, you know, you've got people like Walter Eisenberg, Evan Macofsky, these, these developers that care about the city and they want to keep the, the, the heart and soul of Denver.

So I think honestly, it's the, it's the little things that you can unearth that are super fun, like River North. You know, you've got stuff going into, um, some really cool stuff going in Ville. You've got Highlands and all that stuff. So I lived in Rhino for a couple years. Come on. There's a ton of great breweries there.

Yeah, man, I tell you what, when I was growing up here, you didn't go to Rhino. Yeah. Now it's like, man, this, it's sweet. It's awesome. It's hot, it's awesome. Cool. Well we appreciate you coming on it. Yeah, of course. Thanks so much for stopping by and yeah, thanks Steve. Yeah. Enjoy I L c. Yeah, you too. Awesome.

Thank you. Appreciate it. My name is Paul Brard. I'm with Card Free and I live in Chicago. Oh, good. Good to have you mom. Midwest. Awesome. Yes. So Paul, is this your first I l c? Yes. This is my first i l c. What, uh, what caused you to come? So the company I work with, we are doing, um, we've broken into the, uh, hospitality market.

We're in restaurants only now we're in hospitality as well, and we've been doing the bigger shows, high tech and stuff like that. But, uh, Uh, this one kinda came up on the radar and we thought, why not? Give it a chance. See what it's about. Yeah. So what really, so as far as your company, what really drove the company yourself into the hospitality side?

Outside of restaurants, more hotels. Well, I think it's, uh, we developed a couple of products that at first we thought would be just for, you know, restaurants, right? Which was, uh, pay at the table text to pay mobile payments. Uh, and we realized that when we got into properties, the, the bigger they get, the more problem it is to pay and to order.

Our solution allows your guest in the hotels, uh, much easier and much less frictional experience. Okay. In ordering food, ordering, drink services and that. Okay, cool. Awesome, awesome. So what's been your favorite thing you've done in Denver so far? What's the coolest thing you've seen? I just spent the last week up at Winter Park.

Oh, awesome. Uh, my daughter works up there and uh, has some family up there, so, uh, it's mud season, so there wasn't a lot of skiing, but we were enjoying ourselves. And then we went to the Ava Avalanche game last night, which was fun too. Oh, awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Good time. Yeah. Awesome. That's great. Well, we appreciate you stopping by and have a great rest of the show.

Oh. Thank you very much. I appreciate Alan Merino. I'm the President and Chief Revenue Officer of Merino pr, which is based in New York. Great. Thanks for being here. What, is this your first? I l c? No, I think it's my sixth. Okay. Well, yeah, I, I, uh, I have the pleasure of serving on the board of advisors. Okay.

So great. Which is one of my favorite things that I have in my life. So that's great, great, great group of people. Six shows it's coming back because it's, it's different every time. Everybody is. Interesting. Every, I've come away from every single one just learning something new. I learned so much this morning and I, you know, I like to keep learning things.

I've been to the other hotel conferences, which are very transactional. And you know, you may do business at those, but this should come back a little bit more than business cards. Absolutely. Absolutely. And how did you get involved in the hospitality side of things? Um, well we've had the PR agency for 31 years.

Wow, okay. And our first client, one of our first four clients was Chris Blackwell, who made his name discovering Bob Marley. U2 Melissa Etheridge. But in the nineties, He was very smart and went to South Beach and bought up a whole bunch of hotels, which I don't know if you guys remember, but those used to be like decrepit.

Yeah. Retirement falling down. And he went in there and bought about five or six of them and he created Island out post resorts and he had hired us to do that. So, and he also had Jamaica and he had the Caribbean. So that was, you know, doing that. But prior to the agency, um, I actually was a French major in college, had no hospitality background.

I did the PR for the French West Indies, so I used to go to St. Bart's Martinique Gu Loop in St. Martin. Wow. So I, I've always had the travel bug in me, so. Well, it's funny you bring that up about, I went to fiu Okay. In the nineties, and so it was very funny because it was not the South Beach No. That you know today.

No. I tell people that Clevelander was like the dive. He bought the Cleveland. They're right. No, no, he, I forget, but he bought a lot of those. And it was funny cuz that was the time when everybody in Miami hated Miami Vice cuz it. Yes. Portrayed the city as such a dangerous machine. Guns, cocaine everywhere.

So it was fun times. Yes, most fun times. Fun times. Yeah. So, so you live on the East coast, you've been in Denver this week. What's your favorite thing you've seen or done so far in Denver. Oh, wow. I love the walk we did yesterday. Um. I, I, I took a lot of pictures that I put on Instagram. I like the, the signs I've seen.

The groovy bar, little bad ice cream, hot chicken. Loves cold beer. Just, I don't know, I like a lot of kind of reuse. You can see the buildings. I feel like Denver's really, really good about that. You know, you don't see a lot of. Empty storefronts that aren't at least in development for something. I don't know.

It seems like a city that's really engaged with its buildings and its people and there's, there's a lot happening here. Agree. I'm sure there's parts of town that aren't as nice as others. I didn't see those, but from what I've seen, that's, you know, it's, it's. It's hopping. That's great. Awesome. Well, thanks for coming by.

That's it. Wow. Appreciate it. I could talk forever. Easy. Yeah. We'll, Andrew Benioff with the Independent Lodging Congress. So Andrew, tell us why you picked Denver and tell us a little about this, this event here at the Maven, we actually, uh, took a little bit of poll from a bunch of our attendees and our advisory board and said, what are the cities you think would be interesting?

And we gave them, I don't know, seven or eight choices. And the two that we went to this year, Austin, in February and Denver, now were the top two choices. People were really interested in what's going on here. And I have to say, being here at the Maven and in the dairy block area, rhino, Nolo, there are all these cool names for neighborhoods.

I'm not sure which one we're in, but uh, it's really absolutely astounding. What they've done here and with the adaptive reuse and how activated this property is, it's really fun to be here. What's coming up at I L C? So for this year, we have two more events. Um, in July, July 11th and 12th, we have, uh, indie Cultivate, which is, um, Indie Cultivate is our celebration of startups and innovation in hospitality and travel.

So it's gonna be sort of part one of our regular events and part more of a sort of startup and venture capital type of an event. Um, so, which is interesting for both Hotelier who don't get to go to the venture stuff and the venture folks like it because they don't really go to hotel conferences and it's right.

It's a mix of all of that. So we're excited. And then in um, end of October, beginning of November, we'll be on the West Coast. Have not fully, uh, decided on the location yet, but hopefully we're gonna settle in someplace in California. Uh, went to LA for the last couple, and so we'd like to change it up a little bit and we will, we'll, uh, let you all know in the next, I don't know, 30, 45 days.

Awesome. Awesome. One thing I did wanna bring up, there's no plastic. You don't use any plastic for this show. We use no plastic. Um, I think it's really important, once in a while we show up to, uh, part of our immersive experience or. Someplace along the way that we're doing the event, and even though we've told them no plastic, they put out either plastic utensils or plastic water bottles and we have to clear it out.

But we are really committed to zero plastic, no plastic in our name tags, no plastic on our, any of our printed stuff. As a matter of fact, we are. Try this, this time. We did not print any schedules. It's all verse, uh, you know, via, uh, QR code. Yeah. So we're just trying to keep our impact on the planet as low as possible.

Like I say, one last thing. For anybody who's watching this, make sure that you put i l C in your budget for 2024. Absolutely. If you unable to attend this year. So it's very important and I think most of our events, to be quite honest, are. Uh, more economical than Correct. Yeah. Most of the other major conferences where you're paying two or 3000, the three out of our four events every year are about 800 to a thousand.

Yeah. And the, the other one's a little bit more, but it's two and a half days. But you should be able to fit it in. Yeah. And it's more value in my opinion. Absolutely. Thanks. I appreciate that. Uh, Christopher Alger Preferred Travel Group. Okay. Great to have you. Christopher, is this your first I l c? I think it's close to 10.

Yeah. Probably since 2018. 2019. Wow. I've been coming to ILC events. The first one was at the Ace Hotel in LA at the, at the great, um, theater they have out there. That's great. So you have to, you have to be one of the top people that's come to all the ILCs or most of 'em. What keeps you coming back? It's really just a great collection of people.

Yeah. Um, and people in the hospitality, the, the, the different verticals in the hospitality industry that come together for this event, it's different than any other event. Yeah. Uh, around the globe, quite frankly. So. That's great. And how'd you get your start in hospitality? Just always been in hospitality, whether it be bartending, waiting tables, bellman.

You name it. Yeah. Yeah. Just always, always there. Good. Awesome. And, uh, what's one thing you've done in Denver that you've enjoyed or the coolest thing you've seen so far? I'm very lucky to be staying at the Source Hotel. Awesome. To wake up and be staring at the Rockies was pretty great. Awesome. Pretty spectacular.

Incredible. Incredible. Cool. Well, thanks for something by Christopher. It was good to have you on again. Yeah. Thank you both. Thank you. Opa Patel with Ninth House. Thank you for being here. Is this your first I L C third? Wow. What's your favorite thing about I L C? What makes you keep coming back? I love the people that I get to meet here.

Yeah. And like you get to meet them and like you almost become friends with them, right? Like you don't go to hotel conferences that's so stuffy and most are like you, you don't have this intimate like it's like a community. Community. Yeah. It's a total community. I think Andrew has literally built a community of people that are passionate about, um, Indi Indie Lodging.

Yeah, absolutely. And so how did you get involved in hospitality? Um, well, I literally grew up in it. Okay. I'm a Patel. Okay. And I grew up in a Patel Motel called the Super eight. Okay. And, uh, yeah, that's how I got involved. Okay. My parents are Hotelier. Uh, we lived on the property for seven years. Wow. So I pretty much did everything, every, I've touched every aspect of the hotel business.

Got it. Um, one time I remember like the housekeepers formed a strike and didn't show up to work, and my mom and I cleaned 48 rooms. Wow. That was the only time I had to clean rooms, but it was 48 rooms one day, and it was, I, I have a lot of respect for housekeeping staff. Yeah. Yeah. Hi. Meet you. So what's your favorite thing about Denver so far?

I love art, so I'm always like checking out mural art everywhere cuz um, I'm, I dunno, I'm obsessed right now with like shipping containers and using them. For mural art. So I'm like looking for inspiration from everywhere and yeah. Have you seen like the graffiti on all the buildings and all that stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm staying at the Catbird and, oh yes, rhino's beautiful. Love that area, right? Yeah. Yeah. So. Awesome. Anything else you wanna say? Anything you wanna talk about? Uh, I think my newfound obsession. Which is shipping containers. Tell me about it. I'm like self-proclaimed shipping container queen. Like I'm, I wanna put, park a shipping container with mural art from local community muralists and bring local businesses in that shipping container and park it in a hotel.

So how much does a empty shipping container cost just by itself? By itself? Three to 5,000. Really good. Yeah. How do and where is it coming from? Um, 90% are from China right now, but there's other places too. What's that? Shipping like? The shipping? Yeah. Is that expensive to get a shipping container or No?

The shipping container arrives here. Okay. And then you buy it. Oh, so you just buy it. Right. Okay. Yeah. Shipping, no, it's kinda like a tongue twister. How much does it cost to ship a shipping container? It's, it's, it's, I find it to be one of the most sustainable, affordable, and coolest way to. Bring opportunity to small businesses.

Yeah. For starting up small businesses. Absolutely. So let's, let's share contact information because there is a company that I've come across, they're taking shipping containers and inside their, uh, they've got robots that sift through, uh, food waste and it actually does it, compost it and makes it into a fertilizer.

And they're focusing on hotels and they can put it, they just need a little bit of ventilation. Mm-hmm. But it's a shipping container that. That all this stuff is in there, like the robot, uh, SIFs through the, the waste and picks out plastic and it makes the fertilizer amazing. Is there like Wally kind of, yeah.

Yeah, it looked eyes. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks guys. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Enjoy. My name is Alan Young and I'm with Puzzle Partner Limited. Welcome, Alan. Thank you. David is your first I L c. It definitely is. Great. That was it. Yeah. No. What made you come to I L C?

Um, I've heard amazing things about it and I tend to travel to technology shows a lot. And personally I wanted to broaden my knowledge and they do a lot of discussion. They, a lot of the discussions, uh, focus on wellbeing. They focus on real estate acquisition and it's, it's a, it's all over the place and that's what I like about it.

Yeah. And so tell people watching. How did you get involved in hospitality? Oh God. Cuz I sucked at being a student. Um, that makes two of us. Yeah. It was complete fluke. My brother, uh, went out and was nice enough to find me a job at Four Seasons when I was 19 years old and it's, it's good brother. It's been there ever since.

Well, I haven't been there ever since. Yeah. But Hospitality's been there ever since. That's cool. That's awesome. Have you been to Denver before or? I have. Okay. I have. What is your coolest thing you've seen this time or how has it changed since you've, uh, come back? Uh, went out for dinner last night and had sushi, which I didn't think that was normal for Denver, but it was pretty awesome.

And to be very, very candid, I arrived last evening, got right here, and that's pretty well the first thing I've experienced. I've done a walking around the block a little bit, but, uh, I'm staying tonight and looking forward to more. Awesome. Well, that sounds good. That's it. Short and sweet. That's it. We appreciate you hopping on.

Thank you so much. Hey, anytime. I'll be here at six. Uh, my name is Brian Applegarth and I'm from California. Awesome. What's the company? Um, so really two hats. One is I'm the founder of the Cannabis Travel Association International. We're the United Voice of Cannabis Travel and Tourism globally, and that's a member based organization, really steeped in advocacy, education, and networking.

Um, and then Apple Garth Consultative Services is, uh, is what I do and I work with destinations and brands to, uh, really create strategy around hemp and cannabis. Awesome. Yeah. That's great. So this your first I l C. It's my first I l C. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. What do you think so far? First impressions. I think it's amazing.

It's very different than the other hotel conferences I've spoke at. Uh, were the American Hotel Lodging Association and California Hotel, uh, and Lodging Association and the ILC has a different kind of culture and vibe. Yeah. Um, and then I'm really, I really like it and I feel like it's, um, it's a closer and more similar to the worlds that I move in with, with hemp and cannabis.

Sure. So it makes sense with these kind of boutique independent hotels. Um, and they've actually led in a lot of ways, some of the innovation with hemp and cannabis. Both. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And how did that, how did the, the connection happen between hospitality and cannabis? How did that happen for you?

You know, I spent a lot of my life traveling and my parents raised me to be really just like someone who really appreciates culture and immersive experiences. Um, so in 2013, I returned home to California to be closer to family, and I walked into a cannabis shop for the first time. And it, I didn't know they existed, and it was like a tidal wave for me.

It was like, this is not turning around. Because the more I looked into it, I realized how many shops there were. Yeah. And how mature the gray market was in the medical cannabis landscape. And I saw some of these like lounges that were still in existence and consumption spaces. And then when they announced adult use coming on board, the recreational side of it, that basically unlocks the leisure travel side.

Um, so I made a very conscious decision to really dedicate this next stage of work toward helping innovate and steward, uh, what's gonna become the modern day cannabis travel trend. Cool. That's great. What are some, what are some exciting things you're seeing in the cannabis hospitality space? Yeah, I mean, one is data, like, it's amazing cuz now we have these data sets around the cannabis motivated travel audience and all the different subsets or sub profiles of that from the canna Curious.

To the cannabis wellness traveler. To the cannabis connoisseur. And they're very different travelers, but many people are looking now to have some kind of cannabis or hemp experience as part of their vacation. Yeah. And especially Gen Zs and millennials, like they're picking the destinations and their hotels based on access to these products and these experiences, which are largely circulated around wellbeing.

Mm-hmm. Um, and then they dovetail, of course, into kind of the adult use, the th t HC rich applications, which has that altered state. Um, but also all the other applications of CBD and CBN and cg and it's like, it's a medicine plant being reimagined. Sure. That's, that humans have co-evolved with. Um, so it's a really interesting space for that reason.

Absolutely. What are, what are some of the cool experiences you're seeing with cannabis being incorporated into those? Yeah, so a few things. I mean, you have some shops now that are really doubling as attractions. Okay. And they're building the model with that kind of mindset. Sure. Right. So like the first le the first tier of like, Adult use legal cannabis shops were very much had that feel and look of like the underground and outlaw country, right?

Yeah. Oh yeah. Um, and now you have these newer operators coming in or, or legacy operators that are reimagining it. Yeah. And they're understanding their role in the visitor economy as an attraction. And the data shows that this audience wants to go into a cannabis shop. They wanna learn, they want to, they want to interact with.

Cannabis, hemp and CBD beverages. And topicals. And edibles, as well as tours and visiting farms. I mean, it's agriculture too. So it intersects with literally every part of the visitor economy. Yep. Is an intersection. And why I get excited about I L C and hotels, cuz hotels are the pivot point. Right. Hotels are the pivot point.

And they're also, they also work like this with the dmo, often on, on kind of managing the, the greater brand of the destination. And cannabis has an amazing story to tell. I think all but three states now in the United States have legal cannabis laws, either medical or adult use, and more and more are becoming recreational every day.

Um, so I mean, the audience just in the last two years went from 29%. Of the active leisure travel audience to now, uh, is 37%. Wow. So the growth of the audience interest as people become more aware of cannabis and hemp is, is really exciting to see. Absolutely, absolutely. Anything, any questions on here? And David?

No. I'll ask your question. Anything in Denver that you've seen on this trip that you like? Anything unique and Yeah. I mean, Denver, I have some things on my list that I'm gonna go to tomorrow before I fly out. Okay, cool. Um, the Tetra Lounge is up there. Uh, also the green mile that I visited a couple years ago.

Okay. I want to check it out. I know that the lounges especially have been a slow rollout here. Right. Um, but Denver and Colorado also have this kind of hospitality license, so I'm trying to sniff that out and kind of see what that looks like here. Okay. Um, but yeah, I mean, Denver's a great destination and as we all know, they were the first ones to go adult use recreationally legal.

Yep. Um, so with the nature, one of the really interesting data points, that's not surprising, but the cannabis motivated travel audience across the board. Loves nature experiences, whether it's the beach or whether it's the mountains, or whether it's skiing, because cannabis goes hand in hand with those kind of natural environments.

Yeah. Um, so what better place than Colorado? Right. Colorado and California both offer that in space. Absolutely. One place I'll recommend the Church of Cannabis, I feel like might be up your alley. And then last question in Delors Sativa guy. Uh, definitely more sativa leaning. Okay. My favorite strains typically have a citrusy, um, kind of bend to it or also turine.

Okay. So, you know, what they're learning about cannabis is there's really five different buckets of different cultivars. Mm-hmm. So when you use certain types of cannabis, it will enhance certain senses. Sure. That prime your body for the environment or the setting you're walking into. So it's really understanding mindset and setting in a very new way and a mainstream way.

And people utilizing cannabis with intention, depending if they're going to a Michelin Star meal or if they're going to a museum of modern art. Yep. Or if they're going on a hike in nature, because there's very specific cannabis cultivars that the science is continually showing are great precursors that have like targeted sensory enhancement to make that experience and that setting extra amplified.

Absolutely. So yeah, it's an awesome frontier. Awesome. A lot of learned on the cannabis side. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks Greg. Yeah, thanks for having this. Great. Appreciate. Appreciate it. Ben Rafter, springboard Hospitality, Honolulu, Hawaii. Awesome. Great to have you Ben. So Ben, is this your first i l c? No, this is actually my fifth i l c.

Wow. First in Denver though. Fifth. What makes you keep coming back? We have 47 independent hotels and so, um, you know, having an independent focus to a conference is, uh, is a big deal to us. So that keeps us coming back. Absolutely. That's good. So how did you personally get involved in hospitality? Um, not, not an easy question to answer.

I sold a tech company and decided that hotels were more interesting than tech, and, uh, flew out to Hawaii and started a hotel company in Hawaii. Awesome. Well, where'd you live before? Hawaii? Seattle. Seattle, okay. Big, big weather difference, my guess. So, uh, what's one of the favorite things you've seen in Denver or you've done in Denver since being in town for lc?

You know, I just got here. Haven't done anything. Okay. Um, but I will say what I love about Denver, I, I lived in Denver about 20 years ago. And at the time there were, there were literally three or four independent hotels total. Sure. Right. And now Denver's one of the hot beds for independent hotels, the, this one that were in the Maven and so many others.

So it, it's a thriving, sort of vibrant, uh, hotel scene. And the city itself of course, is grown like crazy too, which is Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Where did you live when you lived in Denver? I lived in what is now called Lower Highlands. Okay. Um, right next to the mortuary that was referenced, uh, earlier by, by mc Winnie.

Um, so they hadn't redone it. It was a real mortuary. He is not kidding. It was a real mortuary I lived. Uh, Lived right next door on the other side of the freeway, so. Wow. I lived in Rhino a couple years ago. Yeah. Rhino exist, exist when you were here, so. Well that's awesome. We appreciate you stopping by Ben.

Appreciate it. And uh, yeah, have a great rest of the show. Great. Thanks you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, Dan Ryan, I live in Connecticut. Um, I'm glad to be here. Thank you. From defining hospitality, right. I have a podcast called Defining Hospitality, so it's weird being interviewed Brett. I know. Let's go with it.

Yeah, we, we got that, that same thing now. So, Is this your first ilc? No, I've been to so many. I actually used to be on the advisory board. Okay. I didn't know that. And, uh, yeah, and, uh, Andrew's really big into, uh, diversity, equity, inclusion. And at one point I was like, you don't need any more people like me.

Let me be helpful in other ways. Uh, so I started, you know, just promoting it and MCing and just kind of being a part. It's my favorite event that happens, that's why I try. What's your favorite part about it? Why do you keep coming back? I. I think cuz it's, uh, organized, but a little disorganized. Yeah. In like a perfect way.

Like where you go on walks and you kind of, you're like wondering what to do, but then you're like, Hey, you just start talking to people. So it, it, it provides a lot of, uh, opportunity for, uh, kind of impromptu collisions. Yeah. Organized chaos. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Well, I think what's cool about it is, It's about independent and you feel that when you're here you feel it's different.

You don't feel like, like if you were to do the analogy, it's like every Marriott kind of somewhat feels the same. And every other trade show I won't name them, feels the same. And this feels unique. Totally. It's different and it allows for, um, just impro improvisation. Yep. So it's good. What's been your favorite thing you've done in Denver since uh, you've been here?

Oh boy. Uh, I think that walk we all did. Yeah. That was really fun. Uh, again, we walked for like 20 minutes, 30 minutes to go get ice cream. Stopped at Union Station. I talked to people, I met new people. Um, it was cool. We missed one question. How'd you get your start in hospitality? Oh my god. That's a long one.

You know, my best friend, uh, his family had a, has a big, uh, fabric business that supplies the hospitality. So that's what opened my eyes to it. And then when I was in college, I interned at a hotel, like one of the biggest hotel design companies. Okay. And then I bought furniture for hotels. Uh, and then I started a company selling furniture or trying to sell furniture to hotels.

That's great. Cool. And now you have a podcast about design. Yeah. Well, it's called Focusing on the design aspect. Well, yeah. It's called Defining Hospitality, so it's actually really open-ended. Sure. Uh, it tends to be mostly people who are, uh, designing, owning, operating hotels, restaurants, bars, uh, but I believe that hospitality touches everything Yes.

And makes us all better. Like what that one guy said about ho hospitality is our megaphone. Yeah. So we have this unbelievable opportunity to. Impact and make the world a little bit better through empathy and making others feel a certain way. Absolutely. Yeah. As well said. Well said. Thank you. Good, good note to end.

Thanks for hopping on. We appreciate it. Mic drop. Yeah, and, uh, check out defining hospitality too.

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