SIA’s 115th Annual Meeting

Southern Innkeepers 115th Meeting
Celebrates Triumph Over Adversity

June 11-13, 2023
The Gasparilla Inn & Club
Boca Grande, Florida

At the SIA 115th Annual Meeting held June 11-13, our beloved keynote speaker Arch Stokes talked about the importance of never wasting a good crisis. The talk was an appropriate one, as our host, The Gasparilla Inn & Club, had recently been devastated by Hurricane Ian and spent the last few months repairing and rejuvenating this lovely Florida hideaway. But the beauty of the property, warm smiles of the staff, an inspirational program and the pleasure of being together at lovely social events made that fade into the background.

After a beautiful Sunday opening reception and dinner at The Gasparilla’s Beach Club, our program was kicked off with pizazz on Monday morning by Dr. Bryan K. Williams, (presentation) who shared insights into leading a five-star team with “crispy” style. He stressed the importance of engagement or staff, guests and the community, and of putting “me first”; first in encouraging, loving, helping, lifting, giving, showing gratitude, opening doors and giving recognition.

His energizing talk flowed beautifully into a talk on “Unleashing Unity and Collective Movement” by Lucas Ramirez of The Gathering Place. His beautiful video of a flock of birds moving as one reminds us of the importance of effective communication in achieving harmony. The morning ended with Arch Stokes of Stokes Wagner reminding us of how to turn crisis into opportunity.

Much of the discussion at the afternoon’s Cracker Barrel Session was centered around workforce challenges, from working from home, the aging workforce, an extreme labor shortage, and how to best work with foreign workers.

Our signature event was dinner on the resort’s Croquet Lawn, capped off with a sparkling fireworks display.

Tuesday opened with the business meeting, a highlight of which was the presentation of five “SIA Associate of the Year” awards, which went to Fitzroy Cope and Thomas Mason of The Gasparilla Inn and to Oleksandr Symenskyy, Cindy Kaiser and Will Moench of the ‘Tween Waters Island Resort & Spa.

Jim Dethmer, Co-founder of the Conscious Leadership Group, helped us consider ways to end drama in the workplace by staying above the line between resistance and threat and acceptance and trust. An Update from Washington by Troy Flanagan, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs & Industry Relations for AHLA, (presentation) provided insights in to how AHLA is working to protect industry interests on the federal and state levels. And a closing by incoming SIA President Elizabeth Mullins included industry insights and optimism. She shared this article by SIA regular Jan Freitag of STR.

Download the final program.