There are times when my travel schedule makes me feel like a conference groupie. Road trips to industry get-togethers are a major part of my awesome job description. It’s not always glamorous travel—thank you TSA and underachieving airlines such as United Airlines—but all in all, it’s a great part of the gig.

Whether it’s Los Angeles, London or Hong Kong, conferences are a vital component of an industry that thrives on face-to-face interaction. Such was the case last week in Atlanta, where the 25th annual Hunter Hotel Conference took place. This conference is among my favorites, mainly because it attracts more owners from Main Street than any of the other conferences I attend. Sure, there are some bigger companies represented on the attendee roster, but the majority of people who attend Hunter own a dozen or two hotels and are the hotel industry’s heartbeat.

The importance of employing quality personnel has never been more important than it is here in the second decade of the 21st century. That’s true whether you’re buying, building or operating a hotel or running a website that reports on such activity.

In the case of the former, it’s never been clearer to me that nearly every facet of the hotel industry understands the notion of having top-notch people in as many positions as possible. From the front line to the back of the house to the top of the organization, even the bean counters appear to have conceded that people are the industry’s most important asset—and sometimes you have to abandon long-standing philosophies to obtain the best of the best.

Believe it or not, there actually are some positive vibes coming out the Washington, D.C., area these days.

Brushing aside the political clowns that populate the nation’s capital and shamefully claim to have the public’s best interest at heart, one has to look no further than Hilton Worldwide’s HQ in McLean, Virginia, to see the right approach to success and longevity.

Ivanka Trump shares the same air of confidence that her father, Donald, possesses. But judging from separate appearances at hotel-industry investment conferences this year, the two Trumps are worlds apart when it comes to having their fingers on the pulse of the hotel industry.

The Donald spent half an hour at January’s Americas Lodging Investment Summit in Los Angeles educating attendees about why he is the greatest person in the world. His daughter, who celebrated her 31st birthday on Tuesday, spent about the same amount of time in Hong Kong earlier this month providing attendees of the Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific with insightful commentary about the state of the hotel industry.

Chris Nassetta must have the patience of Job. Regardless of the venue, he is compelled to address two issues that his role as president and CEO of Hilton Worldwide always generates:

1) when the company will go public; and
2) when it will launch a lifestyle/boutique brand.