In an industry built on service and human connection, leadership isn't just about managing properties— it's about shaping cultures, commanding financial growth, and paving pathways for those who follow. Join legendary hotelier and industry trailblazer Terri A. Haack for an empowering, high-impact keynote that addresses why women’s leadership is vital to the future of hospitality.

Drawing from a career spanning four decades, from starting as the sole female General Manager in male-dominated boardrooms to steering major resort developments like California’s iconic Terranea Resort and South Carolina’s Wild Dunes Resort, Terri delivers a candid masterclass on executive presence, resilience, and operational equity. Grounded in the conference theme, this session explores what it truly takes to claim your space at the executive level and leverage that authority to transform the hospitality ecosystem.

Choose one:

From Advice to Action: Moving from Mentorship to Active Sponsorship
Christine Motherwell, Coca-Cola Consolidated
Mentorship gives advice behind closed doors; sponsorship opens them. While women in hospitality are frequently mentored, they remain vastly under-sponsored when it comes to securing executive seats, board appointments, and major operational capital.

This high-impact breakout session moves past casual career advice to focus on the mechanics of active sponsorship. Attendees will learn how to cultivate high-level sponsors who will champion their name in closed-door succession meetings, as well as how current executives can actively leverage their own political capital to sponsor emerging leaders across hotel operations, culinary arts, and corporate leadership.

This session is sponsored by Coca-Cola Consolidated

Marketing a Place People Want to Visit Panel
What makes a destination truly unforgettable? It’s more than just a beautiful view or a luxury amenity—it is the story it tells and the community it builds. In this dynamic discussion, industry trailblazers from hotel marketing, destination branding, and hospitality entrepreneurship will share how they design and execute powerful marketing strategies that convert passive travelers into passionate advocates. From leveraging authentic narrative storytelling to cultivating inclusive spaces, our panelists will explore how women are shifting the landscape of travel marketing, driving innovation, and leaving a lasting legacy on how the world experiences destinations.

Panelists Include:

• Cat Dority - Explore Charleston & Lowcountry Hospitality Association
• Catherine Woods - The Indigo Road Group
• Ashley Heine - Visit Greater Palm Springs
• Jayne Baker - South Carolina Parks, Recreation & Tourism

 This session is sponsored by Discover South Carolina

Recalibrating Hospitality: Prioritizing Wellness & Preventing Burnout
Tia Lewis, Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities
Hospitality is an industry explicitly built around caring for others—but too often, the people doing the caring are running on empty. With punishing hours, intense operational pressures, and the emotional labor of constant guest service, prioritizing personal well-being is often treated as an afterthought. For women climbing into corporate rooms or steering high-stakes operational properties, the pressure to "do it all" creates a direct pathway to burnout. In this essential discussion, wellness advocates, operational leaders, and corporate trailblazers will break the silence on mental health, physical exhaustion, and chronic stress in the workplace. This session steps beyond basic "self-care" trends to investigate how women leaders can establish hard boundaries, model sustainable lifestyles for their frontline teams, and build corporate cultures that prioritize whole health without sacrificing operational excellence.

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Clout to Covers
Katelyn Hudson, Kate Hudson PR
In hospitality, "clout" refers to social media influence and online branding, while "covers" is the official restaurant industry metric for the number of guests served (diners in seats). The core objective of this session is teaching operators how to turn digital virality, influencer partnerships, and social media buzz into tangible, revenue-generating reservations.

Smart Money Moves
Brandy Swanson & Megan Chong, Smith + Howard
True leadership autonomy requires financial fluency. We often talk about claiming a seat at the table, but we rarely pull back the curtain on the actual mechanics of money—wealth building, corporate budget ownership, asset management, and funding capital. In an industry where women dominate the frontline workforce but remain underrepresented in equity ownership and C-suite financial roles, financial wellness is a radical act of self-determination. This breakout session moves past basic personal budgeting to focus on high-level wealth strategies.

Building a Teammate-First Culture
Christine Motherwell, Coca-Cola Consolidated
In hospitality, the golden rule has traditionally dictated that the guest comes first. However, industry visionaries are flipping the paradigm: when you put your teammates first, exceptional guest experiences naturally follow. High-pressure shifts, rapid operational scaling, and constant staffing turnover mean that organizational health depends entirely on how supported your frontline teams feel.

This interactive breakout session explores how women leaders across hotel operations, food & beverage, and corporate management are engineering "teammate-first" environments. Moving beyond superficial perks, attendees will learn how to build psychological safety, establish sustainable operational boundaries, and construct internal talent pipelines that reduce turnover and empower frontline staff to own their impact.

This session is sponsored by Coca-Cola Consolidated

Pull up a chair for an intimate fireside discussion with industry visionaries. Our visionaries will be announced soon!

Our lunch keynote is sponsored by Lowcountry Hotels

Choose One:

Leveraging Your Personality to Be a Better Leader
Led by Mary Simmons, Asure Software Inc.
Effective leadership starts with self-awareness and situational agility. Great leaders do not expect everyone to adapt to their communication style; instead, they learn to decode the operational and interpersonal styles around them to build high-trust, high-performing teams. Utilizing the proven DiSC® personality model, this interactive, hands-on workshop guides attendees through a structured self-assessment to identify their core leadership style—Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, or Conscientiousness.

Attendees will learn how to leverage their natural strengths, manage their behavioral blind spots, and master the art of "people reading." By understanding how to quickly assess the personality styles of colleagues, frontline staff, and executive stakeholders, leaders will walk away with actionable tools to radically improve communication, de-escalate workplace conflict, and drive cross-functional collaboration.

This workshop is sponsored by Asure Software Inc.

Consumer Behavior That's Here to Stay
Led by Dr. Cortney Norris, University of South Carolina's School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and Eboni Page, Bubblee Mixologist
We are witnessing the most significant physiological and behavioral disruption to the consumer market in decades. The explosive rise of GLP-1 medications (like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro)—which now impact roughly 1 in 5 U.S. households—has permanently shifted consumer habits. This isn't a temporary diet fad; it is a permanent rewiring of appetite, impulse, and intent. From the dramatic decline in "food noise" and impulse spending to a sharp drop in traditional beer, wine, and spirit consumption, the guest journey is fundamentally changing. For women leading in hotel operations, food & beverage, and brand marketing, this workshop provides a masterclass on how to pivot.

Attendees will move past the panic headlines to design high-margin, flexible hospitality strategies—from navigating the "portion economy" and high-margin mocktail/low-ABV programs to rethinking beverage inventory and intentional leisure.

Leveraging AI and Next-Gen Social Trends to Amplify Your Brand
Led by Alicia Broughton & Taylor Murdock, Chernoff Newman
The digital landscape is shifting beneath our feet. The combination of rapidly evolving social media algorithms and the mainstream integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has changed how destinations, hotels, and restaurants discover and retain guests. For women leaders, AI should not be viewed as a technical threat, but as an operational leverage point—a tool to automate the mundane so they can focus on high-level strategy, creative storytelling, and expanding their market footprint.

This hands-on masterclass strips away the intimidating technical jargon to focus on actionable, real-world execution. Content creators, marketing executives, and hospitality founders will learn how to anticipate shifting social trends, use generative AI ethically to scale their production, and leverage predictive analytics to command a bigger share of the market.

Roundtable Discussions

• Claiming Your Space: Navigating pushback, holding operational boundaries, standing firm in a male-dominated industry
• Boundaries as a Leadership Metric: "Always On" culture, managing fatigue, modeling healthy boundaries for frontline staff
• Mentorship to Sponsorship: Mentors vs. Sponsors, building internal talent pipelines, engineering equity in leadership
• Women Supporting Women: Overcoming internal competition, peer support networks, building culture

You have put in the hours, shattered expectations, and earned your place in the room. Yet, that persistent inner voice keeps whispering that you’re a fraud, waiting to be exposed. Imposter syndrome is an unspoken epidemic in the hospitality and corporate world. Left unchecked, it can derail your career momentum, keep you from raising your hand for big opportunities, and quietly undermine your hard-earned success. In this high-energy, unfiltered keynote, we are stepping away from polite corporate platitudes to have a real, raw conversation.

Ashli Johnson will help us dismantle the internal gatekeeper and step fully into our power. She is the visionary founder and dynamic force behind Hospitality Hued, one of the most exceptional hospitality communities in the country. With over two decades of industry experience, she is transforming pathways to both leadership and ownership for underestimated hospitality professionals. Her relentless commitment to equity, coupled with her keen eye for connecting resources to opportunity, has earned her the well-deserved nickname, 'The Hospitality Sharpshooter.'

Indulge in an extraordinary culinary showcase celebrating the women driving South Carolina’s vibrant food and beverage scene! This event brings together the state’s top female chefs and master mixologists for an interactive, high-flavor tasting experience.