Josiah: Hey friends, it’s Josiah here with a special solo episode today. Just wrapped up the NYU International Hospitality Investment Forum here in New York. I love this show. I’ve been going for many years and always leave the show feeling inspired, especially over the last couple of years. There’s been a lot of chaos in the market. But what I appreciate about this conference is hearing economists and hospitality leaders talk about not just what’s going on in the market today, but the potential over the medium and long term, which of course, if you’re building a career or building a business is really, really important, right? You want to be playing the right game. So you’re not just winning at a game, at a career, at a business, an industry that isn’t going anywhere, right? And that could not be further from the truth of what’s going on in hospitality. has so much potential today and in the future. And so I wanted to record this short episode with you if you didn’t have the chance to attend this event. It’s the one downside of events is that not everyone can attend, but it’s the reason I host this podcast because I want to share what I see and things go better ground in the market so that you can be informed and inspired every day in the work that you do, regardless of where you are in the world of hospitality. So The theme for this event was engagement drives returns, which I think is very timely and relevant because sometimes in an environment of uncertainty, it can be easy just to sit back and hope things get better, but that’s not how you get results. You have to show up, you have to engage people, you have to make decisions, you have to move forward. That’s how you win your business, whether you are working the front desk of a hotel, whether you are leading investment across huge portfolios of hotels. You got to show up, you got to engage. And so I love that theme for the conference. I think specifically some of the things that I was reminded of that made me more sure than ever that this is the place to be. Hospitality is a place to be. was listening to some economists talk about the spending patterns of consumers. Even just a couple of months ago, I think there was a lot of concern in terms of consumer spending and uncertainty holding back what will happen. I saw more encouraging data. I want to keep these episodes on the podcast as relevant for as long as possible. So I will get into the details of it. I mean, obviously, this looks different depending on your business, where you are in the world. But there’s some encouraging things there. I think the reason I wanted to share this episode, though, was some of the bigger picture things. I heard Mit Shah from from Noble Investment Group talk about the tens of millions of new consumers that have been added over the years. You know, here in the US, you see younger people traveling, you see older people traveling. You see this big shift away from people spending as much money on goods to experiences. That’s been talked about a fair amount, but that continues. People are living longer, they’re living healthier, they’re spending more money on travel and hospitality. And so that’s exciting. I think another element of this, and something that I’ve been tracking and thinking a lot about over the past week or two, there’s been a fair amount of conversation around the impact of AI on jobs, right? Is there going to be job loss? And depending on what you’ve seen and what you’re looking at, some people are saying there could be very significant job loss. If you’re thinking about that on a personal level, and I’ve been talking about this for years with guests on this show, But if you’re worried about job loss, and I guess the potential of your career, hospitality is a really good place to be because there’s durability in it. And it’s inherently a very human experience to provide. And it’s very human business, right? So I see an incredible amount of resilience. over the long term in the hospitality businesses. What people want is to interact with other people. So even if there were robots and automation that could provide a service, there’s always going to be a hospitality experience that will want interacting with other people. So there’s resilience, obviously, on a personal level. I think on a bigger level, there’s going to be more and more craving for people interacting with other people as we become more and more digitized. So that’s a little bit more of the maybe this might not all AI and technology might not unfold in a way that is great for jobs across the economy. But I think that’s kind of a pessimistic view. I think there’s also a really interesting case where maybe AI and automation accelerates productivity to the point where people have to work less. And in that world, are people not only working less, but is there an incredible gain in productivity where There’s the economy is growing faster. There’s more spending. And I think that’s very likely, too. So I think that’s that’s probably more likely. So regardless of where you are on that spectrum, I see tailwinds for hospitality being an interesting place to work, to invest, to build. And so that’s kind of like one thing that’s been bouncing around my head and was touched on a few different ways at this conference. And then just hearing different panelists talk about building and bringing creativity and innovation to their businesses inspired me a lot as well. And so everything from collaborations in retail, doing pop-ups as a way to drive revenue in sort of a creative way, creating a great guest experience. There were people talking about bringing hospitality expertise into adjacent businesses like living across the real estate ecosystem. There’s been a trend for a number of years unfolding around bringing hospitality elements and expertise into other industries. There’s a lot of interest in that, a lot of demand for that. And so I feel like I could go on and on, but there’s many different things that lead me to believe that hospitality is just the place to be. I’ve believed that for I think my entire career, but every year that goes by, the more conversations I have, the more things that I see. really paints an interesting picture for staying in this industry, building your career, building businesses. And so that’s what I’m going to be doing on the show in the days, the months, the years ahead is exploring what that looks like. Specifically, every day, we show up here, we learn together, and there’s incredible opportunities to do that. So actually what I plan to do in the days ahead on the show is share some more specific elements of things that I saw, conversations that I had that I think may be interesting for you. So I think I’m going to do that for the rest of this week. We have a great lineup of guests, and I want to return to some of those guest conversations. But I do want to share some of the things that I’m seeing and hearing, because I wish you all were here with me at the conference. But again, that’s the one downside to events. It’s not everybody can be here. But this podcast is a way where we can share some ideas and learn together. So always would love to hear your thoughts and questions. Just email me, Josiah at hospitalitydaily.com or message me on LinkedIn. But I hope you found this interesting. Would love to hear your take on this, you know, just this whole idea of, you know, hospitality being an interesting place to to work and build your career and build your business. So thanks for listening and I’ll see you again tomorrow.
