Convention center foresight: Twenty years ago, lots of people told the Venetian founder Sheldon Adelson that attaching a convention center to his hotel was a waste of precious real estate. Nowadays, the Sands Expo & Convention Center keeps hotels rooms full on weekdays – and meetings and conventions business now helps other hotels keep their cash registers ringing on those historically slow weekdays. The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Richard N. Velotta points to another hunch that paid out big for Adelson in his story. —Barbara Bohn
Speed dating for food: Since 2007, the bi-annual Localecopia “Meet & Greet” event has connected Florida farmers and organic food producers with chefs, restaurateurs and hospitality operators in search of rewarding relationships in sustainable business and food sourcing. On May 13 at The Breakers Palm Beach an expo-style foodie showcase will foster direct collaboration, local food consumption and healthy living, while supporting the local food economy from Homestead, Florida, north to Orlando, Florida. The event was founded by Geoffrey Sagans and Rick Hawkins, the executive purchasing team of The Breakers Palm Beach, who were early advocates of green living and buying local before it became vogue. Years ago, they began buying produce directly from Palm Beach County farms, from Delray Beach to Pahokee to Loxahatchee, picked and delivered same day during the South Florida growing season for use in the resort’s nine restaurants and banquets. They created Localecopia as volunteer leadership to expand their mission beyond The Breakers and to champion the numerous benefits of buying local. —Jeff Weinstein
Take action: To help U.S.-based lodging companies facing different laws about human trafficking in different states, ECPAT-USA, with the financial support of the American Hotel and Lodging Association Educational Foundation (AHLEF), has issued a report detailing what each state requires and providing materials to comply with the laws. The report, “Unpacking Human Trafficking A Survey of State Laws Targeting Human Trafficking in the Hospitality Industry.” All necessary materials are now available on the ECPAT-USA website. This issue is pervasive and the industry can participate by learning from and supporting this group’s cause. —JW
A ‘miraculous escape’ – for many: As big as the tragedy as the recent terrorist bombings in Sri Lanka were, they could have been even worse, except for a fatal error by Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel, a radicalized Sri Lankan who was educated in Australia and Britain and the only one of eight Islamic State terrorists to fail to hit his target, a restaurant at the Taj Samudra. Instead, he and two tourists were killed by his own bomb at another hotel. Reuters’ Alasdair Pal and Shihar Aneez offer a fascinating take into one aspect of the bombing. —BB