Directory of Women Speakers in the Hospitality Industry

To further showcase diverse voices at global hospitality conferences, Hospitality Women’s Leadership Alliance has launched an interactive speaker directory featuring over 700 talented senior female speakers with expertise in all aspects of the hospitality industry.

According to the Pennsylvania State University School of Hospitality Administration Women in Hospitality 2023 Research report by AHLA Foundation Data from (alliance members) shows that women hold only 24% of speaking slots at hotel investment conferences and 37% of main stage slots, yet women make up 58% of the hotel industry workforce.

In a media statement, Rachel Vandenberg, chair of the Alliance’s Podium Committee, said: “Representation matters and visibility is a key factor in career advancement. Despite the many women with deep expertise in the hospitality industry, there are still relatively few women on stage.”

Working with conference organizers, the Alliance Podium Committee identified several common challenges to finding more diverse voices for conference stages and immediately set out to overcome these barriers and provide solutions. A key initiative was to help identify as many thought leaders as possible, overcome any perception that there were not enough female speakers, and provide tools that the entire industry could use.

Lan Elliott, President of Acacia Hospitality LLC and Alliance Member Interview Moderator DEI ConsultantShe, who helped lead the directory effort, said: “In my experience, women know women! We hope that the directory will leverage a ‘Roby Contact’ of women to create a quick and useful tool for conference organizers to connect with more female leaders to help with their events.”

By allowing conference organizers to filter a list of more than 700 (and growing) speakers by professional background, job title, company type, headquarters, and other data points, the directory can quickly generate a shortlist of speakers for any topic and session.

“Every event benefits from a diverse and balanced speaker line-up. Showcasing speakers with a wide range of perspectives on stage benefits attendees while ensuring greater exposure for these leaders, which will further improve overall representation in the hospitality industry,” said Rachel Humphrey, founder of the Alliance.

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