ATLANTA — The American Hotel & Lodging Association Foundation’s Forward conference has rapidly grown from a niche small gathering into a must-attend professional development event, drawing a diverse cross-section of the hospitality industry—and selling out along the way. The Forward26 was held last week with a sold-out crowd of 1,000.
Speaking with Hotel Management during the event, Jennifer Clark Fugolo, AHLA Foundation VP of industry and stakeholder engagement; AHLA Foundation President and CEO Kevin Carey; Sarah Dinger, Forward advisory chair and EVP of franchise operations at My Place Hotels; and AHLA President and CEO Rosanna Maietta all agreed that the program’s momentum reflects a clear need in the market and a deliberate strategy to make Forward a catalyst for women’s advancement throughout the hospitality ecosystem.
Surging Demand
Last week’s Forward conference has grown substantially compared to last year, with attendance up roughly 30 percent and last year’s event achieving a net promoter score of 82, a level Carey described as “world class.”
Fugolo noted that the response provides “ongoing validation that we are hearing from members and seeing anecdotally about the need for leaders—women leaders, but really all leaders—at a time when they want to know that the industry is reinvesting in their professional development.”
Forward’s growth is not limited to headcount. Carey emphasized that the event now draws the full spectrum of the industry—brands, owners, management companies, service providers and suppliers. “Everyone is rallying around this initiative,” he said. “That’s unique as well.”
Maietta pointed to another telling metric: The rising number of first-time attendees. “Year over year, we have more first-timers,” she said. “Companies are looking at this as an opportunity to send new people here all the time and to experience it.”
Many companies are sending sizeable delegations—locally based IHG Hotels & Resorts sent 100 employees—and organizing internal application processes to determine who attends, positioning Forward as a formal part of their talent development strategy.
Intentional Programming
Fugolo noted that Forward’s content is intentionally built around member feedback and industry trends, with a focus on skill-building across early-career, mid-level and senior executives.
This year’s program introduced or expanded several elements:
- Foundational skill-building for rising leaders, including sessions such as how to read and interpret financial statements.
- An invite-only executive track focused on topics like how to join public and private company boards. A search firm speaker at that track highlighted a key shift: P&L financial experience is now “must-have” rather than “nice-to-have” for board candidates.
- Flash mentorship, piloted last year and brought back by popular demand, pairs mentors and mentees for concentrated, short-format coaching. According to Fugolo, participants described it as “the best” mentoring experience they’d had in a long time.
- The Forward Exchange series, designed specifically for early and mid-career professionals and general managers who often feel “stuck” at a certain level. The series blends candid conversation about career hurdles with practical advice and structured networking.
“We’re having real conversations with women who have broken the ceiling or broken free,” Fugolo said. “Women left Atlanta feeling like they were equipped to take further control of their careers and to have conversations that needed to happen a long time ago.”
Dinger described the inaugural executive track as a “great event” that will be challenging—but necessary—to keep elevating in future years.
“We really are going to have a difficult time continuing to keep up with all the great things that happen, but I have faith we’ll do that,” she said.
Community
While skills and content are central, all four leaders underscored that Forward’s power lies equally in community building.
“Coming to this experience is allowing folks to meet others at different stages of their careers, find mentors, and understand the value of sponsorship,” Fugolo said. “Some of the unwritten rules of the industry are now front and center. That is the power of community.”
Dinger said one of the most encouraging developments is the growing number of male attendees. “Every time Forward is present at an industry event, the room is males and females, and that’s so important,” she said. “We can’t do this alone. We rely on our male allies.”
Maietta noted that women in hospitality—and across industries—continue to shoulder heavy expectations.
“Women put a lot on themselves to always be prepared and knowledgeable about every aspect of their job and their colleagues’ jobs,” she said. “Those stresses make it harder for women to raise their hands and take on new initiatives, versus being burnt out and saying, ‘I’m okay for right now.’”
Forward, she argued, is designed in part to counter this trend by building support systems that give women the confidence to step into bigger roles.
“We’re trying to create a space and a community where people have a support system to lean on so they can say yes to that next role,” Maietta said. “They recognize it will be hard and different, but they can do it because they know where their mentors are and how to get the help they need.”
Pipeline to the C suite
Within AHLA and the AHLA Foundation themselves, Carey said the internal leadership team has become a reflection of the broader shift, with “accomplished and highly skilled women” leading key functions.
“I personally feel that we’re going to see a boom of women going from the senior vice president to the C suite,” he said, pointing to recent examples of women stepping into chief commercial officer roles, leading brand development teams and heading management and ownership groups. “There’s going to be a significant next step where EVP-level leaders take on those C-suite roles.”
For Carey, Forward’s long-term “ultimate growth metric” is not just attendance; it is a greater proportion of women in top leadership positions across the industry.
Owners, Operators and the ROI
Owners and operators have a critical role in turning the energy of the event into tangible progress inside their organizations, the group all agreed.
“Companies are using this as a professional development opportunity,” Carey explained. “They view this as a very tangible investment in their team, and they’re looking not only for a business return but also for that development investment, which drives employee satisfaction and retention.”
Dinger noted that many companies now build Forward into their formal leadership development pipelines, ensuring that high-potential women get exposure, training and networks they may not otherwise access.
Maietta linked this to hospitality’s longstanding positioning as a career-of-opportunity industry, open regardless of formal educational background.
“We are about opportunity and access,” she said. “We train you on the job and help you get ahead. The buzz around Forward helps keep that visible.”
Expanding Reach
Looking ahead, AHLA and the Foundation are working to make Forward both bigger and more accessible.
Two strategic priorities are driving decisions this year, according to Fugolo:
- Providing more access, opportunity and advancement for early and mid-career women, particularly those who tend to get stuck.
- Bringing Forward’s community to people where they are—online and in more local markets, not only at a flagship conference.
The Forward Exchange fits this strategy by targeting early-career and GM-level professionals with tailored content and local, in-person networking.
At the same time, demand is surfacing from markets far beyond the traditional conference circuit. Maietta recalled conversations with women general managers and hotel professionals in Hawaii, who asked AHLA to bring Forward there.
“The word is out,” she said. “People want to get involved and engaged, and there’s endless opportunity to reach more markets.”
Beyond events, the AHLA Foundation is leveraging Forward within a broader workforce and diversity strategy. Fugolo cited the BUILD and ELEVATE leadership programs and a dedicated funding set-aside to increase diversity among women participants. Through a partnership with HospitalityHUED, the Foundation is actively identifying and nominating women from underrepresented backgrounds for leadership development opportunities.
“We’re taking a holistic picture,” Fugolo said. “We’re truly using Forward as one of the tools that feeds and supports a broader industrywide initiative related to workforce.”
A Long Runway
Carey believes the initiative is still in its early stages.
“There’s a long runway,” he said. “There’s no concern that we’ll be struggling for interest, content or engagement.”
With strong satisfaction scores, expanding formats, growing male allyship, and a deliberate focus on early- and mid-career women, Forward is positioning itself as more than an annual conference. For the hospitality industry, it is becoming a core mechanism to advance women into leadership, strengthen pipelines across the country and reinforce hospitality’s reputation as one of the most accessible industries for ambitious talent.