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Teaching

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HTSM 434 Hospitality Seminar

St. Cloud State University

St. Cloud, Minnesota

Spring 2025

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Course Description

This hands-on course uses the life cycle of an event—strategic planning, logistical decision-making, day-of execution, measuring the return-on-investment—to gain a real-world overview of the dynamic events industry. Course units center around the skills required for success in the industry: project management, sales, marketing, communications, problem-solving, and finance. Throughout the course, students learn about the variety of employment opportunities in an industry that is always seeking new talent.

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Leveraging my 30 years of event planning, venue management, and marketing, I create inspiring and interactive course content and assignments based on authentic tasks of the industry. Field trips, guest speakers, and hands-on projects round out this practical and relevant curriculum.

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Course Materials

Textbook: Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer

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Learning Outcomes

In this course, students will:

  • learn the physiology of human connection and the value of in-person events

  • become familiar with the necessary steps and stages of planning an event long before “Showtime!”

  • study event design and branding, and debate the effectiveness of several events given as examples

  • observe the many unique ways companies attempt to differentiate themselves in a saturated events industry

  • create a marketing plan for a fictitious company and present it to the class

  • learn the financial side of the hospitality industry by writing a budget, making projections, and calculating the return-on-investment (ROI) for a sample event

  • examine and write numerous examples of hospitality communications with themes of negotiation, persuasion, and apology

  • come away with a basic understanding of the legal side of the hospitality industry by closely examining contracts and insurance policies

  • gain an overview of venue management; determining room capacities, using booking and floorplan software, and facilitating effective troubleshooting strategies onsite at events

  • learn behind-the-scenes operations of catering to understand its unique challenges, including the servicing of very large events

  • receive a brief introduction to the billion-dollar wedding industry

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Sample Feedback Collected from Student Surveys 

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100% agreed: Assignments were fun and helped me understand authentic tasks of the event industry.

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100% agreed: I learned a lot in this course.

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100% agreed: I recommend this class be taught to college students interested in the hospitality industry.

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"This course was one of the more valuable experiences in the SCSU Hospitality & Tourism program. The instructor made the material engaging and practical with focus on real-world application."

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"Honestly, all the HTSM classes need to be restructured and taught like this one."

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