Breaking News: The Women’s Summit 2025 Announced – Exclusive Details with Amy Hinote!

Alex Husner 3:05 Welcome to Alex & Annie: the real women of vacation rentals. I'm Alex Amy Hinote 3:27 and I'm Amy. Alex Husner 3:29 Amy, I know so good to see you. Oh, you nailed it. Now, folks, we've got Amy high note here today, unfortunately, Annie was not able to join, but we wanted to do this quick little bonus episode because we have very big news to share. I know many of our audience is just going to be super excited to hear, but we've got Amy high note, founder of VR, Mintel DARM, the data and Revenue Management Conference and the Women's Summit. Amy, thank you for jumping on. Amy Hinote 4:00 Oh, appreciate you doing this. Happy Women's month, yeah, Alex Husner 4:06 International Women's Day, is it the whole month, also Amy Hinote 4:08 the month is met, is March, but Women's Summit, you know, obviously, is now. So, um, I'm sorry, Women's International Women's Day is March 8, which is why I want to talk to you today about this. Yes, I appreciate you. Let you. Let us do this Alex Husner 4:22 absolutely. Well. Without further ado, let's let the cat out of the bag. What's the big news Amy Hinote 4:30 in his bag? So you know, we do this will be our fourth Women's Summit. So we went from New Orleans to New Orleans to Nashville and now to Charleston, South Carolina. So it will be August 19 through the 21st in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Francis Marion hotel right there in the middle of downtown. Alex Husner 4:53 Awesome. Yeah. And so this is where you had DARM also a couple years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Promise Amy Hinote 5:00 that we're going to have power the whole time. So, oh, tropical storm, last time, that will not happen again. But anyway, beautiful hotel. It's very It has that same vibe that the Ritz Carlton did in New Orleans. It's a historic hotel. It's got the chandeliers and the beautiful room, and we can do the ice cream social and the cheese and chocolate and our high tea and our brunch, so all of our staples are back. Oh, I'm so Alex Husner 5:29 excited. I can't wait. That's always, always a great conference. And just that location in Charleston is great too. It's on one of King Street, which on King Street, you can walk to tons of amazing restaurants and shops and just really in the heart of Charleston. And for me, it's only a two hour drive, so it was super convenient to get down there. But for people who have not attended the women's conference to this point, what would you say is the main reason that somebody should check it out? Amy Hinote 5:54 One, I mean, we're celebrating and honoring the women in the vacation rental industry. It really is a celebration. We do awards. We honor the pioneers that have, you know, created basically the foundation of our industry, and there are so many of them. And we also bring generations together here, which is really nice to kind of put everyone it's an ecosystem event. So but beyond bringing generations together, we're bringing vendors together with property managers and people who actually work in this industry, from top to bottom. On the other side, it's a really empowering conference. I think we do a lot of professional development and personal development, leadership stuff here, mentoring, things that really kind of give them a foundation for success in their personal lives, but also on the professional stuff. We've got a lot of education here. And I think from the beginning, we all wondered if people would show up differently to a Women's Summit than they do to other conferences like DARM and like I would say, yeah. I mean, we've watched it happen. I mean, every session turns into a deep dive discussion. You know, people are so much more open to asking questions and following up and digging deeper, and it really is just a way to celebrate and empower each other and lift each other up. What I love about it is the whole industry shows up ready to encourage and help and find ways to to make other people better, you know, and to help their careers and stuff like that. So I think I mean, just like us, you know? I mean, from the first women coming on, is the one time of year that we know that we can connect to lift each other up, no matter if we're competitive in any other area or anything like that. So I think that what works with well, with the property managers, for that reason, I think too, you just walk away feeling like rejuvenated and ready to take on the next chapter of our journey. Mm, hmm, Alex Husner 7:37 yeah, yeah. And so the last one that you had, you actually paired it kind of back to back, that there was the women's conference and then there was DARM right after. And actually just got back from the hotel that was where you had those events. Conference was this year, and it just, it did feel very different one, you know, the session started at like, 730 in the morning, so more traditional style conference than what we do at women's conference, Women's Summit, which I do feel it just it overall has more of a relaxed, less corporate kind of vibe for a conference than some of the other ones that we go to, but the whole event, just it fosters people, getting to know each other, building relationships, and gosh, I mean, every Women's Summit that we've been to, it's like we get back and we've got 10 people minimum that We want to have come on the show, because they're just, you know, dynamos that we had never met before. So I can't wait to see who we're going to meet this year. That always happens. I completely Amy Hinote 8:30 agree. I'm really pumped about it too. We, um, obviously, I hope he announced the keynote yet. But we do have Amber hurdle coming back. We have Valerie coming to speak this time, which is about we also have some cross generational stuff going on. So pairing some boomers with Gen Z, pulling some things, it should be interesting. And really quickly, we need volunteers. So I do have a volunteer sign up sheet that I will give you the link Alex, open in your comments. Too perfect. So we need volunteers for every track of education to help us put those together, and we also need some volunteers to help us on site. If anyone's willing to come in early, Amy Hinote 10:02 the tracks that we're working on this year, we have personal development, leadership development, technology and AI, marketing and distribution, hospitality and customer service. We have our round tables back, kind of like we did at dartm. We're going to do this nice, yeah, and data and revenue management. Alex Husner 10:21 Gotcha, okay, yeah, heck of a schedule there. Yeah, Amy Hinote 10:25 seven tracks. Same thing. We're recording all of it, so if you miss you don't feel like you have to go to something. But I do think that we're gonna we definitely upped our game on the professional development and leadership stuff this time. So I think that that seems to be what a lot of people like to do here, surprisingly, you know, it's like, but it does help. I mean, learning leadership is not an easy thing to do. Management's not an easy thing to do. And a lot of the people we know have really grown in their careers and are in a very new territory now, yeah, and Alex Husner 10:55 I think, you know, it goes back to, it's like, you have to take time to work on the business, not in the business, and this conference in particular is really good opportunity for companies and their teams to come together and just like, you know, think about things from a higher level, instead of just the tactical day to day of what's going on in the business. But you know, what's that? What's the future look like? What's the succession planning look like? I know there's a lot of those conversations as part of this too. But really, really excited. And I think it's great that Amber will be coming back, and, of course, to see Val take the stage too. Haven't seen her on stage yet, but I've read all her books, so Amy Hinote 11:34 I know. Well, I've got one of hers with me right now. It's my beach reading. We're in the Outer Banks right now. We I just, we just got here, actually, just unloaded the car. Yeah. So, yeah, we're headed from here. We'll be here. In fact, we have a party Monday night on March 10 at Blue Moon grill. So if you're in the Outer Banks and want to come and say hi, we'll be there at 530 and then Alex, now we're just talking about, we'll throw up something in Hilton Head when we get down there. Yeah. So, um, so we're good. We're doing a little road trip to try to see everybody and try to encourage you to to join us in Charleston. But um, and if you have any fresh ideas for education, that's something that we're really looking for right now. Too. Alex Husner 12:14 Awesome. Awesome. Well, I'm definitely jealous that you're doing this little road tour right now, getting to see all of our friends. So sure, yeah, exactly, exactly. Oh, that's so much fun. That's great. Well, if, if anybody wants to register for the conference, is there an early bird special or any sort of, like a discount that our users Amy Hinote 12:36 right that we're going to have? It's 899, however, the lowest rate we're gonna have is if you actually use the code, Alex and Annie, all caps, Alex and Annie, Alex and Annie Perfect. Okay, for DARM too. Okay, so you have that in your back pocket and, um, and that gives another $100 off of each ticket. Okay, Alex Husner 12:59 great. That's a, that's a really, that's a good deal. It is certainly worth the value that you pay to come to this event for sure, and some conferences, you'd not really sure crazy price tags on them, but this 100% you're getting your values. So don't Amy Hinote 13:12 take your ozempic shot Alex Husner 13:17 exactly. Yeah, yeah. Plan to be well fed and well hydrated or non hydrated. Oh, goodness, we Amy Hinote 13:28 are bringing the swag bags back. Oh, good, cool. I'm really excited. We thought we just ordered something for them the other day. So we're all into the whole hospitality side of it right now, it's been a lot of fun planning this piece of it. Yeah, it's gonna be a good show. And we're, I mean, the whole point is just making everyone feel seen and heard, and giving everyone a place to to talk about the things they want to talk about in a really comfortable environment. And I just feel like, like I said, I mean, when we went into this several years ago. I didn't know how important it was going to be, but it is something I don't want to lose. Yeah, even for myself, on a personal level, I don't, Oh, for Alex Husner 14:07 sure, yeah, yeah, no, absolutely we. We've got an episode coming up later this month, the OG women of vacation rentals, inspired by the OGS of the Panhandle that we did last year with the guys, but we've got three women coming on, and I know that the Women's Conference is definitely going to come up in that conversation, because I know all three of them always go and it's been a big part of their career journey and with the teams that they lead back home to but super excited for all of it. August will be here before we know it. So if anybody wants to get that right, please make sure to check the show notes and get that code for the lowest possible rate. Amy, where should people reach out if they want to talk to you personally? LinkedIn, Amy Hinote 14:49 yeah. LinkedIn is really great. Amy dot, high note at Gmail. Amy dot, high note at Vera mental always words and the Women's Summit website is VR Deb. Summit.com and for you sponsors out there, we really need your support this time so you can contact rebecca.chapman@burymentel.com Alex Husner 15:08 perfect. And if anybody wants to get in touch with Annie, and I can go to Alex and Annie podcast.com and until next time, thanks for tuning in, everybody.