Two Valencia Hotel Group properties in Bryan College Station—The George, and Cavalry Court—recently partnered with Dorm Dish to help Aggie students who were in need of meals.

Called Feed Maroon, the idea for the program sparked out of a simple conversation among Carlos Pernia, director of food and beverage of the two hotels, Brian Hall, founder of the nonprofit Friday Harbour, and Austin Fanning, founder of Dorm Dish. A GoFundMe was organized by Dorm Dish to help generate funds to provide these meals. Within a matter of days, the money began flowing in.

The George, Cavalry Court and Dorm Dish provided microwavable dinners to the students, with Valencia Group’s catering service providing lunch. Meals were picked up at Cavalry Court’s onsite restaurant, The Canteen.

The Vendry: A Central Resource To Find Vendors, Agencies and Venues

Over the years, any corporate event planner can admit to spending countless hours researching the perfect venue or vendors for their gatherings. After attending or hosting hundreds of events, New York-based Daphne Hoppenot was no stranger to this research and was frustrated by its repetitive nature. However, it was planning her wedding in 2018 that pushed her to realize the lack of resources in the corporate events market compared to the wedding industry, and set out to see if other meetings and events professionals were struggling with the same problem.  

 
Soundings Connect Boosts Industry Freelancers

Freelancing has become a new ball game since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as many companies cannot afford to keep full-time positions, but still need those tasks completed. Although many more professionals have had to join the freelancing community since March, Tracy Judge had the passion for the freelancing community two years ago–long before the pandemic hit–and founded her company Soundings Connect in order to directly connect meetings and events industry freelancers with customers. 

 
Now Open: Hyatt Regency Frisco-Dallas

The 18-story, 303-room Hyatt Regency Frisco-Dallas is now open for business. Located within Frisco’s Stonebriar Centre, the hotel includes a 27,500-square-foot conference center with Regency and Junior ballrooms and additional breakout spaces, most with floor-to-ceiling windows for natural light.