2025 Sessions
Tuesday, August 19, 2025
| 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM | VRWS Registration Open | |||||
| 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Welcome Reception in Francis Marion Hotel Lobby | |||||
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
| 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM | VRWS Registration (Second Floor) | ||||
| 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM | VRWS Opening Breakfast and Breaking The Hard Rules: Redefining Strength in Women's Leadership with Shelley Brown | ||||
| 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM | Direct vs OTA: What Today’s Smart Vacation Rental Website Needs to Compete (and Convert) with Annie Holcombe and Alex Husner | Beyond Service: What It Really Takes to Lead with Hospitality Today with April Burns | From Broom Closet to Boardroom: The Power of Scaling Without a Playbook- A Fireside Chat with Kimberly White | The ESOP Opportunity: Perhaps a Better Exit Strategy with Meredith Fiocchi | What I Eat in a Day Part 2: Utilizing Nutrition and Exercise in a Chaotic Life with Tiffany Edwards |
| 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM | Fixing the Funnel: Why Short-Term Rental Marketing is Stuck—And What Comes Next with Amber Knight | Hobbspitalty CARE Values with Rachele Hobbs and Bethany Hobbs Smith | Everything is a Phase (Patriarchy, Please Take Note) with Julie Brinkman | Beyond the Bottom Line: Empowering Property Managers Through Protection and Purpose with Cindi Lee and Shannon MacPeek | Finding Joy and Purpose in a World That is Radically Changing Because of AI with Dr. Marie Haynes |
| 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM | VRWS Lunch, What Feminism Looks Like at 17-Years-Old with Kate Sprenkle and When the Wind Changes: Turning Loss into Leadership with Angie Leone | ||||
| 1:45 PM - 2:30 PM | Women Do It Better: Intuition, Emotion & Direct Booking Domination with Vanessa Humes, Kara Kacmarcik, and Jill McGee | Roundtables: Generational Advantage- Lessons from Every Generation Moderated by Deborah Allen and Sue Jones | Leading Whole: Breaking Rules, Building Legacy with Shelley Brown | Summer 2025 Vacation Rental Industry Performance with Melanie Brown | |
| 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM | VRWS Afternoon Tea Break | ||||
| 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | KPIs with Purpose: Connecting Guest Feedback to Operational Excellence, and the Bottom Line with Natalia Holshouser and Kelsey Liversidge | Co-Opetition Coalition: Turning Competitors into Collaborators in Hospitality with Kerrie Racicot | Bad Stays and Bourbon Chasers: Your Worst Guest Stories with Amanda Martins | Scale Smarter, not Harder with Cassie Fields | Shifting Sands: How Beach Erosion Will Reshape Coastal Communities with Amy Hinote |
| 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM | How to Matter in a Market That Pretends You Don’t with Jenn Barbee | ||||
Thursday, August 21, 2025
VRWS Opening Breakfast and Breaking The Hard Rules: Redefining Strength in Women's Leadership with Shelley Brown
| 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM | General Session with Valerie Gangas; Steadfast Through Storms: Leading with Resilience in the Vacation Rental Industry with Vered Raviv Schwarz; and Lowcountry Breakfast | |||||
| 9:45 AM - 10:30 AM | Brand Like a Lady. Close Like a Killer. with Jenn Barbee | The Hospitality Advantage: The Biggest Marketing Mistake Great Hosts Are Making & How To Fix It with Jodi Bourne | Cool Under Pressure: Midlife, Menopause, and Managing It All with Claiborne Yarbrough | Mentorship, Momentum, and the Modern Woman in Hospitality Tech with Corie Fabian | Empathy Is a Power Skill: Leading with Heart in a Results-Driven Industry with Becca Madigan | Hospitality by Design.The Best Tool in Your Toolbox. with Jessica Duce |
| 10:30 AM - 11:00 AM | In-Case-You-Stayed-Out-Too-Late-And-Missed-Breakfast Mid-Morning Break | |||||
| 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM | Roundtables: The Proverbial Glass Ceiling: Claiming Your Space moderated by Sue Jones | Stop Measuring Performance—Start Driving It: The Right Metrics Don’t Just Reflect Growth; They Fuel It with Kathleen Fitzpatrick , Sasha Lawler and Sara Moss | Serving Authentically: Vision, Resilience, and the Power of Memorable Stays with Karen Piscitelli | From Burnout to Balance: How AI is Transforming Employee Wellbeing in Vacation Rentals with Alex Husner | Google Launched An Entirely New Search Engine With AI at its Core That Will Change So Much in Our Lives with Dr. Marie Haynes | |
| 11:45 AM - 1:40 PM | VRWS Pioneer Award Lunch and Martha Beck Keynote: Beyond Anxiety | |||||
| 1:45 PM - 2:30 PM | The Art of the Ask: Winning Owners Without the Hard Sell with Jodi Cleer, Jeanne Dailey and Heather Van Wie | The Soul of Hospitality: Stories That Shaped Us with Tiffany Edwards , Kirsten King , Koryn Okey and Kerrie Racicot | Shelf Help: Building Company Culture One Book at a Time with Rachel Alday | RQI Accelerator: Understanding Which Metrics Matter For Evaluating & Improving Marketing Performance with Mia Cole | The Power Pivot: Redefining Leadership After a Career Change with Kelly McNeil | |
| 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM | Ice Cream Break and Book Signing with Martha Beck | |||||
| 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM | Now Hiring! From Entry to Executive - Building Careers through Revenue Management with Becca Madigan and Heather Richer | Built on Hospitality: How Women Leaders Turned Heart into Brand Power with Jeanne Dailey and Rachele Hobbs | Bad News Isn’t the End - It’s the Turning Point with Kathleen Fitzpatrick | Hot Features, Cold Feet: Tech Romance and the Road to Regret with Dawn Yeskulsky | Know Yourself, Grow Yourself with Deborah Allen and Sue Jones | |
| 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Champagne Closing and General Session with Monica Lewinsky | |||||
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
General Session with Valerie Gangas; Steadfast Through Storms: Leading with Resilience in the Vacation Rental Industry with Vered Raviv Schwarz; and Lowcountry Breakfast