Hotel Ezra Cornell

04/22/2025

11/14/2023

Early bird pricing for the 99th Annual Hotel Ezra Cornell ends today! Get a great deal on conference registration at https://www.hotelezracornell.com/

04/13/2023

HEC 98 is proud to have the support of Bears for Humanity, a certified organic and fair-trade company with the mission of creating safe and Eco-friendly organic products, protecting the environment, creating fair trade living wage jobs, and giving back to causes for children, animals, and the environment. Bears For Humanity has helped us create the first-ever sustainable amenity bear in HEC history!

Students have had the opportunity to create their own teddy bear drives, supporting one of three meaningful organizations: the Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital, Ronald McDonald House of New York, and the Family & Children Services of Ithaca. To support our campaigns and learn more about Bears For Humanity, click one of the links below:

Lillian Pinheiro's campaign for Ronald McDonald House of New York: https://www.donorthreesixty.com/campaign/lillian-s-teddy-bear-drive

Emily Michaels' campaign for Family & Children's Services of Ithaca: https://www.donorthreesixty.com/campaign/emily-m-s-hec-teddy-bear-drive

Evan DeVirgilio's campaign for the Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital: https://www.donorthreesixty.com/campaign/evan-s-hec-teddy-bear-drive

03/27/2023

During our spring conference, join HEC 98’s Programs Director, Lucas Arulpragasam, as he holds a fireside chat with Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Global CEO of JLL, about sustainable and equitable practices within the commercial real estate industry.Gilda Perez-Alvarado is the Global Chief Executive Officer of JLL Hotels & Hospitality, where she is responsible for investment sales, debt and equity placement, strategic advisory and asset management across three global regions. Their conversation will center on some of the most important issues in real estate, as well as touch on pertinent advice for students and women in the workplace.

03/16/2023

March 16th is Giving Day!

As an entirely student-run, non-profit organization, HEC depends on generous donations and sponsorships received through events like Giving Day. HEC supplies students with a unique opportunity to explore their passions in the hospitality industry while providing the best service possible.

With your support, we will be able to increase students’ access to networking events, professional development workshops, and experiential learning opportunities.

Your donation today can help us in our goal of continuously improving the conference and exploring the options for what’s possible in the hospitality industry.

Please consider contributing to the future of our conference at: https://givingday.cornell.edu/campaigns/hotel-ezra-cornell

02/20/2023

Last weekend, our F&B and Culinary teams hosted a pop-event for Nolan School faculty to get a taste of what is to come this April during the HEC 98 Conference! Students from both teams worked together to set up the event to test their service, design, and menu. It was a major event for both students and faculty to prepare for an exciting HEC 98 this spring!

“Pop-Up is a fantastic opportunity for all our culinary managers to gain experience working a real service. There’s so much more than just cooking that goes into an HEC event for our Culinary team, whether it’s practicing teamwork, preventing allergen contamination, or finding ways to reduce food waste through cross-utilization. We all want to provide the best experience possible for our guests, but events like these help us to define what that really means: in quality, in safety, and in sustainability.” – Adam Hollingworth, Executive Chef for HEC 98

“It was a really beneficial weekend for trial and error, to get valuable feedback, and to learn from my mistakes” - Caroline Lauer, Culinary Manager HEC 98

02/15/2023

Due to a generous donation from Lavazza, we will be able to offer the best coffee service in our 98-year history! Lavazza is an Italian coffee company, dedicated to the art and science of coffee creation. Lavazza includes sustainability and equity in its core mission, which is why we are so thankful for their generous donation of a professional-grade coffee cart, coffee, and barista training for our beverage team.

“I loved the Lavazza training, and I learned how to pull a perfect shot of espresso as well as the mark of a good crema. I am looking forward to spending more time practicing my latte art and to serve outstanding cups of coffee to HEC guests!” - Joy Xu, Food & Beverage Service Assistant Director

“My team and I are excited to showcase Lavazza and the work that they are doing globally to work towards a more sustainable and equitable coffee industry. There is a lot of work that needs to get done in this industry, and we are immensely grateful to be working with a company that is actively improving global coffee practices.” - Jessica Molitor, HEC 98 Beverage Director

We would like to extend our gratitude to Frank LaRusso and Kathleen McCarthy, who are incredible Barista instructors for Lavazza and made this experience possible.

Register today at https://bit.ly/register-hec to experience an amazing cappuccino from our student baristas, and so much more!

02/08/2023

On Monday, February 13th, from 6-7 PM EST join HEC 98 for an enlightening webinar with Vijay Prathap, CEO of Bears For Humanity. The company is dedicated to making a variety of 100% sustainable and ethical goods, including organic teddy bears. During the webinar, Vijay will be envisioning a future of sustainable amenities, defining a clear path for how the hospitality industry can become more ethical and less wasteful.

Click here to join the webinar: https://bit.ly/40xz9Pr

Click here to add the webinar to your Google Calendar: http://bit.ly/3YA86Rw

01/25/2023

This week, HEC 98 is supporting Tourism Cares through a raffle!

Check the link below to purchase tickets, support a meaningful cause in the hospitality industry, and enter to win! The raffle is open to all Cornell students and ends at the end of the day on January 27th.

https://bit.ly/hec98raffle

Ticket Pricing:
2 tickets for $5
5 tickets for $10
10 tickets for $15

01/23/2023

Neil Tarallo is a Senior Lecturer at the Nolan School of Hotel Administration focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition to teaching, he works with companies and executives directly to improve their innovation strategies. Lecturer Tarallo’s commitment to entrepreneurship, innovation, and new modes of thinking reflects the mission of HEC 98, as we aim to bring the hospitality industry together to boldly solve our greatest challenges.

He grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and was immersed in a creative environment from an early age. From his grandparents to his parents, Lecturer Tarallo’s family-owned businesses, which helped foster his attitude towards life: “I can accomplish whatever I can set out to do.”

When looking back at his successful and dynamic career, one of the key aspects that stand out is his experience in teaching internationally. In every country he visits, he tries to immerse himself in the culture as much as possible, ranging from what types of food he eats to the clothing he wears. Through these experiences, Lecturer Tarallo is able to understand and learn more about how innovation and entrepreneurship play a key role in shaping and improving entire cultures and the lives of individuals. Thus, Lecturer Tarallo brings these takeaways into his classroom, helping his students to learn more about how other parts of the world operate.

Despite his busy schedule and active involvement, both on campus and in the Ithaca community, Lecturer Tarallo finds joy in teaching students. He believes that his passion for teaching has made his work so enjoyable “but work became fun because of the colleagues I work with and students I engage with”. Lecturer Tarallo enjoys having insightful discussions in class where he works to create shared learning experiences, “I think I learn as much from my students as they do from me”. Lecturer Tarallo is excited for this year’s HEC and looks forward to seeing how students can create a more sustainable conference while creating value for the community.

11/28/2022

Registration is now open! On December 5th at 6 PM EST, HEC 98 will be presenting our Fall Pre-Conference Programming, The Net-Zero Journey: The path towards net-zero hotel emissions and a more sustainable world. This hour-long lecture and Q&A session will feature Eric Ricaurte ‘01, Founder and CEO of Greenview, who will speak in-depth about sustainable topics relating to the tourism industry. Greenview has consulted major hotel brands, including Marriott, Wyndham, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG, on creating and implementing effective ESG programs. Mr. Ricaurte is also an author of the Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index, a data collection and benchmarking initiative with data from over 20,000 hotels worldwide.

Registration for this FREE live digital event is open now, click here to register: bit.ly/net-zero-journey

11/16/2022

Save the date! On December 5th at 6 PM EST, HEC 98 will be presenting our Fall Pre-Conference Programming, The Net-Zero Journey: The path towards net-zero hotel emissions and a more sustainable world. This lecture and Q&A session will feature Eric Ricaurte ‘01, Founder and CEO of Greenview, who will speak in-depth about sustainable topics relating to the tourism industry. Greenview is an international consultancy catalyzing innovation and best practices in sustainability and ESG, providing services for strategy, programs, data management, benchmarking, and reporting. Greenview’s clients include most of the largest hotel companies as well as hotel owners and developers, event organizers, cruise lines, NGOs, DMOs, OTAs, and industry organizations. Stay tuned for a link to register for this free event hosted by eCornell!