The most important industry conversations don't start when the conference opens. They start the night before. 

Ascend kicks off with an evening worth showing up for on its own: a reception to reconnect with peers and partners, a sit-down dinner, and an awards ceremony recognizing the Alberta hotels leading the way on HR, workforce development, and employee health & safety through the Elevate Approved Employer program. After the awards, the evening opens back up with dessert and the conversations that carry into the next morning. 

This evening celebrates the strength of Alberta's hotel industry. You won't want to miss it. 

Start the day with a good meal and the right conversations. Grab breakfast and connect with peers and curated partners before the formal program begins — a practical hour to compare market realities, explore solutions, and find the people most relevant to your property, team, and operating priorities. 

Hotel leadership is built in hundreds of daily moments: a coaching conversation with a supervisor, a response to a guest concern, a decision made under pressure, or a discussion with your lender. Most leaders focus on what they want to say. The most effective leaders pay attention to what others are picking up. 

In every interaction, your colleagues and guests are constantly assessing credibility, intent, and trustworthiness. These judgments do not wait for the perfect phrase. They are shaped by tone, timing, body language, follow-through, and behavioural consistency. 

In “Crack the Code,” Pamela Barnum shows leaders how influence works in the real world, and why trust is built or broken long before logic kicks in. Drawing on years of undercover experience, courtroom strategy, and behavioural research, Barnum helps leaders align intention with perception so they can build stronger teams, handle difficult conversations, improve guest interactions, and turn trust into a competitive advantage. 

This session equips hotel leaders to recognize the hidden signals shaping everyday interactions and use them deliberately to increase credibility, reduce resistance, and create better outcomes with colleagues and guests. 

Coffee and snacks are in the marketplace — and so are the people who can help with the problems you're actually dealing with. Every partner in the room understands Alberta hotels and can speak to your operating challenges. Compare keynote takeaways, meet the right partners, and turn ideas into useful conversations. 

What's actually happening in Alberta's economy — and what does it mean for your hotel? Charles St. Arnaud cuts through the noise to connect the forces most relevant to Alberta operators right now: inflation, labour costs, financing conditions, political uncertainty, and the demand environment shaping investment and operating decisions across the province. 

Alberta has had several exceptionally strong tourism years. What comes next looks different. Jon Mamela shares Travel Alberta's read on the period ahead — where growth is expected to moderate, which visitor segments and markets are expected to drive demand, and the regional opportunities worth watching across the province. The presentation is grounded in the forecasts and assumptions shaping Travel Alberta's upcoming three-year strategy, giving hotel owners a direct line between provincial tourism planning and the decisions they're making on budgeting, staffing, capital investment, and revenue expectations.

The numbers session — and one of the most useful ones of the day. Kirsten Hallett translates the morning's economic and tourism picture into hotel-specific terms, bringing CBRE's data on performance trends, new supply, pipeline, and investment activity across Alberta and Western Canada. The benchmarks hotel owners and operators need to know where their property or portfolio actually stands relative to the market.

Energy costs are one of the most significant line items for Alberta hotel operators right now. This compact and informative pulse gives members a current read on power and natural gas markets, what’s ahead, and the questions to ask when it comes to procurement, budgeting, and capital planning.

Grab a plate from one of the stations inside the marketplace and keep moving. This is a working lunch — designed for new conversations. Follow up on a morning session, introduce yourself to an operator from a different market, or find a partner in the room who can help with the staffing, risk, or operational challenge you're already dealing with. The best connections at Ascend often happen here.

Alberta's labour market has shifted — and the pressures on hotel operators haven't let up. This focused pulse connects the latest data on retention, wages, benefits, and scheduling to the workforce planning and budget decisions Alberta’s hotels are navigating right now.

AHLA is building its next three-year strategy at a moment when Alberta's hotel economy is changing— and member needs are evolving. This session is where the room weighs in. Through live polling and facilitated discussions, AHLA members will validate AHLA's future priorities, flag what's missing, and put their fingerprints on where their association should focus its energy for the rest of this decade.

Refuel in the marketplace — coffee, snacks, and the partner conversation you didn't quite finish. Or take a few minutes to process everything you've heard so far before the final sessions.

The risk landscape for Alberta hotels has gotten more complex. Insurance pressure, cyber threats, public safety incidents, business interruption, and emergency preparedness are no longer edge cases — they're part of running a hotel in this province. This conversation is practical: what are the real exposures, what are other operators doing about them, and what should you have in place before something becomes a crisis. Walk away with concrete ideas to reduce exposure and strengthen continuity.

As Alberta's new destination marketing framework takes shape, hotels and Destination Marketing Organizations will need to work together to ensure DMF dollars generate overnight demand, strengthen competitiveness, and deliver measurable value.  Join industry leaders to discuss what success looks like, from governance to performance measurement. Take away lessons emerging from communities across the province for strengthening hotel influence, building productive local partnerships, and helping shape destination marketing systems that create value for both your business and your community. 

Everything covered at Ascend — taxation, risk, DMF governance, tourism funding, labour policy, short-term rental regulation — connects to decisions made by governments at every level. Laurie Chandler closes the program by turning Ascend's intelligence into a practical advocacy roadmap: how to engage your MLA, how to connect effectively at city hall, and how Alberta hoteliers can make their collective voice heard on the issues that affect their businesses.

Alberta hotels are stronger when they come together — and Ascend is where that starts. Leave the day with a clear sense of what your association heard, what comes next, and how AHLA is working to help your hotel prosper.