Steve Okuley is the Senior Vice President, Conferences & Events, and serves as a member of the AHLA Operating Committee. In this role, Steve is responsible for driving the revenue growth, profitability, and innovation of our conferences and events portfolio.

Before joining AHLA, Steve served as the Director of B2B Customer Engagement & Communication at American Airlines, overseeing a wide array of events including tradeshows, internal meetings, and customer events.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 26, 2024) – The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) today announced it has hired Steven Okuley as its new senior vice president for conferences and events.

Okuley previously served at American Airlines, where he was Director of B2B Customer Engagement & Communication and oversaw all global sales and distribution tradeshows, internal meetings, customer events, sales incentives, and advisory boards. Prior to that, Okuley was Director of Global Meetings & Events for Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 24, 2024) – The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) this week is hosting its annual Hotels on the Hill fly-in event, which will draw more than 200 hoteliers and industry leaders from 36 states to Capitol Hill to lobby for a variety of important policies.

The Sept. 24-25 event will include meetings with members and staff from more than 150 House and Senate offices.

New York/Washington (Sept. 23, 2024) — The Hospitality Show, the groundbreaking event designed to empower the hospitality industry produced by Questex and the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), has been awarded the prestigious Trade Show Executive Gold 100 Grand Award for Best New Event Launch 2023.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 19, 2024) – American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) Interim President & CEO Kevin Carey released the following statement after the introduction of the Halting of Trafficking and Exploitation in Lodging Act, or the HOTEL Act, which encourages federal workers traveling for business to stay at hotels with anti-human trafficking programs.

SVP Strategy, Technology and Innovation

I began my entrepreneurial journey at the age of twelve, starting my first business in my parents' garage. Through that experience, I learned the importance of deeply understanding customer needs and leveraging available technologies to create new opportunities. This approach has allowed me to consistently bridge the gap between business and technology teams, helping companies ideate, incubate, and industrialize innovation to build new business models.