A global gathering of GMs

Almost all this week, just about every Sheraton Hotel in the world was without a general manager for a few days, and that's because they had all converged in the Emerald City for a first-ever global meeting. Pauline D. Loh reports from Seattle.

Every now and then, we need our passions revived and energy recharged and there is no better way to do this than to hunker down and talk shop for a few days with your peers in a beautiful city.

That was the reason more than 400 general managers of Sheraton Hotels and top brand managers of Starwood Hotels and Resorts gathered in Seattle from March 10 to 13 for the 2014 Sheraton General Manager Global Brand Summit.

For three days, the general managers attended pep and prep sessions, concept presentations and workshops at the Sheraton Seattle and got up to date on everything from the latest on digital gadgets to crisis management, personnel and revenue streamlining, and other essential tasks of running a hotel and reinforcing the brand.

Branding was a main theme throughout, with Starwood Hotels and Resorts senior vice-president of global brand management Hoyt Harper taking the lead in organizing and motivating the sessions.

Sheraton Hotels are a major brand under the Starwood Group and, in Harper's words, "form 40 percent of the Starwood pipeline".

It is often the first brand Starwood sends into pioneer markets, like the case of China. Many of us, for example, will remember the Sheraton Great Wall in Beijing as the first international brand-name hotel to appear in the capital city.

Today, there are more than 60 Sheraton Hotels all over China, with another 18 slotted to start operations within the next 12 months, cutting across the first-, second- and third-tier city strata.

Sheraton is also set to debut in Samao, Tajikistan, Kazakhtan and return to Iraq, bringing the total of openings to 35 worldwide. It aims to mark a 500-hotel milestone by 2016.