Overview ALIS, the Americas Lodging Investment Summit, is the hotel investment conference that opens the lodging deal year in Los Angeles each January, and Northstar's own Hotel Investment Today reports that U.S. hotel deals are typically held back until it begins. Three days of plenaries, CEO panels, breakouts and receptions put owners, lenders, developers and brand executives in the same two hotels. The BHN Group, a Northstar Travel Media subsidiary, produces it, and Jim Burba founded it; the 2026 edition was the 25th. ALIS Law runs on the Sunday and Monday of ALIS week and ALIS DESIGN+ on the Wednesday and Thursday. On site The 2026 edition filled the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton at L.A. LIVE, and the 2027 edition was set for the same two hotels. Plenaries run in the Diamond Ballroom. The 2026 program opened on a Monday afternoon with a travel outlook from Expedia, TripAdvisor and The Venetian, then a numbers session with STR, and the Gala Opening Reception took the Platinum Ballroom that night. Tuesday lunch came off food trucks on West Road, two Speed Meet rounds ran in the smaller Diamond rooms, and a networking reception filled the JW Marriott lobby. Wednesday's Money Morning split into equity, debt and capital-stack breakouts. Audience The organizer says one delegate in three is a chairman, CEO, president, owner or principal, and one company in three works in lending, equity investing or development. Around them are brand and management company executives, investment bankers, vacation ownership executives, consultants, lawyers, architects and designers, tourism officials and trade press, and the program schedules facilitated speed-meeting rounds between sessions. Talent and Influencers The 2026 program ran Boardroom XXV as a four-part CEO series. Its opening panel put Marriott International's Anthony Capuano, IHG's Elie Maalouf, Choice Hotels' Patrick Pacious, Noble Investment Group's Mit Shah and Ashford Hospitality Trust's Stephen Zsigray on one stage, and later panels brought in Sonesta's John Murray, Accor's Gilda Perez-Alvarado and Extended Stay America's Greg Juceam. Blackstone's Scott Trebilco co-moderated a finance panel with Brookfield's Shai Zelering and Marriott's Leeny Oberg on it. Nearly 200 industry leaders spoke at the 2025 conference. Track record Jim Burba took the ALIS Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th edition in 2026; over three decades he and the Burba Hotel Network had produced more than 150 hotel and tourism investment conferences in 22 countries. The ALIS Awards are presented from the plenary stage: Development of the Year, Transaction of the Year, Merger and Acquisition of the Year and the Jack A. Shaffer Financial Advisor of the Year. Mit Shah was named the 2026 recipient of the Arne Sorenson Social Impact Leadership Award. Brand presence Sponsors at ALIS buy into the program itself: in 2026 Actabl sponsored the Headshot Lounge in the Diamond Foyer. The position on sale here is the ALIS Theater, the main ballroom where the plenaries, the Boardroom panels and the awards are staged, packaged with an onsite experience, conference registrations and marketing across the event.