The Innkeeping Blog

Who is luckier than me?  I had the great fortune recently to spend some time at industry-famous Deneen Pottery in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I had just spent two wonderful days with innkeepers from all around Minnesota at the Minnesota Bed and Breakfast Association conference, and capped off the visit with a tour of the plant and trying my hand (for the first time) at throwing some pottery on a wheel.  To see more photos and an exhilarating video of yours truly trying to throw some pottery, click here to visit my Flickr site.

Peter Deneen gave me the grand tour of his worldwide headquarters, and I was incredibly impressed with his operations.  I observed his team in action, pumping out hand-made pottery with amazing speed and precision.  With great pride, Peter showed me many examples of how his operation has evolved over many years.  While all the pottery is indeed hand-thrown, I was simply amazed at the custom-built machinery that enables his staff to move production along very quickly.  Peter is always tinkering with the system to make it that much faster or that much more efficient.  I’d love to show some photos of some really ingenious devices, but I would hate to share Peter’s trade secrets.

Deneen Pottery has been producing the commemorative mugs at PAII’s annual convention for many years.  We give away about 600 of these great gifts every year!  And, I have amassed quite a little collection of my own from my travels to B&Bs across the continent.  I’m anxious to see which of my children will pressure me to leave my collection to them in my will.

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With Maybelle Beasley, executive director of the Bed and Breakfast Association of Mississippi, just before I judged the Innkeeper Cook-Off.

I just love coming to Mississippi and Louisiana to visit with the innkeepers in these two states.  Fortunately for my travel schedule, they host a combined annual conference, and this week it was in Natchez, Mississippi.  Thank you to Peter Sharp (President of BBAM and innkeeper at the Fairview Inn in Jackson, MS) for having me as the opening speaker and for allowing me to judge the Innkeeper Cook-Off.  What a blast!  It wasn’t easy tasting 10 dishes.

I was thrilled to present some of the most important and interesting findings of our newly released 2009-2010 Industry Study of Innkeeping Operations and Finance.  We’ll have a press release soon with some highlights, and innkeepers who contributed data to the study should already have their free copies by way of email.

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