The hotel industry's investment community gathers next month in Chicago for the second annual Midwest Lodging Investors Summit with one goal: to determine when financing will again be available to buy, sell and develop lodging properties. The conference, which will be held July 19-21 at the Chicago Marriott on Michigan Avenue, will feature nearly 100 speakers on a variety of hotel investment-related topics — from hotel valuations to financing and development to asset management.

Lodging Hospitality and the Penton Media Real Estate Group are sponsoring the event, and The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University is the Summit's academic partner. Last year's conference drew more than 500 industry executives.

A welcome reception on the evening of July 19 kicks off the Summit, while two general sessions on the two following mornings will set the tone for the conference. On Monday, July 20, a panel of brand executives and hotel owners will discuss and offer solutions to their common challenges. A session follows in which some of the best executives in the business provide practical operating tactics to succeed in difficult operating conditions.

On Tuesday morning, a group of valuation experts will chronicle movements in valuations and what effect they will have on the sale of lodging properties. Then, professors from Michigan State will share and discuss the initial results of a research project on the development of a new Lodging Investment Analysis tool to identify market areas that show long-term potential for hotel investment.

The keynote speaker at lunch on Monday will be Patrick Ryan, chairman and CEO of Chicago 2016, the civic organization hopeing to lure the Olympics to Chicago. He'll present an update on the campaign and what the Olympics would mean for the Chicago and Midwest hospitality industries.

For more information and to register for the Midwest Lodging Investors Summit (MLIS), go to www.MidwestLodgingInvestors.com.