Connor Logan

Kelly Simmons

Logan, from McDonough, Ga., stands in front of the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel, where he is room operations manager.
Submitted photo

A high school graduation trip with his family to a Caribbean resort sealed Connor Logan’s career decision.

The facilities were nice, the food was good and the staff was incredible, he recalled.

“I wanted to be a part of that experience for other people,” says Logan, who was hired into the Marriott Voyage management training program after graduating UGA.

Experience in the University of Georgia’s Hospitality and Food Industry Management (HFIM) program provided Logan with hands-on training in a full-service conference center, the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel. Even during the pandemic, the center was always buzzing with activity.

While the hotel was closed to outside guests, the university was using rooms to house students awaiting COVID-19 test results and those who had tested positive. Food and beverage employees prepared meals for the quarantined students, leaving trays of food outside their doors.

They also offered breakfast on the run, coffee and biscuits, or other handheld meals, served curbside, and take-home prepared meals for pick-up in the afternoons.

In sales and event planning, where Logan interned, employees were pivoting from in-person programming to virtual classes and meetings, including annual events for some longtime customers.

Without onsite guests, Logan says, he had more time to spend with department managers, learning about the front desk, housekeeping, the kitchen, and the Bistro.

I spent a lot of one-on-one time with leadership and learned ‘this is why we do what we do’.

Logan says “It’s nice to know someone who’s been in this business for 20 years, and why they’ve done that.”

After earning his degree in December 2021, Logan joined the Marriott Voyage Program, a year-long management training program, and started work at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center, just outside Chicago. In April 2024, he transferred to another hotel in the Marriott family, the Sheraton Downtown Denver Hotel, where he is room operations manager.

“Every place I have worked has (including the Georgia Center) been a convention center,” he says. “I love the dynamics. There’s a fresh experience every day.”