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Switching to the cloud from a client server platform pays off with a big drop in both the initial capital outlay and the ongoing operating costs for the property management and other systems.

pects of a franchisee’s business, from guest check-ins and housekeeping services to billing and finances. Over time new features have been rolled into the software platform making it more robust and useful for hotel owners—it’s currently distributed in eight countries and available in four languages. And while plenty of cloud-based PMS packages are now available from third-party vendors like Micros, Maestro, and RoomKey, Choice’s internal solution has garnered its fair share of attention. “We had been getting knocks on the door from IT vendors at other hotel companies and individual Choice franchisees that own other brands, saying they were interested in our product,” says Pacious, “So we set up a new division so we could take a look at other opportunities we could develop.” This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles attachment-3

his led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles Hotel Market Insight: Cleveland a

This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system.

online visibility

user-generated reviews

240 small and medium-sized hotels

online retailers have thus been gaining increasing market power in influencing customers’ purchases (i.e., Inversini and Masiero, 2014, Silva, 2015, Yen and Tang, 2015) and have improved market transparency and uncertainty for travellers (Toh, Raven, & DeKay, 2011). For this reason, their role is now considered an infomediary (Chen, Yang, & Wang, 2015) because their capability to add value in transactions depends primarily on collecting and processing information about prices, destinations and travellers’ reviews.

positive effect on hotel revenue growth

outweighed by a negative effect on gross profit margins.

managerial implications discuss how hotels should use social media features according to a strategic view based on pursuing the horizontal and vertical differentiation of their services in an attempt to create more economic value from their online visibility and to protect profit margins from the intermediation in their customer relationships.

Online reviews provide additional information for travellers to mitigate the uncertainty about the quality of a hotel and about its fit to their needs and preferences on accommodations and destinations.

50,115 user-generated reviews on TripAdvisor,

shake up long-lasting reputations through reviews posted by unmonitored influential opinion makers

Internet can be a value-destroying mechanism for small businesses and can deter hotels’ capacity to defend profit margins

empower buyers

ncrease the degree of rivalry among firms that sell and distribute their products/services

bargaining power

First, online ratings can have a beneficial effect on the occupancy rate of rooms, which is especially important for larger hotels that bear a greater cost of idle capacity, especially in off-peak periods. Second, visibility on social media can allow hotels to apply a price premium thanks to greater economic value generated by market transparency, the reduction of the search costs for both parties involved in the transaction

brand image of hotels,

maller hotels with opportunities for market growth in segments in which they have a limited market presence

exploring the relationship between online visibility and the creation of economic value in terms of increase of sales and profitability for a panel of 240 Italian small and medium hotels

ive million registered users who visit the platform 30 million times per month on average

we consider only the profitability (the value appropriation achieved through online visibility) and not the increase in sales (the value generation achieved through online visibility) because hotels’ market positioning affects a hotel’s capability to appropriate the economic value brought by online visibility and influences hotels’ ability to negotiate the infomediation fees, which in turn impact hotels’ profitability.

social networking (i.e., the opportunity that users have to connect with people with similar travel interests, needs or experience) and knowledge sharing

travellers can more easily find persons who share similar travel preferences and needs. In a similar way, a user consulting travellers’ reviews can see if the reviewer is a member of his/her friends’ social networks on other platforms, such as Facebook.

beyond allowing hotels to improve their room occupancy rates, online visibility may allow hotels to apply price premiums.

respond strategically to online reviews

positive relationship between online visibility and sales

three different forms.

first is the rating assigned by users, who can express their evaluations on a quantitative scale.

rates given by users are distributed over the scale.

number of reviews that users give to hotels

we may expect that online visibility on social media – seen as a composite measure of the three above-mentioned elements – can positively impact hotels’ revenue growth

hotels’ market positioning between their online visibility and profitability.

Online visibility has a negative effect on the gross profit margin of a hotel.

Consequently, high star-rating hotels apply price premiums for their superior quality and attract less price sensitive customers, who have a higher willingness to pay for quality

we expect that less price sensitive customers are willing to pay more for hotels with higher customer ratings on infomediation platforms because they perceive these hotels to be more valuable

The relation between online visibility and sales profitability is stronger for hotels with high star-rating.

iche tourism appears to offer a more meaningful set of experiences, given the knowledge that tourists’ needs and wants are being met

“what makes a tourism destination truly competitive is its ability to increase tourism expenditure, to increasingly attract visitors while providing them with satisfying, memorable experiences, and to do so in a profitable way” (p. 2).

However, a number of studies have reported that online user-generated reviews are perceived as more credible than traditional word-of-mouth when they come from persons with similar attitudes and preferences

Hotels in niche destinations are thus better positioned to extract more economic value from online visibility.

Gaining competitive advantage [7] such as, IT security investments may stop the competitors to absorb market power. From other studies that point to problems appearing in hospitality to find out if the IT they invested is effective, [8] asserts that many hospitality companies have no procedures to see how effectively their spending on information technology is.

Various sources of data that show about IT investment in the hotel, then the problem is the existence of large amount of investment for IT development without understanding IT effectiveness for the hotel [11], the managerial party who difficult to give data about the values and intangible/tangible benefits.

According to [14], an IT investment consists of the total life cycle cost of an entire project or project chunk that involves IT, including the post-project operating cost of the system that was implemented. The investment ceases to exist when it is replaced or eliminated for any reason.

Evaluating expense or impact of large IT investment may vary from study to study [15]. In order to evaluate IT investment, Information Economics (IE) is a set of calculating tools to measure the benefits and costs of an information technology project.

The benefits of IT/IS that organizations use can be viewed by combining Simple ROI analysis and analysis of technology and business domain.

This study using Information Economic approach in order to do feasibility assessment that combine technology domain and business domain

The data collected includes the financial data of 5-star hotels and IT projects undertaken, as well as the costs for the technology used today. This stage is also done spread the questionnaire online for intangible value analysis of business domain and technology domain

The feasibility of IT investment can be known ROI score generated on the economic impact sheet. According to [23], to calculate simple ROI, there are three worksheets, such as: development cost sheet using ratio, ongoing work sheet, and economic impact sheet. The final value of the ROI and the scores of corporate analysis is incorporated into the IE

The Scores on the IE Scorecard will show the value and benefits of investment for IT.

The huge demand for the Internet makes many hotels present the speed and bandwidth that can satisfy the guests.

E-Concierge Service Management. Service to entertain hotel guests and modern travelers is currently working with smartphones in the form of E-Concierge Mobile with technology called Mobile Guest Softphone (MGS).

IT Security, the problem that arises when using IT in a company/organization is its security. For companies/organizations and even hotels are also very vulnerable to information that can harm the hotel in case of cyber attack.

According to Table 2, Mandarin Oriental Hotel ROI score is 1. This score means that the IT investment is feasible. Above 100% for Simple ROI means that IT implementation give profitability to the hotel and able to invest more in the future

Value Linking approach implemented in 5-star hotel, implementation online reservation and e-Concierge management, hotel guests can quickly make room reservations and guest data collection will be better. For e-Concierge the process of entering guests to the room will also be easier

This value showed that 5-star hotels in Jakarta have the time and opportunity to invest more in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on future growth and development of existing infrastructure.

It can be concluded that IT implementation and IT projects in 5-star hotels in Jakarta are quite useful. E-Concierge, mobile apps and online reservation are most valuable and success investment for 5-star hotel. But, in order to improve the performance of hotel IT, which in terms of security and improve hotel services, need a system improvement in accordance with the hotel program, so it can support the vision and mission of 5-star hotels in Jakarta.

The result of financial analysis that is calculated ratio and processed in economic impact sheet obtained simple ROI and can be concluded that in terms of cost, IT investment in 5-star hotels in Jakarta can provide economic benefits for the hotel.

The investment quadrant shows that a 5-star hotel has a solid business base, has the time and opportunity to invest in the future. The 5-star hotels in Jakarta also have the time and opportunity to invest more in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on future growth and development of existing infrastructure.

This value indicates that IT investment in 5-star hotel in Jakarta is considered economical enough, and quite helpful and useful in supporting hotel business process.

Airlines want more flexible, robust commerce platforms built on contemporary software and architecture,” Harteveldt wrote.

“Airlines want commerce platforms that can support extensive fare and product transparency, dynamic pricing, rich basic and ancillary product merchandising and retailing and the ability to reliably and securely process the massive volume of shopping sessions.”

The airlines also believe that new providers who enter the airline distribution and commerce space will generate more competition and better selling solutions,

They will use the new-generation commerce technology infrastructure that powers airline CRS/PSS host systems and e-commerce solutions, thus reducing the need for lengthy, costly disruption in a conversion to a new passenger services system.

Like GDSs, value creation hubs will be designed to support high-frequency, high-volume shopping.

value creation hubs will be developed with the database-commerce operating and business environment in mind and will be designed to provide extensive fare and product transparency, support dynamic pricing and enable rich merchandising and retailing.

A key difference between GDSs and VCHs will be the business level at which they operate. Unlike GDSs, which work with individual airlines, VCHs will be developed for each major alliance – Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance.

Because the VCHs will operate at a “group” level, rather than at a single-airline level, the VCHs will house a “community link,” similar to the common platform operated by Amadeus, which will function as the “hub of the hub,” he said.

An important distinction between the GDS and VCH models will be the commercial relationship with subscribers, including agencies and other intermediaries.

Does this mean GDS companies will disappear? No, Harteveldt said.

Value creation hubs, or VCHs, will be aggregators that enable extensive airfare and product transparency, dynamic pricing, and rich merchandising and retailing, Harteveldt predicted in a white paper on “The Future of Airline Distribution.” The paper was underwritten by IATA

They will use the new-generation commerce technology infrastructure that powers airline CRS/PSS host systems and e-commerce solutions , thus reducing the need for lengthy, costly disruption in a conversion to a new passenger services system.

Depreciation

Cash Flow

Discount Rate

Net Present Value (NPV)

discount the net inflow less the net outflow into a single value. If the number is positive, then the project would add value to the organization and if the NPV is negative, it would lower value of the organization.

Inflows: The inflows or benefits resulting from an IT investment can be subjective and less exact. Often times, the benefit of an IT investment is savings in time, client satisfaction or other "soft" numbers.

Outflows: Outflows are typically easier to estimate but some can be subjective as well.

where 26 percent of travel agents stated that they used their GDS platform more often than in the past and 19 percent said they used the GDS Shopping Displays more often than before.

"Travel agents are increasing GDS hotel use, and have once again confirmed their confidence in GDS Shopping and Booking Displays,"

Travel agents in 25 countries across the Americas, EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) and Asia/Pacific regions who subscribe to one of the four major GDS systems were asked to participate.

n the survey, travel agents worldwide also indicated that promotional messages are effective and often prompt bookings: 66 percent of all travel agents surveyed who were aware of promotional messages requested additional information by looking at the screen attached to the promotional message.

"This survey definitively shows that promotional messages are not only an excellent way to reach travel agents, but also a valuable sales catalyst,

s the leading provider of revenue generating solutions for hoteliers across the globe. TravelClick offers hotels world-class reservation solutions, business intelligence products and comprehensive media and marketing solutions to help hotels grow their business.

is one of the fastest growing marketing research firms in the United States. With offices across the country and in Europe and partnerships with many of the largest companies in the financial services, consumer package goods, automotive, healthcare, media, technology and travel and leisure industries worldwide, PMI also offers advanced advertising and brand measurement along with direct marketing expertise.

We found that engagement with technology at events and delegate knowledge satisfactorily coexists for and across a number of different experiential levels. However, relative to I4.0, event research and the events industry appear to be digitally immature.

Events are in the midst of rapid social and technological change. With a growing variety of technological means, the industry is fast-paced and increasingly delivered to a discerning consumer market while finding ways to connect with consumers through technology

Digital technology is the thread of the fabric of organisations (Li et al., 2018). It is an increasingly important part of how they engage with their customers.

Moreover, engagement with events as fans, spectators, delegates or organisers can be augmented with digital technology by improving access and sociability capabilities, refining the personalisation of events, and thereby creating enhanced experiences.

As we advance into what many in business and academia consider to be a fourth industrial revolution, the capacity to control and exchange data electronically has extended our ability to create, edit, maintain, transmit and retrieve information.

I4.0 can be described as the digitisation and automation of the manufacturing environment. It also creates digital value chains to enable the communication between products, their environment and business partners. Digital applications have impacted the tourism sector too giving rise to ‘Tourism 4.0’

The events industry is an ideal environment to benefit from the implementation of a widespread digitised approach with numerous organisations empowering managers and improving the overall event experience with the integration of extensive ICT practices and systems.

With the more widespread adoption of digitalization in event delivery and as the supply chains of all events become intertwined with technology, we can learn how the digital maturity of events in the 21st century is shaping event management and event control.

The team set out to answer the following research questions: RQ1. Can digital maturity in events be defined? If so, RQ2. How should the levels of digital maturity of events be classified with regard to the digital maturity of the events industry and the development of event management theory?

Successful events are no longer measured by simply achieving a respectable attendance, a great deal more engagement is manifest through digital technologies

Successful events require organisers to create something that is considered by those who attend as a valuable and memorable experience (Pizam, 2010; Tung, 2011). Creating memorable event experiences can be described as being dependent on a number of factors including creating regular attendee engagement, providing appropriate activities, relevant subject matter, topical and contemporary focus and targeted to a sizable receptive audience.

technological factors being one of the most important areas of demand for companies along with the implementation of I4.0. SMEs (Small to medium enterprises) are [lagging] behind in developing strategies to implement new solutions.

The development of digital maturity in events can be compared to smart tourism, which Gretzel et al. (2015) expressed as a logical progression from traditional activities. Smart tourism is characterised by an ability to transform large amounts of data into enhanced tourist experiences and increased destination competitiveness thanks to the interconnection of the different stakeholders through latest ICT advancements

As the components of I4.0 become more prevalent in the events industry, much value can be obtained from understanding how businesses are adopting new levels of digital engagement in order to engage their audiences

it is prudent to suggest that the survival, and future success of events can depend upon digital maturity and transformation

owever, dealing with digital maturity requires careful attention as Neuhofer (2016) urges caution advising that applied technology solutions have proven to have the ability to create or destruct the value of the experience.

I4.0 therefore acknowledges the impact of connected computers with the key constituents being cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and cognitive computing

highlighted that the use of communication networks globally has risen dramatically and become ubiquitous due to the rise of smartphone ownership. This has been fuelled by social media, apps and faster broadband speeds to create a networked society

By combining the Internet of Things data and big data (extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions), event managers are able to create a competitive advantage.

As event companies develop new and innovative ways to connect, the events themselves are absorbing aspects of I4.0 at every stage of the process; pushing the boundaries of event experiences far beyond the physical world

They are used to promote events before, during and after delivery and are used to gather data and inform decision-making. Generating responses from an event can be achieved using a number of methods and through both qualitative and quantitative data.

With the advent of big data and analytics, new sources of valuable data are available to guide decision-making processes in a more informed manner. Businesses were once looking at historical data, but advances in database technology and system processes have led to near real-time data collection and analytics

Failure to adopt aspects of digital technology does not necessarily suggest a poor experience or the end for those businesses less digitally mature; not every event business relies on this kind of data support to survive. Instead, this research provides an opportunity to better understand where event businesses do engage and more importantly, how communication between non-digital and fully integrated individuals/businesses can be improved.

Digital maturity and transformation today differs from previous periods as it not only provides the change in the main business processes but also reveals the concepts of smart and connected products through service-driven business models

Our analysis begins with an attempt to uncover the potential challenges, on-going developments and various strategies that will provide the events industry and academics with a forward-facing approach to the growth of technology within events. By including industry professionals and academics, the research contributes to bridging the gap between practise and academia.

Because the research and empirical data collection includes industry perspectives, we believe this research will provide value to event managers, marketers and practitioners around the world who wish to understand more about the digital maturity of events.

After conducting the social media analysis (1), it became evident that the discussions appeared to be around topics that utilise digital technology rather than the technology itself. Furthermore, and probably a reflection on the value of the group, a lot of the data included questions about understanding the topics rather than providing usable information to our research.

We did not have detailed information about the precise characteristics of the individuals who contributed to the dataset of posts. However, to an extent, their roles listed in LinkedIn were informative. These included events consultants, social media managers, marketing professionals, EventTech managers, CEOs at tech companies and events students.

Although this response rate of 52 academics may be considered low, this did allow for the creation of the initial insights into the E4.0 concept and crucially it provides a starting point to better understand the levels of the developing digital maturity model.

The most referenced themes were social media, marketing, apps, GDPR and mobile. The top 14 themes are shown in Figure 1 below.

The results of the thematic analysis reveal the most pertinent events and technology topics in this group in the time period specified. The most common topics were social media and marketing. Marketing appeared alongside other topics as a verb, a noun and an adjective. This certainly influenced its prominence.

This statement reinforces the knowledge and general use of social media during events. Mobile and event apps were recognised as presenting opportunities to enhance events and were considered to be a permanent part of events.

Carefully managed and fully integrated data and digital systems including social media, apps and CRM create digital value chains to enable the communication between events, their environment, and business partners.

Event organisers invest heavily on social media engagement and expect a great deal in return through social media retweets, tagging and sharing of images. However, it is just as important to understand if delegates consider technology at events that important.

Our expert respondents were asked if they considered the events industry to be at the cutting edge of technology. Responses were largely supportive of the suggestion that it is. 64% agree, 22% neither agree nor disagree and 14% disagree.

Online registration/digital booking was very familiar with 65% ‘extremely familiar’ with the technology.

The survey also collected a selection of qualitative data as respondents were asked to if there were any specific examples of connected/digital technology considered to be essential to the delivery of an event that had not been discussed in the survey. Significantly, 23% answered no to this question.

With regard to the digital maturity of the events industry affecting the development of event management theory, the literature review indicates that academics are making contributions to theory and a broad understanding of digital technology exists.

industry appears not to be digitally mature. Also, our findings suggest that relative to I4.0 not all events are digitally mature. Therefore, the ‘digital immaturity’ of the events industry may be having some effect on event management theory

It became evident from the survey that many respondents suggested they were not familiar with technology that they would all have experienced.

The results from the survey suggest that widespread academic understanding of technology at events is extensive. Some digital technology is considered routine, while other comprehensively used technology appears to be unfamiliar to the end user.

The growing digital maturity levels form the foundation for E4.0 and will contribute to what Gerbert (2015) described as greater efficiencies and changing traditional relationships among suppliers, producers, and customers.

Therefore, satisfaction from the event comes down to providing delegates with the right communication levels they need to complete their individual objectives. This can range from the most basic social engagement to the gathering or observation of big data. Events are evidently a melting pot of experiences and goals and not all of them demand the highest levels of technology to complete.

Artificial intelligence has the ability to provide events with endless systems that sense, learn and decide throughout the delivery process though many gaps exist.

The data also indicates that there is good knowledge across all types of digital technology. This is reassuring for the development of education as the events industry embraces digitalisation

However, as more value is placed on the use of digital technology and events mature through greater access to technology, we see the emergence of an E4.0 era.

Thus, this model anticipates that events will grow in their digital maturity to level E3 and E4. Thus, digital technologies may become sufficiently embedded so that data related to one element of an event will be used to inform other elements of an event in real time

Online registration and wearable technologies such as delegate smart badges are superficial digital experiences and only considered as a process rather than as a fully perceived digital experience.

Our findings indicate that digital communications have enabled a shift in the content of events, marketing and the use of social media as a communication tool before, during and after the event.

On the limitations of our research, one might argue that engagement with technology, or indeed lack of it, does not provide evidence of the immaturity of digital technology in events. However, the digital maturity model that we propose is principally informed by the literature on digital technology and events.

This research has provided a revealing perspective on the use of digital technology in events. It has built on theory that has been previously developed in this and similar subjects of research, such as business and tourism. From this, the research can claim a number of contributions. It (i) provides an empirical investigation into how event businesses and individuals engage with digitally technology at events, and (ii) it provides a definition of E4.0 and other preceding levels that contribute to digital maturity.

Our research has shown that event delegates are aware of the ability to communicate in a reciprocal process with technology rather than through a linear/top down process. This in itself is evidence of E4.0. Furthermore, this research highlights how industry is continually striving to optimise the delegate/event relationship through apps and other technology. The industry’s on-going mission to create deeply flexible communication opportunities is eliminating the possibility of gaps in the communication process in order to optimise delegate engagement at events.

A broader discussion on potential issues such as IT & data security, skill-sets, expensive production costs and outages; these are significant problems within internet and cloud-based technology. Furthermore, the emerging topic of E4.0 itself requires both conceptual and empirical development.

This research has shown that there remains a great deal to discover about the use of technology at events and many opportunities exist for further research from academics and practitioners working together to provide mutual benefits for both industry and education.

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Planners will try to book events further in advance. This leaves hotels and venues in a pickle: Taking early bookings could mean missing out on higher-value events later.To avoid missing out on revenue, hotels and venues need to segment business intelligently. That way, you can avoid the pitfalls of traditional lead-scoring biases that hurt RFP management.

In 2020, brands will invest in events as a marketing channel. In fact, in a recent event marketing survey, 52% of respondents said that event marketing drove more business value than other marketing channels. (Only 8% said it drove less business.)

Planners should create ample private meeting spaces and “collision spaces.” Some events do this by providing fewer chairs than attendees. With fewer empty seats, they’re encouraging movement and interaction.

Large, minimalist spaces with easily accessible bars are the perfect recipe for a networking event. Venues like this can use the networking angle to promote event space to corporate clients.

These attendees blend the worlds of business and leisure. It’s given rise to a new, multi-generational segment that drives destination decisions. (See: our Hotel Market Segmentation Guide for more on this.)

Attendees want more control over the event agenda. In fact, 96% of the Social Tables audience believe events are expected to be more personalized than ever.

16. Sustainability will be center stage at events.

For proposals, try showcasing multiple event-specific variations. This adds value for the planner by helping them better meet their event objectives, while adding value for the hotel or venue as an upselling technique.

According to Billboard, there over 800 annual music festivals in the U.S. alone, and they attract 32 million attendees in total. 14 million of those attendees are (surprise, surprise) millennials.

At smaller levels, adding performances to the agenda can go a long way in engaging attendees. However, for larger events, creating a festival-like atmosphere requires access to a variety of spaces that are exclusive to one group.

A bigger focus on wellness could revolutionize F&amp;B — replacing beef with the proverbial Brussels sprout.

While you don’t need to offer 11 choices for every hour, you can empower attendees to mold the event to meet their individual needs.

Sustainability initiatives are your chance to make a positive impact while painting your brand in an equally positive light.

Meetings are growing and evolving rapidly, and each is an experiment in applying new methods to find a perfect formula.

Industry Performance TrendsAttendee Experience TrendsMeeting Destination TrendsEvent Technology TrendsMeeting Design Trends

Demand will continue to outpace supply

be dynamic, you have to be flexible, and–above all–you have to be in tune with attendee desires.

Meetings are growing and evolving rapidly, and each is an experiment in applying new methods to find a perfect formula.

predicts 5-10% growth in demand. At the same time, the development pipeline is slowing.

It’s also the spontaneous conversations that come with serendipitous networking.

nticipate higher rates, and book event space as early as possible.

At the same time, face-to-face time takes a hit — making it a more treasured commodity in our modern world.

redict it’ll grow about 2.41% in North America. CWT expects an even higher hike of 3.7%.

Planners should create ample private meeting spaces and “collision spaces.” Some events do this by providing fewer chairs than attendees. With fewer empty seats, they’re encouraging movement and interaction.

Why? Well, take the speed of your current 4G LTE smartphone internet and multiply it by 1,000. (Think: putting the Millenium Falcon into hyperdrive.)

For events — especially large-scale events — sustainable initiatives are now the expectation.

Fast, reliable WiFi will soon become the norm, opening up new engagement opportunities and nontraditional venues for events.

“I think many hoteliers will be unhappy with the significant investments they are making now into cabling that will become obsolete just as soon as 5G launches.”

Apps present an opportunity for personalization and engagement at each stage of the event lifecycle.

Hotels and venues are developing sophisticated apps that enhance the in-venue experience. Whether it’s Wembley Stadium’s virtual tour guide or Marriott’s sophisticated in-app chatbot functionality, branded apps are adding value in multiple ways:

everage lobbies, rooftops, and other communal areas for networking events.

Because today, 86% of consumers expect companies to act on social and environmental issues — and they’re more than ready to vote with their dollars.

0% of event planners reported that their jobs require more experience creation than just 2-5 years ago

Content:

Destination

Technology:

90% of respondents stated that event security should still be a top priority for the industry.

That could mean avoiding coastal destinations during hurricane season or avoiding certain areas of the city to ensure safety outside of event hours.

. Event diagramming software can help in this regard by allowing venues and planners to collaborate on a single source of truth

Security is a significant value add and a key selling point in initial communications.

you’re providing any personnel, such as security, custodians, and administrators.

ess furniture, fewer seats, smaller portions, less irrelevant decor… you get the picture. A

reate a step-by-step safety checklist for execution during on-site setup, and another safety checklist for the day of the event.

Less is more when it comes to the material.

It’s a movement that stands in direct opposition to the gaudy ballrooms of old

Have evacuation plan

c, open floor plans that make minimalism a possibility.

lassic combinations of whites and greys

ewer seats means more mingling.

lutter-free to promote a clean, open feel that keeps the focus on content.

Hotels, however, may find themselves scrambling to reinvent their event spaces. It could be time to rethink these spaces — along with lobbies and other communal spaces that set the aesthetic tone for the hotel at large

Larger chains should look to boutique hotels, which create visual identities that are often more closely aligned with the appeal that nontraditional venues offer.

The right influencer should match both your brand values and the values of your audience, bringing an already-established crowd of relevant consumers to your digital door.

The audience's goal is to use that influencer's experiences to guide and inform them as they choose their next getaway destination - positioning your property as the place to be.

Educate Your Audience

Hotel guests can't get enough of reviews - the more in-depth, the better. An influencer can provide the most detailed content about your brand and the guest experience you offer through high-impact channels utilising video, blogs and photography.

The best influencers are seen by their audience to be unbiased and objective, which puts them in a position of authority and trustworthiness when it comes to purchasing decisions.

People follow influencers and engage with them because they believe they have a wider range of experience to better understand the brand, products and services they are talking about, similar to a professional hotel reviewer.

influencer marketing actively builds trust in your brand.

it's an ongoing challenge for hotels and hospitality marketing departments to keep coming up with something fresh and exciting - something their audience wants to see.

Good professional influencers really shine when it comes to this side of hotel marketing strategies. Not only do they have a deep understanding of what their audience (and therefore your audience) is looking for and what resonates with them, they are also creative specialists in finding fresh and entertaining ways to deliver this content.

leveraging their creative expertise is not only rewarding in terms of results, but helps to avoid critical missteps that can happen in a marketing strategy. You'll get more engagement, avoid the kind of faux pas that can cost you, and drive followers and leads to your website and social pages.

COVID-19 has made social media more powerful than ever before

Instagram, a primary platform for many influencers, saw some of the biggest increase in terms of use, with 2020 projections showing 14% growth - an additional 3 minutes of time per user on the platform per day.

One of the best ways of leveraging these changes in user behaviour work for your hotel marketing strategy is to get an established influencer who understands you brand and already has a relationship with your target audience to work on your campaigns.

Influencer Marketing is the Edge Your Hotel Marketing Strategy Needs

Right-speed IT must address three broad categories: procedural, architectural, and organizational. Let’s move beyond rhetoric and dig into each area

Right-speed IT is an acknowledgement that IT departments need more ammunition to organize, interact, and deliver value to the business.

Sabre Travel Network, for example, saw an increase of more than 7% in its GDS bookings during the first quarter of 2012 over the same period last year

“And it’s a steady trend that’s gone up over the last several years,”

Many hoteliers are attempting to leverage those increases in demand through dynamic pricing models, which offers clients a percentage off a hotel’s best available rate on each travel date as opposed to a fixed, negotiated rate for the year

But that does not mean leisure travelers are not using the GDS as well.

“If they are shopping online with (the OTAs), then they are using the GDS

Indeed, overall demand has increased from both leisure and corporate travelers

Corporate travel demand is primarily responsible for that uptick

“Hotels that have typically had a negotiated rate for each corporation can actually work better with corporations with dynamic rates, as long as they are able to ensure they are giving that corporation access to whatever the deal of the day is

One of the trends she is seeing in the GDS channel is the increase of combined business and leisure trips

“Insurance companies are also pushing today that (companies) know where their employees are,” which the GDS facilitates,

There’s more opportunities for hotels to put promotions, put leisure opportunities on there … It enables hotels to really take value of the GDS.”

More and more, Kennedy is seeing corporate account managers ask: “What would you offer our travelers for their weekend stay if they wanted to stay longer or extend?” “What can you offer for group rates?”

The GDS is not going away any time soon because of the unique solutions it provides for hotels and travelers alike

For instance, it is better-suited to handle incredibly large look-to-book ratios

The GDS also provides enhanced marketing support

Although these and other benefits will continue to attract hoteliers’ inventory, Cole said the GDS would provide additional value if distribution costs were lowered

Travel-management companies are coming up with many security reporting and informative ways to show corporations where people are at any point in time, which can be important for insurance purposes

. “People are traveling for business in parts of the world and extending it to stay for leisure.”

The pricing model provides corporations with a lower rate when demand decreases but also gives hoteliers the opportunity to achieve higher rates when demand increases, Kennedy said. “It’s a win-win for both sides.”

Many hoteliers are attempting to leverage those increases in demand through dynamic pricing models, which offers clients a percentage off a hotel’s best available rate on each travel date as opposed to a fixed, negotiated rate for the year,

Corporate travel demand is primarily responsible for that uptick

Sabre Travel Network, for example, saw an increase of more than 7% in its GDS bookings during the first quarter of 2012 over the same period last year,

HFTP is working with members of several organizations including, EHL, HFTP's Research Institute at the University of Houston, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hospitality Professionals Association (HOSPA).

Manufacturers are rushing products to market with little or no thought to security, often including hardcoded passwords or known vulnerable software libraries. While this problem is most obvious in the consumer space (which gets the most news coverage), vulnerable IoT devices are present in every business sector as well

The TPM stores secret keys, passwords, and digital certificates in its secure internal storage protecting them from software and physical attacks. The TPM acts as a root of trust for checking platform integrity at boot time (i.e., check against any malicious change). A cryptographic hash value of the platform configuration is calculated and compared against the precomputed hash value of the platform. Access to the platform is denied if the integrity check fails [4]. This is the beginning of the “chain-of-trust” for software modules that are subsequently initiated. This transitive trust mechanism is one of the important security features in trust computing. It uses the trust root as a starting point to establish a chain of trust model, in the order of trust root, boot loader, OS, and Application.

Secure boot provides the foundation for Trusted Boot, which extends the trust boundary to the boot process and eventually the operating system.

software attestation attempts to achieve a dynamic root of trust without specific hardware support. This method has the advantage of not requiring any stored secrets (cryptographic keys or passwords) and allows applications or modules to be updated, which may not be possible if hash values are stored in immutable formats, such as a TPM chip

While Secure Boot validates the platform and firmware, Trusted Boot is generally defined as verifying each software module before execution and extending the chain-of-trust to the entire operating system. During the boot sequence, the digest of each executing program is recorded before it executes. A TPM (Trusted Platform Module) is used to store all these records and then report on them securely.

It is important to note that Trusted Boot requires a TPM chip so the operating system can see the chain of execution, thus it may not be an option for some IoT devices. Lack of trusted boot support would allow an attacker with physical access, or using a software vulnerability during run time, to potentially modify the stored code and compromise the device.

There are many other attack possibilities to consider with IoT devices. For example, existing TPM architectures do not support runtime integrity checking and this allows attackers to exploit vulnerabilities to modify the program after it has been verified (at time of check or TOC) but before the time of its use (at time of use or TOU) to trigger unintended program behavior, such as the execution of malicious code or the leaking of sensitive data

Physical attack is a viable method of compromising the integrity of a device. Modifying and replacing firmware by an attacker may be worth the effort, depending on the perceived value of the device or the data it may access (such as a video camera or ATM). Attackers can go as far as removing memory and reading its contents.

a device built today can become a major problem tomorrow

essential to identify strengths, areas of improvement, and the value at stake.

capital expenditure management leaders face similar challenges to those in other functions that have already undergone major productivity improvements: often these challenges are not technical problems but instead relate to how people work together toward a common goal

organizations have a significant opportunity to fundamentally improve project outcomes by rethinking traditional approaches to project delivery

Data is valuable, and it’s due time for hotel operators to establish a two-way value exchange that incentives guests to readily share their information to unlock a heightened experience.

hotels cannot offer a great guest experience without prioritizing data protection and transparency; one tier of service (personalization) cannot come at the expense of another (privacy and consent)

If hotels elevate their efforts to meet guests’ expectations for customized offers and experiences, and treat personalization as a strategic priority, they will see immediate benefits that deliver long-term results.

80% of consumers are willing to share personal data to earn loyalty program benefits. 70% of consumers are willing to share their data to receive special discounts and offers. 71% of consumers will shop more often with brands or retailers that personalize their communications.

Next-generation technology sets the stage for this dynamic by allowing hospitality brands to offer their guests data control and value in a seamless, scalable fashion.