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Reference customers vs Advocate customer extends on topic posed when organizations consider customer reference program (CRP), and/or customer relationship management (CRM) including those evaluating social media efficiency by way of reference customers. While CRP is classically found used in b2b channel trend is to utilize same concept across market channels. Post includes discussion based on semantic difference/benefit between the two and the concept benefit of customers as brand champions, influencers, and evangelists.

Statistically speaking, CIOs don't become CEOs. But it's not because they don't want it. Research shows that nearly half of CIOs aspire to become chief executive, but only four percent actually get there. Much more frequently, CEOs for the world's top companies - about half in fact - come up through C-level financial or operating roles (Vanson Bourne, 2012). Chris Laping, CIO of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (www.redrobin.com), strongly believes this is because technology executives are too often focused on engineering and IT solutions to embrace their most valuable leadership quality: the ability to manage change. Technology leaders, he believes, possess powerful project management skills that can and should be leveraged across the business for even the most non-IT initiatives, with the particular role of being agents for change. Laping's official role at Red Robin is indicative of that practice: he's the company's senior vice president of business transformation and CIO. In that role, he oversees the company's technology, learning and development, enterprise project management and operations services teams. In this exclusive interview with Hospitality Technology, Laping shares how the technology team has taken on a business transformation role at Red Robin, and describes his overall vision for IT leaders. But it's not something CIOs are handed; they have to drive it, says Laping. Driving this change, perhaps, will also help more CIOs chase down their chief-executive dreams. HT: Let's start with some definitions: "business transformation" and "change agents" are pretty heady buzzwords that get tossed around executive boardrooms. What does business transformation really mean? LAPING: If you look at a classic Wikipedia definition of business transformation, it talks about people, process and technology. So when you push change through people, you usually do that through training. If you want to change business performan

Despite women leading the way in scholarship and culinary education, they are suspiciously vacant at the top of the leadership ladder. According to Bloomberg, only about 7% of executive chefs are woman, and "67% of executive women are in support roles...as opposed to running their own line of business." This doesn't appear to be because of a lack of entrepreneurial spirt, as "405 of restaurants are women-owned businesses or WOB, and startups by women are growing much faster than the industry overall." This made me reflect on my own city, as I do see women in executive positions, such as Stephanie Izard, Sarah Grunenberg, and Mindy Segal, they all got to their positions in very different ways. Probably the most successful, with currently 7-8 restaurants, is Izard, she got her start by winning a reality tv show and then joining forces with two male business owners (BOKA). Grunenberg also started visa vi the reality TV route, and now eventually owns and runs a very successful restaurant downtown. Mindy Segal is the only woman executive in this group that has built her business, her cookbooks, her brand, and now her cannibis retail, mostly by herself. It is interesting to relate these women to this article because while they are all three incredibly successful, only one was able to pull herself there through the three points mentioned in this article. In order for women to break the glass ceiling in restaurants and culinary, they will need to accomplish three main goals: 1. Gain confidence, 2. Increase their aspirations, and 3. Learn and Maintain Financial literacy. The "grim reality (is) that 96% of WOB do not cross the $1 million in revenue...(and) fewer than 8% seek external financing. Women "receive less than 4% of Small Business Administration loan dollars and less than 2% of venture capital dollars. For confidence, this article recommends to women to learn how to advocate for yourself. Use coaches, practices public speaking, and learn how to pitch your business

There are many reasons one still needs a travel agent. They are now called advisors or consultants because of what they can do and their knowledge. These advisors can assist with a multitude of things including emergencies, getting great deals on trips, They will be your best advocate when issues arise and at no extra cost to the consumer. In addition, a good travel advisors save you time and money on trying to plan you own trip. Travel agents who just booked flights and beds are a thing of the past, travel advisors play a much more complex role and provie a great variety of services.

Cvent and Destination Marketing Association have joined as alliance partners. This was announced in January 2013. According to DMAI, Cvent will provide meeting professionals with more educational opportunities and promote the use of destination marketing organizations. The purpose of promoting DMOs is to show they can be the a point of contact. DMAI supports this because they are looking to support the meeting community and advocate why DMOs are a valuable source for meeting professionals to go to directly. With this alliance, CVENT has integrated information from the empowerMINT website by DMI into its own Destination Guide. DMAI foresees this will help meeting professionals quicken searches during the RFP process. Added to the Cvent website is a new feature to the RFP process which allows planners to add DMOs and CVBs on every RFP they send. After reading the article I found this to be an interesting alliance because I think both organizations will be able to help each other make meeting professional's lives easier. Cvent is a popular program in the events industry since it allows you to fill out one RFP and send it to multiple companies over the internet. DMOs are important part of the industry, which can help a planner plan an event in an unknown destination or provide contact information for additional venues or products. Integrating information will allow meeting professionals to save time but still be able to focus on the event. An important area I believe it promotes is the use of DMOs, which makes it more convenient for people to find DMOs in specific regions. DMOs have a great impact on the event because they know the region, especially if a meeting planner is not from the area. Ultimately this alliance will help further the important value DMOs bring to the meeting community.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology created a practical cybersecurity guide to help hotel owners protect their PMS from hackers. Hotel owners can learn to protect the privacy of the data stored in their systems, which is highly vulnerable. The guide also advocates for the zero trust principle, which dictates that access to a system is never fully granted, but must be continually evaluated through authentication and authorization.

Travel advisors are more important than ever for a successful trip. Such advantages like priceless advise on your destination. The advisor becomes an advocate on your travel and time. This is especially helpful for delayed flights and cancelations. They will make adjustments as these unexpected snags can happen during a trip and most of all, they can save you money.

It appears that American Airline is about to remove itself from the tradition global distribution system and introduce its own distribution system. American Airlines is advocating for distribution companies to utilize AA direct connect which is a direct link into AA's host reservations system. Currently American Airlines fares are no longer available on Expedia or Orbitz sites. This is because no contractual agreement was reached for the distribution of AA products. Travel professionals are waiting to see the result of this bold move by American as this has great implication for the future of airline distribution systems. If American Airlines pulls away from the mainstream GDS, consumers and travel specialist alike will be faced with the inconvenience of going to a separate reservations system to compare fares. Although travel professionals are now urged to use direct connect on a trial basis, the general feeling is that eventually they will be charged to sell American Airline flights. To defend this move American Airline is only saying that direct connect will make it easier for them to tract ancillary fees like priority seating. It was noted in the article that Southwest Airline for the most part is a stand alone reservations system but they do not negotiate with the GDS companies to sell their flights. It is therefore quite evident that this move by American is really to reduce expenditure by eliminating the middle GDS companies while increasing revenue by charging travel partners for utilizing direct connect. American Airlines clearly wants to globally control their distribution system and maximize revenues. Contract renewal for both world span and sabre are due and the experts are waiting to see if American will renew with them. Sabre is owned by American Airlines so its a wait and see game to see how all this will be panned out. The real problem for the consumers and travel specialists are that if other airlines are to follow this move by American the tra

This article explains the distribution route American Airlines is taking to sell their flights. Due to not seeing eye to eye with the two most probably used websites for travel, Expedia and Orbitz, American has now taken their products away from both airline distribution sites. American suggest that all travel agencies and distribution companies begin using Direct Connect, which is a system for only American Airlines flights. If this would happen, travel agencies and companies will then begin having to pay for the system in order to sell Americans flights. At the moment you can still book flights through other distribution sites, but until when will that be? They already stopped Orbitz and Expedia, what's not to stop the others. The future of global distribution systems will be up in the air if all airlines choose to sell their own systems to be able to sell reservations. The only positive that was pointed out in this article was that if this system takes over, then more consumers will have to go back to using travel agents to secure the best reservations for flights and such.

With the contracts for major global systems, Worldspan and Sabre, being up for renewal in the near future, this article analyses the possible outcomes for airlines, and alternatives should they choose not to forgo continuing use of GDS

This GDS allows over 300 major airlines to get connected with thousands of points of Sale and this platform, consisted by only 3 major ticket distributors known as a GDS other than the airline website. Airlines are paying around $7 billion dollars per year for using GDSs. This is a huge amount and consumers have to pay this.  But at this moment, GDS is still needed as a neutral technology platform especially for small travel agencies.  

Chang, Great Post! Technology continues to advance daily, with new technological advances we will be able to book airline tickets different ways and the need for GDS will continue to reduce. Southwest Airlines has been able to maintain cost by the limited involvement the company has with GDS's. Hopefully by decreasing GDS's cost, we will be able to afford cheaper airlines tickets with other carriers (http://blog.compete.com/2011/01/26/american%E2%80%99s-gds-gamble/).

Google has now been involved in the green initiative by trying to conserve energy and helping other sectors of the society to stay green. "French authorities have used google's mapping services to determine agricultural regions that should face water restrictions." This could help the French to save some of its crops as some require more water than others. It could also help them to conserve on water during their drought season when water is most needed. The agricultural sector in the mid west US could consider utilizing this technology during their drought season. Also with the use of their satellite system Google is able to disseminate information to tribes to help them prevent deforestation. Another way in which Google is helping in the green initiative is in its agreement to purchase renewable energy to run one of its new data centers. Google also encourages its workers to bike or ride scooters to work. this would help the environment a great deal by reducing carbon emmissions in the air, it also reduces traffic congestion. If more companies would adopt some of these initiatives it would greatly impact our environment.

Hotel du Collectionneur in Paris broke away from the Hilton chain in 2013 and became the largest independent hotel in the city. Without the Hilton brand, the property needed help creating brand loyalty and foot traffic. The property's marketing department teamed up with a company called "Flip.to". This company was to help bring in newer people to their website and target a new group of customers. Flip.to used e-marketing to enhance the hotel's website traffic and create brand awareness on social media. Additionally, by increasing website traffic the property saw an increase in direct bookings. We can see the benefits of using a company like Flip.to to increase profits and create awareness. If we look at this from the perspective of a large chain hotel, they have the resources to market their properties through their corporations. We can see that Hotel du Collectionneur had to go in this direction of hiring a third party company to meet their goals and they can see if paying off today.

This article introduces 8 technologies that an event planner should incorporate into the event planning & organizing strategies. Most event planners typically utilize things like a big screen for main stage events or PowerPoint projectors for every breakout session at their events. Those things are important, but they are just the tip of the iceberg for event planner technology. The author stated 3 technologies to use before the event and 5 technologies. Most of them are social media based applications that we are already having in our palm. It is quite simple, yet not many of us give a great thought about it when it comes to event planning.

Bing, I agree with you on these 8 technologies... however when it comes to a hotel operations, to follow all 8 is challenging due to the nature of the business and limitations.

Today technology is used for practically everything. Technology runs hand-in-hand with planning events, but technology can also be utilized during the event. This article shares how to use the presence of technology to keep the audience captivated by the speaker. One of the main things the speaker should do is stop with the handouts. Switching to PDF forms or online access allows for the speaker to be assured the papers will not be lost or misplaced by the attendees. Technology also is beneficial to the interaction with the speaker. The article advocates keeping the audiences attention by using an audience response system. This allows them to input answers and be interactive. There are also a few website based companies that allow you to do this through your smartphone. They also suggest using twitter with hashtags to ask questions to the speaker. The event uses specific hashtags for audience participation. To go even further they recommend to text the speaker with any question and can get an immediate response. The use of technology enables the speaker to utilize every possible tool to get the audience to pay attention and to retain the material. It makes sure no vital information or opportunities have gone without an explanation.

The article discusses different ways that events can maximize the use of their data pre, during and post event. Using their registration software analytics, you should pay attention to which channels are most successful and monitor abandonments, which can be followed up on individually. Skipping a lengthy registration questionnaire at the beginning makes it easier for guests to sign up and then its recommended to follow up with an invitation to 'join the community' where you can dig deeper into their details and find out what they are really interested in. Utilizing a social component allows guests to promote different activities to each other and those not yet signed up. I think the most important take away from the article is to have software that can be compatible with other functions that are taking place around the event including payment, sponsor management, merchandise sales, early bird and walk up registrations. Having all of this data in one place allows an event organizer to analyze and share it with internal stakeholders on the sales and marketing teams but also sponsors that want detailed guest information to show the ROI on their sponsorship.

This article talks about "green tourism" and its impact in today's hospitality and tourism industry. Professors from Stanford University, Northwestern, and Hsiuping University of Science and technology in Taiwan speak about the growing demand for modern and sustainable practices from consumers in the 21st century. This is due largely to the harsh impacts felt by global warming, which have began to cause long term damages to tourist areas around the world. These areas include the great barrier reef, the amazon rainforest, and more. In this article green tourism is explained as the new driving force in the hospitality and tourism sector. This new direction is led by the eager demands made by consumers for greener practices and advocacy for environmental awareness. Green tourism includes concepts in every aspect of the industry from hotel sustainability practices, to the efforts of tourists and tourist managers alike, as well as those of tour operators which must all make an equalized effort in conserving local environments and advocate for sustainable measures and solutions.

Technology is in the hands of nearly every person this day and age, so why not take advantage of it? When it comes to hospitality people love to see pictures to see both the venue and the experiences people are having. it lets them imagine their own personal experience and creates a ideas to set up their own personal experience. Digital Marketing also allows to build relationships with clients an is a great place to advocate. It also allows for influences. On top of that, it will allow for people to see exactly what functions, features, attributes, etc. is going on without the hassle of having to call and find out. Technology also allows for easy work for the employees. They are able to use smart watched or portable tablets so they can be mobile with assisting clients and guests with their needs and questions. Digital marketing allows for testimonials of the great place it is.

This article introduces 2017 digital marketing trends for the hospitality industry. The first trend is visual content. Instead of the explanation contents, pictures will influence more to catch customers' attention considering the characteristics of the hospitality industry. Second, social media becomes a great intermediate between potential customers and the business. The business in the hospitality industry should be involved in social media to expose their brand and build client relationship. Third, virtual reality becomes popular to demonstrate the various functions and features lively. Also, adopting wearables or using storytelling production can be a new trend as a marketing tool. It can produce ancillary revenue and get customers more engaged in brand concept. Lastly, digital marketing should be monitored and evaluated for sales trends, supplier orders and employee overtime in a real time to improve more marketing strategy.

The article advocates for the integration of the vital components of an HRIS system. In other words, a firm must treat some things like learning and performance management as critical and vital to its HR system. As such, the HRIS must integrate these learning and development tools that cover performance management and learning systems into the HR Information Systems. The article goes further to expose the reality that most HRIS managers tend to view LMS and performance development as standalone matters. This of course refers to an era where these things were seen as separate and unpleasant tasks the HR department had to get on with as quickly as possible. However, in today's world, performance management and learning are as essential to HR as any other function. Therefore, it has to be integrated into the system for data to be compiled on a daily basis. Then the author goes on to compare an HRIS which is integrated with many different functions with an LMS which is a separate platform. This highlights the inconvenience, challenges in transferring data, and the overall inefficient method of managing a separate LMS from an HRIS. However, the article points out that there are new HRIS systems that simplify everything - from management to performance to learning to succession planning. The author goes on to recommend that it is better to integrate and make LMS a part of the HRIS system. The obvious benefits are highlighted and this is something that most HRIS managers can easily integrate into their systems with modern apps and other technological tools. The take home point is that HRIS should not stand alone nor include learning and performance measurement as an external component or a necessary evil. Rather, HRIS should integrate learning and performance and gain the right tools to compile data on a daily basis rather than an occasional process.

This article talked about the importance of travel agents. Before the pandemic people often thought that travel agencies weren't necessary was a dying career, however since this past year they have really proven their worth and won't be going away any time soon. Travel agents were able to cancel trips and get their customers money refunded or switched gears and planned a different trip for the future. Using the internet to cut out the middleman and save money isn't always the best way to plan a trip and the pandemic proved this.