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The Intelity's ICE is a new virtual concierge program, as a digital supplement to its renowned "GEM" (guest engagement manager) service, which is established in Mogans hotel in New York. By launching the Intelity's ICE, nearly all guests' requirements can be accomplished quickly, for guests can explore the amenities in the hotels, search for events in the city, buy tickets and communicate with the hotel working staff through an ipad in each room. Not only that, but the hotel managers also find it a great program to communicate with the working staff. To the hotel managers, they think that the program can enhance customer service and increase communication opportunities as well as heightening operational efficiencies

I found the mobile app to be most interesting because my article disscussed that as well. I feel that the mobil app will certainily create a unique experience for the visting guest. By going digital there are many benefits to not only the guests but the environment as well. There will be longer be a need for plastic room keys, or large amounts of paper. Hotels will be able to save expenses and man power by providing systems like the new virtual concierge program. In particular, you won't need to hire so many people to book reservations over the telephone. Everything can be done through the Ipad which most people have now a days anyway. However, I would feel better if there was trouble shooter around should the guest not be able to comprehend the technologic system.

This article throws the popular notion that social media is one of the most important point of contact with customers for a loop. It points out that social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, is only a customer engagement channel not a distribution channel where you can measure important date like return on investment. It is limited to building relationship and engaging guests. This article exposes a channel that can do all of this plus generate sales and measure ROIs as much as $33 for every $1 spent. It is direct marketing. Direct marketing motivates customers to "take action, to pick up the phone or click through your website." It can attract specific target segments with specific, tailored messages to get them to act. The article offered a quiz for hoteliers to measure how good hoteliers' sales strategies are, if they scored low they offered them to take up direct marketing. It is the ideal medium for them to reach consumers and generate direct sales. I did not think that direct marketing was such a strong and motivating factor in reaching consumers and generating sales. I have always had a negative view on it because of its cost and vague way to reach out. But I must agree, it is a more accurate way than Facebook or Twitter in measure the success rate of their investment.

As people travel, they post pictures on Instagram and Facebook in order to show their friends what they've been up to. Hotels are now jumping on board and using these ever growing and popular social media sites to expand themselves. Hotels are trying to see if using these sites does increase their business, since it is hard to measure. As they try to increase their "bookings and customer engagement," marketing teams try to increase their brand awareness among potential customers and travelers. The PR manager for the Four Seasons says that "It's not so much what Pinterest can do for us; it's more what Pinterest is delivering to the people we want to have conversations with and how we can serve them even better." The Four Seasons launched a new program called "Pin. Pack. Go." They are attempting to use Pinterest as an online concierge system. Interested travelers pin pictures of places they would be interested in traveling to on their "board" and from there, fellow travelers can re-pin and start somewhat of a picture- discussion about desirable destinations. Due to the fact that so many travelers research locations these days, all media's are being used. Visual aids grab the attention of so many. It's a great way to get the point across in a short amount of time. To scroll through and see the Four Season in Paris, Tokyo, and Australia, may make the potential guest start thinking about possible destinations. With Instagram, users are able to "check in" to places. Their friends see their enhanced pictures and want to visit as well. From there, the possibilities are endless. The point marketing teams are trying to make is that they aren't necessarily looking for high returns on investments, but rather what is the return on engagement.

This article presents that many of independent hotels choose the cloud based PMS to make their working systems more profitable. One of the cloud based PMS, Maestro property management system showcases enhanced technology, additionally customer engagement for increasing a loyalty as like as chain hotels. Here are trends that make independent hotels more productive and profitable. First, it makes direct booking that could reduces reliance on OTAs and boost occupancy. Second, its automated e-messaging increase guest retention and revenue. Third, it boast its affordable and secure information. It delivers instant remote access to property and let operators manage multipe properties. Fourthly, it provides dash board to access to real-time data and make on-the-spot decision. Fifthly, it provides guest loyalty programs to compete with chains. It has automated tracking system to redeem points and boost customer loyalty. lastly, it offers to users the knowledge center for 24/7 to let Maestro users to be familiar with the system and provide access to tools and resources.

Chad Kaydo in his article '7 Things Event Planners Want From Technology Now," highlights the results of a recent survey where industry officials noted what tech changes and adaptations they would like to see as it relates to the Event Planning and Management area of the Hospitality Industry. He noted the following items as the urgent needs of event planners: **Lower Prices - many planners steer clear of the technology due to costs and thus would like to see adjustments in costs relating to new technology. **Integration of Planning Tools - Planners want to be able to connect the different tech offerings used instead of using them in isolation. **Next Generation Apps - Event Apps should be of the same sophistication and simple to use as those of popular consumer apps such as Instagram. **Seamless Social Media Integration - Social Media has become and important tool for event planners. Rene Mark stated that they would like to see "any form of technology that creates a more engaging experience for our clients so that they can interact from the audience, share their experiences online and engage actively with other participants." ** Improved Internet Access - one of the major complaints of planners and something they would like to see improvements on is WiFi access at event venues. Mr. Kaydo noted that planners and tech developers said that the lack of robust, reliable, reasonably priced bandwidth and network services at hotels is slowing the pace of technological advancements across meetings and events. ** Attendee Data Tracking -Improved Technology to keep track of attendee participation. **Help to figure it all out - Planners find it difficult to keep up with technology and to constantly learn how a new device or program works. However this attitude is affecting the results gained from the adoption or lack of as it relates to technological advancements in the Event planning field.

This is a very detailed article about the various ways that hospitality firms are utilizing technology and using their capital to invest in IT related projects. A variety of hospitality firms were surveyed to produce this article on ways they plan to invest in IT and the various projects they feel are most worthy of their dollars. Some of the areas that were most noted and listed as worthy of additional IT investment include improving technology to improve financial performance and enhancements in CRM and loyalty programs, guest experience technology and ensuring the guest stay is always seen as paramount, as well as improved information and cyber security technology as well as an increased focus on understanding big data and improving employee engagement. This article is highly detailed in what it analyzes and it lists a long list of potential investments that a variety of companies will be taking on in the future. The focus of this article was on the year 2017, but many of these concepts still apply to the hospitality industry today and well into the future. Many of these things listed are also things we can see that many companies worked on leading to 2018 and continue to work on and it is the companies that put these IT investments at the forefront that will be leading the hospitality enterprises of the future.

Module 2 Article Summary After reading this article, I found that it was discussing the topic of how hotel PMS technology is on a rise and beginning to take a change. Many hoteliers are looking for innovative ways to operate their hotels while making sure they are getting the needs of customers and providing great service. With that being said, studies have shown how many hoteliers are turning to a cloud based computing system. There were main benefits that discuss the incorporation of using this system such as it being more efficient. They see reverting to this cloud based system as a money saver. This can get rid of many things that are associated with traditional hotel PMS systems such as hardware costs and so forth. Using the cloud based systems, hoteliers are able to be more flexible and mobile. Utilizing the cloud allow for them to access and use the data whenever and wherever. Also, by using the cloud, hoteliers are still able to engage with guests. A lot of guest may have personal and special preferences while staying at a hotel. Having this information stored in the cloud can allow hoteliers to effectively accommodate their guests based on a guests experiences and habits. This form of technology is "easy to use and intuitive at the end user level." It won't take much to train employees on this type of technology and they'll have accessible information readily available for them to use at their fingertips. Overall, converting over to using a cloud based PMS hotel system is cost efficient, extremely manageable, and be able to allow hoteliers to interact with guest on a real time basis.

Older hotels have been reluctant to make the change to the new PMS's coming out on the market. They have been stuck in time with their outdated systems. However in the past few years more and more have been making the switch. The 5 trends of new PMS's are the cloud, mobility, guest engagement, endless integration and new sleek designs. Hoteliers are needing to make the change if they want to stay with the ever changing technology.

Hospitality executives sometimes are reluctant to switch to more modern PMS, sometimes because being old timers or being afraid of moving onto something else. The reality of the situation is that cloud businesses revenues are going up because year by year more and more hospitality industries are moving to all of the benefits of being a cloud based company. "cloud, mobility, guest engagement, endless integration and sleek design" are the top 5 trends in hospitality PMS.

A perfect example of how proximity marketing can successfully build and maintain a loyal customer base and increase their foot traffic.

This article highlights the importance of event registration stage. According to the survey, registration produces up to 48% of total event revenue. Thus, it is crucial for the event planners to make this stage easy and effective. As internet gives an opportunity to easily submit registration information online the event planners need to make sure that they make the whole process simple and convenient. First, mobile integration is very important. Since more and more people access internet from their smartphones and tablets rather than from their desktops, a great attention should be paid to the mobile compatibility of the service. The prefilled fields could be automatically offered to save registrants' time. Mobile integration could also imply automatic check-in with RFID badges at a conference or surveys that are pushed to the attendees' phones after they are checked in. To increase registration numbers some easy steps could be undertaken. The form could contain easy links to share the event on social media. The "no" registrants may be offered "regret surveys" and asked to reference those who might be interested to attend. Electronic event registration provides the event planners with plenty of structured personal information. It could be used for personalization and customization of services and further engagement of the attendees. So in my opinion, event registration software gives the event planners a powerful tool to engage the people coming to the event and make their experience unique by the means of customization and personalization. It also helps to keep the track of all registrants for further marketing.

In this article the writer mentions different trends and solutions to common situations on the event industry. From sustainability all the way to methodologies to avoid sexual harassment.

This article explains a new way that hotels and different companies will be using a new PMS. This PMS will make it easier for the guests and businesses, due to a touchless way of traveling. Due to the challenging times that we are going through at the moment. This is very safe way for all people to still be able to visit hotels and have a great vacation.

This article talks about new technology advancements that will greatly help the event management industry elevate the guest experience and efficiency. Sensory experiences are a big trend and with some of these technological advancements, it will allow for event planners to create unique offerings such as video mapping, virtual reality, augmented technology, etc. Facial recognition and drone technology will aide in improving security measures. Mobile Apps can create customized apps for events with all the information in one place. The planning and execution of large scale events will become more effective with the aid of these and other new technology, which will benefit the planners and attendees alike.

An excellent article that discusses how companies have changed their social media approach during Covid. Instead of selling the destination or the experience itself, hotels are trying to sell the concept of safety and security. Also, the article goes into detail about flexible date plans and more, all being advertised through their social media accounts. Overall, social media is still as important as ever, but the way companies approach it has changed drastically.

This article shares results from an environmental sustainability study of 100 US resorts and a separate survey of 120,000 hotel guests. It discusses a variety of sustainability initiatives such as water and energy conservation, recycling and waste reduction, LEED construction, and guest engagement. While guest engagement was significant, indicating 75% of guests surveyed actually participated in sustainability initiatives during their stay, the effect on guest satisfaction is modest at best. At best, only 0.6% of guests selected specific properties based on environmental sustainability. Guest participation in sustainability efforts were highest at extended stay locations, followed by luxury and upscale properties, with economy properties placing last. The most effective and commonly used aspect of sustainability efforts was towel and linen reuse, showing up in 91% of the survey responses. Overall, while the traditional drivers of guest satisfaction remain consistent across brands and property types (room, facilities, food and beverage quality), sustainability programs do not lower guest satisfaction, but are increasingly becoming a standard expectation of both guests and employees, and have significant cost-savings potential when implemented and managed effectively.

The author presents the argument that optimum performance of a hotel's wi-fi network is critical to a hote and that the demands of IoT, large conferences and the need to update infrastructure require constant oversight. It is argued that outsourcing the hotel wi-fi network to a managed WiFi provider has many advantages over placing the burden and responsibility on the hotel IT team. In my opinion, the article makes a strong case for engaging a managed WiFi provider. What would have been a useful addition to the article is how hotel's should go about managing and overseeing the provider that they engage.

This article discusses the benefits of utilizing influencer marketing to give your hotel/restaurant marketing strategy a more competitive edge. They noted that influencers inspire an already established audience and provide inspiration to followers to live more fully and "experience something out-of-the-ordinary." I learned that the key to a great influencer is finding someone who matches both your brand values and the values of your audience. They also discussed how influencers add authority and trust and how they are seen by their audience to be unbiased and objective. This puts the influencer in a position of great trustworthiness when it comes to purchasing decisions. The article also discussed how influencers help marketing departments by coming up with fresh and exciting content that their audiences will want to see. Lastly, the article touched on that since the COVID-19 pandemic social media has become more powerful than ever before. People are spending an additional 3 minutes on Instagram per day. The best way to leverage this new increased usage is to get an established influencer who understands your band and who already has a relationship with your targeted audience to work on your campaigns. Overall, influencer marketing is here to stay and if carefully researched you'll see a strong surge of engagement on your social media platforms.

Social media can both positively and negatively affect companies. Companies need to dedicate time and resources into creating content to help build brand recognition and fan loyalty. Content needs to feel organic, to help drive more traffic and brand loyal and awareness. With the many upsides to social media marketing, comes some disadvantages. Posting content allows for negative feedback from consumers. Companies should work on replying back with positive solutions to customers as other potential clients will also see these and reconsider using your brand.

This article discussed the pros and cons of mobile proximity marketing and how to possibly overcome the downfalls of the type of marketing.

privacy concerns, complex management, excessive opt-ins, conversion issues

There can be many benefits and negatives to introducing new technology into your company. While it can be interesting to see new marketing methods for a company, these results can also be temporary. A company wanting to integrate these new marketing methods into their business will have to identify if their audience would react well with this new form of marketing and make their choices based on those results.

Event technology is forever changing and adapting to current environments. With COVID-19, event technology will be more prevalent than ever. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can make the attendee feel like they are in the middle of the event while actually being far away. Facial recognition software allows for streamlining check-in, but also allows for entry to be contactless. As most events have become virtual, livestreaming is very important to bring the event into the living room of those that cannot physically attend. Event apps are becoming more and more popular in that they bring all of the event information right onto an attendee's smartphone and allows them to customize their experience. Attendees can participate from far and wide, so having the information be translated into their language increases their accessibility and inclusion. Artificial intelligence collects user data and turns it into personalized recommendations for their event experience. Games brought into an event increases audience engagement and allows for team building and friendly competition. Event planners have project management software available to them to help streamline their planning and saves them time and money by not having to manually do certain tasks.

This article summarizes the results of a report done on TripAdvisors free online marketing platform. This platform offers a management response tool that business owners can utilize to better their marketing efforts.  The results are in line with my opinion. If there is more information on a hotel, I am more likely to chose it over another with less information.