Group items tagged

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.

The organization of a virtual and hybrid event requires a DCO, not a typo (!), this is a Digital Conference Organizer, a team with specific knowledge and competences and the ability to offer strategic guidance on planning events with full or partial digital components” outlines Annalisa Ponchia.

Content First. Linking the content with the right communication format and style should come first, adapting the tone of voice, session formats and tools.

The Digital Event Team: strategic mind-set and tech skills. From the Digital Event Strategist to the Content & Resource Manager or the Digital Tools expert, there are several specialist skillsets and profiles that are needed for this kind of event.

Digital platform and the best user experience: how to choose the most suitable solution? Whether it is a fully virtual event, a hybrid or multi-hub  digital event, you must assess your needs first and then choose

Digital Sponsorship opportunities and Virtual Exhibitions. It is important to consider and find new ways

The importance of Communication

Sustainable actions and CSR initiatives for virtual events.

Organising a digital event can open a wide range of new opportunities because you are not limited by the usual physical barriers, you can very easily expand the audience and with the correct event duration and timetable you can even prolong the event lifespan” adds Annalisa Ponchia. “There is one extra tip that I would suggest and that is leveraging data and feedback to make sure that the event is fully measurable. If you set clear KPIs at the outset and leverage all the channels from analytics to social media and the event app then you will be in a great position to measure the event impact”. 

Planning a virtual or hybrid event is much more complex than you would imagine. Mastering virtual is the first step, but it is also crucial to leverage online event strategies to create memorable and engaging hybrid experiences. Our teams are consulting clients to embrace the innovation and are fully committed to explore the new possibilities and find new, creative solutions

At Disney

right: © 2016 A

the internet consumer of today assumes all businesses worthy of trade have a website;

E-commerce allows the tourism consumer to purchase tourism products and packages online and act as his or her own travel agent by building personalised travel packages and eliminitaing the need for traditional processes

2B

E-procurement can be defined as a business-to-business (B2B) tool that supports the buying process

Today, e-commerce focuses on profitability.

E-commerce mainly helps in the generation of leads, presenting information about the tourism product to the customers, and facilitating the transaction process electronically

consumers have become the storytellers and are the new brand ambassadors.

studies in the tourism and hospitality arena have indicated that ICT is a tool particularly suited to this industry for a variety of reasons.

“if I can’t find enough information on your hotel it’s probably not a good choice.”

For the hospitality industry, the goal of t-commerce is to apply tablet devices in a way that technology complements service, not replaces it. Hotels, restaurants, bars and private member clubs have become better able to manage a variety of operations via tablet devices as the following sections delineate.

Guest-facing applications, which typically integrate directly to the hotel’s property management system (PMS) and/or property website, form the basis of a data warehouse of aggregated information ripe for data mining. Such factors as guest preferences, purchasing habits and service requests can be tracked and analyzed.

Sales Management For more than a year, hotel sales managers have been using t-commerce equipment, often in combination with cloud computing, to capture, process and record hotel bookings.

Order Entry A highly effective digital menu should provide the guest an ability to perform an item search by a variety of criteria (e.g. allergens, dietary restrictions or other factors). Once a menu item is identified, the guest should also be able to initiate order entry.

POS settlement is an important aspect of t-commerce as intuitive functionality and lead through programming can provide reconciliation while providing real-time report generation, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional fixed POS terminal system. In addition, a mobile POS device removes the need to allocate space and personnel to a dedicated cashier station.

The 114-room Conrad Bora Bora Nui resort in French Polynesia has developed 17 different underwater coral structures around its resort with the mindset to regenerate them. This is done using a “Biorock” technique (passing a low-voltage current through electrodes in the water) developed by the marine biologist Denis Schneider. The process is currently considered among the best ways to fight coral mortality.

With assistance of the tour leader, they help transplant the coral to the sea bottom to ensure it is able to continue its growth.

The resort also designed open-air rooms to allow natural breezes to cool the areas, eliminating the need for air-conditioning.

Solmar Hotels and Resorts in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, heats water (including in its pools) using photo-thermal panels.

this energy savings translates into fewer emissions into the atmosphere (or the equivalent of pulling 198 gasoline-run cars out of circulation).

The Spectator Hotel in Charleston, S.C., recently established a food waste diversion program where half-eaten food items such as fruit and pastries are put into a digester that turns them into reusable water.

The Palms Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach organizes three-hour-long beach cleanups every three months.

The role of dive supervision was assessed by recording dive guide interventions underwater, and how this was affected by dive group size.

Over recent decades, tourism activities benefiting from the pleasing aesthetics and biodiversity of coral reefs, primarily SCUBA diving and snorkelling, have experienced rapidly increasing numbers of participants globally

We found evidence that the ability of dive guides to intervene and correct diver behaviour in the event of a reef contact decreases with larger diver group sizes. Divers from operators with high levels of compliance with the Green Fins programme exhibited significantly lower reef contact rates than those from dive operators with low levels of compliance.

Damage to corals on dived reefs often occurs as a result of skeletal breakage, particularly in branching species (Guzner et al. 2010;H a s l e ra n dO t t 2008). Tissue abrasion can also result from diver contact (Hawkins et al. 1999), and a recent study reported a higher incidence of coral disease in areas heavily used for recreational diving

It is possible that other diver characteristics such as qualification level or dive experience may affect the ability to respond to dive briefings, although several studies have failed to find a correlation between divers’ reef contact rates and experience

Due to the difficulties of effectively addressing global stressors, an emerging recommendation is the focus of coral reef management on local scales (e.g. Anthony et al. 2014). A frequent challenge facing managers and policy makers at local levels relates to the maximisation of tourism benefits whilst simultaneously reducing its environmental impacts

Alternatively, previous experience and possible affinity and attachment to a specific dive site may influence how closely divers follow pre-dive briefings and affect their behaviour underwater, as suggested by place attachment theory

The methodologies which have been developed to minimise the environmental impact of SCUBA diving on coral reefs can be summarised as follows: (1) managing or restricting diver numbers, (2) regulating the locations in which SCUBA diving activities occur, (3) regulating the types of equipment used, and 4) implementing programmes which seek to manage the methods used by the dive industry in providing their services. Restricting diver numbers is based on the concept of a reef dive site’s ‘carrying capacity’; a level beyond which diving impacts become readily apparent.

Restriction of SCUBA diving equipment has focused on banning the use of accessories believed to increase reef contacts within marine protected areas such as gloves, muck sticks, or underwater cameras; however, such regulations are often unpopular within the SCUBA diving community

Governments and reef managers seek evidence that the effort expended in implementing programmes translates into measurable benefits; however, research into the effectiveness of such programmes at influencing diver behaviour and reducing diving impacts is limited.

In this study, we focused on dive operators participating in the Green Fins diving programme at three major dive locations within the Philippines.

Nonetheless, levels of dive supervision underwater would intuitively appear to be linked to rates of reef contact, and when examined, the willingness of dive guides to intervene in correcting diver behaviour underwater has been found to significantly reduce diver contact rates

Malapascua Island, Moalboal, and Puerto Galera.

divers may have been aware that a Green Fins compliance assessment was taking place, but they were unaware that diver contacts with the reef were being specifically recorded. Green Fins environmental assessments and diver observations were conducted simultaneously.

Dive guides and guest divers from 44 dive operators participating in the Green Fins programme were followed

Diver characteristics with potential to influence underwater behaviour were categorised as the following factors: diver qualification level (three levels), dive experience (five levels), and previous number of dives at site (three levels).

Divers were assigned a unique diver number, and then followed and observed underwater for the entire duration of their dive.

If the overall group was very large such that the dive guide could not be seen from the rear of the group, the pair immediately behind the dive guide was selected.

Compliance with the Green Fins approach was determined by utilising diver contact rates and dive guide intervention rates as at the dependent variables of interest, and by defining dive operators according to those who had received a high score (above the median score) versus those with a low score (below the median score) on the most recent conducted Green Fins assessment

The part of the body or item of equipment making contact with the reef was recorded as follows: hand, fin, knee, camera, muck stick (a handheld stainless steel or aluminium rod approximately 30 cm in length) and equipment (e.g. tank, submersible pressure gauges, octopus regulator), and multiple (parts of the body and equipment simultaneously). The time during the dive at which the contact occurred was also recorded.

If observable damage (i.e. breakage, obvious physical damage, or injury) occurred as a result of the contact this was recorded, together with the apparent awareness of the diver to the contact, regardless of damage caused.

Interventions were defined as an event in which the dive guide intervened in diver behaviour through signalling or demonstrating correct behaviour in order to minimise or prevent contact with the reef.

A total of 100 SCUBA divers were observed at three diving locations within the Philippines (Table 1). The majority (72 %) of these divers were male, and diving experience ranged from those completing diving training to those who were instructors elsewhere with experience of hundreds of dives.

Following dive completion, divers that had been observed underwater were asked to complete a survey to determine diver characteristics.

Most contacts were made with fins (45.5 %, n = 261); however, hands (19.5 %, n = 112) and dive equipment (15.9 %, n = 91) were also major contributors to the total number of contacts

Contacts made with a camera (77.7 %) accounted for the highest proportion of contacts which resulted in damage, followed by contacts made with the knee (43.3 %), multiple body and equipment parts (38.2 %), equipment (30.7 %), fins (29.8 %), hands (24.7 %), and muck sticks (23.5 %).

A total of 81 interventions were observed (in comparison to 573 reef contacts—see Fig. 4 for the distribution of contacts and interventions);

Camera systems were carried by 55 % of divers; camera-wielding divers accounted for 52.7 % of the total contacts made with the reef. Of divers who utilised a camera, 35 % carried a non-specialist compact type and 20 % carried an SLR type within a specialist underwater housing.

Mean (±SE) dive time was 49.3 ± 0.42 min. A total of 573 diver contacts with the reef were recorded during all assessed dives.

The difference in the frequency of interventions was statistically significant (ANOVA, f = 4.81, P = 0.03)

although a significant portion (36 %) appeared unaware of the contact they made with the reef.

In addition to overall contact levels, some studies have also quantified reef contacts either as the mean number of contacts per diver over the duration of a dive or the diver contact rate per minute of dive time. The mean contact rates of 5.7 contacts per dive, or 0.12 contacts per min, which we observed at dive sites in the Philippines are lower than those previously reported

All divers observed within the present study were diving with operators participating to various degrees in the Green Fins environmentally responsible diving programme.

Identifying factors and policy measures which influence SCUBA diver behaviour underwater can help coral reef managers determine where to most effectively focus effort and funding with respect to dive management. In this study, we found that 88 % of the divers observed made at least one contact with the reef at some point

Divers who are more conservation aware and who contact the reef less may preferentially choose to dive with environmentally ‘accredited’ dive operators; indeed, this assumption partially drives dive operator participation in such programmes.

Underwater interventions by dive guides have been suggested to be the most successful deterrent to diver contact with reefs (Barker and Roberts 2004). In this study, there was no significant difference in the intervention rates between dive centres of high and low Green Fins compliance. Therefore, we cannot attribute the observed difference in diver reef contact rates to differences in intervention rates between these two groups.

Studies examining the effect of carrying camera equipment on the frequency of diver contacts with the reef have produced conflicting results.

Additionally, the administration of a pre-dive briefing can influence diver contact rates underwater (Medio et al. 1997). The Green Fins programme incorporates the use of a pre-dive briefing that emphasises the importance of refraining from contacting the reef, which would be expected to result in lower diver contact rates.

A concern amongst representatives of the diving industry is the use of muck sticks to manipulate animals unnecessarily—pushing animals out of holes for better viewing, stressing animals to show customers their stress behaviour (e.g. an octopus changing colour), and physically breaking hard coral to be used in photographs.

When examining the part of the body or dive equipment which made contact with the reef, we found that the majority of contacts were made with fins, in agreement with Krieger and Chadwick (2013) and Rouphael and Inglis (1998).

It has previously been noted that dive guides customarily perform different roles at dive locations globally; at some locations, they act primarily to lead the dive group around the reef, whilst at others, pairing with and closely supervising individual divers throughout the course of a dive

this suggests that dive guides carry out the closest supervision during the initial phase of the dive and then switch to a ‘dive leader’ role at the front of a dive group.

This study provides evidence that the effective implementation of environmentally responsible practices, via programmes designed to reduce diving impacts, may translate to reduced diver reef contacts.

Many diver characteristics which might intuitively be expected to impact reef contact rates, such as level of qualification and overall experience, were not significant influencing factors in this study, and high versus low levels of Green Fins compliance did not influence the number of interventions made by dive guides underwater.

For continued economic benefit and conservation of Philippine reef dive locations, we recommend that management measures facilitate high levels of compliance with environmentally responsible diving programmes to reduce the impact of diving on coral reefs.

B2E initiatives also must integrate with traditional selling processes in order to fully satisfy customers' needs.

when a company has multiple products and services, they need a flexible platform that enables them to offer multi-divisional products/solutions.

While the merger of B2C and B2B will have a powerful impact on business, it will not erase the differences that exist among different markets.

the key is that sameness exists in the need for companies to provide their customers with product and service catalogs and offerings, pricing, promotions, order management, fulfillment and service. A B2E e-Business solution must support all these capabilities.

However, there are other services that may be better suited for an outside partner than regular staffers.

Oftentimes, when facility managers and on-staff technicians are busy doing things like lighting updates, furniture assembly or remodeling of any kind, they’re doing so on borrowed time.

By outsourcing more services – like construction services, HVAC services, electrical services, plumbing services and exterior services – overhead costs can be kept down, while more specialized service contractors provide quick, reliable care in both emergency situations and preventative, at a low rate.

While hotel management staff may be utilizing the latest technology to streamline services related to guest reservations and checkout, facility management staff may be missing out on opportunities to save with the use of technology.

When looking to technology to reduce costs, facility managers will want to select software solutions which fit their specific needs.

A computer-aided facility management (CAFM) system is another software facility managers can use.

Some solutions also offer a help desk, space planning, scheduling assistance and other features that can be used to manage nearly all aspects of facility management.

Computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), for example, can assist with task scheduling, inventory management and work order management.

The right software depends on the size of the hotel and number of facilities and staffers. Consider purchasing software that can scale with the hotel if it grows.

Some money-saving initiatives require an up-front cost, and sustainable hotel features is one of them.

By taking aim at reducing facility management costs, hotel facility managers are showcasing their eagerness to make changes that will result in happier guests and a more satisfied staff.

The mission-driven 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge is 'real' green development, with the hotel financing the creation of the public park.

The firm are also responsible for the masses of ‘greenscaping’ throughout the hotel – from the towering plants and trees in the lobby lounge to the rather eccentric ‘beds’ of moss in the bathrooms.

Toiletries come in full-size refillable bottles, so you don’t feel short-changed, while doing away with the need for multiple mini bottles of shampoos and shower gels.

the hotel uses a  54% ratio of regional and reclaimed materials

A LEED Certified Project, other conservation initiatives include: the use of wind-power; filtered water in all taps, sinks, and showers; state-of-the-art, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems; a rainwater reclamation system and low-energy lightbulbs used throughout the hotel, as well as green cleaning solvents used to clean all rooms and linens.

alternative energy systems

low-consumption toilets and low-flow showers

water-saving practices

locally sourced ingredients

waste disposal and recycling systems

solar or maybe even wind energy

Plant-based meals significantly reduce the impact on the environment

vegetation

A trend towards rooftop and vertical gardens

local development initiatives

natural toiletries

efforts to limit the use of chemicals

green transportation options

an HRIS creates an easily searchable database of items that administrators can access in seconds.

Once hired, that new employee can use the HRIS to go through company-sanctioned training modules and continue the onboarding process.

A good HRIS will be immediately visible to any new hires, since the platform can help with the talent acquisition and onboarding process, while existing employees will be able to manage their timecards and request vacation time more easily through the system.

The moment you notice a bottleneck in HR should be the moment you consider adopting an HRIS.

A good HRIS gives you, your HR department and your other employees access to contact information for anyone on the team.

It helps HR staff work efficiently.

With an HRIS in place, both parties have a centralized location to track their 401(k) plans, manage their healthcare plans and make adjustments when able.

Through an HRIS, managers can track staff's time and attendance, while employees can use the system to clock in and out, request paid time off, and track their paychecks.

Through an HRIS, you can create meaningful reports that highlight where your company is succeeding and where it can improve.

Operational HRIS: These systems try to reduce – if not eliminate – the repetition in filing and organizing employee data.

Tactical HRIS: These are employee-facing systems by nature.

Comprehensive HRIS: As the name suggests, a comprehensive HRIS closely organizes and examines human resource files.

Strategic HRIS: A strategic HRIS deals with the entire workforce rather than just employee-facing functions.

Paid accounts range from $1 to $20 per user per month, depending on other factors like features and add-ons.

(2) Initially, hotels will be in a period of ‘any deal goes’

(3) Hotels will require more financial security upfront

(4) We’ll face supply and demand issues

(1) Event planners will pay more attention to contracts

(6) Focus on revenue generation from value added se

rvices

(7) We’ll see an increase in hybrid events

(8) There will be an increase in local travel

(9) Future hiring will be impacted by how you act now

The PCI Security Standards Council claims that since March, malicious virus-related reports are up 475%. The reason for the uptick is that cybercriminals are trying to take advantage of rapid changes to the payment-card data environment. In addition, 41% of small businesses have said they’ve suffered breaches costing more than $50,000 to fix.

Contactless payment is one of the big changes within the payment data environment. Several restaurant companies – from chains to independents – are offering it because it reduces customers' physical interaction with the restaurant's POS system. As part of this move, some businesses have eliminated credit-card PIN numbers.

Eliot says malicious email is usually the easiest way for cybercriminals to access your networks. The emails typically show up as urgent requests for sensitive information, often pretending to be from the Small Business Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When the intended victim types in his or her credentials and clicks on a specific link or downloads an attachment, criminals are in.

Anyone looking for easy-to-implement security tips can try these six to start. Reduce areas where payment-card data is stored. The best way to protect against a data breach is to avoid storing any card information at all. With many small operators offering curbside pickup and accepting payment over the phone instead of through face-to-face transactions, it’s important they train employees not to write down payment card details. Instead, have them enter numbers directly into a secure terminal. Use strong passwords. Using weak and default passwords is one of the leading causes of payment data breaches among businesses. Effective passwords must be strong and updated regularly. The most recent guidance is: the longer, the better. Think of it almost as a “passphrase” rather than a password. Use it in the form of a sentence, but mix in different characters within the phrase. It’s much harder to break a long passphrase than it is a short, complex password. Weak and vendor default passwords often result in small business data breaches. Also, don’t repeat your passwords. Update your software often. Criminals look for outdated software to exploit flaws in unpatched systems. Timely installations of security patches are crucial to minimizing the risk of a breach. Whenever updates are available, use them. They will improve performance and close out some of the vulnerabilities cybercriminals are searching for. Enable two-factor authentication. It's so important for restaurateurs, especially where their POS systems or any of their sensitive databases are concerned, to have two-factor or multi-factor authentication enabled. If an instance where credentials are stolen occurs, there will be a second layer of verification the operator can rely on to potentially reduce the chances that information will be breached. Segment your networks. If you are going to store payment data, make sure your POS system has its own separate, secure network. Do not store sensitive documents on public cloud services such as Google Docs or DropBox. If you’re going to store sensitive documents, house them in an encrypted, locked down location.   Be hyper-vigilant. Criminals are going to try to take advantage of this pandemic situation as much as possible. You can protect yourself by not giving out sensitive information, especially within unsolicited emails. Don’t click on links you’re not expecting and do everything in your power to protect all sensitive information.

2. Before a crisis: Have a Risk Management Process in place

A Risk Management Process aims to reduce the uncertainties of actions taken during a crisis. It is important to have this is place in advance, so that your organisation is well prepared for unexpected events that may happen in future.

Establish the context

Identify the risks

Know who your stakeholders are

Analyse and evaluate risks

Analysing risks involves determining the likelihood of a crisis occurring and their possible consequences, from insignificant up to catastrophic. Understanding which possible crisis would have the most negative impact will enable you to decide on the priority course of action.

Treat risks

Communicate and Consult

Being visible and keeping in touch with your stakeholders is one of the most important factors of risk management, and it must be done on a continuous basis in all stages, before, during and after a crisis.

No two crises are the same, and some destinations will be more susceptible to particular crises than others. You should carry out a risk analysis, drawing up a list of crises that might happen based on those that have occurred in your region/country in the past and may happen again.

Draw up a list of your stakeholders to get a clear overview, so you can ensure they are included in all correspondence you issue.

Use your website and social media to keep in touch

ou should revisit your website regularly and publish the most recent information about the impact a crisis is having on your destination/region.

It is really important to date your website communications, so that users can be sure they are receiving the most up-to-date information.

Monitor and review

Crises are often fast-moving; situations tend to be highly changeable and can be volatile. This means that current processes, plans or procedures that you have in place to deal with a crisis should be regularly reviewed and updated. Your plan should be flexible and dynamic, so that you can adapt easily to the changing situation when a crisis happens.

Training and testing

Once you have formulated your Risk Management Plan, you must train your staff and test the plan.

3. During the crisis: Follow these four steps

Once a company is in the middle of a crisis, the first thing to do is to understand the situation as best you can and understand the impact it can have on your organisation. This is a continual process as one of the characteristics of a crisis is that it’s always changing, and the effects on your business will also constantly shift.

1. Mitigation

Mitigation refers to the initial actions that the company that is directly in the face of the crisis or emergency needs to carry out. These are the first steps that need to be taken to protect the ones in the immediate line of fire – teams, customers, suppliers, industry partners and finances.

2. Preparedness

he mitigation stage of the crisis management could be a very short process or a long, drawn-out process, depending on the immediate effect of the crisis on your business. At the same time, the process to start preparing the business for this particular crisis can be key to the next stages of Response and Recovery.

3. Response

The majority of crisis management lies in the response to the crisis. All the preparation you have already done to protect the company and its assets will help you in the response stage.

4. Recovery

It is difficult to know when the Response phase becomes the Recovery phase. However, it is clear that, while you are on the road to Recovery, you should to continue to follow the steps you established in the Emergency Response Plan. As in the previous steps, you should be continuously refining and updating the plan, based on the current situation. Flexibility during the Recovery phase continues to be important. Your organisation may look different following all the changes you may have made as a result of the crisis, and your markets may also have changed.

The 5 Napkin Messenger campaign, which occurred in early 2019, resulted in 77 in-store redemptions. Five Napkin also gained 2,500 new Messenger and email subscribers from the campaign.

Once diners and restaurants are connected through Messenger, Linkletter said restaurants can continue to market to customers acquired through the initial promotion.

Once a diner clicks on the first promotional link, the restaurant never has to “spend a dollar on them again,” he said.

Others go belly up, leaving behind millions of pounds of old gadgets piled in mountainous heaps atop land which has lead levels many times normal.

You’re probably not screaming into a paper bag about the $20 billion or so of gold that’s trashed in electronics every year worldwide. Precious metals come and go. But if you care about the soil that comprises the land of the brave, you should start thinking about what happened to last year’s smartphone (even if it’s just sitting in the garage).

This list of reasons isn’t exhaustive, but serves as a solid starting point for understanding the United States’ e-waste dilemma and what can be done.

U.S. e-waste recycling laws are often outdated or nonexistent

Only 25 states (plus Washington, D.C.) have legislation that addresses e-waste recycling. The other 25 don’t have comprehensive programs, and don’t report what happens to the electronics beyond occasional voluntary numbers, says Jason Linnell, head of the National Center for Electronics Recycling (NCER). Federal laws don’t explicitly address e-waste recycling.

The U.S. isn’t good at recycling

The current level and effectiveness of e-waste recycling depends on which state you live in and whether or not you trust locals to “do the right thing.” The hope for improvement sits with congressional reps, state lawmakers, manufacturers, and gadget freaks (yes, you).

Single-stream recycling hasn’t helped

Between 2005 and 2014, single stream recycling programs increased from 29 to 80 percent in American towns and cities. During that same time period, material contamination rates increased from 7 to 25 percent.

E-waste legislation regularly disappears in Congress

This is not the first Congressional session in which similar bills have been introduced and allowed to die like a first grade classroom goldfish on summer break. SEERA currently sits with the house’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Why is it so tough to pass e-waste legislation?

The U.S. is an environmental rogue

As of late 2018, 186 states and the European Union have ratified it and follow its legal framework. The United States has signed the Basel Convention, indicating an intent to ratify, but is the only developed nation that hasn’t actually done so, which

After the initial Basel Convention was adopted in 1989, many organizations said the treaty didn’t do enough to address the disposal of waste from first world countries into the developing world, and pressed for an update, which eventually became 1995’s Basel Ban Amendment. The tweak — which was attacked by many industrial powers, including the U.S., Canada, and Japan — needed three decades before it was accepted by enough countries to go into effect. In August 2019, Croatia became the 97th country to ratify it, which transformed the updated stipulations into international law in December 2019.

EPA regulations are incomplete

Federal attempts at regulation have stalled, been killed

U.S. pushes back against international efforts

As a part of the 2003 Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), the public was guaranteed free recycling services, and conveniently located collection centers. Around the same time, the EU also passed the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), aka the “lead-free directive,” which restricts the use of several toxic materials in the manufacture of circuitry and electronic products.

In Japan, the Association for Electric Home Appliances requires consumers to help pay for the processing of their goods and manufacturers to set up recycling programs. Electronics recycling has been promoted as such a point of national pride — because Japan is both a huge consumer of gadgets and the country has few indigenous precious metals — that there’s serious talk of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympic metals out of recycled materials. An estimated 80,000 cell phones need to be pulled apart and picked over to complete the plan.

State-level e-cycling programs are uneven

Certified e-cycling programs are important, but also confusing

If you’re the compliance officer who has to make sure the company’s used servers don’t wind up getting tossed in an Indonesian landfill, and you won’t have to nervously answer questions in a “60 Minutes” exposé, you probably want to get that e-waste removed by a disposal team with one of these

That all sounds great until you listen to Puckett, who helped create the e-Stewards protocols. He’s one of several people who took part in the development of R2 for over two years and then refused to continue when the proposed guidelines seemed to be too tainted by lobbyists, including ones at the Institute of Scrap Recycling (ISRI), an organization that favors a free market approach over regulation. Puckett and 13 recyclers created e-Stewards, which describes itself as the “the cleanest, most globally responsible standard for e-waste recycling.” He points out that the R2 certification still allows recyclers to export to developing countries. E-Stewards’ doesn’t. R2 recyclers can drop toxic e-waste in landfills or incinerators in the event of “circumstances beyond their

Scrap recycling lobby doesn’t like regulations

The announcer proudly explains e-cycling is a vibrant industry that adds 20.6 billion to the U.S. economy and supports 45,000 jobs domestically, “safeguarding our environment,” along the way.

Can anything be done? Possibly

Recycling isn’t the only answer for fewer landfills filled with decaying circuits. Chris Wellise, Chief Sustainability Officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), which installs and recovers tech, emphasizes the importance of designing products for longevity, disassembly, and reuse.

“On average, 85 percent of the environmental impacts can be addressed in the design phase,” estimates Wellise.