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It is ture that all of these benefits offered by this software can reduce the headaches involved in keeping track of these important details. Anyone who is responsible for event scheduling will appreciate the way this software helps them prevent double booking any facility and all of the time and inconvenience that such a situation can cause.

I found an old article on Physical Plant and preparation for Y2K! The claimed that high tech hotels needed to check their flash light batteries, first floor grounding of elevators, back up generators and fuel tanks. Besides the fact that this is written for doomsday Y2K they have a valid point to have a disaster plan if an earthquake, hurricane or any disaster takes the hotel off line. Loss of power is a real threat especially in hurricane Miami. We need to know that data will be backed up, rooms can be accessed, and that people will not remain stuck in an elevator. Please read below With hotel systems growing ever-more tech-dependent, disaster planning extends well beyond protecting data. Proaction Better Than Reaction Computer Systems Demand Special Attention Just outside California's state capital, the Sheraton Sacramento Rancho Cordova Hotel is a magnet for business travelers in the high-tech and government sectors.

Before Midnight Cilli! No pumpkin carriage here lol. Thanks

Commentary - Corporate meetings and events are on the rebound after the recession, but many organizations are also rethinking how technology can help them plan a more budget-friendly and productive business meeting.

Since corporate meetings and events have been suffered recession for quit a while, new they are facing a revolution of high-tech event planing to be more cost saving and more productive. This article mainly introduces those tochnology tools like database tools, attendee registration tools, video/web conferencing tools and even room diagramming tools for event and meeting planing oever the Internet.

November 19th 2009, Planes at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International airport in Atlanta, Georgia experienced numerous of delays. Airlines were cancelling and delaying flights all over the United States, due to problems with the airline system. The system that collects airlines flight plans was experiencing technical difficulty. During the time of the problem, safety in the air wasn't the issue; planes were still flying. Various airlines resorted back to manually processing flight plan. The biggest issue that the airport, and other airlines faced during this time; was the fact that so many flights were being delayed. I can only imagine the agony to plan and arrange flights manually. One of the most important factor, is that everyone safety wasn't threatened by the system problems.

This article addresses the lack of technology being used in the event planning industry. In this article there is a company and women featured who saw the lack and the need for technology in the industry and took the initiative to take charge and began something called planner tech. Basically these are events all over the country to show local event planners how they can benefit from technology. I thought this was so innovative and interesting. It is nice for people who see a gap in our world and they can locate it and show this lack of tech to other people and help them use it to their advantage

This article indicates benefits of events planner to use internet technologies to search event place. Technologies makes process of event planning more efficient and increases communication. The social media and internet application is very important for event planners. People can find proper ervent package for their requirement For instance, PlannerTech will showcase presentations from a selected group of Internet technology companies catering to the event industry, including Event Leadership Institute, Event Farm, Hashable, IML, and ShareSquare. The showcase will be followed by a networking event, where event planners will be able to socialize with peers as well as learn more from the company representatives. Attendees will be able to get their pictures taken at the TwitPic Photo Booth as well.

In this weeks reading, the article, "Why Investing in Hospitality Technology is Investing in Good Business", mentions how due to the economic downturn hotels have turn to cutting technology and staff levels as a method to minimize costs, yet this is a recipe for disaster, if not conducted adequately. Technology is continuously evolving, it is important to make decisions regards IT investment that will be useful in the coming 3-5 years. Technological infrastructures should operate to facilitate a process or procedure for the overall benefit of the hotel, rather than take a day-by-day approach. In an ever-demanding industry, it is critical for hoteliers to be adequately prepared with automated systems, reducing if not eliminating important manually conducted tasks which are damaging the operations of the hotel due to the lack of real time information which will help revenue maximization. In moments of recessions, companies minimize their cost reducing what is foreseen as unnecessary such as IT investment, yet is important to maintain a level of preparation and not losing the opportunities presented by the market.

Hotel owners and managers are putting eyes on technology in the hospitality industry slow recovery period. All pundits agree this method can bring some recovery. The international hotel organizations have made many plans of improving investment in technology and staff. Progressive hospitality organizations have updated and invested in new technology and training, change the industry requirements and market. Before investment, the most important is to look at what operational efficiencies the technology can bring and how the technology will benefit the hotels. There are many technologies are good choices for investment, such as Revenue Management Systems. This technology is efficient and can help hotels track historic data, forecast future demand and so on. We also need to technology is changing all the time. So this is a big challenge of managers to make decisions for a long development. We also need to realize that the hospitality industry is changing, strategies will not always be applicable to new, unique situations. It is important for hotels to increase advantages in the competition.

Those hotel groups that fail to recognize the speed of change in technology and what this can bring to the business will find themselves significantly under prepared when the market starts to strengthen. While "its never too late" to act - there is a significant opportunity cost in doing nothing or worse still, cutting technology out of the day to day operations. For a hotel to effectively operate and ensure it is maximizing its incoming revenue, the right technologies needs to be in place. Through investing in the right technology at the right time, savvy hoteliers will be ensuring that their facility(s) are able to effectively maximize their ongoing revenue capability now and into the future.

StarwoodMeetings.com is a new simple website that can provide all the useful information about the meeting planning in Starwood hotels. This website can give the planners full property details such as the hotel feature, integrated maps, photos and floor plans, on-site meeting service, and meeting management tools for event planners to plan their events easier. A compare view tool which provided by this website can helps planners to compare hotels and their special offers. This new site also includes information on signature services like Starwood Preferred Planner and On-site Specialty Event. The Starwood hotel listens to customers' feedback and tries to provide all the useful information which needed by the event planners throughout the planning cycle. What's more, planners can get special offer which available at more than 350 Starwood properties in North and South America when they book event through this website. In order to encourage planner to book meeting on this new web, hotel provide bonus for those planners. Those bonuses include a welcome reception, percent off master-billed rooms, or complimentary room upgrades.

This is a great tool for event planners and a very smart move on Starwood's part. By giving the event planners access to this software they avoid unnecessary phone calls asking basic questions and save valuable time that could be used for something else. If it enhances Starwood's productivity and does not frustrate the event planners (user friendly/ user acceptance) it should become more prevalent in other hotels as well.

This article tells us some important factors in meeting planning. One of the most important ones is technology. Event and meeting planners regard meeting technology resources as one of the top five vendors they are going to seek. They author gives some data, which are very good and useful. 57.5% event and meeting planners are incorporating technology into the meetings with using "online registration", "video conferencing" is 20.4%, "social networks" is 17.7% and "blogs" has a proportion of 14.2%. Besides technology, there are other factors in the meeting planning. They are economy and sustainability. They economy results in the increasing costs that have cut into budgets for other meeting items. Sustainability lets event and meeting planners to focus on recycling such as reducing waste and decreasing on-site materials. This relies on technology as well. If the technology is good, the event and meeting planners will accomplish their goals of going green.

The article described how HRIS is important and useful to a company. Usually, it can help manage kinds of HR related information; it can help with hire, training and measuring. But this article also referred that it can manage the money spent on benefit plans. Today's CEO need to know how much the HR can contribute to the shareholder.So future of HR analysis has to be linked to other key performance indicators such as revenue and profitability and investing in new HRIS software is need of the hour.

In the wake of the recent fire that wreaked havoc on Chicago area airports this past weekend the FAA is planning to review its security measures. On Friday, an employee at a radar facility in Aurora Illinois set fire to a telecommunications room in an attempt to commit suicide. The fire caused thousands of departing and connecting flights bound for the Chicago area and around the country to be canceled and grounded. Not only were flights canceled on Friday but many continued to be canceled on Saturday and Sunday as well. Chicago's O'Hare Airport is the second busiest airport in the nation and an issue in security can disrupt not only the Chicago area but also flights around the country. It was noted that this incident was one of the most challenging situations air traffic controllers have had to work through since 9/11. Air travel is incredibly important to most Americans and a breach in security can be devastating. It is most important to keep travelers safety in mind especially when it comes to traveling by air. Although it is very important for travelers to make it to their final destination it is much more important that they get there safely and this is a topic the FAA is going to review as a result of this incident.

I think the question to be asked is "Can we do anything at all when a crazy person is in our midst?" If he was working at the center, he must have had some sort of vetting or clearance that he had to complete for employment. Did no other employees see any signs that he was suicidal (someone ALWAYS does)? What kind of measures were being employed to secure this clearly critical piece of infrastructure? How long did it take for anyone to respond? Clearly, lots of questions need to be posed. The effects of this one fore will ripple for months to come.

Recently, the Priceline Group has acquired Buuteeq, Hotel Ninjas and Open Table. They are looking to merge Hotel Ninjas' web based PMS with Buuteeq's digital marketing software. Integrating both of these programs would mean that Priceline would be able to offer hoteliers a well-rounded system that could keep track of customer folios and housekeeping processes through cloud based web interface. The Priceline Group has plans to integrate their two cloud-based systems for hotels. Many properties are concerned with the security that Priceline may have in place and they do not want their information getting out to competitors. While the new processes that Priceline Group is offering seem very worthwhile and efficient many properties may buy into it and ignore the security concerns. One of the main considerations of this new venture is that Hotel Ninjas is a young company and the Priceline Group does not have much experience on this end of the industry. These changes could start a fast growing trend with the way online travel agencies and properties are communicating and doing business.

This article talks about the difficulties surrounding information security in the hospitality industry. Many hotels are increasing their spending on this security but they are falling short of what hackers can accomplish. A survey of 9,600 hospitality executives revealed that security incidents increased by 25% in one year. It is essential for companies to renew their security policies and increase their security budgets if they want to get a handle on the threats that are out there with cloud computing and more smart phone and tablet use the technology is just waiting for hackers to have fun.

I liked this article because of how clear it discussed the possible issues that can and have occurred in the hospitality industry with security. It discussed strategies and plans that must be taken, along with discussing how to be prepared for new technologies.

Security is something that must be worked on all the time. It must have funding and support of management. The threat has grown because of smart phones, tablets and cloud technology. Hackers will always try to find a way to circumvent the security so it must be updated and reviewed.

Summer is wedding season. Celebrities aren't the only one spending a ton of money willing to spend on their honeymoons. Billionaires have honeymoons almost as extravagant as their wedding itself. With all that money, but tends to be complicated. Ovation Vacations have become experts at planning honeymoons for billionaires. This company is known for planning leisure travel consulting for 'ultra-high net worth' people. This team consists of 30 employees which plan nearly 200 honeymoons per year, averaging about $50,000 each trip. This results in $1 million in revenue per month. The CEO is considered to be the Olivia Pope of the travel industry. An interesting request of travelers who book with Ovation is that they like specific cuts of meat during traveling. It's very common to have meat sent from the U.S. to where ever they are vacationing. This is very interesting to me because you would expect one of the main attractions of traveling is to try new cuisines. Seems a little over the top. It gets a little more extreme -- one guest even requested an al dente pasta cooked for a certain amount of minutes. A celebrity requested dragon fruit for their "pink smoothie". This gets tricky when other countries have rules when it comes to importation. JLo wanted Ovation to pick our green M&Ms for her. In addition, another guest wanted a crate of Fiji water bottles delivered nightly. It gets even better, one guest paid $40,000 for her 5-night stay in order to have her sink filled 7 inches in order to not bend over to wash their face. Another husband spent $80,000 to have a yacht carpeted so his wife can wear her stilettos instead of being barefoot. Sometimes inevitable things happen such as natural disasters. Not a problem for Ovation. They spend $50,000 for one couple to still enjoy the beach, which had been destroyed due to weather. What they did was hire a truck to move sand from one part of the island to the other for them to enjoy a private beach. Something simple, yet

The University of Minnesota offers a graduate-level class called "Event Management in Sport" in which the 30 students create and implement a volunteer management plan for the sporting event the Final Four where an estimated 1,000+ volunteers participate.

This article talks about the increasing cyber threats in hotels and its consequences for the guests. The hotel guests are paying more attention to how their data is being stored, pushing hotels to make some much needed changes in their data security plan. Despite these pressures, many hotels do not have any proper protection measures. "The Hospitality Technology's 2017 Lodging technology Study showed that a surprising 74% of hotels do not have proper protection measures in place". Steps to prevent such breaches and avoid millions of dollars in loss and reputation damages are mentioned in this article. Some practical ways highlighted in this article are: Provide on-going staff training, implement mobile security plan etc.

This article is about event planning is how its not what people think it is. Many don't realize that this is a $450+ industry and there is no room for mistakes. It is still important to have face to face contact even in digital age. A smile and a promising handshake can seal the deal. This is a blood, sweat, tears industry and there is no part time working its all about the passion and drive. Determination and attention details is very important.

With the demand for sustainability initiatives by consumers, hotel are having to make major changes in order to oblige. Sustainability has become a major concern for many consumers and businesses have taken notice. As a result, major hotel chains across country have begun to put in order plans to make changes to their daily operations. As noted in the article by L.A. Times, changes have been made to features such as water usage, machinery operations and even landscaping design . These changes and updates are in the hopes to attract a wider consumer market which now includes Eco-friendly travelers.

The LA Times article, "More hotels are going green, and not just to save water or money" highlights how an "earth-friendly image" is important to many corporate travel managers. Research suggests that having an environmentally friendly hotel not only aids in decreasing operational cost and avoiding city or county fines but may also be a way to differentiate a firm's brand and compete more effectively in the market. With travelers specifically seeking out eco-friendly choices and demonstrating a willingness to pay extra to accommodate a hotels ability to provide these services; going green could be a strategic solution implemented in a manner that allows for increasing market share while reducing operational cost.

Good Afternoon, It good to see hotels are being proactive about being environmentally friendly. It also great they mentioned that corporate travelers are looking for Eco-friendly hotels. I know a lot of companies require corporate travelers to seek out hotels that meet certain green levels and along with there corporate rates. Hotels are demonstrating that they are willing to invest in green technology not only for money but because it the right thing to.

This article is helpful in understanding property management systems (PMS), while providing beneficial features that they provide. A PMS should be "well-equipped to handle the entire guest journey." These systems enable hotels to provide a faultless guest experience throughout. A PMS offers features that facilitate processes for the hotel. For instance, this system provides a smart calendar giving hotels easier visibility to their reservations and availability. This system also provides reports and analytics for the hotel, such as sales reports, manager reports, and inventory availability reports. This system facilitates the jobs of the hotels employees, in turn creating a more consistent experience for the guests.

Network redundancy is the process of enhancing network devices and lines of communication to help safeguard network availability and decrease the risk of failure along the critical data path. Redundancy in networks purpose is to help eliminate specific areas of failure to guarantee better network stability and availability when the network would otherwise be offline. Optimize network redundancy by backing up data offsite and conductions frequent test to measure its durability and maintain it. Protect the network from malicious attacks is also important. By creating plans for when attacks occur by rerouting network services.

Artificial Intelligence is not widely used for booking travel with multiple complexities such as a hotel, car rental and activities however this is becoming more of a possibility with the advancements of Natural Language Processing (NPL). Over the past year there has been major advancements with NPL due to the pandemic and when combining NPL technology with other AI such as chatbots or voice assistants, these systems become more powerful and will be able to assist in planning more complex travel. These systems can also help a travel agent with more complex bookings by gathering the information needed such as date, locations and points of interest.