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I found this interesting interview of Tina Hoang-To by Jeanette Mulvey. Tina describes what led to the creation of Wedding Spot (the stress of her own wedding) and the growth her company is continually experiencing.  Wedding Spot allows couples to browse, price and compare wedding venues around their preferred location, eliminating the stress of having to visit a high number of different places in order to get of quote. As she described it, I realized it was very similar to what Yelp does for restaurants and bars.  I am not currently planning a wedding but I went browsing through the website and in my opinion this can prove to be an invaluable tool for brides and grooms to be as it saves them time and reduces their stress. It also has a feature that allows users to set a budget.  As more venues join Wedding Spot, I am sure it is only a matter of time before it is a necessary first step to planning a wedding and choosing a venue. 

Recently, more and more technologies are designed for wedding planning. For example, 1. Pin Your Plans: Sites like Pinterest and Lover.ly are great ways to find, collect and scrapbook all of wedding likes and ideas. 2.Wedding Photo App: Apps like Snapable let you create an online album and allow guests to instantly upload the photos they take through a mobile app.  3. Online Gift Registries: Try an online wedding registry that allows you to add anything from anywhere, or register for cash, and provides guests with a fun way to collaborate on big-ticket gifts. 4. Wedding Websites: Wordpress has made it easier with customized themes just for your wedding. Set up a free account, choose your favorite wedding theme and customize the images and wedding details, and colors to suit your big day.

The use of wedding apps is making life easier for the frantic bride or wedding planner preparing for the big day. These apps help organize all aspects of planning. One of the most useful parts of these apps is one called task manager that allows the planner to keep up with each step of heh wedding planning through e-mail updates and scheduling calendars. It will be interesting to see if a tech savvy generation will even need people to help plan their wedding. Maybe digital wedding planners will overshadow the traditional wedding planner.Technology is changing the face of the industry and it will be interesting going forwards to see how the industry evolves over the next few years.

This is the perfect app for all those bridezillas out there. For people who have to be in control of everything this allows them to have access to the things they want. I personally would think it is a good idea on keeping things for the wedding in order but I would definitely want someone to plan the wedding and not just an app.

I can see the young independent bride of the digital age welcoming this technology especially if they are on a budget. I do believe though for the high end bride as well as older couple may opt for more personal contact. These apps are great for starters. I particularly like the wedding Genius that is linked to vendors eg styles for wedding dresses ect.

As I am getting older, I have had the joy of attending many weddings of close friends and family. Currently, I have been helping my best friend plan her wedding and I stumbled upon this. I think this article provides a few interesting pointers for the "big day." The big day doesn't have to use all the electricity in the world, or require you to cut down a bunch of trees. This article highlights ways to make your wedding more eco-friendly. For wedding invitations, use recycled paper. This also goes for thank you notes and name cards. Everything that goes into a wedding is made from something. Try to buy locally- it supports small businesses as well local vendors. When picking a venue, try to think about travel costs for relatives and friends. While having your wedding at the Biltmore may be beautiful, A quiet farm in Homestead or even a small wedding on the beach may be nice. No electricity is needed then. When arriving at your wedding, you may want to think about providing your guests with a shuttle service. This will drastically cut down on the amount of chemical emissions released into the air. Try to use flowers that are in season in order to reduce the amount of chemicals and pesticides used. Fresh flowers smell better and look nicer. Green Weddings: By the Numbers 2.3 million: Number of couples that get married in the US each year. That breaks down to more than 6,300 weddings a day. $20,000: The average budget of a wedding in the U.S.; this number increases to £16,000 ($31,222) in the U.K. and decreases to €12,000 ($15,782) in France. 14.5 tonnes: The amount of CO2 created by the average wedding in the U.K. 80 percent: The percentage of gold minded each year that goes into jewelry, out of 2500 tons. 50 years: Length of time the current amount of already-mined gold could satisfy demand; much of it currently sits in bank vaults and in old, unused jewelry.

Hotel certified wedding planners and event and catering managers can promote social media walls to weddings, social groups, and business conventions to not only enhance the guests' hotel experience, but to also generate organic UGC (user generated content) to use in its social media marketing strategy. A relatively minimal amount of hardware is required as building a social wall can be accomplished with either an LCD projector or LED screens and a social media aggregator tool. Hotels can create new revenue streams for their F&B Department.

This article is introducted about wedding planning technology in today's hospitality industry. In 2011, the global wedding industry was valued at $320 billion, a large slice of which was money spent on hotels as a wedding venue. And many large hotel brands have wedding planners on hand to help couples organize their big day. Generally, it's natural for consumers to look for digital information. And hotels provide touchscreen technology. It would be served content of your own design from a PC or laptop in the hotel. What is more, it invites couples to explore the hotel as a wedding venue, and offers content that engages minds with the possibilities, such as wedding checklists, a space calculator and availability calendar. And installing a touchscreen system is not complicated. Content is controlled and published to the screen using digital signage software, which can be downloaded from reputable providers for free. In a word, this new wedding planning technology is good for both hotels and consumers.

I used to work in Hyatt on the Bund Shanghai where accommodates customers not only luxury and extravagant event meeting plan but also the considerate and exclusive wedding planning. it has the professional wedding consultants as a team to design the wedding events for customers and satisfy nearly all the customers with over thousands of wedding planning. From this website, it's easy to find some kinds of basic wedding packages. if customers have some unique idea, the wedding planning team would accept it and improve it. no matter what kinds of requests customers have, they will endeavor to achieve their expectations.

Another Article about how Covid-19 has affected the industry. In this one in particular, is about an application that can be accessed by Android phone or website called Event Tow. With this new app that was inspired in millennial technology and Covid-19 pandemic, the customers can book events from the comfort of their homes and/or office. I believe this could be another example like the Smart-bar

The article discuses how as many cities have banned large gatherings to slow down the spread of Covid-19, many couples that were set to marry in the months of March, April, and May, have now been forced to either cancel or postpone their weddings. Many couples may lose their deposits and may have to settle for weekday wedding when rescheduling, as it will prove challenging to find dates that will work for all vendors (venue, florists, caterers, entertainment, insurance), specially for summer and winter dates of 2020 as the more weddings become rescheduled. However, for planners and vendors business revenue will be greatly reduced for the coming months, putting business-owners under pressure to come up with money to pay their staff and keep their business alive until the crisis passes.

"Now a new kind of commercial drone phenomenon has taken off in the United States. People now use small quad copter drones to even shoot photos and videos for their weddings. What seems like a stranger than fiction phenomenon is actually a new craze across the country." The wedding and hospitality industry finds itself forced to conduct business illegally because the FAA is holding onto an outdated rule that essentially states drones cannot be used as part of a commercial enterprise. From Disney's recent application for four drone-related patents, to the ever-widening array of hospitality connected, drone-related applications (parking lot security, large event coverage, wedding photography, etc), the industry finds itself in a quandary. Does it forego use of drones and wait for an FAA ruling (no earlier than September 2015) and risk being left behind by the early adopters, or does it seize upon and expand the use of drone technology while risking the ire of a powerful government agency? In all likelihood, the market will speak with its wallets, forcing regulators to ultimately play catch-up with an industry that is on the verge of a technology driven explosion.

EventPro planner Software is the solution that your business needs to jump to the next level. Your event business will go to a new level of efficiency and organization that you will have enough time to have a better relation to your client. This software will organize meetings, conferences, seminars, vendors fairs, weddings, etc. The software features are organization, communication log, comprehensive reports, attendee online module.

 The hospitality industry encompasses a wide range of sections from lodging, restaurants, special event planning, conventions, and many more.  The hospitality is unique in the fact that scheduling employees often times varies from week to week depending on the occasion. One week you may have a wedding that requires 50 employees while the next week you may only need 10 employees. ZoomShift provides the flexibility for managers to schedule around the demands of their clients with employee availability in mind.

HoneyBook was created by a newlywed couple who found it difficult to plan and share the memories of their unforgettable experience. HoneyBook is a combination of honeymoon and booking. According to the article, HoneyBook is a "technological hub for professional event planners and the contractors they hire-where brides and grooms to be(of other customers coordinating a multi-pronged operation) can comfortably manage all facets of their event from any web-enabled device."

I found this article very interesting. It deals with the development of a new website that incorporates all facets of event planning into one central hub. The website was coined "honey book" a conjunction between honeymoon and booking. It's creator Naama Alom, got the idea when she, herself, was planning her own wedding. She realized that there was not one place where she could store all of her event, vendor, and decor information. "Honey book" is also a medium to share your event highlights with family and friends. Naama decided that Facebook was not sufficient enough and when investors expressed interest, Naama and her husband packed up and moved from Israel to the United States. The US housed the billion-dollar target market that "honey book" was developed for.

Event planning is one of the vital areas in hospitality. Many guests travel for various reasons and one of them is entertainment or special events be it festivals or weddings. These occasions have to be planned and well executed for repeat business. According to the article event planning such as festivals are great economic generators to local communities; for example the Anderson Arts Festival, an annual event in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. With eyes twinkling and listeners enthralled, Miller talks about the first economic impact study of the event, conducted in 2010, which revealed that the annual festival grossed $13 million in a town of 18,000 people. The multiplier effects of event planning such as festivals are the life blood for many families and businesses, and in many instances these events are supported by local government because of the economic impacts.

An Event planner has an interesting, fun and time consuming Job. The main tasks of event planners are to coordinate and manage conferences, meetings and parties. Some planners work exclusively organizing a specific type of event, such as those who specialize in wedding planning. Others may work with large corporate clients or smaller private groups. Many planners run their own businesses, while others may work for event planning agencies. Due to the nature of the work, many planners work long and irregular hours. As far as for Education requirements, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there are no universal educational requirements needed to start a career as an event planner. Nevertheless, they need a certain set of skills, and one way they may be developed is by completing a bachelor's degree program in hospitality, communications or public relations. Common core classes in these programs include risk management, event coordination and professional ethics. Some programs allow students to specialize their education through courses specifically intended for wedding planning while other programs may feature courses for students interested in careers organizing sports and entertainment events. Furthermore, it is very important that event planners have phenomenal communication and organizational skills.

This article introduces the requirements to be an event planner. For the education requirement, although the BLS reported that an event planner does not need the universal education, event planner needs some skills from the bachelor's degree program. As a professional event planner, they should get many skills from the special program in the hospitality university. On the other hand, event planner should at good at communication. As they always communicate with clients that need good ability of oral and writing. And the event planner should have excellent organization skills to handle different clients simultaneously. In addition, more experiences the event planner have that will attract more clients or events.

Green Initiative by Hilton Hotel Hotels as well as other service industries are looking for new ways to run more efficiently and looking to nature to give them some ideas. The latest in green technology is allowing hotels to push the eco-envelope and create energy efficient roof systems that also help the environment, and provide a visually beautiful space for their guests to enjoy. Hilton Hotel chain recently constructed Hilton Baltimore to break records with their proactive "green" policy, by creating garden to cover the entire roof, which Hilton looks upon as a commitment to the community and environment- a top level priority which stems from the top at the corporate level and is implemented down to the property level. This kind of innovation benefits all the major stakeholders…….it helps the environment by reducing rain water run-off, creates habitants for birds to thrive, helps to keep the hotel cool thereby reducing utility expense, it also provides a conducive atmosphere for the guest to enjoy and above all it generates good will for Hilton Hotels. This is not just happening in the U.S. Hotels around the globe are choosing to guide their business towards efficiency utilizing green roof technology. Besides recycling, and purchasing 'Green Sustainable Energy Credits' for 50% of the energy it utilizes annually, InterContinental Chicago hotel initiated "waste minimization" with a program that donates table scraps and leftover foods to local farms or composting sites. They have also introduced 'Green Weddings' and 'Green Meetings' options for event planners, bicycle rentals, organic wines and foods, and distribute seeds to employees to encourage giving back to the environment.

This article is a general introduction of Opera system. It is one of the most commonly used system in hospitality industry, especially in hotels. As far as I know, this system is used in basically every five-star hotels in my hometown. We can see from the article that it is helpful to basically all the departments in hotels. This is the system I used during my internship in Intercontinental Hotel Beijing Beichen. The main function of this software for me is to extract reservation information of our banquet and conference rooms. Under the guidance of my supervisor, I learned how to make a Banquet Event Order by this software. It is the common tool we used to get and share information with our colleagues in other department. For example, when I receive a call from a guest and he needs to book a banquet room for wedding ceremony, I click on the book button and our colleagues in Reservation department will know it is occupied by other people if someone else want to book it on that day.

Hotel de Paris in opulent Monte Carlo, Monaco pleasantly surprises as a forerunner in the hospitality industry's green revolution. Prince Albert II leads by example after having a 'sustainably' lavish wedding using local and fair-trade products. Even though "mullet carpaccio" does not sound delectable to me; I am sure world renowned Chef Alain Ducasse knows how to transform the ordinary into extraordinary. Prince Albert II went so far to even have his cows supply the milk for his ice cream dessert, I call that dedication. With such excellent leadership and funding in the green initiative the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation addresses three major environmental issues: climate change, biodiversity and water consumption. Because of the Foundation visitors to Monaco participate in the green initiative with or without their knowledge. The casino, four hotels, several restaurants and spas all educate their staff on how to "be green." Hybrid shuttles, organic farming, reclaimed watering, on-site herb gardens and the banning of bluefin tuna are all examples of how the hospitality industry in Monaco has gone green. Monaco's will and initiative in the green revolution is inspiring. I hope that every hotel worldwide can try to adopt some of these practices and look to Monaco as a role model.

SocialTables is one of the latest and most successful hospitality start-ups. It is essentially a hospitality SaaS. It was founded by Dan Berger, an event-planner turned programmer. Founded in 2012 and based in Washington D.C., one of the premier corporate hospitality locations in the US, the start-up has recently raised $8 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and followed by Thayer Ventures. This funding adds to the previous $1.6 million the company raised, which helped them streamline their event planning tools. According to its website, SocialTables is a cloud-based solution that offers event diagramming, seating, and check-in tools for event planners. The software can make room layouts that event planners can use to show clients, compose detailed seating charts and arrangements, and it offers a fast check-in app. All of this is done on a colorful, intuitive, cloud-based site with mobile integration. In two years, SocialTables has grown considerably. It has over 2,500 customers and 30,000 users. Additionally, two-thirds of its customer base is actually composed of venue-owners, including major corporations like Hyatt Hotels and Caesar's Entertainment. Academic institutions like Harvard Business School and The Ohio State University also subscribe to SocialTables. Additionally, one-third of its customers are private party planners. SocialTables is becoming an affordable, customizable, tech-progressive solution for event planners of all levels. Industry leaders like Hyatt and Caesar's already subscribe to its services. In the future, I think that the start-up should focus on increasing its ability to provide affordable and capable solutions for private event planners, particularly in the wedding category. While that is an extremely competitive and saturated market, SocialTables could provide an industry-leading software solution and use its credibility to entice private planners into its cloud-based ecosystem.