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With restaurants having to go dark to most of their customers, it has become essential to reinvent and find a way to connect through online events. Using newer technologies like Zoom, Tock, and other social media platforms, closed restaurants and bars can find a way to connect and engage their customers, and sometimes even find a profit in it. In this article, we follow the path of a wine bar owner who closed his doors early on. He then moved to zoom classes for his servers, and decided to tailor them to his consumers. Now, he offers virtual tasting experiences that are followed up with the options to buy those wines directly from his bar. He also has done classes for 25-35 that engage his consumers in a positive experience. I've seen this happen a lot lately with successful pivots in restaurants. Girl and The Goat did this with goatceries, where she has created multi-day groceries that are partially prepared that guests can pick up and then follow her online cooking class directions. I've also seen this with Christina Tosi as she has started online baking classes through Instagram. If restaurants can continue this through the pandemic, it might offer another new option for revenue in the future.

A fascinating article about the origins of Zoom and its path to becoming the most valuable IPO of 2019, including a description of the various technological improvements made over the years. At the core of the article is the message that the founder, Eric Yuan, remained singularly focused on creating a video-conferencing product that people would love using - as opposed to have to endure using. The article finishes by speculating about how Zoom will develop in the near future and by identifying 3 key learnings from Zoom's success.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive surge to online conferencing. This conferencing would not be possible without the cloud. Moving forward this could be the way most work is done as some employers would prefer to have their employees work from home.

"View From  the Top" discusses the new 360-degree camera technology which is helping MGM Resorts and the gaming industry to increase efficiency in their surveillance departments.  These cameras have no blind spots and provide a fish-eye view of the whole casino floor. "It offers situational awareness of the entire floor, and permits the operator to zoom in with other cameras where needed," according to Oncam Grandeye's director of global sales. This company is considered to be a leader in 360-degree technology. The article also discusses a complete solution for surveillance operations. This new technology coupled with more traditional megapixel cameras provide video history of given subjects entering or leaving the property or parking garage (for the entire month). Suspects can even be tracked "back in time" if need be with use of the 360-degree images and software. License-plate recognition software aids in tracking a suspect even if they leave the property. Many thieves end up at another MGM property (there are 10) not realizing their image has been sent out to all of the properties, so if they aren't caught at one, they will be at another. Ticket thieves for slot machines are caught when they try to cash out at kiosks, since their image is on surveillance. Through use of creating triggers in the software, players-club card thieves are caught by patterns and locations of their bets. "We'll mine data for standard deviations, wins that don't look right", says director of surveillance. 360-degree camera technology is one of the most valuable tools in aiding the surveillance operations for the gaming industry.

This article seeks to make people and businesses aware of the threats that have risen due to covid-19. Now that people are away from their desks, their guard is down. However, they can still be connected to the network, making them especially vulnerable to attacks. Not only this, but when it comes to Zoom meetings, they can be intercepted by hackers, leaving the attendees unaware.

This article introduces the impact of the new coronavirus on the technological revolution. It is mentioned in the article that coronavirus has promoted the development of contactless payment in the United States; promoted patients to accept online consultation services of virtual doctors; promoted the popularity of video chat programs such as ZOOM, etc.

Now this article is about Big Brother and total surveillance. The CIA has laid claims that they would be able to tap into almost all of our daily used devices including our dishwashers. Why I don't know but it is unnerving that they would even bother to see if I separated my darks from my lights. In essence The CIA and the NSA will be able to gain access and control of all devices that are linked to the internet.  The article also reports that anyone who has been arrested in NYC is only released from custody with an iris scan. Probably because of the increased presences of CCTV and facial recognition but they are keeping mum on their reasons.  Oh and for all you email users oh wait that is all of us, the NSA is working on de-encrypting all messages to read, analyze and store. 

I'm not sure but that would be a good guess or perhaps they can bug it for sound?

I'm going to go with the benefit of the doubt and say no to the bugging on the machines. In terms of water conservation the government can monitor individual meter readings from companies through water bills, so that throws out that theory as well. I am still pondering the reasons.

This entry-level IP video solution is designed for systems from 1 to 16 cameras, and it is ideal for hotels or other small businesses that need easy-to-use and future-proof video surveillance with HDTV quality. This new solution allows small owners to use HDTV network cameras to help them clearly identify intruders, shoplifters and other incidents. Video can be viewed live and recordings played back from anywhere - on-site or remotely over the Internet. The system supports motion detection and pan/tilt/zoom control. Video clips and snapshots can be easily exported to colleagues and authorities, and the system supports third-party apps for viewing live and recorded video on leading smartphones and tablets, such as iPhone, iPad and Android. Furthermore, all images are recorded onto a standard SD memory card in each camera, and even if a network fails, the cameras keep recording. This reduces cost, simplifies installation, and makes the system more robust as there is no single point of failure.

Social media nowadays becomes a very important role in hospitality industry, and most travelers will search a third party's property reviews like Tripadviser before making their decisions to choose a hotel. You can find either good or bad comments for the hotels around the world from it, and people believe that it has some influence on the travelers' decisions. However, most great hotel groups do not have a website for that use, and Daniel Craig thinks it is because hotel groups not only take care of the customers but also the owners, and as we know hotel group also has franchisers, so if just one unit not operated well, all the other properties will also suffer the reputation issue. But there are also some hotel groups try to do that but with some tricks. Starwood allows the guest to post reviews for some of its brands and list by ratings with the best first, and Marriot set up a new website for its members to post reviews and list by time with oldest first. In my opinion, most hotel groups focus so much on the influence of their brand loyalty, which is also very important, but comparing with the increasing influence of words of mouth that I list below, I strongly agree that those hotel groups need to have a trustful review website for their own ASAP: 1. 90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users (Econsultancy, July 2009) 2. 83% of all holiday shoppers are influenced by customer reviews. (ChannelAdvisor "Consumer Shopping Habits Survey", August 2010)

This article discusses POS systems and the positive effect that it has on the hospitality industry. Not only do they assist the customers by enabling them through the choice of purchases, but it also makes the service a lot quicker. The advancement in POS Systems also assist servers within the industry by way of making their jobs a little smoother, instead of replacing the server and his or her role. POS systems are also sale drivers and assist the hospitality industry by way of knowing what sells the most, what a customer likes the most, and also by way of loyalty programs.

technological advances are changing the way we live our lives - and for the hospitality industry, the most dramatic developments are taking place thanks to the latest, highly sophisticated POS systems. Today's guests and customers are now accustomed to personalized service that is smoother and more efficient than ever before, thanks to better customer data and faster payment systems that eliminate the laborious processes of the past. They have contactless, pre-pay and mobile ordering.

There are various forms of e-marketing, and this particular article zooms into the principle of e-marketing through social media influencers, or in other words, social media celebrities. Social media celebrities have a significant amount of followers and dictate what is good, negative, fun, popular, or high quality in different segments- food, places to go, accessories, brands, and etc. They have the power to engage their audience and influence favoritism through their postings. These people often have a large number of followers and provide audiences with an insight of their private and social lifestyle. This article highlights the importance of capturing social media influencers because it can be a great way to market the property. According to this article, traditional form of advertising, or marketing, is no longer becoming as effective. Social media influencers have far more power than businesses believe. It is important, before a business dives in to capture a social media influencers interest, to dictate whether or not the influencers' number of followers are "real" and not "bought." Usually influencers will have a number over 50,000 followers, and a micro-influencer will have an average between 1,000 and 50,000 followers. The key to distinguish if these followers are "real" is through active engagement from the audience. The ultimate goal of a hotel is to have influencers visit their property, utilize their services, take beautiful pictures and add positive and descriptive captions, geotag location of the business, and finally, tag the hotel they are visiting. It should enable followers to easily click on the link or look up the property, so they too, can experience what their influencer has experienced. It is important that both parties adhere to the standards conformed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It is an absolute must for influencers to include in their post that they are being compensated for sharing the experience.

Proximity Marketing yields tremendous benefits to both the consumer and companies. There are six benefits that companies take advantage of inclusive of geotargeting being able to measure the roi on advertising as opposed to traditional advertising methods.

This article not only describes the 6 benefits of proximity marketing but also how to execute it. It explains what is proximity marketing, its benefits in detail, and how it's the future and is here to stay.

Proximity marketing is more beneficial than I originally thought. Geotargeting is the biggest advantage when using this marketing method and I think that a company can definitely take over a certain area by using this method.

The article explains how Covid-19 has affected the dining industry and how companies have to adapt. In this article, specifically, it talks about how Panera is implementing ghost kitchens, changing how they approach catering, and how they can keep their consumers safe in a post Covid-19 world. Many hospitality based businesses are changing the way they operate, permanently, because of the pandemic.

The article describes how COVID-19 has accelerated the implementation of technology. Companies like Netflix have profited from the pandemic and more systems will be coming to light in the next two years. Its important for companies to assess what technology they would invest on.

This pandemic have definitely brought to light many new technologies. It was untul this, that im guessing many of us has even heard about the online platform called zoom; which professors continued to conduct classes. we saw how many person also started using the internet as their primary platform in promoting and exchanging goods of their business. Although everything that we do cannot all be ran through an online platform this have definitely paved a way for greater things ahead.

It is true that the pandemic have brought opportunities for technology development. This article on Forbes gave us insight in the current situation from another view. It listed the data of stock market and the share prices of leading technology companies to support the topic that the pandemic is a game-changer. From my point of view, this may reflect that technology development is necessary in the modern world and one of the future trends of most industries will be remote communication.

The article lists the varies new technology that are becoming more and more of the norm in modern hotels. The first and most important is WIFI. Ten years ago every hotel you went would make you pay for WIFI nowadays guests look for hotels that offer free wifi. Conference facilities are a big thing in larger hotels but they need to be digital. Everyone has a mobile device so making as much as possible available on a guests mobile phone will go a long way. Entertain and clod services are all new technologies being used in hotels as well. Of course social media is a huge part of our day to day world.

This article talks about how technology is affecting the hospitality industry. There have been several small technological advances in the industry. Recently, advances have been skyrocketing, especially in the hotel sector. Hotels have been updating their technology year after year striving to stay relevant. Businesses are looking for Digital conference facilities for their conferences/meetings. Where skype and zoom calls can be conducted in a business fashion. There are also hotels that are looking to put in finger scanning devices for room access and infrared scanners for staff members to monitor room activity. This article has several other fantastic advances in technology that could be used in the hospitality industry as a whole.

Technology evolves everyday it keeps getting better and making lives even easier. Guests are attracted to hotels who have the latest technology. This week I saw in social media a friend of mine is currently in Las Vegas and her room had an Echo Dot and she was asking Alexa to turn off the lights and close the shades. That got my attention and is proving the point on how the Hospitality industry has to be at the very top of the latest technology trends.

A great in-depth article about the service SAAS. This article talks about how it works, and how the host provide their services to their clients. In the article it also talks about the three types of cloud based services.

The hospitality industry by the year 2025 is going to be a major player that could help AR reach its goal as a $198 billion sector. With this AR technology guest would have access to a virtual layout of the property they are booking and even the room they are staying in. With the aid of wearable technology like google glasses guest recognition could give staff important information about a guest checking in like if they are new or loyal customer and the preferences they may or may not have. AR could also be used by the guest on site to get directions within the hotel.

This article covers how Singapore is one of the leading countries in innovation when it comes to event management. It goes into discussing the new normal and how the Singapore Tourism Board's reacted to it. In addition, there is statement explaining how Singapore's largest venue is now being used as a hybrid broadcast studio. They have taken this time during the pandemic to pilot innovative schemes and use it to not only adapt to the current crisis but also think ahead to the future of events. With that said, COVID-19 has pushed for for a flow of disruptive innovators in the event management industry. This is shown in the hybrid version of events.

This article describes accounting software functions within the Hotel industry. The article states that "Accounting software is used to track the profitability of hotel operations and identify trends in the hospitality industry". It is said that when selecting accounting software, you must identify what results you are looking for from the software; and also the functions that you are able to receive. You must also understand the needs of your property, and industry. The article also discusses various decision criteria, which is a part of the selection process. Some of these criteria's that you must look out for are: annual revenue, budget, location, multiple sites, national or international locations, in-house verses outsource operations. I love the fact that this article also discusses the functions of hotel accounting software. Some of those functions that were stated are: account payable, account receivable, and payroll. The article also brought up some trends about hotel and lodging accounting software. One of the trends that stand out to me was the fact that some companies hand over their entire accounting responsibilities to major accounting companies or, accounting firms; this is referred to as outsource. Having a accounting software is a very beneficial asset for a company.

The hospitality industry has had steady growth, with increasing demands for internal controls and financial accountability. Accounting software is crucial in measuring and tracking the hotel's profitability. Accounting software is used to track the profitability of hotel operations and identify trends in the hospitality industry. So it's important for hotel manager to choose the suitable accounting software. This article tells how to select hotel accounting system properly. Including the decision criteria used in selection process, areas of functionality in hotel accounting software and standards used for accounting and auditing in hotel industry, etc.

Hotel managers are often faced a lot of problem to deal with the accounting system. Now hotel manager can manage all of the accounting responsibilities by use hotel accounting technology. Using Web-based hotel accounting software can save your business money . The functions covered in all of the accounting systems.