This article speaks about physical plant systems and how the new trend in hospitality is to create unique spaces and bring the outside in. MGM Resorts has partnered with Delos which is a group that has done extensive research in collaboration with Mayo Clinic to study biophilia or the idea that humans have an innate connection to the natural world. MGM Hotels have found that post-conference survey results show that attendees felt more connected and engaged in meetings where there was biophilic elements incorporated such as meeting rooms with patterned carpets and active green walls constructed from plants or moss. The Delos group also works with Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Marriot Resorts International to add live plants and other innovative biophilic elements in their spaces. Science shows that biophilic design does add satisfaction to occupants and keeps us happier, focused and engaged.

This article talks about how companies make the grave mistake of thinking that cybersecurity is merely an issue that should be addressed by an IT team and that no one else is responsible for addressing risks and understanding them. Most C-suite employees don't understand what the risks are, and usually these risks vary from company to company. It is not that you should only consider that you can get hacked, but you should consider and identify what kinds of information can get hacked and why. The article denotes an example of an Asian automobile company that needed to implement a new system to mitigate security risks and in the process, ended up locking up other companies who needed to use their systems to find out about their products. So those companies started to create fake profiles to try and access the information -- all so that they could just do their job. This showed that people are more interested in just getting their job done than understanding cybersecurity and why certain systems are in place. The way of thinking up security systems should be creative and involve all parts of an organization. Departments won't know what their role is until they identify what information is important to them, what their purpose is in the company, and what is valuable to them. By identifying this, they can come up with ways to secure this information and monitor its delivery. Businesses don't look at cybersecurity as a risk of their business just as a shipping company would look at weather risks as a potential threat to their revenue. It is looked at as more of an abstract concept and this stops people from implementing successful strategies to keep their information safe. Cybersecurity shouldn't be viewed as "so impenetrable" that no one would ever understand it. This requires everyone to get involved and understand the implications of cybersecurity on their own work, specifically, and identify who their main adversaries may be.

This article talks about how cloud computing can solve many problems for an organization, such as protecting sensitive data and reduced the costs and risks associated with storing it. Some of the advantages include increased security (though many think otherwise), protected data in natural disasters (the cloud provides many back up solutions for data), flexible payment options for storing and protecting data, cost efficiency, creating unique platforms for businesses based on cloud applications, increased mobility of data and operations, increased collaboration capabilities with other employees and sectors of your industry, and increased technical support from cloud professionals.

This article talks about the best POS systems for 2020. What I found interesting is that the majority of these systems are cloud-based and offer integrated information services for a variety of industries, not just hospitality. A lot of the systems also are ipad based and work well with third-party POS hardware. They also have automated payment options integrated, for people who like to process payments electronically (i.e. Apple Pay). I think its important to know about these POS systems and what they can accomplish for hospitality companies.

This article talks about how Oracle has hired a new CEO who is trying to grow their hotel property management system (PMS). It currently has a 16% share of available hotel rooms globally. However, the article talks about how Oracle is facing competitors who are adopting cloud-based services with subscription models. Oracle is hesitant to do so because company executives believe that it will affect their hardware sales and upfront license fees. Oracle's customers also complain about the lack of integrating ability of their programs with other existing programs. The CEO says it is a priority that they improve on this but denies that there is a prevalent existing problem. The article talks about one of their competitors, Protel, which is actively using the cloud in its programs. Protel has become very popular because its open to integrating the cloud in their systems, along with other start-ups that have been successful as well. The CEO seems determined to defend the company and not admit it's defects. He won't even say he's turning the company around. He simply says that he is continuing to implement the same priorities that Oracle had before. This seems a little ignorant. But it was cool to examine how PMS systems with cloud integration have become increasingly popular in the hospitality industry.

https://diigo.com/0gjaxs

Because this is from the New York Times, it won't let me share it via Diigo. However, I have included the link to my annotated version. This article was very interesting because it listed examples of hotels who have implemented green technologies and have greatly benefitted from it. One example is Conrad Bora Bora Nui resort which has decided to take it upon themselves to develop 17 underwater coral structures that guests can snorkel and visit for $49. It has helped regenerate the amount of coral around the resort.
One interesting take on green technology comes from Hostelling International USA which has implemented 7 minute showers. LED lights appear when the client is reaching the end of their allotted 7 minutes. I don't know how effective this would be in the hospitality industry. However, I noticed that the company has hostels throughout the world, which denotes that they probably cater to a very different kind of customer than luxury or even basic hotels.

This article examines the current and upcoming updates in AI technology and how hospitality companies are using AI to their advantage. From helping airline companies deal with disruptions in real time to improving the breakfast experience at a hotel, AI is being employed successfully to instantly solve problems and mitigate new ones from occuring.