Facial recognition technology is not meant to replace the human factor. Rather, it can boost existing processes by improving efficiency, identification and convenience. Technology such as "face geometry" brings a lot of excitement to the events industry. Zenus facial recognition software allows event planners to identify attendees by searching a database of faces in real-time. The main idea is to make the check-in process faster, provide higher security and receive some feedback in a unique way. Neither attendee's e-mails or names, or any personal information is transferred. Human face emerges as a key to security for distinguishing individuals. The registration platform makes images anonymous and sends them to a cloud-based service, where de-identified images are processed and therefore instantly deleted. All data is also discarded after the event, which gives a peace of mind to the event planners and attendees, because of identity theft concerns. With some adjustments and further developments, Zenus facial recognition software will be able to determine emotions of crowds and extract demographic data such as age or gender. With this cloud-based facial recognition software, event planners will be able to quantify whether your guests were interested in one speaker over another, or whether they were engaged or if they were really a good target market for the event.

Even though using beacon technology for proximity marketing is still in its infancy in the restaurant industry, this technology has already demonstrated some of its potential by virtue of increasing labor and overall operational efficiency while boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty. Beacons can help increase restaurant and bar sales, improve customer service, and provide more value for their customers, which should lead to customer loyalty. The possibility of applying beacon technology in the restaurants and bars opens a window of opportunity to engage diners and also enables restaurants to create more tailored experiences for them. Restaurants can use beacons to send alerts to people nearby about many table/seat availability and encourage them to make reservations or walk in. Or if the restaurant is very busy, restaurants can send the menu to their phones, so they can browse it while waiting for their tables. Restaurants and bars can build profiles of returning customers and provide offers based on past preferences. Thus, returning customers can benefit from improved and personalized customer service. During quiet hours or days, restaurants and bars can efficiently manage their staff and service, because of the data they have been collecting using beacons. Diners can even pay for their meal or drinks using their mobile device without having to wait for the waiter to come over and accept their method of payment.

Nowadays, there is an abundance in advanced in-room features making their way into the world's most modern hotel rooms. Some of those inventions, integrated recently in some hotels in the U.S., are explained below. Sheraton Imperial Hotel Raleigh-Durham Airport at Research Triangle Park, in North Carolina, offer its guests a better hotel experience through a TV with fast reboot time. This TV provides a top-notch television content and delivery, and has the latest high-resolution options and features. Due to its level of delivery that guests are accustomed to have in their own homes, it is expected for guests to feel more comfortable and homey during their stay. Hotel rooms in Loews Hotel 1000 in Downtown Seattle are equipped with heat-detecting sensors, which scans the room for body heat so that housekeepers don't accidentally enter the room. This high-end technology with an infrared signal scans the room to detect body heat and notes 'do not disturb' when occupied. It is particularly useful when guests forget to leave a sign when entering the rooms at night. Seems like the world's most advanced hotels are getting very creative with their in-room technology. Another example for that is the beds of Four Seasons Hotels which are customizable to guests' preferences, designed to support better sleep. Recently, numerous Aloft Hotels and Element Hotels across the United States feature their own robot butlers. With help of Botir, items can be easily delivered to the guests rooms within minutes. The purpose of using robotic assistants is to send a robot to deliver shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste or so by the front desk. This way, the human hotel staff can serve customers personally when necessary. In my view, in the customer-driven hospitality industry, the use of in-room technology can make guests feel more comfortable and feel "at home". These new technologies have been helping the hospitality industry grow in innovative and tech-enhanced ways to deliv

Mercedes-Benz President and CEO Steve Cannon stated, "Customer experience is the new marketing," and his prediction helps explain a new wave of optimism. Nowadays, hotels are judged by whether guest experiences match customer expectations. Individuals desire to be engaged when they want, where they want, with the content they would like to see. It's about people, connection, service quality, engagement and experience. The future will belong to those hotels and hotel brands that create the most memorable customer experiences. Using a cloud PMS for managing a hotel efficiently, is an essential shift to improve operations and increase profitability in the hospitality industry. Also, a cloud-based PMS enables mobile self-service to provide self-check-in options for hotel guests. This hotel experience contributes to guests' comfort and improves their experience as soon as they arrive, which in turn, increases customer satisfaction. Cloud PMS allows hotels to easily keep track of all their guests' personalized preferences and provides a system for delivering individualized services and amenities to meet their needs. Personalized service makes guests not only feel welcome, but also creates an emotional bond between hotels and their customers. This is a win-win situation, which creates guest loyalty in the long run.

Site Minder by GDS experience, serves as good example to better understand the impact of a GDS's impact on the hotel industry. GDS by SiteMinder provides a single point of entry to over 500 000 travel agents across the globe, which means that hotels can target many type of travelers in multiple geographic regions. By connecting hotels directly to the world's major GDS providers - Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport - and travel agent network, GDS by SiteMinder offers a major convenience to participating hotels. Through this service, hotels don't have to worry about signing up with each one of these providers. Another advantage of SiteMinder is its affordability; there are no commission fees, rather, just one flat transaction fee per reservation. The company offers free services from GDS experts and free technical account management advice which are other benefits. For instance, in another article, in mid-2013, South Beach Group who has boutique hotels in the heart of Miami Beach, decided to switch its 12 hotels to GDS by SiteMinder. After moving to GDS by SiteMinder, South Beach Group representative highlights the significant increase in bookings leading to a growth in annual revenues by17% in 2013. In essence, GDS by SiteMinder advertises participating hotels to more customers globally within an incomparable distribution platform, with real-time and two-way GDS connectivity. As we can see in the article, in 2016, just within 12 months the total number of users of GDS by SiteMinder increased from 250 to almost 900. This article underlines the importance of GDS for the growth of travel industry. With Site Minder by GDS, one can realize how GDS helps increase hotel bookings by placing hotels on more virtual channels (an analogue of supermarket shelves) globally.  

Security has always been an issue for financial services which led to avoidance of some new technology systems. Due to advancements in cloud systems, I think it is time for financial services arms of hospitality organizations to reap the increasing number of benefits of cloud computing. Also, cloud-based financial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) helps companies enter new markets, explore new opportunities, and strengthen their business processes. Cloud-based financial ERP has certainly helped Tetherow Resort by reducing costs and allowing their finance department to concentrate on their strategic business matters rather than dealing with IT and infrastructure issues. By switching to a cloud-based system, Tetherow Resort was able to reduce the amount of infrastructure stored onsite, reduce costs of the process and develop new strategic plans. In my view, there is a huge potential in cloud-based financial ERP in for financial and even non-financial companies, because through this system companies' finance departments are able to increase the efficiency of their operations.

This article discusses the role and benefits of cloud-based event management software in planning and executing events. Software enables event managers to improve workflow, manage venues, and track various types of information in a timely and consistent manner. Software is especially useful in monitoring the progress of ticket sales and invitations, where event organizers can follow up on attendees that did not respond yet. It also helps prevent ticket duplication and enhances security by sending tickets with unique codes to attendees' e-mails. Event management software can also be integrated with social media platforms which boosts the promotion and the visibility of a given event and its ultimate success. Financially, such software leads to cost savings because it does not require investment in infrastructure. From operational standpoint, cloud-based software offers real-time, remote access and fest error resolution. This article helps me better understand improvements in operations that cloud-based software system brings in event management. I am also able to explore the vast field of using software technology. Before reading this article, I was not aware of the benefits of the cloud-based software system in event management. Now, I gained a better knowledge about advantages like accuracy of data for large events, to real-time tracking needs to manage ticket sales and event attendance, and permanent connection and access to various files and records. Such access is vital when an event manager is in charge of multiple events that are at different stages of preparation: some may be in planning stage and others may be in execution stage. The ability to fix errors quickly is a major benefit for event planners that are small businesses. For this reason, an individual wedding planner will probably have peace of mind by using such software.