Siegel Sez

Siegel Sez

What is the real purpose of the iPad™? At last week’s HITEC it was a prize to be raffled. How many iPads can one win at a four-day conference? But then again, the iPad is new technology and at HITEC this year it was all about new technology. I was trying to come up with a word to describe this year’s event and the best word to describe the feeling in Orlando is energy. There was such a positive vibe throughout the show that it can only be described as a renewed energy for the industry and technology advancements. What an unbelievable week. I could go on and on about HITEC, but I won’t. On second thought, maybe I will.

I will say my proudest moment at HITEC was watching Geneva on the Driving Revenue Through Online Marketing panel, which was moderated by Cindy Estis Green who might be the world’s best moderator. Geneva shared her experience when we created our first Website in 1997, then our first http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com Website in 2000 and then our redo of the Website this past March. It was very well received but that might have been because every business also has to deal with the need to keep their Website fresh. Great session and a great panel, maybe I can get Geneva on the speaking tour now. One thing about HITEC that for our little company is an unbelievable high is that we get so much feedback face to face. I am the most paranoid person in the world, but even I had to recognize that our summer issue of Hospitality Upgrade might have been our best ever. So many people came up to all of us and said all the content in the summer issue was outstanding and very well received, from Jon Inge’s feature on cloud computing, Jeremy Rock’s article on what to do after a data security breach, and Trevor Warner’s article on dealing with the bandwidth monster that every hotel seems to be struggling with to name a few were brought up numerous times.  Quite a few people said they couldn’t wait until the airplane flight back home to read the issue and had finished the magazine before the last day of HITEC!  What a high that was to hear. Thanks for all the positive feedback. If you weren’t at HITEC or would like to get a copy of our summer issue, please e-mail Kris at mailtkris@hospitalityupgrade.com or go to our Website http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com/subscribe and we will e-mail you our digital edition which is now approaching 10,000 subscribers. Again, thanks for all the comments. It motivates us and pushes us to do an even better job next time. Yes, we love to be challenged.

HITEC, I’m so thankful the industry has this event. There are days throughout the year that I think I am getting older. Then I go to HITEC, and this year starting with a dinner event on Sunday night, every day goes from breakfast meetings at 7:30 in the morning to hobnobbing at a vendor cocktail party past midnight. Then the next day is the same thing and so it goes for four days. In between there are sessions that I am doing and attending, scheduled meetings and then walking the floor talking to all our advertisers and readers. What a week.  I think I did 16 parties last week which might have been a record even for me. Thanks to all who invited us, it is what makes HITEC truly special for me.

I have gotten a few e-mails this week from other media outlets that did their HITEC reviews with limited mentions of vendor announcements. Nobody does a more complete job sharing so many announcements that were made at HITEC then Jon Inge in his technology review. I encourage you to read through it. The industry is changing and we are doing our best to keep you abreast of all the changes. As we did last year, Jon and I recorded a Siegel Sez on the tradeshow floor which is being edited right now but will be up on our http://www.hospitalityupgrade.com HUTube section of our Website soon along with my interview with Nick Price, who not only shared his moment in the sun being inducted into the HFTP Technology Hall of Fame, but his very strong views on where technology is going and more importantly where it should be going. Both were great interviews and fun to do.

Here now is the real reason we are here, the aforementioned Jon Inge with his very in-depth technology review. I will see you at the end with this week’s attempt at you-know-what. Again, thanks to all who made this HITEC very memorable for our little company, it will be a week to remember.  If only I had won an iPad.

Technology NEWSSTAND

TOP O’ THE NEWS

- HITEC back on track, showcases clouds, mobility and the importance of a good user interface
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By now you’ll have read elsewhere that HITEC this year was quite the success.  Attendance was thankfully (but not surprisingly) up over last year, and felt much more purposeful and focused.  Reducing the size of the exhibit floor helped increase the sense of activity and the changes to the education sessions worked out well, with a number of extended supersessions allowing for more in-depth exploration of key topics.  And I don’t think anyone who heard Frank “Catch Me If You Can” Abagnale’s heartfelt keynote speech will soon forget its emotional impact.

Technologically, the two key themes were clearly the shift to cloud computing and the strength of the mobile platform.  The proliferation of iPads on vendor booths everywhere showed the convergence of both themes, with demonstrations or pilots of freshly ported applications pulling in data from both cloud-based and on-property systems.  The appeal of the iPad is obvious (though communication challenges among too many competing Wi-Fi networks on the exhibit floor showed that work still remains to be done), and the form factor seems just right to be taken as a serious, professional tool; iPhones® are great, but there’s always the nagging suspicion that staff and managers using them may be checking Facebook instead of hotel data.
 
iPads are also a good illustration of two over-arching trends spreading through the industry.  One is that the ability to combine data from multiple systems via Web services has become an assumed function for any application.  Augmented reality may be the most sci-fi example (projecting data about an object we’re looking at directly onto it, or onto its image on a smartphone’s camera screen), but in general combining data from multiple sources into a single screen provides a quantum leap in the usefulness of the base application, and is now a given.  Narrowly focused applications without Web services integration abilities need not apply.

The other is the importance of the user experience.  After all, touch-screen wireless tablet PCs have been around for years but it took Apple’s intuitive user interface, combined with the above ability to pull in data from multiple sources, to transform the platform into something immediately and obviously useful. 

And therein lies another challenge for software developers; when data is shared freely between systems, the one that presents it to the users in the most appealing and useful way will be the one they gravitate to, and it may not be the one that originated and stores the data.  Good user interface design has never been more important.
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PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

RESERVATIONS

MARKETING/MANAGEMENT

REVENUE MANAGEMENT

SALES & CATERING, MEETING PLANNING

F&B/POINT OF SALE

GUEST SERVICES

BACK OFFICE

INVENTORY/PURCHASING

ENGINEERING

COMMUNICATIONS

You-Know-What

And now for you-know-what…

Bob, a handsome dude, walked into a sports bar around 9:58 p.m. He sat down next to a blonde at the bar and stared up at the TV.

The 10 p.m. news was about to come on. The news crew was covering the story of a man on the ledge of a large building preparing to jump.
 
The blonde looked at Bob and said, "Do you think he'll jump?"

Bob said, "You know, I bet he'll jump."

The blonde replied, "Well, I bet he won't."

Bob placed a $20 bill on the bar and said, "You're on."

Just as the blonde was placing her money on the bar, the guy on the ledge did a swan dive off the building, falling to his death.

The blonde was very upset, but willingly handed her $20 to Bob, saying, "Fair is fair. Here's your money."

Bob replied, "I can't take your money. I saw this earlier on the 5 o'clock news, and I knew he was going to jump."

The blonde replied, "I did too, but didn't think he would do it again."

Bob took the money...