The event, exclusive to companies that are Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) organizational members, generated thought-provoking conversations on issues of interest and relevance to all hospitality industry professionals. 

 

“Curate is a rare opportunity for hospitality companies to interact about strategic issues and explore the implications of the interdependency across the disciplines of sales, marketing, and revenue management disciplines,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHA, president and CEO of HSMAI. “The issues discussed will inform our program of work throughout the year.”

 

Prior to Curate, attendees took part in a survey which identified priority issues to focus on during in-person discussions and shed light on commonalities and differences in perspectives of the three disciplines.

 

Some of the most thought-provoking conversations examined the strategic challenges for the industry and for each of the three disciplines—sales, marketing and revenue management. Top challenges identified by the senior executives ranged from improving talent acquisition/retention to enhancing customer/guest experience and branding to keeping abreast of cutting-edge technology and mastering data analytics.

 

The forum included a stirring keynote presentation on ecommerce by Raphael Lanfant, director of strategic partnerships for Alibaba Group North America. Lanfant shared lessons from the ecommerce landscape in China and challenged attendees to follow suit in their own approaches to ecommerce.

 

A total of 55 delegates were in attendance, representing most of HSMAI’s 60 organizational members, which include major hotel brands such as Accor, Best Western, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, MGM Resorts, Interstate and Wyndham, as well as leading partner organizations and educational institutions.

 

Curate is a keystone benefit of HSMAI organizational membership. HSMAI introduced its organizational membership category Nov. 2017. For organizational membership, the company is the HSMAI member, and multiple corporate employees have access to a wide range of unique member benefits. There are several levels of membership for companies, based on their company size. To learn more about Curate and organizational member and to view a list of member companies, visit https://www.hsmai.org/organizationalmembership.