CHICAGO
(February 9, 2011) –
Hundreds of the hospitality
industry’s
top technology executives will gather for a week of meetings designed
to
stimulate thought leadership, collaboration on new technology
solutions, and
networking. Hotel Technology Next
Generation (HTNG), a trade association dedicated to fostering the
development
of better technology for hospitality, is holding its seventh annual
North
American Members’ Meeting in San Diego, and numerous more focused
meetings, the
week of February 28 through March 4.
As an organization
run by hotel CIOs for the benefit of hotels, HTNG understands the
issues that
face hotel IT executives. This year’s
planned
agenda provides thought leadership presentations and panel sessions on
important hospitality technology issues—future trends, hotel data
security, social
media/networking, sustainability, designing secure software, systems
integration, and cloud computing. There will also be sessions on new
HTNG
developments that can be deployed by hotels and vendors and an
always-popular hotel
CIO panel.
HTNG’s members’
meetings are for members only, but in order to help hoteliers learn
more about
how this dynamic organization can help them, HTNG is making a special
offer this year for
hoteliers who are not members and who have never attended this event
before. For just the cost of an
individual one-year membership ($325), they can get a free
registration for the annual meeting, and can also attend any forum
and workgroup meetings. Vendors who are
not yet HTNG members but who wish to attend can do so at a discount by
joining
HTNG and enjoying early-bird registration rates and exhibit space
incentives,
which have been extended exclusively for new members.
A few of the sessions
are yet to be announced, but those confirmed to date include:
- Twenty Years of Hotel
Technology: A Look Back to the Future - The hotel technology landscape has changed
significantly since visionary leader Nick
Price joined the industry as CIO/CTO of Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Group in
2000. Price, who was last year’s
inductee into the HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of
Fame, will
discuss the nature of industry change and innovation over the past
decade. Turning to the next decade, he
will offer his
insights and predictions for how the last ten years in our industry
will
combine with underlying technology trends to shape the future of
technology in
hotels over the next ten years.
- CIO Panel - What are the hottest topics on the mind of hotel
CIOs in 2011? From data security to
bandwidth to distribution to guest-room systems, this is the session
for you to
find out. The panel will be moderated by
Mark Hoare, Principal for The Prism Partnership, and will include Ken Barnes, VP of Information
Technology, White Lodging; Mike Blake,
CIO, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts; Floor
Bleeker, VP of Information Technology, Jumeirah Group; Anand
Rao, CIO, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts; and Todd
Thompson, Chief Information
Officer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
- How Do I Secure My
Software? – With PCI and data
privacy foremost on the minds of CIOs, it is imperative to that the
software
they are building or buying is secure. This
session, led by one of the world's
leading consultants and authors on software security, Gary
McGraw, CTO of Cigital, Inc., will help attendees
understand how to create and procure secure
software—based on data collected about the practices of some of the
largest and
most successful companies in the world. He will talk about an open and
freely
licensable effort called BSIMM (Building Security In Maturity Model),
which
analyzes real-world data from thirty leading software security
initiatives.
BSIMM can help you determine how your organization compares to other
real-world
software security initiatives and what steps can be taken to make your
approach
more effective.
- Creating the IT-Free
Hotel - This session will
discuss La Quinta's initiative to move virtually all property-based
systems
above property, using cloud, SaaS and ASP models. The session will be
presented by one
of the many hotel CIO speakers at the event, Vivek Shaiva,
CIO, La Quinta Inns & Suites.
- Messaging In the
Cloud - Hyatt Hotels &
Resorts is implementing a replacement for its corporate messaging
platform with
a cloud-based solution based on Microsoft’s Office 365 suite. In addition to cost savings gained while
providing email to all employees, Hyatt will gain reliability, agility,
and eliminate
the cost and support burden of software upgrades and mail servers. Hyatt CIO Mike Blake and Trevor
Strawhecker from Microsoft will co-present about the Microsoft
cloud
solution; how it suited the Hyatt environment; and the opportunities
uncovered and
lessons learned through the implementation process.
- The Changing Face of
Hotel Credit Card Breaches - It's no secret that hotels have been a prime target of
professional
credit card thieves in recent years. But
as hotels have beefed up their security efforts, so too have the
thieves
evolved their methods to beat them. Three
of the top experts in the field, with
deep forensic data on hundreds of hotel breaches, will discuss the
latest data,
the trends they are seeing in breaches generally and in hotels
specifically,
the anatomy of breaches, and how hotels can protect their data - and
their
reputation. They will also address the
difficult issue of enforcing compliance through franchise networks. Speakers for this session include Jennifer
Fischer, Director, Payment
System Risk & Compliance, Visa USA; Colin
Sheppard, Director of Incident Response, Trustwave; and Steve
Surdu, VP of Professional
Services, Mandiant.
- The Sustainable Hotel:
Why and How - Every major hotel
company has recognized the need for a sustainability program, and
hotels that
have adopted sustainability programs are recognizing cost savings,
revenue
benefits, and image improvements that result from socially responsible
behavior. Technology is a key enabler
for the majority of sustainability programs. Chuck
Marratt, VP Technology for MTM Luxury Lodging, will explore how
technology
can be applied to achieve business benefits through sustainability. It will also discuss HTNG’s ongoing role in
fostering the development of cost-effective, sustainable technologies -
and in
making them work. This session is still
evolving and additional speaker(s) may be added.
- Case
Studies of HTNG Implementations - With
a number of HTNG specifications now
reaching full maturity and widespread adoption, hotel companies are now
building
hotels with more and more HTNG-designed capabilities built in. What have the challenges been, and what are
the benefits to the hotels and their preferred vendors? This
session will highlight some
implementations with perspectives from both hoteliers and vendors. The session will be led by Jim
Peterson, Senior Vice President of
Enterprise Architecture for Marriott International, and will include
participation
from a number of vendors who have participated in high-profile projects.
The event will be
held at the beautiful Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego, CA. The main meeting starts Tuesday evening,
March 1 with a welcome reception for all attendees, and continues
through
Thursday with general sessions. For
details, review this list of
speakers and the general
session agenda on HTNG’s website.
On Monday and
Tuesday, HTNG’s Infrastructure and Device Forum, its Software Forum,
and about
ten separate working groups, will hold face-to-face meetings to further
their
collaborative efforts on topics as diverse as entertainment system
content,
back office system integration, cellular coverage, network
infrastructure,
telephony, distribution, guest device connectivity, and other topics.
The second awarding
of the Most
Innovative Hospitality Technology will be announced on Thursday afternoon.
Eighteen contenders are vying for the title
this year, to be voted on by HTNG’s hotelier and consultant members. A fun golf outing will wrap up the week on
Friday morning.
General
event URL: www.htng.org/america
About
Hotel Technology Next
Generation
The
premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry,
HTNG is a
self-funded, non-profit organization with members from hotel and
hospitality
companies, technology vendors to hospitality, and other industry
members
including consultants, media, and academic experts.
HTNG’s members participate in focused
workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific
business
problems. HTNG fosters the selection
and adoption of existing open standards.
Where necessary, it also develops new open standards to
meet the needs
of the global hospitality industry.
Membership
in HTNG is open to hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors
to
hospitality, consultants, academics, press and others.
Currently more than 400 corporate and
individual members from across this spectrum, including most of the
world’s
leading hotel companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG
participants. HTNG’s
Board of Directors alone represents more than 2.3 million guest rooms.
Workgroup proceedings, drafts, and specifications are published for all
HTNG
members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad
adoption. Specifications are released to
the public
domain as they are ratified by the workgroup.
For more information, visit www.htng.org.
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