Don’t tell me you missed this year’s Hospitality Technology@HOFEX! What? You don’t even know what that is? It was “an event so popular that the organizer had to change the venue at the last minute because the old one wouldn’t fit”? That’s right. That’s what happened to the half day’s top notch education organized and presented by HFTP@HOFEX in Hong Kong on May 7, 2015.
Being one of the leading independent events for the hospitality technology industry, Hospitality Technology @ HOFEX, formerly known as AHTEC@HOFEX, is the perfect platform for HFTP to offer its unique educational resources and superior networking opportunities.
HFTP Global Director Scot Campbell, CHTP, vice president of IT connectivity & communications for Caesars Entertainment, opened the forum with a most intriguing and enlightening speech, discussing how Caesars Entertainment uses technology as an enabler for guest satisfaction and achieves operation cost savings throughout the globe. He also talked about hospitality technology trends from an utterly refreshing perspective, encouraging hospitality technology professionals to create mind-blowing technologies rather than simply apply what’s already available. His informative speech and charisma totally caught the audience’s attention. So much so that they were throwing all these questions at him as if Mr. Campbell was their favorite rock star and they were asking for an encore.
Followed was a presentation given by HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe, CAE and HFTP Asia Research Center associate Sunny Wang (that’s me). The two shared the major findings of HFTP’s global hospitality technology survey. Wolfe elaborated with great insights about future trends, focusing on characteristics and traits of the Millennials. The education session ended with a vendor panel providing attendees with their thoughts on upcoming trends, bring your own device, the use of “big brother” technologies, reputation management and much more.
Then came the winner of our highly sought-after lucky draw gift: an Apple Watch of your choice. Professor Kaye Chon, Dean of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, was the lucky one! Riding on the excitement, people started to walk around and mingle. It was a wonderful opportunity for people to connect and communicate, and many great ideas must have been generated. How do I know? Because the idea of the HITEC Hackathon, which will be organized by HFTP and sponsored by hotelRSV later this year (details will be posted on HFTP web site, make sure to check it out), was actually born in a very inspiring and exciting conversation between Wolfe and David Bertolini, COO of Novohit and co-founder of hotelRSV.
To give a perfect ending to the wonderful afternoon, HFTP presented the inaugural Global Hospitality Appreciation Award to Clarence Shun Wah, who has been an outstanding friend of HFTP, for advancing the professions of hospitality finance or hospitality technology around the world. Let’s make a toast to Mr. Shun Wah! Actually, let’s make a toast to the success of this incredible event!
Sunny Wang is an associate at the HFTP Asia Research Center. Wang graduated from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a major in hotel management. Wang was also the vice president of the HFTP Polytechnic University student chapter.
