As attendees and exhibitors begin picking up badges and setting up booths for this year’s HITEC, what they might not know is just upstairs graduate students and professors are being evaluated on their research presentations in hospitality technology.
iHITA (International Hospitality Information Technology Association) holds their Annual Conference every year in conjunction with HFTP’s HITEC. Educators and students present research in IT initiatives to meet hospitality needs. This year judges Bob Lowe, VP of Buisness Development at Shift4 and Dennis Montellano, VP of Sales at SkyWire Media both awarded Dr. Karen Lijia Xie as having the Best Presentation, Sungsik Yoon with Best Poster Presentation, and finally Dr. Christian Morosan awarded the Best Paper.
Topics like Perceived Fairness in regards to Hotel Revenue Management, Loyalty Programs, QR Codes, Flash Sales, and Online Reviews were all covered. But, as a millennial myself what really caught my attention is Dr. Ajay Aluri’s research on wearable technology and its role in hospitality in the next coming years. With Goggle Glass and Meta’s Augmented Reality Glasses, it began to make those in the room question what other possibilities are there for wearable technology? This is a question that will only be answered in the next coming years as consumers demand more robust technologies, and brands must find the vendors that meet those needs.
So, the next time you plan to go to HITEC, be sure to check out iHITA as well… you may learn a thing or two about the customer perception and be better able to apply it to vendor product development.
Alexzandria Williams is a University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebel working towards a degree in Hospitality Management. Williams is the President of the UNLV chapter of HFTP. Experience in working in restaurants in both marketing & events at STK and the Nevada Restaurant Association made becoming a Point of Sale Product Specialist at SkyWire a smooth transition. Williams works on creating documentation and implementing products.
