Written By: Artak Gevorgian
Day two, Thursday, October 26, and the fears and uncertainties of a first-time attendee have stayed behind. I am in the middle of my deep dive, full of energy and enthusiasm constantly refilled throughout the Annual Convention’s sophisticated events – starting with various educational sessions, keynote sessions, table top exhibits and breaks, and ending with tremendous networking and linked opportunities.
For the second day of the dive and discovery, I want to switch from first-time attendee mode to HFTP® membership holder combined with CHAE® or CHTP® holder mode, by evidencing the rewards and values one will be getting at its basics.
During three days of annual convention, various educational sessions offer CPEs (continuing professional education hours) for various certification programs. Putting aside CHAE/CHTP designation holders, any HFTP member during educational sessions (which are chosen based on tailored needs) will find industry fellows, peers and colleagues from various geographical areas with common interests towards the subject.
Building a network among related professionals and renewing professional relationships has become a fun, unrestricted and easy process; just get linked and move on. I am very positive about the process and feeling fantastic by expanding the professional network of mine in a live environment and meeting people in person whom I knew via LinkedIn before; for example, Tim Nauss and Toni Bau. I do emphasize the great satisfaction of mine by meeting again such fundamental HFTP representatives as Arlene Ramirez and Frank Wolfe, whom I met in person back in 2015 in Dubai.
CHAE or CHTP holders who need to maintain the points for extending their designation will find it very useful for maintaining CPEs by attending various educational and keynote sessions in needed key areas. Those are coded in the following way: F (finance), T (technology), E (ethics) and G (general). Any educational session with code F, T, E or G, or by a multiple combination, has been pre-identified and eligible to meet the CHAE or CHTP educational maintenance specialty reporting area requirements.
Exploring the products offered and displayed by table top exhibitors is another way the HFTP annual convention participant can do both networking and due research. Table top exhibitors are basically vendors which are in one way or another closely related to the hotel and/or club industry’s day-to-day operational needs, providing sophisticated products and solutions in a variety of areas.
Among the exhibitors, I found such companies as BirchStreet Systems, which was surprisingly interesting- since from Nov. 1, 2017, Jordan Valley Marriott Resort & Spa where I serve as director of finance will go live with the Inventory Management, Purchasing and Recipe Management modules provided by BSS.
Another table top exhibitor is PAS, well known for its Infor™ and SUN accounting products, and currently we do use it in our hotel. I had another good chat with the account manager of Beekeeper, a company offering solutions in the spheres of communications, mobile solutions/apps, resort management, social media/networks and workforce management. I will not list all, but I will strongly recommend attending the annual HFTP conventions. It is worthwhile and does make specific sense.
What I want to say is all about the goals and targets the HFTP annual convention attendee must have as a roadmap for herself/himself before arrival at convention. And at convention, you just need to steer the vehicle along the designed roadmap.
Day two of diving and discovering! @ Annual Convention @ Omni Orlando Resort @ ChampionsGate #HFTP65
Artak Gevorgian, CHAE is the director of finance at the Jordan Valley Marriott Dead Sea Resort & Spa in Sweimeh, Jordan. Artak is a guest blogger for the 2017 HFTP Annual Convention (#HFTP65), held October 25-27 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in Florida.
