Technology for the Next Generation Travelers

The next generation travelers have been described as being highly educated individuals with a desire to travel. They are very demanding and seek the latest trends in technology. They have grown with technology and expect hotels to adapt to technology. The top four in-room technologies that all next-gen travelers will love are: 1) iPhone applicability, 2) Converged services, 3) Plug and Play, and 4) Radio revolution.

iPhone applicability is solved through Hotel Evolution (from the company, Runtriz), which is a mobile touchscreen platform that allows hotel guests to utilize their iPhones to order room service, view hotel information, make reservations and schedule transportation. Everything is at their fingertips and the next-gen traveler is far to wired to browse through traditional hotel directories.

Converged services is offered with Fonekey, Inc. which provides a solution that allows travelers to access a wide variety of hotel services through a device they are most comfortable with: their cell phone. Guests can remotely make a reservation, check-in, obtain room assignments, unlock the door, adjust the room temperature, operate the guestroom safe, mini-bar and television, access guest services and even check out.

Plug and Play: When it comes to in-room entertainment, next-gen travelers are looking for more then just an HDTV in their rooms. What they want to have is the ability to connect laptops and gaming systems to large screen televisions to enhance the use of their devices. Hyatt Place is just one of a few hotel companies that are offering more then just a large flat panel HDTV. Its Plug Panels are connected to 42" HDTV's and come equipped with jacks to connect all of these devices for increased usability and enjoyment.

Radio revolution: Not very long ago the main piece of technology in the hotel room other then the TV was the clock radio. Today, the next-gen traveler would be insulted if this was the lone piece of musical entertainment in the room. The next-gen traveler wants to either plug their iPOD/MP3 player into a device that delivers a full rich sound or have a radio/CD player that delivers the same quality of sound. Bose Corporation is one vendor that has recognized the importance of the hospitality industry and next-gen traveler. Two of its product lines, Wave and 3.21 Entertainment systems, are fast becoming staples in hotel rooms.

ICE - The Interactive Customer Experience

Intelity announced their launching of ICE, an in-room concierge and back-end monitoring system that can drive the guest experience through service and personalization in the timeshare and fractional space. With ICE, the hotels will not only have a competitive advantage over some of their biggest rivals but it is also much of an amenity to the guests as it is an asset to the hotel. 

ICE is integrated into the hotels' point of sale software, allowing them to easily track guest requests and habits, as well as monitor daily operations, schedules, and performance levels. The guests can use ICE to book dinner reservations, spa appointments, review meeting details, and make requests. The hotels' managers and supervisors use ICE to ensure that the hotel is running smoothly and the staff is completing service requests in a timely manner. 

Every ICE interface is different because it is customized to the brand. All amenities, services and options are programmed to make the ICE experience uniquely your own. 

There are several benefits to the guests which are: in-room control, one-touch ordering, instant requests, automated amenity reservations, improved staff response, maps & weather, airline information, hotel & resort information, internet access, group messaging, SMS confirmations, pre-order services, and self-service solution. 

Not only are they beneficial to the guests, but also benefits the hotels through: increased RevPar, Real-time Marketing, increased average check, instant guest feedback, virtual welcome, brand building, SMS guest communication, real-time analytics, guest tracking, service monitoring, controlled upselling and better guest experiences. 

Also timeshares gain benefits from ICE, which are: in-room interactive guest messaging, incremental in-house tours, linkage tours, show rate, value-added guest experience, intelligent guest segmented reporting and reduced marketing costs. 

Hotel and Restaurant Reservations Never Got Any Easier!

There are two new services/applications that have been designed for the mobile phones. Lodging Interactive, an interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry, has mobile services that enables hotel websites to be rendered on all major smart phones and cell phones, and provides direct website reservations capabilities for mobile users. Lodging Interactive creates a mobile website specifically designed for the hotel to ensure it is properly rendered on any cell phone. The technology can detect which cell phone platform and browser the visitor is using and display the most appropriate website rendering. So, visitors who are using Apple iPhones will enjoy a more complete mobile experience designed for the iPhone's Safari mobile browser. 

There is another application for iPhones, which is the OpenTable Application. OpenTable Inc. is a provider of free online reservations for diners and guest management systems for restaurants. OpenTable for iPhone allows diners to check the real-time availability of multiple restaurants in the area, get the restaurant's location, make free, confirmed reservations, and then follow directions to the restaurant. Diners simply specify the desired date, time and party size, and they are instantly provided with a list of available tables at nearby restaurants. They can also view results on a map, get directions to the restaurants and send emails complete with reservation information to friends. Additionally, registered OpenTable members have the ability to see their upcoming reservations, earn OpenTable Dining Points and view their current Points balances. This service is now available on iPhones as one of their applications, so now they can make reservations on their phones instead of on their computers. 

Microsoft Surface - A Brand New User Experience

Microsoft Surface is a revolutionary surface-computing platform. Microsoft Surface is a machine built from a standard Windows Vista personal computer and employs a camera-based vision system that lets users grab digital content with their hands and move information between objects with simple gestures and touches. The sophisticated system also recognizes fingers, hands, paintbrushes, tagged objects and a myriad of other real world items. With a 30-inch table-top display, multiple users can get together to interact with digital information and with each other. The rugged tabletop is able to withstand most everything from sticky hands to spilled drinks, and its viewing angle and brilliant display allow a number of users to see the screen while surrounding the table. 

Currently, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is the first major hotel chain to feature Microsoft's Surface in the public spaces of five hotels, which are Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Boston, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Seattle, and Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport. Sheraton's parent company, Starwood Hotels & Resorts said that it is a pilot program that could become chainwide. Sheraton is offering guests three applications free of charge: gathering information on the local destination, playing music provided by Sheraton, through the Surface's loudspeakers, and finding information about other Sheraton properties. 

I think that this product is going to revolutionize the hospitality industry with its innovative technology. 

MeetingMatrix LIVE!

Meeting Industry software provider MeetingMatrix International has announced its newest initiative with the introduction of MeetingMatrix LIVE!. MeetingMatrix LIVE! is a packaged collection of services that will allow any venue to fully and effectively interact with their meeting professionals from any touch point. It makes the most out of Meeting Matrx Certified Room Diagrams by leveraging them to gain worldwide exposure. All diagrams are accessible online through several portals including top meetings industry websites such as www.pcma.org, allowing any planner access to diagrams to help plan their meeting or event with the utmost accuracy and efficiency. The tools MeetingMatrix LIVE! provides will erase worries, uncertinty, and last minute scrambles, as well as provide a solution for many of the unique problems meeting professionals face today. 

The MeetingMatrix LIVE! packages is a revolutionary concept within the meetings and events industry. Many industry studies show that the most important criteria for meting planners when selecting a venue is accessing accurate floor and room diagrams The MeetingMatrix LIVE! package provides these critically important diagrams while at the same time, changing the way event and meeting planners conduct business. Meeting professionals will no longer have to tour property sites, spend hours taking pictures, and travel back-and-forth to the site when changes occur. Rather, they have all the tools they need to view and plan an event from their computer. 

"Using Technology to Bring Politics Out of the Darkness"

In the political world, there is a lot of light and darkness. "As more of the visible parts of government are explored with the precision of digital technology, there may well be pressure to reduce the area in darkness." This was one of  the topics discussed in the fifth annual Personal Democracy Forum, a conference in New York about the impact of politics on government. There was a lot less discussion about the use of social networks, such as Youtube, and blogs in campaigns this year but instead, the attendees were talking about how the next generation of Internet sites is going to affect the government.

One big theme is how to get more meaningful information from the large amounts of public data about politicians, government and those trying to influence them. For example, the Sunlight Foundation suggested that the data trying to influence the government needs to be made public more quickly. The article states that “Campaign contributions are published long after they are made, and lobbying activity is disclosed well after the votes in question are taken.” Although faster leaking of lobbying information may require laws to make it happen, but in some cases, peer pressure might help. The Sunlight Foundation has requested that legislators publish their schedules online. So far eight of the 535 have agreed. The group hopes that the example will encourage more lawmakers to do the same. 

Another issue is how some information about the government is controlled by private companies. MetaVid is a project of the University of California at Santa Cruz. It has stores videos of the proceeding of the House and Senate. It lets users search for any phrase mentioned (because it associates the closed caption transcription of what is said with the image). It also lets users annotate and comment on video as well as to insert clips of legislators on their own sites. Michael Dale, the researcher behind the program, said that because Congress owns the cameras in the House and Senate chambers, that video is public and MetaVid has full rights to use it. But C-Span, a cable news channel, pays for cameras in many hearings, and that video is more restricted. 

There is also a very interesting search engine, OpenCongress.org, that brings together information about proposed legislation, organized by bills. 

Nonetheless, the public has a hard time getting meaningful information, but for different reasons. A journalist has no reason besides laziness to omit a bill number from an article. C-Span has restricted access to the public for an economic reason: to get a return on their investment. Lobbyists prefer to be private. As people start to see value in the new presentations of the data that is available, they will demand better and faster disclosure of what's still kept in the dark. 

I think that this article will raise even more issues and demands from people to make more information public. The public knows the general information but never really knows what is the real truth. I wish that soon, the government, hopefully the new President, will tell the public the whole truth, and not keep some truth in the dark. 

ScheduleFlex - Advanced Session Conference Management Web 2.0

ScheduleFlex is the most interactive online conference catalog and session scheduler application in the Meetings Industry. ScehduleFlex was released by Cardinal Communications, a pioneer in online registration. It is now offered as a module to event registration software, but Cardinal Communications Chief Executive Rodman Marymor states that he plans to expand Schedule Flex into a full registration application in about a year. 

ScheduleFlex is built on Adobe Systems' programming technology Adobe Flex. Although the users access the application through a web browser, ScheduleFlex actually operates in Adobe Flash, which enables the animation and interactive features. It allows meeting planners to build an online version of a session catalog, making it easy for attendees to search for conference sessions by date, time or topic. It features the drag-and-drop function, where attendees can click on session titles from a searchable database and then drag the session onto a personal event calendar. Using the same method, attendees can also reserve time slots for one-on-one meeting at exhibitor booths. The calendar can then be printed in a "schedule at a glance" Adobe PDF file. 

This new technology is especially helpful for meeting planners who must manage a large number of sessions. They can easily reschedule sessions times and the system will show attendees not only the changed times but also whether the session conflicts with previously scheduled sessions. Planners can also limit session seat capacities and assign sessions to certain audience groups, such as presenters or employees. They can track in real time session sign-ups and cancellations.