The next stop found me in my home state of North Carolina. I travelled down to Pinehurst to attend the 4th Annual HFTP Mid-South Atlantic Conference. Instead of having to navigate airports, I was able to have a leisurely drive with the company of my wife as we engaged in four hours of stimulating conversation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The day was absolutely gorgeous. It was in the high 50's and not a cloud in the sky. A fantastic change from all the winter weather we've had over the past several weeks. We arrived just before the conference was to begin and were amazed at what we saw. The attendance exploded over the last couple of weeks and they out-grew their conference space. The vendor/sponsors had to be moved to a different location and the conference lunch had to be moved to the dining room. AWESOME!! This is just another great indicator that things are turning around. The conference was organized by The Central Carolina Chapter, The Charlotte/Blue Ridge Chapter, The South Carolina Chapter, and The Central Virginia Chapter.

The numbers that were provided to me say there were 94 attendees!! This is a record for this conference. So, let's recap on how 2010 is shaping up so far for HFTP. First, January exceeded the projections for new membership and membership renewals. Then EHTEC breaks the record for attendance. Then the Mid-South Atlantic Regional has a record attendance. This is looking extremely good and encouraging. Let's keep it going as we look ahead to the HFTP Development Conference March 15 & 16 in New Orleans and HITEC in June.

There was a great lineup of speakers headed off by Daniel Conti, CHAE, CAM, and Director of Finance for The Ritz Carlton Golf Club & Spa of Jupiter. Daniel is also a current member of the HFTP Global Board of Directors. His session was on "Providing Superior Customer Service Without Spending Your Last Dime." Daniel gave his usual great presentation. The afternoon was packed with great quality sessions finished up by Merilyn Feldstein, M.P.A., JCTC, MBTI helping us to "Understand Yourself and Others."

There was also a networking opportunity for the attendees to mix and mingle with the 19 vendor sponsors!! I am so thankful to all of our vendor partners that support HFTP with events such as this as well as our Global events. Part of the education opportunities for our members it to share what vendors are offering the solutions that we need in our operations. It is very difficult to research and find vendors that we need, so your willingness to support our events and display your solutions just makes for a win-win opportunity. I encourage all of our HFTP members to thank all of our sponsors for all of our events. Without them, we could not provide the members with all the services at such affordable prices.

The evening was capped off by an amazing dinner. The food was great, the company was awesome and we had a great time. So much so, I forgot to take any pictures of the dinner.   You'll just have to take my word for it, it was beautiful.

The next day began with one of my personal favorite speakers at HFTP events, Mr. Jerry Trieber. Jerry, Director of Field Accounting for Crestline Resorts & Hotels is a certified everything and all-around great guy. He has spoken at nearly every HFTP event for many years now and when you hear him present, you'll know why. To make a topic like fraud fun and interesting is not an easy task. But, Jerry can sure do it and even have us singing about it. That song is stuck in my head, by the way. THANKS!!

The remainder of the morning was packed with some more great sessions and we concluded just after lunch. It was such a gorgeous day that we assembled for a group picture out in front of our host property The Carolina. I'm not really sure what R.P. is doing, you'll have to ask him yourself.  The picture is at the bottom of the blog.

After we finished Arlene and I had lunch with Joann Phillips from The Country Club of North Carolina. She served as one of the property contacts for the conference and has been a key player in the Central Carolina Chapter of HFTP for years and years. She has been a source of encouragement for me over the years and is a very dear friend. Of course, she's going to kill me for writing all this for everyone to read, but there's nothing she can do about it!!

After lunch Arlene and I headed back home. We had another four hours for some more stimulating conversation, of course when Arlene wasn't taking a nap. But it was a beautiful day and when you have scenery like this staring you in the face, you can't really complain about anything. Life is just too good to us.

When we returned, we went to see the final performance of the play Chicago as performed by the North Buncombe High School Drama Team. My youngest daughter Jill stole the show, of course. She was in the ensemble, but still the star.

I'd love to hear from you, so drop me a line.

Look for the dates for next year's Mid-South Atlantic Regional Conference as we go up to Virginia.

Hope to see you real soon.

The EHTEC was a great conference.  We'll talk more about that later.  First, let's talk about the travel over.  As I was heading to work in the morning last Friday, I received a call from Delta telling me that my flight from Asheville to Atlanta was cancelled.  In case anyone didn't notice, there was a snow storm that went through Atlanta last Friday.  My flight wasn't supposed to leave until around 4:30 that afternoon, but they decided to cancel the flight by 8 that morning.  I guess the concept of "let's wait and see what it does" wasn't in their snow emergency plan.  Anyway, they were gratious enough to rebook me on a flight that left SUNDAY AFTERNOON!!  A little panic-stricken, I dialed the Medallion Customer Service line to get this straightened out.  After all, I'm a Platinum member and they are there to take care of me.  Right?!?!  We'll I guess that concept only worked if you are actually able to get them on the phone.  The phone never rang.  It either went to a busy signal or a "All curcuits are busy" message.  I guess all the other Medallion members that were bumped from the 2000 flights that got cancelled that day thought they were more important than me.

I arrived at work and went on-line to see what I could do.  I was able to rebook on a flight that left Asheville at about the same time through Detriot and it arrived in Amsterdam at nearly the exact same time as I was previously schedule.  Now, why THEY could have not booked me on that flight instead of saying I had to wait until Sunday, I'll never know.  Anyway, I went to the airport and everything was looking good.  My flight was slightly delayed (15 minutes or so) but nothing major.  Then it started to SNOW!!  I was getting a little worried.  But we loaded the plane and took off heading for Detroit even though the runway was white with snow cover.  Now, I want to pause on how screwed up this winter has been.  I re-route a flight through Detroit in February to avoid the winter weather in Atlanta.  And those of us that live in the South just to avoid such weather can undoubtedly share my pain. The flights to Detroit and then on to Amsterdam were fine and I arrived pretty close to on-time.

This sounds a little harry, but it was actually a blessing.  Rich Siegel of Hospitality Upgrade was on the same flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam that I was scheduled on originally.  It pulled back from the gate on-time at 9:30 p.m., however, it set on the tarmat for 4 HOURS waiting to be de-iced.  So, his 8 hours flight turned into 12 hours on the plane.  Sorry Rich.

Once there, I took a taxi from the airport, which, by the way, are all nice Mercedez Benz sedans, to the Hitlon Amsterdam.  On the way, we pass my favorite building.  It is the ING Building.  It is shaped like a big shoe.  As you can see, they even put shoe laces on it at times.  I really don't know the reasoning for the design, but hey I'm writing about it in my blog and not any other building!!  Amsterdam fasinates me with so many people that ride bicycles.  They are by far the majority of the people on the road.  They have their own road system dedicated to them, even down to their own stop lights.  (I started to put "red lights" but we all know that means something totally different in Amsterdam)  One morning it snowed and they actually have a small scraper/salt truck for the bike lane.  They were scraping and salting the bicycle lanes before they were the main road.

Amsterdam is a great town.  The beautiful architecture just reminds me of a village in the Swiss Alps.  Just gorgious.  I've heard people saying that you can get in trouble in Amsterdam.  I just wanted to put your mind to ease that no trouble was sought or found.

Now, on to EHTEC!!  WE BROKE THE RECORD!!!  That's amazing to be able to say during these uncertain times.  We had the most attendess (150) from the most different countries (30).  And that's not counting the hills of Western North Carolina as a different country, which some have argued.  We tried to make it a different country, but Lincoln got in the way!

The conference started off with the Chair of the EHTEC Advisory Council, Michael Levie leading a session entitled Knowledge Sharing - Navigating in the World of Hotel Technology.   Michael is the owner and CEO for CitizenM. CitizenM is short for Citizen Mobile where they have taken luxury and brought it down to affordable.  Check out their hotels at www.citizenm.com.  Michael was telling us that we need to institute "reverse-thinking."  Sounds easy, but try reading the next paragraph.

.detnaw yeht tahw dengised neht dna srellevart ,elpoep ot gniklat yb detrats eH  .stnatlusnoc ro ,stcetihcra ,sknab ot gniklat ton yb gnireffo letoh wen sih detaerc leahciM

(Hint: it is backwards)  Having our brain to reverse, or think in a different manner is extremely difficult, but that is what we may need to be doing to be ready for the guest of the now and next decade.

Michael's "reverse-thinking" in constructing his hotel has been well received by travellers.  So much so, he has recently been named "Trendiest Hotel in the World" by TripAdvisor.  Check out the story www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4045129.html.

Ok, enough for the paid advertising for CitizenM.   The rest of the day included some great sessions along with a round-table discussion during lunch that solved all the problems of the world.  We tackled such questions as:

• What new guestroom technology will be in the guestroom in 5 years? 
• What current technology that is in the guestroom now will be obsolete in 5 years?
• How is your property using social media? 
• Do you have any regulations/rules/guidelines for your employees in regards to social media? 
• If you could only purchase a technology solution for one area of the hotel, which area and why?

Of course, answers were varied, but the discussion was enlightening.  The first night capped off with a fabulous Gala Dinner where we were all well fed and well entertained by Mr. Derek Woods' amazing card tricks.  I always knew there was something shifty about him. The second day was filled with great sessions as well and we ended with Mr. John G.C. Kester, Head of Market Trends and Competitiveness with the World Tourism Organization.  Mr. Kester gave us a Tourism and Travel Update: Where to Next?

I would consider the conference an extreme success.  The attendance was high all the way up to my last joke as we closed the conference on Tuesday.  I have learned something, don't tell any redneck jokes if the audience is not clear on what a redneck is.  Looses some of its punch. Of course, it could have been that they just couldn't understand what I was saying.  Heaven knows I was having trouble understanding some of them.

The next day found R.P. Rama, HFTP Global Secretary, his lovely wife Daxa and I heading back to the airport for our journey home.  On the way, we passed the Olympic Stadium from the 1928 Summer Olympics.  The statium was recently restored and it looked great.  A since of history.  The world gets together for competition and sport and on the same land, just over a decade later, the world was split in war.  We need to always cherish the moments we have together and remember them when times get hard so the hard times do not create a split in your lives.

The flights home were pleasantly uneventful except I froze to death when I stepped off the plane in Asheville!!  When is spring supposed to get here again!!

Don't forget to make plans for the first ever HFTP Development Conference in New Orleans March 15 & 16.  Get the details at http://www.hftp.org/Pages/Events/DevConf.aspx.

Hope to see you soon!!

Last week was a very exciting week. I had the privilege to go and visit 4 of our chapters that are located in the northwest region. I apologize that this is a very long entry, but here's a recap of the visits.

Columbia River Chapter

My first stop was with the Columbia River Chapter in Portland, Oregon. The flights out to Portland went perfectly. All the legs arrived early. Actually, I arrived "extremely" early. I showed up in Portland on Monday evening and they were expecting my on Tuesday evening. I guess I was overly anxious to get there.

This worked out very good because it gave Joel Barker, Chapter President and I a chance to have some breakfast and discuss the chapter. Joel was telling me that the chapter has a good base of members, but does not have very many that attend their meetings. Sound familiar? I know most all the chapter leaders scratch their heads wondering why they can't get more people to attend the meetings. I know there is no magical answer, but to just keep having meetings with good, relevant content as well as fun opportunities to allow people to develop networking relationships and just keep inviting them. Joel transferred to the Portland area several years ago from a very active chapter in Chicago. So he knows the tremendous benefit of attending these meetings and to keep them fun. We attend meetings all day long and the last thing we want to do is attend another meeting. HFTP chapter meetings need to be an event that is both fun and informative.

Well, I'm not sure if having me come and speak qualifies as either fun or informative.  But, there was a great turnout of about 15. This included a few "potential" members as well. It was located at the top floor of the Hilton Portland & Executive Towers. A beautiful view of the Portland skyline combined with a great dinner created the environment for a great meeting. I hope that my information and thoughts sparked a new or renewed interest in getting involved with our great association. I encourage all the other chapter leaders to send Joel some notes of encouragement as well as any tips and tricks that you've used in the past to inspire interest.

Chapter Officers:
President – Joel Barker - email: Joel.Barker@hilton.com
Vice President – Rita Bergmans
Treasurer – Leslie Joanne Fordham
Secretary – Kaye Conklin

The next morning I was in a cab heading towards the airport and just sat there and admired the beautiful day and clear view of both Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. It was breathtaking. Also, while sitting at the airport, I got to see some Air Force fighter jets take off with flames blazing. It was an awesome sight as well as the power of those jets shook the windows of the airport. I stood and watched like a little kid. :-o

British Columbia Chapter

The flight up to Vancouver was great. Clear skies gave a good view of the mountains during the flight. I arrived and noticed all the modifications that the city has done to the airport getting ready for the world to arrive. Luckily, they haven't shown up yet, so I was able to walk through all the way up to an agent and then straight out to the curb. Arrival gate to passenger pickup wasn't but around 10 minutes. Awesome!!

British Columbia Chapter President Romy Herrera picked me up and took me to a nice lunch at the Hyatt Regency where we talked about how the chapter was doing. They have had some very good meetings over the past several months with as many as 80 attendees when they discussed the new sales laws for the British Columbia area. That's exciting. After, I we got done, I went down to check in. I noticed that they had several self-checkin kiosks. Two were beside the front desk and three of them were actually attached to the front desk. I'm always curious about the use of the kiosk for checkin, so I asked the front desk agent if anyone uses them. His response to me is that "no one uses it and it usually does not work anyway." He told me that they were not located in the right place, which I agree, and it doesn't handle moving a guest to a clean/vacant room if there room is not ready. A note for the software developers of these systems.

The meeting was an afternoon reception meeting that had a very good attendance, however not quite 80. I guess I'm not as exciting as tax law.   There were around 30 and I do appreciate all that did attend. The chapter changed their normal lunch meeting to an afternoon reception to accommodate my travel schedule. Thank you for being flexible and I hope you found the presentation enlightening.

After the meeting, I got to go to dinner with the chapter officers at a very nice restaurant at the Sutton Place Hotel, in one of the few 5-Star hotels in Vancouver. The food was great; however, the company was fantastic. I understand why the British Columbia chapter is having such good success. The officers have a great time together, which creates a great team to get things done. This is a great model to follow. Have fun and lots of it.  Just remember to keep it legal please. 

Chapter Officers:
President – Romy Herrera - Email: r.herrera@coasthotels.com
Vice President – Vivian Waung
Treasurer – Neil Holm
Secretary – Lawrence Iu

Back to the airport and a really, really long line to get through the US Customs. If you are not familiar, you clear US Customs before you leave Canada. You've got to love it when there's a long line of people and they only have 2 people working. Well, I know I didn't love it. Then once I got through the first line, then there's a second line. Of course I choose the wrong line. Once I got in line, half of the agents left on break while new agents came to service the other line. Word of advice, don't follow me in a line.

Greater Puget Sound Chapter

Once the US allowed me back in, the flight down to Seattle was uneventful and quite short. The Greater Puget Sound Chapter President Jessica Vint picked me up at the airport and served as my tour guide for the afternoon. First, she took me to lunch at Juno's and had an extremely awesome hamburger. Yeah, I know, I should not have eaten that, but man was it good. In order to help compensate, we walked around Pike's Market where I got to see the Throwing Fish store. That was pretty cool, but smelly. It was a good afternoon where we talked a lot about the chapter and of course drank some Starbucks.

The meeting that evening was at the Hotel 1000, a very technologically advanced property. There are a lot of things in their guestroom that we've displayed in our Guestroom 20X in the past. Of course, as with all technology, there is room for problems. One thing I discovered when I got to the meeting room to set up that you actually needs a power cord to make it work! I apparently had left my cord back in Vancouver. I have to admit, I was pretty frazzled. Of course, I make one of my bone-head moves in front of one of the HFTP Technology Hall of Fame members Jon Inge.  As with most hotels, there's a box of power supplies behind the front desk and we were able to find one that worked, but it took a while. Therefore, I was not able to fullfill my duty as the "designated hugger" that Lisa Funk had asked me to do. But, I don't think it would be have been the same anyway. No one can replace her.

Jessica started out the meeting with an update on what things are going on, demonstrated their new website (www.hftpwa.org) using the new templates provided by HFTP Global, and highlighted the chapter mantra for 2010 of "Stoke the Fire of Hospitality Education." It was a very motivated talk, so I wasn't sure what I was going to be able to add.  We had a great dinner and then I shared with the 45 members that were in attendance. There were a few members of the South Seattle Community College Student Chapter. It's always great to have the students active with us old people. We need to be in the role of mentor to them. It was a great meeting. I do, however, apologize to Dennis Miller who had to hear the same jokes he had heard down in Portland a couple of nights before. But I do appreciate having a "groupie."

Chapter Officers:
President – Jessica Vint, CHAE - email: jvint@thehotelgroup.com
Vice President – Marney Zellers, CHAE
Treasurer - Shawn I. Bloom
Secretary - Valerie Coty

The next morning, I was off to the airport again. I was riding and could see Mr. Rainier. It was majestic and it got me thinking. That mountain reminded me of our goals that we should all be striving for. We may be in the valley right now, but we should put those mountain peaks clearly in our horizon and continually move forward towards it. As with the shark, we have to continuously move forward or we die.

Southern Alberta Chapter

I landed in Calgary, early I might add, and like Vancouver, I went straight through customs without stopping my stride. This was good since I was arriving only an hour and a half before the meeting was to start. I was picked up by the Chapter Secretary Brian Verners and we went to the meeting at the Regency Palace Restaurant. It was a great turnout of about 30 members with is snowing outside.

They bestowed me with a great honor. I am now an Honorary Calgarian. I went through the entire ceremony and then they presented me with a certificate and a beautiful white cowboy hat. This puts me in a very prestigious group including President George Bush. However, I didn't see CNN anywhere.

They presented me with this award before I spoke, which was a good thing. They may have re-considered after the speech.  But, everyone seemed to enjoy the discussion and there was a lot of interest concerning the certification programs. They've been promoting the certifications quite a bit, which is evident with one of their members, Louise Asselbergs, just passing her test for the CHAE a few weeks ago. GREAT JOB!!

It was a great meeting and even though it was late by the time I got done, imagine that, there was a good discussion and several questions about how to make their chapter even better and draw more IT professionals and club controllers into the chapter. I was encouraged about the chapter's desire to make the chapter reach out to the other segments of our membership. Keep working at it.

Chapter Officers:
President - Esther J. Fullen - email: controller@charltonresorts.com
Vice President - Derek Stickle
Treasurer - Elizabeth Evans
Secretary - Brian Verners

Now it was time to come home. I travel to the airport and start the whole US custom thing once again. The line wasn't as bad this time and I made it through the first counter in decent time but I got to the security line and they wouldn't let me take my rolling bag as a carry on. Which I have to admit, I was a little upset seeing I carried the exact same bag through from Vancouver just two days before.  They make me put it in a size-wise measurement unit that my wallet would barely fit in. Apparently they didn't know who I was so they sent me back to the counter to check the bag. The walk back allowed me to calm down, slightly, and the agent printed a check back slip and we put it on the bag. I went on through the process and took the plane down to Minneapolis. After I landed and was getting my stuff together and was putting my checked bag claim ticket in a safe place I noticed that the ticket agent checked my bag to a Gary Price going to Nashville, not Terry Price going to Asheville. Now what are the odds of that happening? I guess that was a lesson to not lose my temper. I need to review that section of my seminar about "kindness."  Anyway, the bag naturally didn't make it, but it finally made its way to home.

It was an amazing week and it always energizes me when I get around a group of HFTP members. That's one of the biggest benefits of our association to have the opportunity to gather with a group of people that share a common interest and experience. It gives us the opportunity to help and encourage each other. That's just good stuff.

Hope to see you soon!

Light is a very powerful thing.  Even the smallest glimmer can make a huge difference in a dark room.  When we are surrounded by darkness, we all look for some source of light, any light to provide us with direction.  I feel that there is a the light that is beginning to shine in the darkness of our economy.  For most, it is still a small flicker, but it is there.  We just need to focus on it and start walking towards it.

I noticed that glimmer of hope when we attended the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  I was pretty cool that over 100,000 of my best buds met me there to check out the latest in technology being introduced into the consumer market.  It was quite a party.  This was the first CES that I've ever attended and it was quite a sight.  The hall was filled with hundreds of vendors with larger than life booths.  The vendors didn't seem to pull any punches as they put together very elaborate displays to dazzle the imagination and make their little piece of the show floor look larger than life.  And the floor itself had a life of its own.  The excitement of the attendees created an energy that was contagious.  To a tech guy, this was like being at Disney World.

I have to admit, it was hard to stay on mission.  Brian Garavuso, Chair of the Guestroom 20X Committee; Frank Wolfe, CEO of HFTP; Steven Stout, Director Meetings and Events for HFTP and I were there to search for the latest and greatest technologies for the 2010 version of Guestroom 20X to be displayed this coming June 21 thru 24 at HITEC in Orlando, Flordia.  However, there were distractions galore.  I really don't think there is a place for Earthquake car stereo speakers in the guestroom, but I have to admit, I was fanaticizing how that would fit in my Ford Expedition.  My wife didn't agree.

Vendors pulled out all the stops to catch your attention as you walked through the floor.  They resurrected Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, had all-leather dressed racecar pit crews and barely-dressed Caribbean models to bring your attention to their booth.  Well, that's what people told me.  I really didn't notice myself.  However, I was quite distracted by the cute little microphone in the Sony booth.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

If there was a a theme of the show, I'd have to say it was everything TV.  Small TV's that fit on your jacket like a name tag up to the massive projection screen technology that make your living room into a full scaled theater.  Of course, thin is it.  The new LED TV's are as thin as 3/4 of an inch and can be hung on the wall like a painting.  And the picture is amazing on these units.  Amazing and eco-friendly.  These new TV's use up to 40% less power than the previous LCD models.  LED TV's have been around for a while but this year's twist was the new 3D version.  These TV's in conjunction with a 3D Blue-ray player produces a true 3D experience right inside your living room.  You still have to use the glasses, but the quality is amazing.

Of course there were many other technologies that we saw and many would be great additions to the Guestroom 20X.  I can tell you what they are, you'll have to come to Orlando and see them yourself.  It will be well worth the trip.

I believe the success of the CES show is a small light that the economy is turning in the right direction.  2010 will probably be a little tight for everyone, especially since most of the budgets have already been set.  But the upturn gives us much hope for 2011.  Many projects that have been on hold for a while may begin to be put back on the books by then and we need to make sure we are ready for them.  HITEC 2010 will give everyone the opportunity to plan for the technology projects that will be coming our way, so make plans to attend.  You don't want to be caught uninformed.

As the title says, we have a glimmer of light, so let's set a path to walk towards the light and climb our way out of this dark room.

Terry

Ralph Bellamy once said, "Everything ends. But there are always new beginnings." 

Most all of us were somewhere with loved ones and friends as we counted down the end of 2009 and celebrated the beginning of 2010.  Why do we do that?  What's different about that midnight verses any other midnight?  One of the reasons is we celebrate a since of renewal with the beginning of a new year and close the history books on the old.

As 2009 came to a close, it also marked the end of a very dear HFTP family member, Mrs. Roz Trieber.  Roz,  health educator and creator of HUMORFUSION was mother of our very own Jerry Trieber, CPA, CHAE, CFE, CFF, former HFTP Global Board Member and a frequent speaker a HFTP events.  Roz was the author of “The Joy of Living…The Journal That Inspires You To Live Life Laughing,” (2007), “Live Life Laughing: An Innovative and Imaginative Approach to Living A Healthier, Happier and More Prosperous Life” (2000), co-authored 43 Ways To Keep You and Your Taste Buddies Happy: Outrageous and Hilarious Humor Laced Between 43 Healthy and Delicious Recipes (2000), and Life After Schmaltz (1990).  She shared her positive attitude as a speaker at our HFTP conferences and has touched many lives and hearts of our HFTP family.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to know Roz very well.  I consider that a loss.  However, I know beyond a shadow of doubt that she was an amazing lady.  I can tell by the stories that I hear from other HFTP members and see the expressions on their face when they are talking about her.  She was well loved.  I can also tell by her amazing son Jerry.  He's a giant of a man in a small frame.  His character, integrity, and good nature are a reflection of her in him.  Many of you have stories about your encounter with Roz and how she affected your life.  I'd love to hear them.  Please post a comment to this blog and share your story.  I also know how much it would mean to Jerry and his family and let's all keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

Now it is 2010.  The beginning of a new year and for the Price family marked the beginning of a new life together when my oldest daughter Leah married Isaiah Adams on January 2nd.  That was probably one of the most emotional days of my life.  I believe I experienced every form of emotion possible:  from worry to relief, from mad to happy, from sad to joyful, from rushed to relaxed, from funny to serious, etc.  You name it; we probably felt it at some point during the day.  As with most all wedding ceremonies, everything fell together at 4:59 and the wedding started at 5:00.  It was a beautiful ceremony.  We had it at the Country Club at The Grove Park Inn where I work.  I must say that the staff and the chefs did an amazing job.  If you're looking for a place to hold a wedding, they really know their stuff.

The ceremony began and I saw my little girl come down the staircase, the same little girl that I was holding in my arms in the hospital nearly 22 years earlier.  I told her back then that I would always be there to take care of her and to love her.  Now, I had to take her by the arm and walk her down the aisle and give her away to another man that is now to be the one to take care of her.  That was extremely hard for me.  I was holding my composure, somewhat, on the outside, but was all to pieces on the inside.  But, I know that she loves him very much and he loves her very much and as Mufasa would say on the Lion King, "That's the circle of life." 

As I mentioned before, the ceremony was beautiful.  We laughed, we cried, we were proud seeing that beautiful young lady stand there and dedicate herself to her new husband and new life.  After the reception I had a chance to have my little girl all to myself one last time.  She picked out this terribly-sad song called I Loved Her First by Heartland.  It was a tear-jerker, but I didn't mind.  For that brief moment I was back in the hospital holding my little girl and telling her how much I loved her.  Now they are on the road.  Isaiah is a long-haul truck driver and she is travelling with him and living in the truck.  They are happy, so I am happy.






I hope 2010 offers some amazing new hope for you as well.  I am excited about the possibilities and the opportunities that I have to see many of you at a future chapter visit or HFTP event.  Together we can brighten each others world and share the HFTP PRIDE.

THANKS
Terry

INTRODUCING
Mr. & Mrs. Isaiah Adams

Hello Everyone,

2009 is almost over and I believe we can all say we're glad to see it go.  Of course, I'm speaking of the financial (or lack there of) year we had.  I know that I have had some very memorable moments during 2009 that I wouldn't trade for the world.  One of which is when I had the privilege of becoming the President of this amazing organization.  For that alone, 2009 will hold a very special place in my heart forever.  Each one of you can search through the events of 2009 and find that golden nugget that makes living on this earth worth while.

Christmas is just two days away.  I love this time of year.  I have to admit, it has kind of sneaked up on me.  I guess I better go shopping!!!   My most favorite part of the season is that people will fire up that compassionate, giving spirit that is locked up for most of the rest of the year.  We'll go seeking that present for someone that we haven't spoken to much, we'll drop a dollar or two in the Salvation Army bucket, we'll go to the family gatherings even though we really don't want to... I'm sure you can add to this list.  The joy of giving.  There's no other time of the year we experience it like during Christmas.  In the Christian faith, we take this time to celebrate what we consider the greatest gift of all which was the little baby in the manger.  Many faiths celebrate a significant event during this holiday season which is what brings us all together.  Whatever your beliefs and faiths are, don't let the hussle and bussle of the search for the perfect gift overshadow taking time to focus on the deeper meaning of the holiday season.

Christmas came a little early for us here in North Carolina.  We had the biggest snow storm in nearly 30 years for the month of December.  Before it was done, we had a little over a foot of snow at my house.  Some areas were close to 20 inches.  Now for the people that live up north and are reading this, don't laugh.  I know a foot of snow to you is a small flurry.  But to us, it was increadible!!  We took the opportunity to play in the snow and build our first every family snowman.  It was fun getting out and playing with the family, however, there is a bad side to a storm such as this.  We were without power for over 24 hours and we were one of the lucky ones. There are people around us that still do not have power since last Friday. They may not have it by Christmas either, so let's please remember those families.

This holiday season will have even more significant meaning to our family.  On January 2nd, I'll be walking my oldest daughter down the aisle give her away.  It's hard enough to type it out, let alone do it in just over a week. He's a good kid, but let's face it, he's a BOY!!  Those fathers that have a daughter knows what I'm talking about.  It will be a joyful occasion and a wonderful way to start 2010. 

I wish each and everyone of you a Very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year.  The freshness of a new year gives us a renewed hope of a bright and prosperious New Year.  I hope to see each and everyone of you at an upcoming HFTP event and together we'll make 2010 memorable!!

I'd love to hear from you.

Terry

This past Monday, we held the HFTP Caribbean Finance and Technology Conference at the beautiful Rose Hall Resort & Spa in Montego Bay, Jamaica.   There were around 30 in attendance for the one-day conference. Most of the attendees were members of our Jamaica chapter that is being lead by Mr. Joe Hylton. Joe is a 30+ year member of HFTP and has been a faithful supporter and attendee at several HFTP events over the years. Joe is also the Director of Finance at the host property and was a gratious host. We really appreciate all the work he did in assisting us with the conference. Especially his tireless efforts to promote the conference amoung the members of his chapter. It really paid off with well over 50% of his members in attendance. THANKS JOE.

I began the conference sharing with them how to Be the "You", You Always Wanted to Be. We talked about how we all need to look at ourself and analyze the type of person that we are right now. Then we started looking at the building blocks necessary to build the person that we'd want to be. When we all come to the end of our time here on earth, what do we want people to say about us? That's a question we need to answer sooner rather than later so we can begin building that life that we will be proud to leave behind.

Then Frank Wolfe, CEO of HFTP shared with the attendees about things to be aware of concerning hotel contracts. He shared several examples of clauses to be careful about as well as clauses that we all need to make sure are included in our contracts. Frank has been in the business of negotiating contracts with hotels and convention centers for many years on the behalf of HFTP. So, he was able to provide the attendees with some very practical and tried and true practices.

Frank then shared about Social Networking. This is, as Frank put it, "One of the biggest drug addictions ever." With sites such as Facebook with 70+ million accounts, I can believe it. He shared many examples of how people need to be very protective of their personal information. We all need to be aware that our information is very public on these sites, therefore, we must be careful.

Jules Sieburg, Immediate Past President of HFTP took the stage after a fabulous lunch at one of the restaurants at Rose Hall. His topic was Freeware: Tools That Work and Won't Break the Bank. All of our businesses are always looking for ways that we can save money. Jules shared some technology solutions that are available on the internet that can be used in our operations at a very reasonable price, FREE. Can't beat that price! Computing in the Cloud is a big movement and a big opportunity for companies to start looking at less expensive software solutions. Jules listed out several solutions under categories such as: Accounting, Customer Relation Management (CRM), Collaboration Tools, Communication & Multimedia, Photo Editing and other various utilities. These solutions can save hundreds of dollars per user for your company.

RP Rama, Secretary of HFTP provided the attendees a very impressive session about how he helped convert JHM Hotels from "Paper to Paperless." RP is the VP of Technology of JHM Hotels which he is also part owner. JHM has around 40 properties in their portfolio all over the country and also a few in India. RP shared with us how he has utilized internet technologies to eliminate storage and processing of paper documents. Most all the documents utilized by JHM are scanned and stored electronically. Including accounts payable invoices and checks. By utilizing this technology he has eliminated many layers of costs associated with the storage and processing of hardcopy paperwork. Once a document is scanned and stored, it is actually shreaded. Management is also able to approve or reject any of the items being submitted for payment from anywhere in the world through a secured internet connection. RP took us to the next level by actually connecting to his system during the session and giving us a demonstration of his system and how it has revolutionized his company. RP also shared that he got the idea of installing such as system from sessions that he attended at HITEC.  Another shining example of the benefits of attending the HFTP conferences.

We finished off the conference by having an "Ask the Experts" session.  Since we couldn't really find any "experts," Frank, Jules, RP, Tom Smith (VP of HFTP) and I set on a panel to do the best we could.  We were extremely pleased that most all the questions that were ask centered around the wealth of HFTP benefits that are available and our certification program.  There was a lot of interest in becoming more involved in attending HFTP conferences and furthering their careers by becoming a CHAE or CHTP.  Questions that we actually knew how to answer.

The conference was a great success!  I feel that the attendees were excited about the sessions and the opportunity to learn.  We felt privileged to be involved and to have the opportunity to share with them.  We look forward to future meetings and encourage the members of the Jamaica chapter to continue reaching out with their fellow professionals and introduce them to our great association.  Below is a group picture of the attendees of the conference.  Let's show them our support by posting a comment to this blog and encourage them.

Terry

An organizational meeting was hosted by the Resnick Group on Monday morning, December 7 on the beautiful harbor shores of Baltimore, Maryland.  The purpose of the meeting was to launch the process for submission as a new chapter in HFTP.  There were around 30 attendees and I had the opportunity to share with them all the exciting things about HFTP and the numerous benefits of becoming involved. 

There was great energy in the room, especially for an 8:00 a.m. Monday morning meeting.  The audience was mostly made up of vendor attendees, but there were some of the current DC members that work in Balitmore present.  They were very encouraged that a chapter may be getting started in their area.  The organizing committee is being chaired by Nick Hollander, CPA, Manager at Reznick Group, P.C. (Nick.Hollander@reznickgroup.com).  I encourage you to send him an email to encourage him and give some advise as he moves forward with organizing this chapter.

Other members of the organizing committee are: Ryan Henigan, Sheslie Royster, Dan King, Greg Remeikis, and Joyce Price.  We appreciate all these individuals taking time to give back to the industry through organizing this chapter.

There was a member from the local culinary school that expressed an interest in organizing a student chapter as well.  He is going to discuss the concept with the school leaders and see what the possibilities are.  Maybe we'll get a two-for-one deal out of this group.

It was every exciting to be there.  There are a few things that I learned about having an 8:00 a.m. meeting.  First off, people are not as anxious for me to finish talking when I'm holding them up from going to work instead of holding them up from the cocktail hour.  Secondly, it appears that my jokes are not quite as funny when people have not already had a drink or two.  I guess orange juice and coffee does not dull the senses enough. 

I'm excited about what will come out of this group and I know the HFTP family will always be there to help and encourage them. Post a comment to this blog expressing your encouragment and advise to what we hope to be our newest adult chapter and hopefully student chapter.

Terry

This past Thursday Frank and I attended the 4th Annual Conference for the British Association of Hospitality Accountants (BAHA) in jolly ol London.

Attendance was very good. As much as a 50% increase over last year. I imagine it had something to do with Frank being listed as the closing speaker discussing the Future of Technology for the Guestroom. A very popular repeat from last year's conference. Frank WOW'd them as usual with the Guestroom 20X presentation about the items that we've used in prior configurations of the room as well as technology that is currently being considered for our next version that will debut at HITEC 2010 in Orlando, Florida.

I had the opportunity to take a few minutes and talk about our great association. Especially, the certification program that we currently offer in partnership with BAHA. I kept my portion very brief (I know, hard to believe) so Frank would have as much time as possible. We were, after all, just before the cocktail hour.

There was one other session that was of great interest as well. Derek Wood, Managing Director of Derek Wood Associates, LTD and Ted Horner, Managing Director of E. Horner & Associates offered a debate on the topic of "Investing in New Technology or People." Of course, it is quite entertaining just having Derek and Ted debate no matter what the topic was.

Derek took the side of investing in people. He made the argument of training you people in order to provide better customer service. After all, it is people that provide the services that we look for in a hotel stay. Derek also mentioned training the people to better use the technologies that we have instead of buying new technology.

Ted took the argument of investing in technology. As the traveling population become more tehnologically savey, people will be desiring the access to better technology as better customer service. One example is providing more kiosk check-in stations so travellers can get into their room as quickly as possible.

There are several arguments on both sides. What is your opinion? Post a comment on this blog and let us know your thoughts.
Terry

Derek making some comment about Cricket

See!! People weren't sleeping!!!

Derek and Ted on the Big Stage!!

Spreading the HFTP Gospel!!!

I just returned from my first time attending the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show in New York City. I’ve always heard great things about it and how there were so many people that it was hard to walk down the aisles. Well…the show was well organized, education sessions were good, and there were some good networking. But, I was disappointed in the number of sellers and buyers.

Hey, I'm not knocking the show, I just believe this is an indication of how things are for now and the immediate future due to the economy. We all know that capital dollars have been very tight in 2009. Since attendance among buyers was down, it seems that there is some concern that capital dollars might also be tight in 2010…at least early in the year.

There is also concern from the seller’s side of the fence. I talked to many people that have attended in prior years, and they said that the exhibits used to cover a much larger portion of the Javits Center. As I walk a tradeshow floor, it is pretty easy to tell how much money people are spending. If you walk down an aisle and the vendors come out into the aisle after you, then either they have a poor product or no one is buying. Well, it was clear buyers were rare because I felt like I needed shoulder pads and a helmet to make it to the end of an aisle. I had vendors walking in front of me giving me a “hard” sales pitch as I walked by their booths. I didn't even get to pick up any cool little gifts for fear of losing a limb. I understand that there were a large number of repeat exhibitors this year but economic times required them to have smaller booths. This year, HFTP an avid supporter of the show, made the decision to forgo building our Guestroom 20x exhibit in order to be conservative with our budgets. In these economic times, it is clear we made the right decision.

The good news for those of us doing business in New York is that room rates seem to be stabilizing. Even with the economy being down, some of the hotels in the room block were getting almost $400 a night. Granted, this might be much less than we’d like, but at least there does seem to be some pressure to help keep room rates stable. Many of the hospitality companies have halted or reduced the amount of travel authorized within their company so many of the people that attended were transient from nearby Boston, New Jersey, etc., or perhaps the room rates could have gone even higher.

I've read several articles that say we may slip even more in 2010 before we start climbing out of the hole in 2011. While this may or may not be true, 2009 was a very tough year for the all of us in the hospitality industry. Hopefully, 2010 will be much better. I’d like to know your opinion if you’d like to share it.

Terry