First, I want to apologize for taking so long to post this. Seems my employer expects me to get a little work done from time to time.

My time in Florida began with a few days in Naples with my family. It was our first vacationing in that part of Florida. We have usually been on the Atlantic side. But, I have to admit, we are a big fan now. The Naples area is absolutely beautiful. The sand is beautiful, the water is warm and clear, and the weather was great. We stayed at the Edgewater Beach Resort which I highly recommend. If you are ever in the Naples area, you need to stay there.

After a few days we travelled up to Orlando to get ready for HITEC. But before it started, Sunday was Harry Potter day for the Price family. We spent the day at the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Island of Adventures. We had been so pumped with anticipation for that day. My entire family is Harry Potter geeks. Read all the books, saw all the movies and I'm just talking about the kids. I have to admit, the original plan wasn't to be there on the grand opening weekend, but it just worked out that way. So, us and several thousands of our closest Harry Potter friends spent the refreshing near 1000 degree day together. As least we became close friends after spending a total of around 5-6 hours of the day in different lines. I know that sounds insane, and probably was, but it was very much worth it. Universal did an amazing job. Their recreation of the shops on Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and of course the Hogwarts Castle were amazing. It felt like we were really on the pages of the book. I have to admit, I did my fair share of helping Universal get a good ROI. We bought candy from Honeydukes, a snitch from Zonkos, wands from Ollivaders, robes from Dervish and Banges. Drank some Butter Beer and Pumpkin juice and flew along with Harry in a Quidditch match on the new castle ride. The funniest part of the day was my son Luke. After he bought his robe and wand, he proceeded to wear it around the park. He didn't care how hot it was. While walking around, many people stopped him to have their picture made with him. They thought he was Harry Potter. He was having a ball. His head was a few sized bigger when we walked out of the park. If you are a Harry Potter fan, a trip to the park will not disappoint. Maybe wait a few months until things calm down a bit.

Now, HITEC. There's been many articles, blogs, tweets, etc posted about HITEC. I some up my opinion in two words: awesome and encouraging. Attendance was great, the education sessions were fabulous and the showroom floor was busy and active. All this leads up to AWESOME which is encouraging that our industry is starting the slow climb back up.

Monday began a packed day of education sessions concluded with our opening general session. I admit, I couldn't resist the temptation after the amazing day we had in Harry Potter land. I opened the session in a Gryffindor robe (my son's) and a wand (mine). I know, it was cheesy but it was a lot of fun. Then the Co-Chairs of the HITEC Advisory Council, Cindy Estes Green and Allison Morris took the stage to serve as MC for the remainder of the session. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Cindy and Allison for the amazing job they did leading the advisory council. I challenged them to re-invent the education sessions at HITEC and they more then exceed my expectations. GREAT JOB LADIES. Then we had the privilege to hear the life story of Frank Abagnale. Frank is the man they based the Steven Spielberg movie "Catch Me If You Can." It was very heart-felt and inspirational. A great start. Then we had a great opportunity to network at the welcome reception at the Rosen Hotel. Great food, great conversation and good music. Great time had by all. Afterwards, the vendor party hopping began. Day one, a great success.

Tuesday began with a visit from a robot friend who shared with us his disco moves and mad guitar skills. It was quite entertaining. Afterwards, Nick Price was inducted into the HFTP International Technology Hall of Fame. An appointment that is well deserved. Nick has been able to influence tremendous improvements in the adoption of technology in our industry. Congratulations Nick. Then Michael Tchong gave us some updates on the social media boom with his session called "I'm Gonna Tweet You Up." The train has definitely left the station on social media, so we all better get on board or be left behind. After the session the show floor opened. Vendors were all posed and ready for the attendees and they were not disappointed. The flow of traffic was very good and people were engaging the vendors to learn about their products all over the floor. Also, we opened the 2010 version of Guestroom 20X. The guestroom displayed several new and upcoming technologies such as 3-D TV, cybertecture mirror, door lock opened by your phone and a HiCan High Fidelity Canopy (a fancy name for a really awesome techie bed). To get more on the room go to www.guestroom20X.org. At the end of the day there were more vendor parties and receptions to attend. Day two, another great success.

Wednesday and Thursday was filled with many great education sessions and more show floor time which remained busy and active all the way up til closing time. The conference was closed out with Dennis Snow, author of the book "Lessons from the Mouse" which was also the title of his session. We learned from his extensive experience in customer service which he built through his 20 years with the Walt Disney World Company, along with another visit from our robot friend.

HITEC 2010 is now in the history books and it was amazing. Did we break the record attendance, no. Did we have the most booths or vendors, no. But giving an indication that there is a light at the end of this economic tunnel, it blew all the records away. I am so proud of our association. However, the success of this event is due to our amazing staff in Austin. They worked extremely hard and deserve all the credit for the success of this conference. On behalf of all the members of HFTP, thank you Frank and the entire staff of HFTP for all that you do.

Until next time...

Another exciting week in the HFTP World. Last Wednesday I loaded the plane in Asheville heading towards San Diego, through Atlanta of course, to visit their chapter. It was a beautiful day to fly and everything arrived and left on time.

After arriving I took the shuttle over to the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina. It was a beautiful hotel right on the marina (you probably guessed that already from the name) and my room had an amazing view. I had a couple hours to rest and iron my clothes! After traveling out of a carryon, I've learned the art of ironing. And reusing clothes, but maybe you didn't want to know that.

My lovely host, Robyn Hennon, President of the San Diego Chapter, picked me up and we traveled to the site of the meeting. OMG! What a beautiful location. It was at the LaJolla Beach and Tennis Club. The meeting room was literally about 30 yards from the Pacific Ocean! I was very concerned about how I was going to remain focused while I was speaking. I can understand when the audience doesn't pay attention, but it's real bad when the speaker doesn't pay attention either!!

After a great reception, Robyn got up to award the current year's recipient of the scholarship. This year's winner is Erin Nickerson. She is from Mission Viejo, California. She is attending California State San Marcos majoring in Business Administration/Accounting. She is also seeking a minor in Bio Technologies. Which I thought was an amazing combination. Even though she doesn't look the part, she is definitely a geek! Welcome to the geek club! Her goal is to work in hospitality, but if that doesn't work, she hopes to work in the accounting office of a Bio Tech firm. Congratulations Erin and good luck!

After a great dinner I got up to share how they can gain personal pride in themselves through HFTP. However, I feel I must apologize. I didn't do a very good job. I had a little technical difficulties as I started and I just never got in a good rhythm. I guess that happens from time to time but that doesn't mean I like it. We have such an amazing association and I didn't represent it well. I hope someone got something out of it and became motivated to get involved. It is worth it! The audience was most gracious and attentive and I appreciate that. I hope that you will allow me to come back in the future to share. I can do better.

Chapter Officers:
• Robyn Hennon, President - rhennon@coronadoyc.org
• Caryn Cumerlato, Vice President of Locations
• Jason Hizer, Vice President of Speakers
• Jessica Roemer, Treasurer
• Brooke Vandenbrink, Secretary

Next morning I was off to Houston for the 2nd Annual Houston Education Conference. The flights were all fine and I was picked up by Lisa Funk, HFTP Global Treasurer. It was my first time in Houston and no one warned me that it was 147° and 210% humidity! When the option to sit inside or outside was offered at dinner, inside was the reply immediately. Although there were some people sitting outside next to a fire pit. They apparently came from much warmer climates, like Mars!

Just before the conference began the next day, I had lunch with Lisa as well as Agnes DeFranco, HFTP Past President, and Tanya Venegas from the HFTP Research Institute. The conference started out with Colonel Phil Bossert from the United States Air Force talking to us about Leadership Development. He gave us a lot of good information, but the main point I got is the primary characteristic of a great leader is integrity. Integrity can be defined as "doing the right thing even if no one is around." Followers want to follow leaders that are who they say they are. The Colonel was followed by a visit from Annise Parker, Mayor of Houston. She was giving an update on the economic climate in Houston and some initiatives that are being worked on to make improvements. One stat that she mentioned was a surprise at least to me. Houston is the most ethnically diverse population of a major city in the U.S. Due to the large port, they have groups of people from nearly every corner of the world. She was very engaged and welcoming as indicated by her blue jeans, golf shirt and flat hat-hair. She had just came from a charity golf tournament where she played her first golf game ever. She said her team shot a 57, so I feel she pulled some mayoral power and stacked her team.

After the break, Ron Luster, Vice President of Employee Benefits with Willis shared with us the Impact of Healthcare Reform of 2010. OMG!! Someone must have doing some serious drugs when they came up with that one. The only thing that I'm glad is that we'll have insurance to buy all the drugs we need to help us administer this thing. Then Lyle Worthington, CIO for Horseshoe Bay Resort finished out the day with a great session on how we can all save money and resources by using virtualization technologies on our computers and servers.  Lyle is a fantastic speaker on IT related topics and I encourage everyone to use him for your chapter.  He'll do a great job. It was a great first day of education.

That evening we enjoyed a great reception at the Union Station next to the Minute Maid Ballpark. I had the privilege of seeing Michael Horrocks, HFTP Past President 1994-1995. The Houston Chapter has a long history of HFTP leadership including Ms. Agnes pictured with us. After eating we when into the park where we saw the Houston Astros beat the number one team in the majors, the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1. It was a great game and was followed up by a great fireworks display. Man, this Houston crowd knows how to make their guests feel welcome. Click here to enjoy a video of the firework show!!!

The next day began with my presentation on Gaining Pride. 8am on Saturday morning, you can't imagine how excited people were to hear me. I tried to liven them up by showing them the above video of the fireworks. Arlene Remirez, the new Controller for the Carlton Woods Country Club followed with several tips on Keeping Your Money. It was a great session that she will be doing at the Annual Convention as well. You should make plans to come. After the lunch break Mark Lipsitt, Founder and CEO of The Lipsitt Group shared a repeat/updated session from last year's conference about Cool Technology and Free Stuff. Very enlightening on all the technologies available for us online for free. With the advances of "cloud-based" computing, we all should investigate if a free solution is available before we go purchasing software. Then Daniel Conti, Director of Finance at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa shared his session on Customer Service Without Spending Your Last Dime. A session that has been a favorite at numerous HFTP events throughout the country and he did his normal outstanding job. I like this presentation because it reminds us that even though we are in the background, we are all part of customer service. We closed the conference with Ken Smith, Hospitality Consultant and former Senior Vice President Operations for Hilton shared about the State of the Hospitality Economy. He was an upbeat and energetic presenter even though the information was less than upbeat. Things are getting better, but we have a long way to go as if you didn't know that already.

Chapter Officers:
• Bret Myers, President - legraphic2@aol.com
• James Doolittle, President Elect
• Ursula Cornish, Vice President
• Calvin Upton, Treasurer
• Yuk "Vicky" Chan, Secretary

The trip home went well. Ms. Lisa graciously volunteered to take me to the airport and I greatly appreciated it. All was smooth except when I knocked over my luggage and the yogurt that I just purchased at Starbucks exploded all in and over my luggage. I knew trying to eat that healthy stuff was just a bad idea.

No trips planned until we all meet in Orlando for HITEC 2010. I hope to see everyone there, it is going to be great.

Until then...

The week started out in Chicago to attend the Hospitality Technology Strategic Initiative Council (HTSIC) meeting. The HTSIC is a collaboration of hospitality associations to address the technology needs of our industry. Some of the associations represented are: Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), Hospitality Asset Management Association (HAMA), OpenTravel (OT), Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG), Convention Industry Council (CIC), Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association (HEDNA), Hospitality Information Technology Association (HITA), American Hotel and Lodging Association (AH&LA) and of course Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). As you can see, this is a broad-reaching group and represents most every area of hospitality. Technology issues affect every area of our business, so it makes since that we come together to address them instead of trying to do it individually. This goal is stated in the council's mission statement.

The HTSIC, composed of senior-level, industry leaders and related hospitality/travel associations, discusses pressing industry needs as they relate to hospitality technology. The council works to identify industry initiatives, find the best possible home for these initiatives and reduce duplication efforts.

1. Generic Logons. So many systems have a generic logon to access the system. It could be a default logon at the front desk, an HVAC PC that's in an engineering closet, or an interface PC. All these generic logons should be removed or at least have a password that changes every 90 days placed on them. Hackers are getting into systems by just logging in as one of these generic users. Every computer and server in our properties should require a password to have access, no matter how big or small your operation is.

2. Firewall Settings. The firewall is your door to the world for your network. It is designed to allow the people you want to come in and those you don't to stay out. Many organizations have too many "doors" open on your firewall. This allows the hacker to gain access into your system. Have your IT Professionals to make sure that you only have the doors open that you absolutely need and if you need a door open, it is only open to the people you allow, not just anyone.

3. Remote Access. Allowing support vendors access into our systems to help with software or hardware issues is a fact of life for us. We have so many different systems from different vendors that need to be supported. The only way they can help us most of the time it to access our systems remotely. This access can allow a hacker to also gain access. To help secure this, you need to keep that access off until you need it. It can then be turned on, your vendor can fix the problem, and then turn it back off.

• President - Mary Hoover - maryhoover@wi.rr.com
• Vice President - Kay Giese
• Treasurer - Jane Schneider
• Secretary - Karen Frank

This past week I've had the great honor of going to visit our HFTP chapter in Singapore and attend the Asia Food and Hotel Show. It was especially great because I was able to take my "nearly" 18 year old son Luke with me.

The trip over began around 11 am on a Saturday. It was a beautiful day and everything was going well. We boarded the plane in Atlanta preparing for the 14 hour flight to Tokyo. We were several hours into the flight when the Captain come on the intercom and announced that a passenger was having medical issues and we were going to have to make an emergency landing in Alaska. He also told us not to be alarmed when we saw jet fuel gushing out of the end of the wings. They had to dump the fuel because we were too heavy to land. So for about 15 minutes or so we watched as several hundreds, if not thousands of gallons of fuel were being let out. Of course I was hoping they were going to keep enough to land.

After the announcement from the Captain I became very concerned. First and foremost for the passenger. It must have been quite critical to divert a 747 full of passengers bound for Tokyo. Let's all whisper a prayer for their recovery. Secondly, we only had an hour and a half layover in Tokyo and I knew this little pit-stop would take much longer than that. First off, they had to replace all that fuel they just dumped. Then I noticed the luggage bay doors open and realized they had to find that passenger's luggage. New paper-work, flight plans, etc. We were on the ground for two and a half hours. According to the website, there were no more flights to Singapore that evening. So, I was resolving to get to spend one night in Tokyo. I also resolved not to get aggravated because I was thinking about the person that was heading to Tokyo but ended up in a hospital in Alaska. A night in Tokyo seemed quite trivial. However, when we arrived our flight had been delayed and we made it on to Singapore.

We arrived in Singapore around 4:30 am on Monday morning. Customs was a breeze and we walked out of the airport when the heat and humidity hit us square in the face.  4:30 in the morning and I was about to die! It was 80+ degrees and 185% humidity. I broke a sweat just walking 100 yards to get a cab. We got to the hotel and got into our room. It was about 6 am and we crashed. Didn't wake up until 5 pm.  So much for getting on the right time zone.

Tuesday was exploration day. We tried to force ourselves to go to sleep at the proper time the night before but I don't think it worked very well. After all, we had only been awake for about 5 hours. I got up and went jogging through the streets. I got a map from the hotel that had a 4km loop. However, I'm not sure how far I ran because I got pretty lost. The people that I asked on the street even looked at the map and were confused, so I didn't feel too bad. The weather wasn't looking too good so we chose to go to the Ion Mall in downtown. Yes ladies, we went shopping. This mall covered 4 city blocks all connected by underground tunnels. We ate at a Hong Kong restaurant for breakfast and selected some native items. It was very different for me but quite good. I did play it some safe by ordering a French Toast. Check it out! That's my iPhone setting beside it to give you an idea of how big is was. It was really good.

After a little while, it started to clear up so we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. Another guy thing to do. It had been highly recommended and was ranked the number 2 tourist attraction on Trip Advisor. It was very nice and we took lots of pictures. Especially for my wife because she's really into the plant, tree and flower thing. I'm not really sure, however, why they have a Botanical Garden. The entire city is a Botanical Garden. There are flowers, trees, plants all throughout the city. And I'm not talking about a tree here and there. It looks like they just planted a city within the woods without moving any trees. They have plant boxes along all the highways and across all the overpasses. The three pictures below is what we saw walking down the street to get to the Botanical Gardens. And even though there were a lot a plant life, there was no trash. Not "very little" trash, "no" trash. In the four days that we were in the city, I saw one cigarette butt in the road. I wish we'd take that kind of care of our cities. It was a place I'd like to live in.


Most of us have made the observation that there seems to be a Starbucks on every corner. Well in Singapore there is literally a 7 Eleven store on every corner. They were everywhere. In some places you could stand in one 7 Eleven store and look out the window and see three more. And they were very small stuck in every nook and cranny. Luke and I was in one store and when two more customers come in, we were overcrowded and bumping into each other. You don't see as many 7 Eleven stores here in the states as you used to. But, trust me, the franchise it alive and well in Singapore. There was even a 7 Eleven in the convention center.

Later that afternoon, we went to the number one tourist attraction on Trip Advisor, the Singapore Zoo. We didn't have a lot of time, so we maintained a pretty steady pace in order to cover the entire zoo. It was quite intense, but we made it. We even had time to catch the Sea Lion water show and played catch with an orangutan. It was an awesome day with my son even though the lack of rest started to catch up with me at the end of the day. I guess I can't keep up with an 18 year old anymore. (As if I that's anything new)

Wednesday was work day. We spent most of the day at the Asian Hotel and Food Show. It was huge. There were 9 convention halls at the Singapore Expo Center and every one of them was filled. I really don't think that you could possibly walk down every isle during the entire 3 days of the show. We concentrated on the Technology section of the show, Which, sadly, was very small. It only took us about an hour to visit all the vendors. Of course I was telling them how valuable it would be to be part of the largest hospitality information technology exposition conference in the world, HITEC. I got several contacts so maybe we'll see some of them in June in Orlando. There was one cool technology that was there. One vendor had a speaker system that would be perfect in most night clubs and lounges. The speakers were the size of a 2x2 drop ceiling tile. When you were standing on the dance floor, it was loud as you would expect. However, when you stepped 5 feet off the floor, the sound was substantially less. So much so that it would be quite easy to carry on a conversation. Very cool. Being a food show, we had to spend time sampling food. It was really the polite thing to do. We didn't want to offend anyone.

That evening we attended a reception hosted by the Singapore HFTP Chapter. Originally the chapter had planned a 1/2 day educational seminar. However, several of the speakers had travel problems and apparently they didn't want to hear me talk for 4 hours. (They just didn't know what they were missing) Therefore, they cancelled the seminar. I really appreciated the chapter still arranging a gathering so I would have the opportunity to meet them. About a dozen members met my son and me at the lounge in the hotel. I had a great time getting to know and talk to them. I took a few minutes to share how things are going in HFTP. It was a great time. My son got a little bored, but he hung in there with me.

Chapter Officers:

First off, sorry for the delay in posting. This has been a hectic week. After all, it is the last week of tax season. Last Friday, April 9th I drove down to Columbia, South Carolina to visit the HFTP South Carolina Chapter.

It was a beautiful day as my wife and I set out on the 3-hour drive (no there was no skipper and his mate nor a millionaire and his wife - if you are not sure what that means, ask your parents) to the campus of the University of South Carolina. The meeting was at the Carolina Coliseum. Well, it was in one of the classrooms in the Coliseum. It just sounded cooler to say it was at the Carolina Coliseum.

We went into the classroom and got my laptop all set up and ready to go. I was going over a few details with Chris Koepper, the Chapter President and R.P. Raman, HFTP Global Secretary and Chapter Board Member. Then they started to come in. They kept coming and coming and coming. Before I knew it, the room was filled with over 100 college students. There was even a group of students that travelled 2 1/2 hours from the Coastal Carolina University. I wasn't expecting so many students, but I have to admit, I was soooo excited. I absolutely love having the opportunity to speak to the young professionals about our fantastic industry and association. Now, I realize that a room full of students didn't just come to listen to me. They were asked to by their professors as a class assignment or extra credit. After all, it was a beautiful Friday afternoon. But, for whatever reason, I was sure glad they were there.

I shared with them about how great our association is and how they can utilize HFTP to prepare for and succeed in the hospitality industry. I spoke for about and hour and a half and as far as I could tell, no one fell asleep. Not bad for an old guy talking with a bunch of college kids. One thing that I did learn is that the jokes that normally work with us old folks just receive some pitiful stares from the kids. I promise that the next time I get to talk with a student chapter, I'll update the jokes.

After it was over I had several of them come up to me to get a picture made with me. Made me feel like a pop-star. Of course the real reason was that the professors would only give them credit if they had a picture as proof that they came to the session. But, when you have 3 lovely ladies come up to you to get a picture, you really don't care why, it just makes you feel good.

The Chapter Officers are:
• Chris Koepper, President - ckoepper@cliffscommunities.com
• Robert Usher, Vice President
• Chris Pitcock, Treasurer

Spring is trying to peek through finally. This past Easter weekend was absolutely beautiful. We got to watch the sunrise over the mountains as we celebrated our Easter sunrise service. Maybe... hopefully... we have left the cold weather behind us until next year.

With the budding of new life as we watch the trees begin to green, the flowers begin to bloom, the pollen begins to clog our sinuses..., and we are starting to see some new life in our businesses. People are starting to come back and groups are starting to have conferences again. It's slow and it's slight, but it is something. Our association is beginning to see some new light as well. Our membership numbers in both renews and new memberships were up in March. I believe our friends in Colorado were using some corporate challenges and utilized our new member group discount program. Way to go!!!

On Sunday afternoon I went to the airport heading towards Las Vegas. After going to Easter services, I thought I'd go and try my luck... Just kidding.  The Guestroom 20X committee was assembling to go through the nearly 40 applications for new and upcoming technologies to be showcased in the 2010 version of the Guestroom 20X that will be at HITEC 2010 in Orlando Florida June 21 thru 24. The flight was fairly uneventful except for the "eager" new TSA employee in Asheville. There was no one else going through the security line, so I guess they just wanted something to do. As you are aware, you can't carry any liquids in excess of 3 ounces through the checkpoint. And they must all be in a one-quart clear back to be screen separately. Well, my clear bag was larger than one-quart. I guess it really doesn't matter that it is the same clear bag that I've used since they began screening the liquids all over the world. But, today, it just would not do. So, we "attempted" to put all my stuff into a one-quart bag. Apparently, she didn't look at my head and see how much hair product that I need, or she just really didn't care. Therefore, a few of my items were chosen as a sacrifice to the TSA Gods. Don't worry, the hair stuff made it, I just may have smelled funny.

I arrived fine that evening and had several hours free on Monday to explore. So, I put on some shorts and sandals to go walking on the strip. After all, I was going to the desert. Frank and I loaded on the shuttle bus and were dropped off at Mandalay Bay. As soon as we stepped off, we knew we were in trouble. The wind was blowing around 60 miles an hour and it was actually drizzling rain. We absolutely froze to death. We probably would have turned around, but Frank was on a mission that I can't really discuss. We ate lunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe because that's the guy thing to do. We shopped around in their store after lunch because frankly, it was too cold and rainy to go anywhere else. It finally slowed down enough that we made our way across the street to the new City Center. It was amazing and warm. This very modern designed facility is something everyone should try to see. It is totally different from the traditional "themed" hotel/casinos you are used to seeing in Las Vegas. You should check it out. It was time to head back, so being the tough men that we are; we got a cab instead of walking back to the hotel.

That afternoon, the committee assembled at Scot Campbell's MGM Operations facilities. There we started plowing through the nearly 40 applications to determine if the technology would be a good fit for our newest version of the guestroom. It took several hours for us to read each application, analyze the description of what the technology does, look at pictures of the offering as well as doing some on-line research. Ultimately, we narrowed it down and choose the technologies that will be in the room. I have to admit, I feel that it will be something to see and will stir the imaginations of hoteliers on the possibilities. I can't naturally tell you what will be in the room. You have to come and see it yourself. I will say that for those that has seen our previous versions of the guestroom, you will see a new awesome bed, some new technologies, some new versions of previous technologies as well as a bathroom that will make you rethink ever wearing clothes again.

On the committee with me this year is:

• Brian Garavuso, Chair
• Scott Anderson
• Kenneth Barnes
• Carol Beggs
• Bob Bennett
• Scot Campbell
• John Edwards
• Allison Morris
• Jules Sieburg
• Rich Siegel

Spring seemed to tease us over this past weekend as I woke up to a dusting of snow  when I prepared to leave for Jacksonville to visit with the HFTP First Coast Chapter. I arrive at the airport and was setting in the terminal when the agent announced that the pilot wanted to check out the hydraulic system. Well, I was thinking "You take your time and make sure it is fine." Maintenance on a plane is not something to just wing it (get it ). They put me on another flight an hour later, which still gave me time to catch my connector in Atlanta. I was fine with the change except when I thought about the extra hour of sleep I could have had.

After arriving in Jacksonville, we went to the San Jose Country Club for a fantastic lunch and an entire afternoon of education. We began with a session on developing cash flow from Nancy Boyle, Director of the Small Business Resource Network. Her presentation was very informative, but the best information was when most all the participants started sharing their ideas and experiences. That's a great benefit of face-to-face meetings and sessions. We tried to pry out of her what are some of the hot, new businesses being started. She quickly reminded us that she was a government employee and if she knew what that was, she wouldn't be there.  Next Michael Seitzinger, a compensation and performance management consultant talked to us about everyone's favorite topic: performance reviews. He actually asked us if we'd prefer to be there listening about performance reviews or having a root canal. I could see that some of the people were struggling to decide. He did, however, provide some very useful tips to help make that process more organized and efficient. We finished the day with Mark Oliff, National Sales Director with Johnson Morgan & White giving us Strategies for Maximizing Collection. He shared that the basics of collection is persistence, hard work and common since. Of course, his "strong" New York accent reminded me of several movie and TV characters that were also good at "collection."

It was a great meeting with around 22 attendees, which is really good considering that the chapter currently only has 28 members. This chapter has worked real hard since they were chartered three years ago. And in that short amount of time they were Chapter of the Year runner-up in 2008 and won the Chapter of the Year in 2009. Great job and keep up the good work.

Officers:

I guess we need to start with the travel comedy part of the trip. I was planning to make it to New Orleans to meet up with our members working on the Education Advisory Council and the Leadership Task Force. However, we all know how the best made plans don't always turn out. Have you ever got a call at 4am in the morning that your flight has been cancelled. Needless to say, it kind of messes with a good night's sleep. They conveniently booked me on another flight that would arrive around 10pm that evening. Kind of defeated the purpose of going down on Saturday. However, after some internet searching and calling the customer service line, I was able to change to a flight that arrived around 5pm. However, once again, I had to re-route through Detroit. So the road from North Carolina to Louisiana goes through Michigan. You need to pull out a map to appreciate how funny that is.

Sunday was March 15th, however, it didn't slow New Orleans from having a St. Patrick's Day Parade. Actually, it was the 3rd St. Patty's Day Parade they had that weekend!! New Orleans chapter member and former HFTP Board member Bob Oprea invited us over to his house which was near the parade route. This was my first New Orleans parade, so I was not really sure what to expect. When the first thing you see was a man dressed in a strange green outfit with orange hair, I believe I was getting the picture. I also quickly realized I was an amateur parade goer among professionals. Most of the people around us were well equipped for parade watching. These guys know how to watch a parade. The floats started coming and they were throwing all kinds of different things to the crowd. Cabbages, carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, footballs, stuffed animals and of course beads. Tons and tons of beads. They started coming so fast and often, I had to stop taking pictures in order to protect myself from serious injury. Once I was hit by a half-full bag of beads. I guess they got tired of throwing them one at a time and decided to just throw the entire bag. Everyone was having a good time and many people had their St. Patrick outfits. Our ladies made a new friend.
  

For many years now we've been hearing from our finance professionals that they needed more instruction in information technology and human resources. Therefore, we decided to dedicate an entire conference to accommodate this request. The HFTP Development Conference was born. We just completed the very first one in New Orleans this past Monday & Tuesday. We had 58 attendees and I feel it was a great success. The Development Conference Task Force as well as the HFTP staff did a great job in creating a lineup of sessions to help our finance members to "develop" their skills outside of finance. The conference began with Bruce Wilkinson leading Surviving the Storms of Change -- Leadership Lessons From Hurricane Katrina. He encouraged, entertained and motivated us to become better leaders. The day continued as we had sessions about networks and Excel. We finished the day with Trent Blizzard giving us some Tools to Knock Your Socks Off. He gave us some really good information and several websites to help us keep our websites as efficient and effective as possible. However, that wasn't the best part of his presentation for me. Many people give me a hard time about what I wear sometimes when I present. However, check out his guy's shoes. If he can wear orange tennis shoes, then I'm safe. Thanks Trent.

That evening, the Greater New Orleans HFTP Chapter hosted a reception for the attendees. They had great food as well as a jazz band that provided the entertainment. We all had a great time and New Orleans chapter member Anthony Carter lead us in a Second Line dance. Second line is a tradition in brass band parades in New Orleans. The "main line" is the main section of the parade, or the members of the actual club with the parading permit; those who follow the band just to enjoy the music are called the "second line." The second line's style of traditional dance, in which participants walk and sometimes twirl a parasol or handkerchief in the air, is called "second lining." In otherwords, they showed us the parade crasher's dance. It is also been called a jazz funeral without a body. I'm not sure the natives would have been too thrilled with our attempt, but it sure was fun. Thanks Greater New Orleans Chapter for your generosity and hospitality.

The weekend also brought some very sad news. Early this past Saturday morning, March 13th, we lost a very good friend to HFTP. Mr. Steve Doherty, Senior Client Relations Manager with POST Integrations, passed away after a courageous battle with colon cancer. Steve has been a main stay at HFTP events for many, many years. He was a speaker at numerous events as well as being very active in his local chapter in Florida, including being the local chapter president. I'm really going to miss Steve. He's been a good friend to me for several years. He always included me in his "Friends of POST" dinner even though my company wasn't a client. He took me in and he always said "yes" whenever he was asked to help us out at HFTP. I'm sure many of you have some great stories in memory of Steve. I invite you to post a comment to this blog to share. Steve's family has requested people to make donations to the Cancer Recovery Foundation of America (www.cancerrecovery.org). Giving to others is what Steve was all about.  Let's all join in to help others that are battling this disease as Steve did.  Our HFTP family will miss him greatly.

The past several days I have experienced several different emotions. The sadness of Steve's passing was combined with the amazing feeling when I heard on Tuesday that I will become a GRANDFATHER this fall!! Yes, my daughter is pregnant. Apparently all that time in a truck with her new husband was a little too cozy. After the initial shock, we are very excited. However, grandfather, papaw, or grandpa is not going to work. I'm going to be called G-Daddy. They have come off the road, apparently too late, and have gotten jobs and a place to live in Asheville. Knowing my daughter, the upcoming months is going to be fun. I'll keep you posted.

Hope to see you soon.

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.

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!