BAHA Conference

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!!!