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Flattening World Impacts HoteliersThe July meeting in Minneapolis of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference focused its attention on using technology to add value to the guest experience and increasing revenue while cutting costs for owners. A wider view, less obvious but equally vital, was the acknowledgment of two global trends and forces of change:
Two recent books underscore the message. Tom Friedman?s The World Is Flat is a publication which deals with the rise of China and the opening of India, as well as the implications for America of ever-expanding globalization. The other, authored by Clyde Prestowitz, is Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power To The East. The bottomline message of his book is anything that can be done digitally can be done anywhere. And, he points out that medical tourism is booming, because a plane ticket to Bangalore and most surgical procedures cost a fraction of what they do in the United States. John Burns, President of Hospitality Technology Consulting, says the world will continue to be flattened by new generations of travelers. ?Gen-X?ers and Millennials are making the boutique brands like Kimpton and Starwood?s W very successful. ?Among the Millennials,? Burns continued, ?everyone carries a cell phone, but they rarely make phone calls. They use it for text messaging and they are communicating with a different circle of friends than we have. In many cases, these are people they have never met, people who are far, far away.? The implication is that these future hotel guests will be the next generation of video conferencers; they do not need face-to-face meetings. This will be a massive challenge for the hotel industry and providers of traditional meeting services. Look for fewer and fewer business travelers and more leisure guests as the world continues to flatten. (Advertisement)
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Hyper-Competitive Our street-smart restaurant marketing report shows proven ways to rapidly boost your restaurant?s sales & profits. Karen Hoffman Expresses Thanks For Industry ExperienceIs there life after barter for barter addicts? Karen S. Hoffman, a former Executive Director for IRTA, says yes, although it surprised her! This self confessed barter addict was in the barter industry from 1981 to 2001. She was employed by a Barter Systems International franchise, then worked for Richard & Bruce Harris at National Commercial Exchange before starting her own exchange, Trade Resource International, in 1987. She became part of ITEX in 1992, and was their St. Louis manager from 1995 to 1999 after selling the office back to ITEX. After 20 years of passionately living in the barter world, she has reinvented herself by focusing on being a dream champion to entrepreneurs. ?That was what I loved about barter,? said Hoffman. ?It was helping business owners leverage their products and services so they could build both the company and the personal life they wanted.? Now Hoffman has been dubbed ?The IDEA Coach? and consults with companies on leveraging their passions to expand, with a special focus on positiveness and the activation of ideas. ?The Gallup Organization rocked my business opinions with their books, First Break All the Rules and Now Discover Your Strengths, so I extensively use material like theirs as well as work by psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman on positivity.? Besides coaching, she has a partnership that created an online business called City of Experts at http://www.cityofexperts.com to help make business connections for experts who want to speak, coach, facilitate or consult. City of Experts is moving into two other markets beyond St. Louis, and plans on covering at least 18 markets by 2009. ?Making business connections is another passion,? confessed Hoffman, ?and I learned that being a connector is a great service to offer.? She noted that Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point helped her see that not everyone is a connector, and that it could be helpful to the business community. She is also the small business blogger for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the daily metro area newspaper. Hoffman shared that not only was her time with IRTA very valuable in her life experiences, but it created another area where she has been able to have an impact...the world of non-profits. "Before my time with IRTA, I had never been interested in non-profits as I thought that non-profits meant not-profitable,? Hoffman laughed. ?However after my tenure at IRTA, I saw that by focusing we had increased membership by 40%, increased convention attendance by 28%, and increased cash sponsorships by 580%. Being in a position of having excess of money at the end of a year, taught me that running a non-profit could be profitable. ?So, when a friend wanted help in starting a professional women's organization in our community, I volunteered to help and immediately started recruiting cash sponsorships from banks and others in our city. We created a low membership fee, but because of sponsorships we have made money every year. By its second year we could afford a full time executive director, which was not me!? For the organization?s first year anniversary with over 200 in attendance, Hoffman brought in Catherine Ryan-Hyde, author of Pay It Forward that was adapted into a movie. Hoffman also helped pull 4,800 6th graders to an arena to hear Ryan-Hyde speak on how they could change the world by ?Paying it Forward.? Each year Hoffman helps work on the anniversary speaker and, typically, they are authors of books. The group, ESPW -Encouraging Supporting Promoting Women, has had over 600 women join, and after adding more markets it plans to go national. Hoffman was recognized in December 2005 as one of the ?50 over Fifty? community shapers, primarily for her work as co-founder of ESPW, http://www.espw.org. She also volunteers and consults with other non-profits.Hoffman concluded by saying ?Without that time I spent at IRTA, I know I would not have been able to help create ESPW as this profitable and fast growing organization, or have the impact I have had in helping other non-profits. It was a wonderful opportunity, and I am truly thankful for that time as IRTA's Executive Director. Our Web Site Has Added A Search Tool For You Ever wondered if a certain topic, person, or organization has been written about on the Barternews.com web site? Now you can easily find out, as we?ve added a search tool. It will quickly give you the answer to your questions, in 3 easy steps that take about 12 seconds! At the top right of the page, just under where you sign up for the Tuesday Report you will see a little Google box. It is where you can (1) type in the name of a subject, company or person. Then (2) click the button for www.barternews.com to search the site, followed by (3) hitting the search button. The Growth and Use of Secondary Capital (New Money) Creates Unprecedented Wealth In Today?s New Age Of PossibilityThere are many forms of secondary capital?which can be defined as any financial instrument that measures and communicates value in a common language. Would you like to see and learn more about the many forms of secondary capital? We have 70 free, informative and inspiring, articles for you in our ?Secondary Capital Section.? Check it out... www.barternews.com/secondary_capital.htm. Get New Money-Making Ideas And Valuable Contacts! You can obtain useful, informative ideas and contacts in every available back-issue of BarterNews. Every barter company in the world is listed on our web site, click through to our Global List of Barter Companies. We welcome your
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