Michael Kistner is CIO and vice president, Information Systems for Best Western International, the world's largest lodging brand. He is responsible for all telecommunication, information and E-commerce systems at Best Western. In his role as president of the OpenTravel Allance (OTA), Kistner provides strategic direction to OTA, charged with developing communications specifications to enable efficient and effective electronic exchange of travel industry information.

Kistner has tremendous knowledge within the hospitality industry, having previously served as senior vice president of the E-Commerce Center and Hotel Information Technology at Cendant Corporation in Phoenix. There he was involved in Internet vendor management, resource allocation, organization formation, strategic planning, hospitality systems planning, development and implementation from property-based systems to host central reservation systems and other electronic distribution systems.

About the ONHTEC Exhibition - ONHTEC®, a co-production by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals® and Hsyndicate, aims to become the most comprehensive and trendsetting online conference & showcase of hospitality IT & distribution technology available on the web. Starting from October 2002, ONHTEC ® will provide quarterly scheduled online conferences geared around pertinent trends in hospitality technology. ONHTEC ® aims to provide knowledge & know-how to industry professionals at all levels of expertise. For more information about the conference, please go to the ONHTEC web site at www.onhtec.com. For more information about the exposition, please contact Lance Peterson at Lance.Peterson@hftp.org or (512) 249-5333 x20.

Kevin Heilbronner is the US Editor for wiredhotelier.com and hospitalitynet.org, providing streaming multimedia-content for these websites. Based outside of Washington DC, Heilbronner has worked with Hsyndicate to conduct interviews at several hospitality trade shows in the US and Europe over the last couple of years. His column and content are featured in the Hospitality Net weekly newsletter. A familiar voice in Washington, DC, Heilbronner is the stadium announcer for the NBA's Washington Wizards, WNBA's Washington Mystics and WUSA's Washington Freedom. He resides in Centreville, VA and can be reached via email: Kevin@hsyndicate.com.