Interview With Robert A. Gilbert, President & CEO, HSMAI - Revenue MGMT - Roundup HSMAI's June 24 THINK Session (HITEC 2002 Video)

About HSMAI
HSMAI is an international organization of sales and marketing professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry. With a strong focus on education, HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry, while operating as a leading voice for both hospitality and sales and marketing management disciplines. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising nearly 7,000 members from 35 countries and 60 chapters worldwide.

BIO
Robert A. Gilbert, President & CEO
HSMAI
As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHA has been guiding HSMAI through an exciting period of change in order to re-establish the 5,000-plus member organization as the definitive hospitality and travel marketing association in the world.

During Mr. Gilbert's tenure, HSMAI has created a greater awareness for itself overall, more specifically, the Association is revitalizing European membership and establishing new chapters worldwide; it continually seeks out beneficial affinity programs for members, it has re-affirmed its commitment to industry-specific education through the creation of HSMAI University; and it has negotiated a number of alliances which build member benefit value. Notable achievements have been the expansion of marketplace events through the establishment of Affordable Meetings West and partnering with the Meetings Quest trade shows; and the commission of a number of new industry research studies.

Prior to joining HSMAI in 1995, Mr. Gilbert was the Vice President of Marketing for Richfield Hospitality Services, Inc., the largest hotel management company in the world, where he oversaw the corporate marketing support for all Richfield hotels—which included product from every price tier in the industry. Mr. Gilbert holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and has been a member of HSMAI since joining the student chapter at Cornell. He is a frequent guest lecturer at the School and is on the adjunct faculty of the summer executive education program. Bob has also recently been appointed to the Board of Trustees for the World Tourism Foundation and to the Travel and Tourism Coalition of the Travel Industry Association of America.

Kevin Heilbronner is the US Editor for hsyndicate.com, wiredhotelier.com and hospitalitynet.org, providing content for these websites in the form of articles and both audio and video interviews. Based outside of Washington DC, Heilbronner has worked with Hospitality Net to conduct interviews at several hospitality trade shows in the US and Europe over the last year. A familiar voice in Washington, DC, Heilbronner is the stadium announcer for the NBA's Washington Wizards, WNBA's Washington Mystics, WUSA's Washington Freedom and DC United of MLS. He resides in Centreville, VA and can be reached via [email protected].