‘Why is it easier to prove a return on investment on hardware – than an investment in a change of culture?’ is the title of a key hotel IT debate at the 5th Annual BAHA Conference
‘Growing Profitability in an Uncertain Market – The Challenges to Come’ is the title of the 5th Annual BAHA Hospitality Finance Conference and IT Exhibition - to be held on Thursday, 25 November 2010 at the Sofitel Hotel, London Heathrow at Terminal 5
'Growing Profitability in an Uncertain Market – The Challenges to Come’ is the title of the 5th Annual BAHA Hospitality Finance Conference and IT Exhibition – to be held on Thursday, 25 November 2010 at the Sofitel Hotel, London Heathrow at Terminal 5
When a hotel considers investing in or introducing new IT systems – involving hardware and/or software – resulting changes to operational practices and culture, necessitated by changes in systems, can have indeterminate costs and ‘difficult-to-define’ benefits. Wheareas hardware is physical and has finite costs and returns, new systems or applications software can result in operating processes that have to be learned – often incurring significant additional cost that will vary according to the level of complexity involved and staff ability, as well as the time taken to deploy and learn. The exact benefits, the price of training, implementation and possibly integration into other aspects of a hotel’s operations is, therefore, less easy to define and so consequently is the likely return on investment (ROI).
Given these factors, BAHA has invited a panel of top international experts in the field of hospitality IT to debate the pressing industry question: ‘Why is it easier to prove a return on investment on hardware – than an investment in a change of culture?’ at the 5th Annual BAHA Hospitality Finance Conference and IT Exhibition – to be held on Thursday, 25 November 2010 at the Sofitel Hotel, London Heathrow at Terminal 5.
The key afternoon debate will be chaired by Richard Siegel, President and Publisher of Hospitality Upgrade – which he created in 1992 and now has over 32,000 readers in 106 countries. He also serves as Managing Director of Hospitality Internet Media LLC – the parent company of Hotel-Online, the industry’s leading news website and daily e-mail news service. Siegel will be using his wealth of IT knowledge as a skilful protagonist to get the best from his distinguished panel of hospitality IT specialists: Carson Booth, Vice President Information Technology, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Starwood Hotels and Resorts; Ted Horner, International IT Specialist, E Horner & Associates; Ian Millar, Professor Information Technology, École Hôtelière de Lausanne; and Jeremy Ward, Senior Vice President-IT, Kempinski Hotels.
Commenting on the debate, BAHA Chief Executive Carl Weldon said: “This year’s IT debate is a natural follow-on from the subject of the highly successful and emotive session at last year’s BAHA Annual Conference, which posed the motion:‘Investing in New Technology or People’. On that occasion, investing in people easily won the day. But now – twelve months on, we are delighted to welcome an extremely illustrious international panel of hospitality industry IT experts, under the astute chairmanship of Richard Siegel, to examine and debate this vitally important issue - and try to help the delegates, facing questions such as this, in their current business environments.”
As in previous years, the BAHA Annual Conference will be supported by a growing and increasingly influential exhibition of IT and systems suppliers. They will be providing delegates with a ‘one stop shop’ to view and interact with the latest and ‘best in class’ technologies – covering all eventualities for hospitality businesses, whether they be start-up, established independent, or multi chain-owned, operations.
For regularly updated information on prices/packages and the 2010 BAHA Conference and IT Exhibition, visit the BAHA Conference Website: