HFTP adds future scenario planner Woody Wade and BBC broadcaster Aleks Krotoski as program headliners
AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA (November 10, 2016) — Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), producer of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®), has secured two globally known, innovative thinkers for the inaugural HITEC Amsterdam. Opening the event is Aleks Krotoski, an award-winning international broadcaster, author and academic who is behind the BBC Radio 4 show The Digital Human and BBC World's The Virtual Revolution. Closing the program is Woody Wade, future scenario planning expert and author. The premiere event is the first of three HITECs planned for 2017, and will be 28–30 March at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre.
"The HITEC Amsterdam Advisory Council has selected the ideal speakers to open and close the program, as their expertise are topics that fuel forward-thinking discussion, something that people come to HITEC for," said HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe, CAE. "As professionals it is crucial for us to always be thinking how to leverage technology to make our hospitality companies attractive, efficient and secure. Both speakers key into these top priority issues."
Krotoski will speak on Wednesday, 29 March 2017 in a presentation called, "A Perspective of Technology within the World Today, and its Impact on Hospitality and Travel and Their Customers." She will explore the wider fundamental changes in technology and the internet today. The presentation will review how these changes will affect the hospitality and travel industries, and all of its customers, imminently and in the future.
Krotoski is CEO at Pillowfort Productions, as well as a presenter at BBC Radio based in London. She is also a research associate at the University of Oxford. Krotoski is the author of "Untangling the Web," and is a freelance writer for various publications. She is an Emmy, BAFTA and Radio Academy award-winning academic journalist who writes about and studies psychology and technology.
Wade will speak on Thursday, 30 March 2017 in a presentation called "Scenario Generation: Thinking Differently about the Future." The presentation will explore how company leadership can formulate winning strategies to stay competitive in the business terrain now and in the future. Wade will demonstrate to the audience, using a creative yet structured methodology, on why it is important to anticipate potential changes in your future business landscape.
Wade is owner and managing director at Wade & Co., as well as the founder, publisher and editor-in-chief at The Hotel Yearbook. He is a world-renowned speaker, writer and facilitator based in Lausanne, Switzerland. As a scenario planning expert he has worked with companies such as Mövenpick, Kempinski Philip Morris, UBS, Geneva Centre for Security Policy and a number of national governments to determine policy and future business landscapes. He is also the author of "Scenario Planning: A Field Guide to the Future" and "Hotel Yearbook 2036."
"The advisory council, with representatives from eight European countries, had a specific focus for this inaugural event – build a universal hospitality technology program with a European outlook," said HITEC Amsterdam Advisory Council Chair Carson Booth, CHTP, vice president of global property technology at Marriott International. "Both Aleks and Woody are well-respected field experts who have in-depth knowledge on regional business practices."
In addition to HITEC Amsterdam, in 2017 HFTP is producing the larger HITEC Toronto on 26–29 June and HITEC Dubai in the Fall in partnership with Naseba. For more information about HITEC and HFTP's other global activities, contact the HFTP Meetings & Special Events Department at education@hftp.org or visit www.hftp.org and www.hftp.org/hitec.
Stay tuned to HFTP's main webpages: HFTP/HITEC; the world's first hospitality-specific search engine: PineappleSearch® – mobile app available via iTunes App Store and Google Play; HFTP's official blog: HFTP Connect; HFTP's industry-specific, informational news sites: HITEC Bytes (technology), HFTP Club Bytes (club), HFTP Finance Bytes (finance) and HFTP News (association); and HFTP's social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@HFTP), Instagram (HFTP_HITEC), YouTube and Flickr for the latest updates.
