HFTP | January 13, 2017

AUSTIN, TEXAS, USA (January 13, 2017) – Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), producers of Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference (HITEC®), has widely extended its global reach for this upcoming year. With leading industry events spanning three separate continents, five inaugural events and three new Digital Learning Day additions, HFTP has largely increased its scope of hosted events in 2017.

"It has been exciting to watch the rapid growth and progression of the association," said Frank Wolfe, CAE, CEO of HFTP. "We are looking forward to what lies ahead – with so many additions and developments, we expect 2017 to be another groundbreaking year for HFTP."

HITEC Conferences. The global association's HITEC event is the largest hospitality technology conference in the world, and will take place in Europe, Asia and North America this year as listed below. Historically taking place in a different city in North America each year, HFTP built upon its annual HITEC event with the additions of the inaugural HITEC Amsterdam and HITEC Dubai events taking place this year. Co-located with HITEC Toronto will be the Club & Hotel Controllers Conference.

  • HITEC Amsterdam: March, 29-30 2017 at the RAI Amsterdam in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  • HITEC Toronto: June 26-29, 2017 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada.
  • HITEC Dubai: Fall 2017 in partnership with Naseba.

Entrepreneur 20X. Back by popular demand, HFTP is bringing its overwhelmingly successful Entrepreneur 20X (E20X) to Europe and Canada. HITEC attendees will have the opportunity to watch some of the most innovative startups the hospitality technology industry has to offer compete to bring their dreams to life. E20X will take place at HITEC Amsterdam the day prior to the conference on 28 March 2017 along with the invitation-only CIO and CFO pre-conference programs. E20X videos are available on the HFTP/HITEC YouTube channel.

Online Events. In addition to its year-round webinar schedule, the association will host five completely online Digital Learning Day events this year as listed below. HFTP added three inaugural Digital Learning Day events to its lineup including: Club Technology Digital Learning Day, Digital Learning Day – Europe and Digital Learning Day – Asia.

Membership Events. HFTP's yearly member-focused event, Annual Convention, will take place from October 25-27, 2017 at the Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate in Orlando, Florida USA. In true HFTP fashion, the association will host four regional conferences throughout the year: HFTP Mid-South Atlantic Regional Conference, HFTP Mid-West Regional Conference, HFTP Texas Regional Conference, HFTP Florida Regional Conference. The confirmed dates are as follows:

Industry Publications. In addition to its many global conferences and events, HFTP also produces numerous resourceful tools for its members. The Bottomline is HFTP's quarterly journal which includes feature articles on finance and technology best practices, industry research reports, general management tips, HFTP news and profiles of industry and association leaders. All articles from the publication are now available on PineappleSearch.com® – a search platform for hospitality-specific industry information and intelligence.

Website Renovations. HFTP's official blog HFTP Connect has been redesigned for the New Year, and is currently accepting educational blog contribution submissions. The Global Hospitality Accounting Common Practices (GHACP), an accessible online resource and guide for hospitality industry accounting practices, website was also redone for the New Year, and now features item definitions on PineappleSearch.com.

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.