Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP®), producer of the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC®), is pleased to announce the expert judges' panel and industry mentors that will offer their time and expertise in the Toronto version of Entrepreneur 20X (E20X). All registered HITEC attendees and exhibitors, including Exhibits Only registrants, are welcome to attend the action-packed pitch competition that will take place on Monday, June 26 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at HITEC Toronto.
"HFTP, with the help of Somers Communications, works hard each year to bring together experienced industry veterans and top up-and-coming startups," said HFTP CEO Frank Wolfe, CAE. "Back by popular demand, this will be the second year the mentoring sessions are available to E20X contestants. Both the selected mentors and judges will provide quality advice that each entrepreneur can carry with them throughout their careers."
The 2017 E20X Toronto expert judges' panel includes:
- Carson Booth, CHTP, technology startup consultant and former global vice president of property technology, Marriott Intl.
- Christina Cornwell, vice president, IT Field Services, Asia Pacific at Hilton Worldwide.
- Jeff Lapin, angel investor and president at Tech Coast Angels-Los Angeles.
- Henri Roelings, founder and CEO at Hsyndicate.
- Jules Sieburgh, CHTP+, former hospitality CIO and HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame Award recipient.
Previous to the pitch competition, participants had access to expert mentors to help the competitors prepare for the main event. The volunteer mentoring/coaching team is assigned to review competitors' presentations and provide feedback and includes:
- John Burns, president at Hospitality Technology Consulting.
- Prakash Shukla, managing partner at WayfareVC.
- Lyle Worthington, CHTP, CIO at The Student Hotel and 2016-2017 HFTP International President.
The 2017 onsite mentoring team will be available for short meetups with entrepreneurs immediately prior to the E20X competition. The experience is similar to round-robin dating–startups circulate the room making connections with the purposefully built mentor team who have a great deal of hospitality industry knowledge, expertise and experiences to share. This will provide a great forum to inspire and educate the E20X participants, and will also give them connections at HITEC Toronto and into the future. Onsite mentor team includes:
- Mike Dickersbach, CHTP, MCP, NICE, Thayer Ventures.
- Steve D'Erasmo, CHTP, director, technology planning and POS systems at Hilton.
- Diane Estner, president and CEO at DANNI Enterprises.
- Jai Govindani, CTO at Red Planet Hotels.
- Rod Jimenez, CEO at SHR.
- Steve Marino, vice president, information technology at Marriott International.
- Douglas Rice, managing director at Hospitality Technology Network LLC.
- Robert Rippee, director, hospitality lab at UNLV.
- Mike Schmitt, CEO at Clairvoyix.
- Luis Segredo, entrepreneur and investor.
- Richard Siegel, president and publisher at Hospitality Upgrade.
- Ron Tarro, vice president at Broadsoft, Inc.
- Alan Young, president and co-founder at Puzzle Partner.
This year's larger North American event HITEC Toronto will take place from June 26-29 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario Canada. HITEC Dubai, the third and final HITEC of 2017, will take place from November 14-15 at the Conrad Dubai in Dubai, UAE in partnership with Naseba. In 2018, HFTP will bring back HITEC Amsterdam on April 11-14 in addition to HITEC Houston on June 26-29.
For more information about E20X, email e20x@hftp.org or charlotte@somerscommunications.com, or visit booth K13 in the E20X Pavilion on the HITEC show floor. 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 updated with HFTP and HITEC on social media for conference updates: HFTP Connect; HITEC Bytes; HFTP Club Bytes; HFTP Finance Bytes; HFTP News; Facebook; LinkedIn; Twitter; Instagram; YouTube; Flickr.
