HTNG and HSMAI Partner to Advance Hospitality Marketing Through Technology

CHICAGO -- Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG), in partnership with the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI), launches a joint initiative to better-align marketing and technology disciplines in hospitality organizations.

This joint community of interest will operate under HTNG's concept of Strategic Pillars for the industry following the successful launch in 2018 of a similar effort around hospitality distribution with partners HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association) and the OpenTravel Alliance.

The Marketing and Commercial Technologies Strategic Pillar will focus on improving and leveraging organizations' uses of technology that support commercial strategies while strengthening the internal relationships between a hotel brand CIO, CMO and CTO.

"HTNG and HSMAI have always had a very close relationship, so this is a natural next step toward leveraging the talents and expertise of both organizations' members to improve the industry," said Mike Blake, CAE, CEO of HTNG.

As a joint effort between HTNG and HSMAI, participation is open to any member of either organization. The Strategy Chair for this pillar is Jacqueline Nunley of Salesforce, and the Strategic Advisors are Calvin Anderson of Domio, Kristie Goshow of Preferred Hotels and Resorts, Tammy Lucas of Best Western International and Flo Lugli of Navesink Advisory Group, LLC.

"The need for the hotel industry to find efficiencies in integrating and building their technology stack has been talked about for years," said Robert A. Gilbert, CMHE, CHBA, president and CEO of HSMAI. "We're excited to have this group of senior executives working to identify ways to move the industry forward, which can only happen when marketing and commercial strategies are integrated first. Customer expectations are only going to continue to rise and hotels will need to adapt to continue to capture and achieve premium performance levels."

The Marketing and Commercial Technologies Strategic Pillar will kick-off with a teleconference on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. Central Standard Time.

HTNG members who have not yet joined the Global Strategy Team, please sign-up here.
HSMAI members who would like to be involved in this strategic pillar, please fill out this form to join.

About Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG)

The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, nonprofit organization with members from hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, media and academic experts. HTNG's members participate in focused workgroups to bring to market open solution sets addressing specific business problems. HTNG fosters the selection and adoption of existing open standards and also develops new open standards to meet the needs of the global hospitality industry.

Currently more than 400 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including world leading hospitality companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants. HTNG's Board of Governors, consisting of 22 top IT leaders from hospitality companies around the world, itself has technology responsible for over 3.1 million guest rooms and world-leading venues. HTNG publishes workgroup proceedings, drafts and specifications for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption. HTNG releases specifications into the public domain as soon as they are ratified by the workgroups. For more information, visit www.htng.org.

About HSMAI

The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights, and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing, and optimize revenue through programs such as the Adrian Awards, HSMAI ROC, Marketing Strategy Conference, and Sales Leader Forum. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is a membership organization comprising more than 5,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Connect with HSMAI at hsmai.org, HSMAI Facebook, HSMAI Twitter, and HSMAI YouTube.

Sales & Marketing Information Technology