-- Program in Lausanne, Switzerland on October 11-13 will

Highlight the Challenges of Deploying Hotel Technology in Europe --

CHICAGO (September 19, 2006) – Hotel Technology Next Generation (HTNG) today unveiled the speakers and preliminary agenda for its upcoming conference in Lausanne, Switzerland.  This event, which is being held on October 11-13, 2006 at The Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel and Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, will be the first-ever stand-alone hotel technology conference in Europe.  The agenda will address the distinct issues and challenges of buying and selling hotel technology in Europe and the Middle East.

“We are extremely pleased with the caliber of the speakers we have been successful at recruiting for this conference,” said Douglas C. Rice, Executive Director of HTNG.  “Every hotel technology vendor and every global and regional hotel company we talk to has unique stories about the challenges of dealing with Europe’s fragmented hotel technology market.  Our Thought Leadership program has put together a set of topics and speakers that we think will be useful to every company that does business in the Europe and Middle Eastern markets – whether as buyer or as seller of technology.  Perhaps even more important, there will be lots of ideas on the table for how, as an industry, we can achieve more rapid progress in the adoption of next-generation technologies.”

Speakers in the general session and Thought Leadership Program include the following industry leaders:

• Fraser Hickox, General Manager Research & Technology, The Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels Ltd. (The Peninsula Group)

• Jon Inge, President, Jon Inge & Associates

• Stuart Metcalfe, President & COO, Realstar Hotels (U.K.) Ltd.

• Dietmar Müller-Elmau, Proprietor, Schloss Elmau Cultural Hideaway & Spa, and founder and former CEO of  Fidelio Software GmbH

• Nick Price, CIO/CTO, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

• Gebhard Rainer, Senior Vice President, Hyatt International (EMEA)

• Douglas Rice, Executive Director, HTNG

• Gustaaf Schrils, Vice President, Hotel Technology & Services, InterContinental Hotels Group

• Barry Shuler, Senior Vice President & CTO, Marriott International

• Mac Smith, Managing Consultant, Hospitality Project People, and former Vice President of Information Technology, Hilton International

• Bryan Steele, Managing Director, Jireh-Tek Ltd., and former IT Director, Thistle Hotels plc

• Michael Steiner, Director Hospitality & Cruise Industry, Alcatel

• John Tattersfield, Regional Vice President, Information Resources, Marriott International (EMEA)

• Bart van den Hoven, Regional Director, Information Resources, Marriott International (Continental Europe)

• Wibecke Vinke, Senior Vice President, Information Technology, Kempinski Hotels SA

The sessions will also include updates on the activities of HTNG’s workgroups, presented by hoteliers and vendors who are active in those groups.  HTNG workgroups provide focused environments where hoteliers and vendors work together collaboratively to address current issues and to design next-generation solutions.  Speakers on behalf of the workgroups will include senior technical and product management executives from participating hotel and vendor companies.

Attendance at the event is estimated to exceed 150 industry leaders, many of them traveling from Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and even Australia.  “Even before we announced the speakers and agendas, we had well over 100 people registered for this event from around the world, and our hotel blocks are now nearly sold out,” said Rice.  Attendees who register too late to book rooms in the HTNG hotel block should still be able to find accommodations at other hotels in the area.

Like all HTNG conferences, the European event will include extensive opportunities for networking among the leaders in the hotel technology community, both buyers and sellers.

Full information on the conference, as well as registration links, are available on the HTNG website at http://www.htng.org/EuroConf06.htm. 

About Hotel Technology Next Generation

The premier technology solutions association in the hospitality industry, HTNG is a self-funded, non-profit organization with members from hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, and other industry members including consultants, media, and academic experts.  HTNG’s members participate in focused workgroups to bring open solution-sets addressing specific business problems to the hospitality market. 

Membership in HTNG is open to hotel and hospitality companies, technology vendors to hospitality, consultants, academics, press and others.   Currently nearly 350 corporate and individual members from across this spectrum, including most of the world’s leading hotel companies and technology vendors, are active HTNG participants.  Workgroup proceedings, drafts, and specifications are published for all HTNG members as soon as they are created, encouraging rapid and broad adoption.  Specifications are released to the public domain when the workgroup has completed its work, typically after no more than 18 months.  For more information, visit www.htng.org.

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Source:  Hotel Technology Next Generation

Contact: Douglas Rice, Executive Director

douglas.rice@htng.org

+1 847 348 1148