HOTELS

Adam Kirby

Odds & Ends: HITEC Edition
June 20, 2008

• The most ubiquitous trend at HITEC 2008 was video games. They were everywhere this year. Obviously, Nintendo had its Wii for Hotels on display (including a spot in Guestroom 2010), and Sony was promoting its PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles at its booth. But I was struck by how many unrelated vendors had Wii set up for play as a way to draw in passersby; I counted at least five other booths with Wii, including Lorica Solutions (that's the Tiger Woods game in the picture), Accuvia, SuiteLinq, MSI and Chase Paymentech Solutions. A colleague joked, "I guess installing Wii is cheaper than hiring a model" ... 

• My single favorite product demo came from interactive video vendor Monster Media, which was a Microsoft featured partner. Monster was showing off the three-dimensional digital video model of Echelon Las Vegas, which the resort is using to sell condos in advance of opening. The system has two cameras trained on the monitor, which pick up hand movements. It's really hard to describe just how neat this technology is without actually seeing it in action; its smooth movement kind of reminds me of the interactivity of the Apple iPhone, only you don't actually touch the screen. This video on the Monster Media Web site gives you some idea what I'm talking about ...

• Most creative promotional effort goes to the newly merged Hotel Concepts and Brilliant Hotel Software, who promoted their first joint product, the RezExchange channel management software, by donning white doctors' robes and passing out faux prescription bottles of "Connectitol," also known as M&Ms. The active ingredient of Connectitol, according to the label, is "Distributine" ...

• The most auspicious remarks of the conference came from the folks at Amadeus, who promised the end of this year would see the launch of "the largest IT undertaking in the history of hospitality." They were fairly tight-lipped about details, but it will involve the convergence of PMS, CRS, GDS and a bunch of other acronyms. Stay tuned ...

• Guestroom 2010 is heretofore known as G2X. I think I rode that roller coaster once ...

• The best HITEC party (that I made it to, anyway) was the SoftBrands party at Maggie Mae's. They had racing armadillos! A close second place goes to Microsoft's party at J. Black's, which had air conditioning on a blistering Texas night ...

• My award for funniest quote overheard on the streets of downtown Austin this week goes to the slightly inebriated gentleman who said: "That place is called Buffalo Billiards. That's like Buffalo Bill, but with an 'illiards!'" ...

• In case you just can't wait to start planning for HITEC 2009, it will be in Anaheim, California. VibeAgent thinks I should stay at Hilton Anaheim. Any other suggestions?

Posted by Adam Kirby on June 20, 2008 | Comments (2)