Curate Update: Building on April, Preparing for September

By Christopher Durso, Vice President of Content Development, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI)

If you joined us for the debut of Curate this past April, you know that our new Executive Insights Forum was a big hit — a high-level, cross-disciplinary conversation that explored some of the most challenging issues facing hospitality sales, marketing, and revenue-management professionals. An exclusive benefit for HSMAI Organizational Members, Curate is both a live experience and an ongoing community dedicated to producing relevant content and other resources.

That all kicked off at the first Curate. Here are some of the things we’ve been up to since then:

Producing new content. Curate attendees voted to concentrate on three priority issues at the first event, which was held at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California: innovation, data analytics, and talent acquisition and retention. We’re now developing more content related to those areas, based in part on the insights we gathered from Organizational Members at Curate. In this issue of HSMAI Executive Insights, for example, you’ll find the first entry in our Innovation Book Club — an interview with Jeff Leitner, co-author of See Think Solve: A Simple Way to Tackle Tough Problems. For data analytics, we’re both hosting a Data Analytics Think Tank and presenting a Data & Analytics education track at this month’s Revenue Optimization Conference. And in the area of talent, we’re producing career-focused interviews such as this issue’s Executive Briefing with Omni President Peter Strebel, and working with the HSMAI Foundation as it pivots toward a new focus on talent and leadership development.

Reexamining how we do things. Curate is rooted in the power of collective thought to identify new possibilities and solutions, and we’d be foolish not to take advantage of that ourselves. With an eye on creating a self-generating, self-sustaining cycle, we’re exploring the lessons of our first Curate program, looking for ways they might inform the next Curate program, which will produce outcomes that in turn will shape the Curate after that, and on and on. So, how can we incorporate innovation, data analytics, and talent into not just the subject matter of the next Curate, but the very process through which we design and produce it? Casting a wider net, how can we do that for all of HSMAI’s events, programs, and resources? We have some ideas, but nothing we’re ready to share. Yet.

Preparing for Curate 2. Speaking of the next Curate — that’s happening on Sept. 5–6, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor. Innovation, analytics, and talent all will be part of the program, and so will several other industry challenges that Organizational Members identified in our pre-event research for the first Curate. We’re considering new technology platforms we can use to present information and foster participation. And we’re lining up unique on-site activities that will make for a can’t-miss live experience for Curate attendees. Again, nothing that’s ready for prime time as of yet, but keep checking this space for updates. And register now for Curate in Baltimore!


Categories: Marketing
Insight Type: Articles