HSMAI PERSPECTIVE: Continuing Along the Road to Recovery

By Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CHBA, President and CEO, Hospitality Sales & Marketing International (HSMAI)

After close to a full year of a pandemic that has ripped through our industry like few others, it’s hard to know what to make of 2021. Do we breathe a sigh of relief and turn the calendar? Do we look forward to better days ahead? Do we make resolutions?

Do we hope?

Yes. And then we roll up our sleeves even higher than we already have, and we keep working. Last month, I wrote that we should celebrate “everything we’ve accomplished in the strange and stressful year behind us, and look forward to everything we have yet to accomplish in the year ahead.”

For HSMAI, that means building on the insights and feedback we gathered from our successful Road to Recovery 2020 program to develop even more-targeted, impactful resources for hospitality sales, marketing, and revenue optimization professionals. We’ll be sharing additional details shortly, but look for celebrations of our Adrian Award, Top 25, and Lifetime Achievement honorees; at least two more sets of Executive Roundtables; a rebooted Recovery Connections program; a MasterClass series on virtual presentation skills; and more.

And, with most forecasts anticipating that widespread vaccinations will spur leisure to return in Q3 and group to begin rebounding in Q4, we’re tentatively planning our first in-person events since January 2020: Marketing Strategy Conference and ROC in September, with Sales Leader Forum later in the fall. I can’t tell you how excited we are at the prospect of bringing our community together face-to-face, but I look forward to trying when I see you — face-to-face.

Until then, I hope you find our new and existing resources valuable as you chart your road to recovery.


Categories: Sales
Insight Type: Articles