The third annual Australasian Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE), held in Sydney this week (Oct 17), was a success yet again, with well over 200 hoteliers, industry leaders and suppliers in attendance.
Delegates heard keynote speeches from social media guru Jodee Rich and Orion Expedition Cruises’ founder Sarina Bratton, while also being given an insight into new markets and major trends in the industry from a number of industry-leading panelists.
Bratton, who achieved international recognition as Vice President and General Manager Asia Pacific for Cunard Line and also won the 2004 Veuve Cliquot Award for Outstanding Women, spoke about leadership in the travel industry and how her company, Orion Expedition Cruises, has become a market leader.
Fellow keynote speaker Rich, the CEO of PeopleBrowsr, looked at social media and cutting edge business practices during his popular session.
Rich believes social media is creating a global collective consciousness that is rapidly shifting the power base from big business, religion and government to the global consumer.
PeopleBrowsr is a provider of social media data, campaigns and analytics. The company has developed a DataMine of 1,200 days of collective intelligence from social media to provide marketing campaigns and advanced analytics to Fortune 500 companies and agencies. In 2011 PeopleBrowsr launched Kred, an authoritative measure of community influence and outreach based on social media interactions.
Some of the other speakers at AHICE included: Andrew McEvoy – Tourism Australia, David Baffsky AOM, Raj Menon – Marriott India, Professor Dexter Dunphy – University of Technology, Sydney, Lyn Lewis Smith – Business Events Sydney, Jodee Rich – PeopleBrowsr, Paul Fishchmann – 8Hotels, Trent Fraser – Choice Hotels Australia, Ashley Spencer – Hilton Worldwide, Rachel Argaman – Toga Hospitality, James Hines – Hines Property Group, Harold Kopelowitz – Denwol Group, Warwick Evans – Aarons Hotel Group, Ben Palmer – Bankwest Business, Nigel Greenaway – Eureka Funds Management, David Bates – Workforce Guardian, Bob East – Mantra Group, Simon McGrath – Accor Hotels and James Wilkinson – HM magazine to name just a few.
Two of the most exciting new panels for 2012 included Emerging Markets and What Guests Want. Emerging markets looked at China, India and Indonesia, three countries being targeted by not just Australia and New Zealand, but the world, while What Guests Want brought together travellers from different market segments to ask the question ‘what do travellers want?’
Sponsors for AHICE 2012 included: Gold Sponsors American Express and Concept Amenities; and Silver Sponsors AH Beard, Fisher and Paykel, Haier Appliances, Innova Group, Interfit, ISIS, Ivvy, James Richardson Group, LG, Nespresso, Nufurn, Rentokil, Sealy Posturepedic, Weatherdon Corporation and Yardley Hospitality.
AHICE 2012 was supported by the Accommodation Association of Australia (AAA) and Tourism Accommodation Australia (TAA).