Education Sessions

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

12 breakout sessions over the course of the day will address the most important issues facing marketing leaders.

Generative AI IRL
Generative AI is all the rage — but how can hospitality industry marketers leverage this powerful capability to generate business results? AI expert Rebecca Clyde brings over 5 years of experience tackling this very issue and will deliver:

1. An overview of Generative AI and its various applications in marketing
2. Practical use cases employed by modern hospitality marketers to produce higher conversion, drive membership retention, and reduce the burden on property/location staff
3. Recommendations for how to avoid pitfalls and keep “bumper rails” on these systems in order to enrich brand experiences, not detract from them.

with Rebecca Clyde, Co-Founder & CEO, Botco.ai

Being Agile with Google in 2023
In this session, you’ll gain valuable insights into the current state of the economy and the outlook for travel in 2023. We’ll showcase key opportunities for both short-term and long-term growth and explore strategies for leveraging them. And, Google will provide a comprehensive playbook to help marketers navigate the dynamic landscape of 2023 with agility to drive growth and capitalize on emerging trends.

with Kunal Mehta, Head of Performance Automation, Travel Google

Commercial Strategy: Titles or Tactics? The 3 Secrets to Defining it for Your Organization
Everyone’s talking about commercial strategy, but what is it really…and how can it improve your results across marketing, sales, and revenue optimization in hotels? Learn from Chief Commercial Officer Lori Kiel — co-chair of HSMAI’s Commercial Excellence Workgroup — on how hotel marketing leaders can impact, and will be impacted by, the industry’s shift toward a “commercial first” approach. You’ll leave understanding:

• How to successfully develop and lead marketing inside of a commercial strategy team while maintaining lanes and avoiding collisions
• The opportunities for marketing, sales, and revenue optimization to collaboratively amplify their efforts within the traditional marketing funnel
• How to align strategic goals across all three disciplines to maximize demand generation activities

with Lori Kiel, CHDM, Chief Commercial Officer, Kessler Collection

Maximizing Your Impact: Bringing Your Brand to Life Across Your Organization
The most compelling brands embody their DNA at every level. This interactive workshop will provide inspiration and best practices to help you align and enhance your brand in new and exciting ways—both inside and outside your property.

Beyond Loyalty Programs: Building Loyalty in a Hyper-Competitive Environment
Loyalty is key in the hotel industry, with repeat guests contributing a significant portion of revenue for many hotels. However, building loyalty is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that requires consistent attention and innovation. In this session, we will explore key strategies for marketers to create loyal guests and increase repeat business.

In this session we will help you understand how to:

• Collect data and analyze feedback
• Lead the commercial team to tailor offerings to meet guests’ preferences
• Create personalized experiences that foster loyalty
• Go beyond basic discounts and rewards
• Create compelling content across all channels that resonates with your audience and encourages them to stay connected with your hotel

COLLABORATE: Strategic Roundtables on Big Marketing Issues
Industry experts and well-known keynoters offer lots of takeaways and insights, but HSMAI also believes that it is important to make time to allow attendees to learn from one another. This portion of the program will spark attendee conversation, engagement, and peer-to-peer learning, taking advantage of the collective brain power at the Marketing Strategy Conference.

With a strategic focus, it will be an open exchange – in small groups – of ideas, experiences, and insights that leverages the talent in the room, and leaves you with new connections and knowledge that you can use to immediately impact your business.

Topics will include:

1. The Responsible Use of AI in Hospitality Marketing
2. Diversifying Your Messaging Across Generations
3. Getting Ahead of the Budget Cycle
4. Navigating GA4 and Its Implications for Data
5. Marketing to Groups, Weddings, & Other Events
6. Maximize Creative to Get the Most Out of Your Resources

The session is organized — and will be hosted by — members of HSMAI’s Rising Marketing Leader Council.

Today’s Social Media: Strategies for Continued Evolution and Growth
As fast as the social media landscape evolves, it can be challenging for hotel marketing leaders to keep up, stay authentic, engage their audiences, and adapt to new features. This session will cover the latest trends when it comes to a variety of platforms — and their users (aka your audience!). We’ll help you understand which tools and platforms will best support your strategies and reach your audience effectively.

• Lindley Ferris Cotton, President, Gcommerce
• Christina Leme, Sr Director, Global Media, Cendyn
• Amanda Kaden, Sr. Digital Account Director, Bread & Butter

Crack the Code: Understanding and Leveraging TikTok
Looking for a deeper understanding of TikTok and how it can be leveraged in your hotel marketing efforts? This interactive, hands-on session will get you up to speed on the platform’s unique features and how they can support your marketing strategy, and teach you to create shareable content. You’ll leave with a deeper understand of the impact TikTok can have on your marketing efforts, and actionable insights and practical tips for creating effective TikTok content based on your target audience.

with James Huyler-Thomson, Head of Industry (Gov’t & Tourism, Tech, Telco, Entertainment), TikTok

The Power of Collaboration: Leveraging Content Creators and Influencers
The early days of trading a free room for a social post to reach a mini celebrity’s followers have given way to more sophisticated targeting of niche market micro-influencers who have proven capable of delivering a strong ROI to hotels. This session — a conversation with travel influencers and content creators — will explore best practices for building meaningful relationships with influencers and creating engaging content that tells your brand story.

• Sarah Jenkins, Content Creator, Sarah Jenkins Media
• Katherine Johnsen, Partner, Counter Culture Agency
• Sofi Beg, Social Media Influencer, Sofi Explores
• Liv McIlkenny, Fitness Entrepreneur, Content Creator LIV SWEATY
• Moderated by Nima Vaez-Zadeh, CRME, Regional Director Mid-Atlantic, Hopper and member of HSMAI’s Marketing Advisory Board

• Ashley Bird, Senior Manager, Brand Development, Hyatt Hotels Corporation
• Nina Garrison, Director of Global Brands, Hyatt Hotels Corporation
• Shannon Cummings, Global Brand Marketing Manager, Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Insights from Meta: How to Leverage Travel Motivations to Diversify Creative that Creates Action

Establishing people-first insights and creative guidance has become an ever more critical tool to building trusted partnerships with our clients. This session will focus on leveraging research on Meta platforms (Facebook & Instagram) and understanding motivators to help diversify creative, effectively address creative fatigue, better capture the human-side of Reels, and build more people-first insight into multi-dimensional campaigns.

with Kirstin Frazell, Industry Manager, Travel, Meta

Roll Up Your Sleeves and Learn How to TikTok
REQUIRED FOR THIS BREAKOUT: (1) Have TikTok installed on your phone and (2) have a TikTok account (personal or business) that you can use for this session.

In this highly interactive conference session, you’ll roll up your sleeves and learn insider tips, strategies, and practical hands-on exercises to enhance your TikTok game. And you’ll explore various video formats, effects, and editing techniques that will make your videos stand out.

• James Huyler-Thomson, Head of Industry (Gov’t & Tourism, Tech, Telco, Entertainment), TikTok
• Allison Miceli, Creative Agency Partnerships Lead, North America, TikTok

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Breakout sessions over the course of the day will address the most important issues facing revenue leaders.

Translating Complex Analysis Into Data-Driven Insights
This session will focus on sharing best practices designed to boost strategic insights and maximize profitability. We will explore the critical role played by Analytics in impacting success (or failure) as well as the importance of collaboration and partnership. Our facilitator will lead this enlightening discussion and share her expertise gained from over 25 years in the industry. You’ll leave the session ready to:

• Identify and define various methods to approach analysis projects and improve performance.
• Better support the Analytics team by formulating clearly defined goals and realistic timeframes.
• Implement key takeaways that emphasize proactive strategic planning and the importance of effective communication across stakeholder groups.

with Taneka Coates, Director, Customer and Member Analytics, Marriott International

How We Built It: Commercial Strategy Case Studies & Lessons Learned
In today’s dynamic hotel industry, having a strong commercial strategy is crucial for achieving sustainable growth and profitability.

This session will explore the power of commercial strategy and feature real-life case studies from leading hotel companies and leaders that have successfully built effective commercial organizations. From them attendees will learn best practices for developing and implementing commercial strategies, managing sales and marketing teams, optimizing revenue management, and navigating distribution channels.

You’ll learn from the experiences of industry leaders and leave with:

• a deeper understanding of the importance of a well-structured commercial organization
• key strategies and best practices needed to build a well-structured commercial organization
• insights into how you can develop, implement, and measure the success of your commercial strategies

• Patrick Pahlke, Chief Commercial Officer, Sage Hospitality Group
• Jamie Pena, Chief Revenue Officer, Omni Hotels & Resorts
• Michael Klein, Vice President, Global Revenue Management, Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Commercial Strategy Tools & Resources: A Roundtable Workshop
There are a couple paths to commercial excellence: evolution or revolution. Evolution is incremental, a year over year continuous improvement plan. Transformational is a larger scale strategy and/or capabilities change. Either way you choose to go, you’ll need tools and resources along the way.

In small groups we’ll dive deep into tools and resources available to support your commercial strategy.

You’ll take away important insights into the 12 drivers of commercial excellence, and other tools that will help you drive growth and business outcomes.

Facilitated by the case study presenters in the earlier “How We Built It” breakout and members of HSMAI’s cross-discipline Commercial Excellence Workgroup

The Great Debate: Setting the Foundation for True Revenue Strategy
Revenue Strategy is more than revenue management. But to truly make that move, you need the right tools and foundation in place to empower your team to think more strategically. We’ll explore what effective tools look like that improve the team’s efficiency and engender trust in revenue optimization.

• Jeff Borman, VP Revenue Optimization, Ashford
• Janelle Cornett, Market Director of Revenue Management, Sonesta Hospitality

Beyond the Rs: Revenue Strategy is More than Rooms Revenue, Rates, and RevPAR
True revenue strategy is about total hotel profitability. If that’s the goal, what are the “new” KPIs if it’s not Rooms Revenue Rates, and RevPAR? We’ll also examine how the role of the revenue manager has changed and what skills are now required to be a true strategist.

• Kathleen Cullen, CRME, SVP, PTG Consulting
• Jenna Villalobos, CRME, SVP Commercial Strategy, Outrigger Hospitality Group

Understanding Guest Sentiment in the Age of Intensifying Leisure Demand
In this session we will delve deep into the complex relationship between customer engagement, sentiment, and price when it comes to the leisure sector. We’ll pay particular attention to consumers’ key trigger items as we focus on the latest trends in guest sentiment and how they impact the price-quality tradeoff in leisure demand. And, we’ll share real-world examples and best practices for effectively balancing price and quality to meet the needs of today’s discerning consumers.

• Dave Collier, Chief Revenue Officer, OTA Insight
• Satvika Ananthanarayan, Consulting Manager, ZS
• Raj Singh, Chief Marketing Officer, Revinate

Evolving Consumer Segments: Insights for Revenue Management
In today’s fast-paced world, understanding your customers is key to driving business success. This session will explore the ways in which consumer segments and buying patterns are evolving and the opportunities for revenue management strategies to evolve with them. Industry leaders will share practical insights on where demand is coming from, and leave you with recommendations for engaging with changing consumer segments.

• Katie Moro, Vice President, Data Partnerships, Amadeus
• Patricia Shea, SVP Sales and Customer Success, Knowland
• Jennifer Hill, CRME, CHDM, Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Kalibri Labs

COLLABORATE: Strategic Roundtables on Big Revenue Optimization Issues
Industry experts and well-known keynoters offer lots of takeaways and insights, but HSMAI also believes that it is important to make time to allow attendees to learn from one another. This portion of the program will spark attendee conversation, engagement, and peer-to-peer learning, taking advantage of the collective brain power at HSMAI ROC.

With a strategic focus, it will be an open exchange – in small groups – of ideas, experiences, and insights that leverages the talent in the room, and leaves you with new connections and knowledge that you can use to immediately impact your business.

Topics will include:

1. Cutting Through The Noise – The Power Of Predictive Forecasting
2. Realistic Use Cases for AI in Revenue Management
3. Maximizing the Potential of Alternative Booking Channels
4. Survival of the Fittest – The Evolution of Revenue Management
5. Growing Non-Rooms Revenue
6. Fueling Success Through Commercial Strategy Alignment

The session is organized — and will be hosted by — by members of HSMAI’s Rising Revenue Optimization Leader Council.

The Pragmatist’s Guide To Using AI in Hospitality
The hype surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached a fever pitch. A quick scan of headlines from the last 6 months suggests AI will make us smarter, help us work faster, and reduce workloads across every facet of our professional lives. Here we take a more pragmatic perspective on the role of AI – it’s very well suited for some business applications but (currently) not optimal for many others. Join to learn how you can identify the appropriate applications, see real-world examples of effective AI in action within Hospitality, and understand what your organization can do to make progress in the near-term.

with Russell Evans, Principal, ZS

Monday, June 26 | 12:30 – 4:30 pm

These half-day workshops review the key components of the Certified Hospitality Digital Marketer (CHDM) certification or Certified Revenue Management Executive (CRME) certification materials, and are a helpful final “cram session” before you take the exam. Participants have the opportunity to take the CHDM or CRME exam on site immediately following the review course if they have submitted their application in advance.

Both courses are the day before the HSMAI Marketing Strategy Conference, and 2 days before HSMAI ROC. Space is limited, and an additional registration fee is required.

CHDM Review Course | 12:30 – 4:30 pm

Learn more about this course — and how to be approved to take the exam on site.

*Reserve your seat when you register for either the Marketing Strategy Conference or HSMAI ROC. Or register for just this program.

Facilitated by Holly Zoba, CHDM, Principal, Scout Simply, and past chair of HSMAI’s Marketing Advisory Board

CRME Review Course | 12:30 – 5:30 pm

Learn more about this course — and how to be approved to take the exam on site.

*Reserve your seat when you register for either the Marketing Strategy Conference or HSMAI ROC. Or, register for just this program.

Facilitated by Tim Wiersma, CRME, Principal, Revenue Generation, and past chair of HSMAI’s Revenue Optimization Advisory Board

*If you are currently registered for a Commercial Strategy Week Conference login to the HSMAI website here, click on MY HSMAI then the Registrations tab.  Choose your registration, add events, and check out.

Monday, June 26 | 1:30 – 4:30 pm

Partner Insights Workshops are 50-minute sessions designed to help you make the most of your travel to Toronto. They offer an extra 1/2 day of learning brought to you by HSMAI’s partners. Each session is designed and delivered by the designated sponsoring company.

Reserve your seat when you register for either the Marketing Strategy Conference or HSMAI ROC. Or, register for just this program.

If you are currently registered for a Commercial Strategy Week Conference, login to the HSMAI website here, click on MY HSMAI then the Registrations tab.  Choose your registration, add events, and check out.

1:30 – 2:20 pm

1. Your Next Generation Web Presence — Why Content Discovery and Omnichannel Experience are Must-Haves: Learn to leverage a variety of assets, including images, videos, and PDFs, with tools like Google Vision API to deliver high-quality content. Create discoverable, authoritative, and experiential content using web stories, metasearch, and events calendars. Brought to you by Milestone.
2. Give Your Hotel Sales Team Better Quality Group Leads: In this two-part session, you’ll discover new strategies to unlock local and nationwide wedding demand, identify high intent meeting planners, and help your sales team increase conversion rates. Part 1 is all about Generating Group Leads For Independent Hotels. Part 2 focuses on Generating Group Leads For Branded Hotels. Brought to you by Venuelocity.

2:30 – 3:20 pm

1. Helpful Content Strategy in 2023 — Advanced SEO and Local for Hoteliers: Learn to develop a user-focused content strategy in 2023 amidst the evolution of content and search. Discover how to measure the impact of consumer-centric, helpful content and stay up to date with the latest best practices for digital discovery and customer acquisition in local search. Additionally, explore how to drive visibility to your hotels using Apple Business Connect. Brought to you by Milestone.
2. Give Your Hotel Sales Team Better Quality Group Leads: In this two-part session, you’ll discover new strategies to unlock local and nationwide wedding demand, identify high intent meeting planners, and help your sales team increase conversion rates. Part 1 is all about Generating Group Leads For Independent Hotels. Part 2 focuses on Generating Group Leads For Branded Hotels. Brought to you by Venuelocity.

3:30 4:20 pm 

1. Unlocking Success: Leveraging AI for Hoteliers in the Digital Age: Discover how AI enhances guest experiences, optimizes digital discovery, and empowers targeted marketing campaigns. Join us at the conference to explore future trends and opportunities in AI for hotel marketing. Unleash your hotel’s potential with AI and unlock success in the digital era. Brought to you by Milestone.
2. Give Your Hotel Sales Team Better Quality Group Leads: In this two-part session, you’ll discover new strategies to unlock local and nationwide wedding demand, identify high intent meeting planners, and help your sales team increase conversion rates. Part 1 is all about Generating Group Leads For Independent Hotels. Part 2 focuses on Generating Group Leads For Branded Hotels. Brought to you by Venuelocity.