Enjoy the passionate discussion between Ira Vouk (author of "Hospitality 2.0", industry consultant and tech innovator) and Max Starkov (Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist) on the role of technology in our industry.

The conversation starts with a discussion about Ira Vouk's recent release of "Hospitality 2.0" that has drawn a lot of attention from various stakeholders in the travel industry and continues to a controversial topic of the role of brands in our industry and which segment is more innovative, where Ira and Max represent 2 opposing views as they come from different generations of technologists.

The discussion then evolves to talking about the reasons for low technology adoption and how the pandemic turned things around, forcing hospitality companies to find innovative ways to run their businesses in the situation of labor shortage. The conversation ends with how to help the industry evolve through raising awareness and technology education.

Timeline

00:00
Introduction
00:50
Ira's book, why "Hospitality 2.0"?
04:30
Digital revolution and where hospitality sits among other industries in terms of digitization
06:30
Reasons for low technology adoption in our industry
08:30
How pandemic influenced tech trends
09:00
Brands vs independents, who is more innovative
18:40
Should hotel companies be building technology themselves or outsourcing?
23:00
What share of independent hotels use cloud technology
24:00
API-first cloud-based PMS platforms and marketplaces
26:50
High touch vs high tech, can technology help us be more personable?
31:30
Raising awareness and education about technology
34:40
How pandemic helped us refresh our IT departments
36:00
Labor shortage and how to deal with it
38:30
Need for professional hospitality tech education
41:00
Career in hospitality technology
43:00
Closing

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