Norway Attack: Our deepest sympathy

At 3:26 pm on Friday 22 July news broke of an explosion in the centre of Norway’s capital, Oslo. Within minutes the scene was identified as the government headquarters, severely damaged by the bomb, killing some eight civil servants, injuring a lot more. As “luck” would have it, the explosion took place after business hours, at a time when most of our working force is away on vacation.

Needless to say, we were all deeply shocked. In a heartbeat our capital turned into a battle zone,  but we were soon to learn that all hell had only just begun to break loose. At approximately 5 pm the media brought the heartbreaking reports of a shooting spree taking place at the Labour Party youth camp at Utøya, some 50 kilometres away, killing another 68 teenagers and young adults, with scores of injured (final figures yet to be determined) – all an act of one single, highly disturbed extremist. Text continues below photograph.

Many of us working for HSMAI Europe are Norwegians and absolutely devastated – as most people around the world. As a country of less than 5 million citizens, the proportions are inconceivable. We all know some of the deceased, the injured, their next of kin – or their friends.

This incident has struck us all so hard it may seem meaningless to go on, but giving up would entail a surrender to terrorism and senseless acts of violence. Our response is to continue as planned, with an ambitious schedule throughout the autumn and the winter, while paying our deepest respect to the affected – and in memory of those poor young people, our very finest. A loss so vast that we find it impossible to get our heads around it.

Our hearts go out in sorrow, to the mourning friends and families, in loving memory of the untimely departed.

Ingunn Hofseth
HSMAI Europe
President

Photos: 200,000 mourners congregated outside the Oslo city hall on Monday 25 July 2011. Photo from Wikipedia/Mathias-S
Flowers laid down in front of the Oslo cathedral during the days following the senseless attack. Photo from Wikipedia/Asav

Great opportunities for HSMAI in Europe

HSMAI Europe is facing a great opportunity for growth in several European markets, encompassing all segments of the travel and hospitality industry. In our encounters with members, as well as prospective members and possible partners, we have been met with repeated reassurances of the continued need for an organisation like ours.

The HSMAI brand is strong in some countries, while relatively unknown in others. Both categories have greeted us with open arms and suggested activities to launch in various areas. They all acknowledge the potential, emphasising the need for us to reach out and seize the opportunity.

Companies, organisations and individuals alike have expressed great interest in our products, and there are many who are willing to help us succeed in our endeavours, which has made it a lot easier for us to identify the vast potential for attracting strategic partners and the basis for potential membership across Europe.

There’s no denying that recent activities in a number of European countries have contributed to the overwhelmingly positive response, which is something we will continue to bear in mind. Please see this recent report.

Meanwhile all of us in HSMAI would like to use the opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Ingunn Hofseth
HSMAI Europe
President

First European HSMAI Advisory Board meeting – ever

LONDON, UK — Last Thursday saw the first ever meeting in the recently established European Advisory Board. Thanks to our good partners the meeting was held at one of the best hotels in the world, The Ritz London, lasting all day.

In my opening statement I focused on our vision, objects, values and purposes and, but not least, various HSMAI concepts and activities planned for HSMAI Europe.

Mr. Michael Nowlis, London Business School and member of the HSMAI European Advisory Board, gave an interesting presentation of industry trends, followed by a long – and good – discussion, including several proposals to be incorporated in our forthcoming market plan.

A mandate was presented to the group:

Mandate

The Advisory Board will act as HSMAI’s eyes and ears to the market, give advice and help HSMAI fulfil its vision to become the leading meeting place for the travel and hospitality industry in Europe.

Furthermore, they will be ambassadors of HSMAI, and will, through their own network and the network of their peers, assist actively in recruiting members to HSMAI.

The group’s next scheduled meeting will take place in London Friday 6 May, the day after the HSMAI European Travel Awards, also in London, to be held at the Hilton Park Lane Hotel Thursday 5 May.

Eventually the HSMAI Europe Advisory Board will consist of more than 20 esteemed leaders from across Europe. Given the central position of HSMAI in Norway, we will have several representatives from this chapter. Several hotels, airline companies, etc. from international chains and individual actors from all over Europe will be invited to participate. We will, however, make an effort to achieve the right mix of male and female members.

The final composition of the group is set to March 2011, but we are very pleased to introduce the current board:

• Carl Weldon, Managing Director BAHA, UK
• Martin Jørgensen, CEO – Chief Executive Officer Net Trans, Norway
• Michael Nowlis, Director, London Business School, UK
• Robin Kamark, CCO SAS, Sweden
• Terje Olsen, Head of Sales Nordic, HRG Nordic, Norway
• Young N. Nguyen CEO, d2o, Norway

With everything going on in Europe these are very exciting times, which will benefit members in all countries, and expectations of HSMAI Europe are high.

Please make sure to reserve Monday 7 February already now for the HSMAI Revenue Management & Internet Marketing Strategy Conference, as well as Thursday 5 May for the HSMAI European Travel Awards.

We will get back to details on submitting contributions to the awards at a later stage.

Meanwhile we wish you all a very happy holiday season.

Sincerely,
Ingunn Hofseth
President & CEO, HSMAI Europe

HSMAI Partners With d2o

HSMAI Europe has signed a sponsor agreement with the renowned PMI company d2o (Performance Management Intelligence), who has been extremely successful in the international hospitality industry over the last couple of years, chiefly among the larger chains, but also with independent operations.

The HSMAI sponsorships work as a two-way arrangement, mutually benefiting both parties, both financially and professionally, and we believe that d2o have a lot to contribute with regards to the latter, but are convinced that we can provide them with a great deal of industry related feedback, as well as exposure.

The next issue of the HSMAI Europe quarterly, HSMAI Gazette (click here to read the first issue), features an in-depth interview with d2o’s CEO Mr. Young N. Nguyen (above), but until that, we strongly recommend a look at this article. Please visit the company’s website for further details.

There are other partnerships in the pipeline, too, to be announced in due time.

London Business School

The Norwegian HSMAI GM Forum for hotel managers, assisting managers and chain managements is to be held in Oslo on 16 November, with London Business School’s Michael Nowlis as keynote, followed by the Norwegian HSMAI Hospitality and Travel Industry Day on 1 December.

Revenue Management seminars are scheduled for a number of European cities, starting in Dublin. HSMAI Europe’s first Portuguese conference is to take place in Lisbon on Tuesday 7 December. Two days later, Thursday 9 December, it is time for the first HSMAI European Advisory Board meeting in London, setting out to plan next year’s HSMAI European Travel Awards on 5 May, also taking place in London, with a two-hours lecture by Mr. Nowlis, who will act as moderator for the rest of the meeting, making plans for the HSMAI activities in Europe.

The 18^th Norwegian HSMAI Meeting Exchange is held in Oslo on 12 January, at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel. The HSMAI Meeting Exchange is the largest meeting place for buyers and sellers of conference and meeting services. That same night HSMAI’s Norwegian Awards is held at another Oslo venue.

International Expert

Mr. Michael Nowlis may seem a recurring name during the autumn term, and rightfully so. Mr. Nowlis is an American, residing in Paris for a number of years. He headed the Cornell Essec in Paris, and fronted the international hotel organisation, too. We have had the good fortune to use him as lecturer at several earlier occasions, to which members have responded extremely well.

For the last four years Michael has been directing the Senior Executive Programme at London Business School.  LBS has been in the news a lot since it was named the top business school in the world by the Financial Times earlier this year.  He directs their flagship executive education programme for C-suite enterprise leaders at major global corporations.  Harvard is the only other business school that has a programme at this level.

He also continues his consulting and seminar activities.

We would like to use this opportunity to welcome new members from all over Europe, hoping that together we will prosper and thrive as a result of new knowledge, brought about by the industry’s top notch experts.

Sincerely,
Ingunn Hofseth
President & CEO, HSMAI Europe

Top photo: Mr. Young N. Nguyen, d2o’s CEO.

CRME Webinar 1 June

HSMAI’s European members have called for an international Revenue Management Executive certification –also in Europe. We are, of course, only too happy to comply!

You and/or your colleagues may now be the first in Europe to qualify for this certification. In order to make the certification as easy and swift as possible, we have set up a one-hour webinar Tuesday 1 June, costing USD 99 for HSMAI Europe members (members of national European chapters are automatically members of HSMAI Europe) and USD 159 for non-members.

Join us for a one-hour Webinar at 15:00 (UK, Ireland and Portugal time) Tuesday 1 June, presented by Jeff Osborne (CRME), founder and CEO of Intelligent Hotels, Inc (15:00  in the UK is at 14:00 UTC, equal to 16:00  in the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Poland, France, Italy, Germany and so forth, and 17:00 in Finland and the Baltic countries).

To sign up:

For further details, please see this page.

In addition, we have several other offers in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, we wish you a fabulous weekend.

Sincerely,
Ingunn Hofseth
President & CEO, HSMAI Europe

You could be a Certified Revenue Management Exec

This week’s conferences in Oslo and Stockholm featured an introduction to Revenue management confirmed the need for an international certification within that field – regardless your chain affiliation or nationality. The programme, originally developed in the U.S., is currently adapted and tailored for European needs, to be launched on this website in a couple of weeks.

The global financial recession has brought about challenges we need to address, as tourism and business travels alike have taken a downturn, calling for increased focus on maximising business opportunities and revenue management.

We also need to take a closer look at marketing, and to establish how to get the most out of each penny spent, thereby improving margins. Interestingly, we see how the two Special Interest Groups Revenue management and Travel Internet marketing overlap in that respect, which is why we’ve decided to launch the two first. But we acknowledge national differences, introducing both national and pan European SIG’s.

However, we go even farther:

With seminars and the Certified Revenue Management Executive programme we wish to enable our members to optimise income for just their businesses, and it really doesn’t matter where you are, as webinars will be used extensively, both in this particular area of interest and others. What better way to maximise income, than to save both time and money?

All webinars will be held in English and in a number of European languages.

Thanks a lot to all those who have contributed to a memorable and instructive week – and to HSMAI Global’s president and CEO Bob Gilbert, who toured the Norwegian and Swedish capitals with us this week.

A peaceful and enjoyable weekend to one and all!

Ingunn Hofseth
President and CEO
HSMAI Europe

Welcome to our new website

For some time we have had a separate website for the European division of HSMAI in the pipeline, in addition to the national chapters – plans that finally materialise with our launch of hsmai.eu, albeit hosted on hsmai-europe.com.

We’ve decided to take things step by step, by first launching a public version of hsmai.eu, to be followed by national chapters, of which HSMAI Chapter Norway is first, upon which protected sections for members, sporting Special Interest Groups (SIG’s), fora, live chat and a host of member-exclusive features will be implemented, as well as chapter and division president blogs, to mention but a few.

As already touched on in other news, we are very eager to explore the infinite possibilities offered through social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Flickr, as we’re confident that our presence in the arenas frequented by our members, partners, the industry itself and prospective members, will improve our over-all ability to communicate – as well as to provide a long overdue on-line dialogue.

We also acknowledge that such presence is compulsory for any kind of business or organisation in this day and age, which is why we’ve decided to be at the forefront of the so-called Web 2.0 development. As a matter of fact, our new site is based on a well-known open source blog software, so advanced it even serves as a full-blown CMS (Content Management System), tweaked and customised by our very own Internet and media specialist, in order for the site to adapt the many interactive features of the surrounding social media.

It is our sincerest hope that you find the website – and our yet very recent social media presence – useful. We also hope you take the opportunity to interact with us, which is the general idea with social media.

At this point we hope you share your views on our approach, by voicing your opinion in the comment field below.

Welcome to hsmai.eu – and welcome as our member!

We also hope you’ll join us over at:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Flickr
• YouTube