High Level Summary/Issues

• Got scholarship underway and selected 2 students.
• Contacted by 2 people at Purdue University about which hotel clients use which channels.
• Got FoCusWright white paper on site.
• Worked on making contact with hotel schools on list.

• Scient not interested in pursuing research in Content Management like Bruce Speechly was. Bruce has moved on to IBM and it appears they're interested in developing a product to sell to HEDNA members. The product aspect has been turned over to the Applications Committee to research.
• Letter that went out to schools may have been too generic. Needs to be revised and associated with promotional piece (CD, reduced cost, website access, scholarship potential, research results, etc.):
  • May provide login to hedna.org for schools at a fee in the future.
  • May have place on website for school/university papers to be placed and make it prestigious to be listed there.
  • May have CD's with letter to schools burned after conference as gift to provide incentive for involvement, along with a reduced membership rate.

• Liz resigned from Hyatt so will not be on committee.
• Not replacing co-captain until elections in December because working group is so small.

• Discussed several potential research topics:
  • Data Content Management
  • GDS Direct Connect
  • What happens when properties change flags?
  • Consumer behavior/Customer Journey
    • Define customer (TA, Leisure, Corporate Traveler, etc.)
    • Purchasing decisions, demographics
    • Why are they choosing which site to go to?
  • Difficulties in standardization of industry with effect of internet.
• Determined we would use the $5,000 funding to work with NYU on Consumer Behavior/Customer Journey
• Knowledge Resources will provide feedback as we go along.
• Discussion revolved around the fact that research should be done on a global basis because the markets can be very different (European, American, Asian, Latin American, Russia, China).
• The BDRC has ratings of hotels based on specific types of customer feedback. May recommend that NYU use this channel.
• The HSMAI may be able to do a collaborative study.
• Outcome should be that NYU will tell us how we do it, develop questions, and crunch numbers.
• May be able to use surveys online. Could also use surveyanywhere.com or place surveys on corporate booking sites. May use Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Hotwire, Priceline, Opodo, Andbook, or hotel sites.
  • Discussed potential segmentation of survey placement (disability, hotel brand vs. specific hotel site, high end vs. low end hotels, resorts vs. city hotels, etc.).

• Identify a few schools in Boston area for scholarships (probably for whole week of HEDNA U and conference costs, but no travel or lodging).
• Discussed that principal members may provide lodging as Thistle did this time if they so desire.