New Zealand’s first-ever Hospitality Tech expo will be staged in Queenstown by the recently formed ‘NZ Hospo Tech’ organisation, founded to make it easier for the hospitality industry to connect, implement and benefit from technology that is available now and will become even more important in the future.
Hospitality leaders, James O’Connell of The Hospitality Company, Mat Weir of First Table, Paul Wilson of the food safety company Chomp and Richard McLeod of the hospitality operations software company Loaded make up NZ Hospo Tech and will share their knowledge in the two-hour free session at The Mountain Club in central Queenstown.
“We will discuss the key gains available right now in the hospitality technology sector to assist businesses with key organisational and leadership changes, marketing automation, compliance and generally focus on where efforts should be concentrated to improve business efficiency,” said McLeod.
The MC for the forum, Simon Small, is a New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Digital Implementation Coach and a champion of technology for all industries and former managing director of Diligent (UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa) as well as co-founder of world-leading AI company Arria AI. He will provide insight into how other industries have embraced technology, highlighting the success businesses within have seen as a result.
“The appeal of this event is that hospitality professionals, including general managers, head chefs and kitchen managers can engage with all the tech options at one time rather than on a piecemeal basis,” commented McLeod.
“New Zealand, and Queenstown in particular, is producing some phenomenal hospitality tech, so we want to bring all the options together making it easier to engage people in what’s available to provide a more seamless offering.”
NZ Hospo Tech believes raising awareness amongst hospitality businesses of the technology opportunities available has never been more important in the face of the challenges that are currently being faced through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The efficiency and productivity technology can bring could not be more significant than it is now,” McLeod noted.
“The whole concept of the Hospo Tech event is that it is a one-stop-shop for gaining information and an understanding of how businesses can arm themselves with the knowledge and tools to achieve considerably stronger performances in a competitive market.”
Queenstown Lakes District Council’s economic development manager Peter Harris was delighted to see the NZ Hospo Tech cluster take shape.
“Economic diversification often grows from a specialisation linked to the dominant industry. In our district hosting people is our core strength so streamlining this through technology is an ideal area to foster,” he said. “It is great to see these businesses collaborating rather than competing.”
