Post Covid-19 New Normal: High Tech – No Touch in the Service Sector
Instructor
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Sanjay NadkarniDirector of Innovation & ResearchDr. Sanjay Nadkarni is currently the Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Arabian Falcon Holding in the UAE. Prior to taking on this role, from 2009 to 2022, he was Director of Innovation & Research and Associate Professor at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management , a strategic business unit of Jumeirah Group/Dubai Holding.
Sanjay’s domain interests are in the convergence space of digital innovation and sustainability in the services sector. His portfolio comprises academic and applied research, advisory and consultancy assignments for corporate, government and multilateral agencies. His pedagogic practice includes visiting professorships at premier academic institutions in Asia and Europe. He is also a verified Dubai Futures Research Contributor and a Non-resident Fellow of Trends Research & AdvisoryThink Tank. The recognition of his work is reflected in the awards and citations of merit he has received.
Sanjay’s focus is on developing and co-creating applied research and strategy frameworks that have tangible impact on industry and society. He is passionate about using innovation frameworks for leveraging Industry 4.0 and democratizing AI and data science to benefit small & micro-businesses and enjoys mentoring in digital and social entrepreneurship.
The impact of Covid-19 has been particularly acute for the service sector which includes hotels, holiday rentals, restaurants and allied travel verticals. As the new normal sets in, the adoption of digital platforms in facilitating recovery in these businesses is witnessing accelerated growth. Cyprus’s economy is dominated by micro small and medium businesses (MSMBs) many of which are engaged in the hospitality and travel related services activities. The overall competitiveness and wellbeing of this sector which has been strongly impacted by Covid-19 is key to ensure sustainable socio-economic growth by way of generating tourism Euros and employment opportunities. The role of digital platforms and technologies hitherto focussed on guest convenience and business efficiency has now expanded to enabling guest safety and hygiene protocols for the businesses in the post Covid-19 era. High tech-No touch is the new mantra that will ensure long term viability of hospitality and restaurant businesses by instilling confidence in guests to make an informed choice without compromising health and safety. Putting it into perspective, digital disruption on the back on Industry 4.0 is an inherent change in how businesses are able to deliver value to their customers. In addition to leveraging the opportunities of a mix of innovative digital tools for staying ahead of the curve in a hyper competitive and hyper personalized environment, Industry 4.0 solutions such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Internet of Things will now become part of this mix for providing a non-negotiable layer of safety and hygiene in the post Covid era. In practical terms, Cyprus’s hospitality and tourism related businesses will need embark on a familiarization drive with the eventual objective of adopting these technologies to ensure business continuity and thus continue to strengthen Cyprus’s service driven economy.
The primary target segments for this seminar are the private sector owners, managers and supervisory staff of micro, small and medium businesses in the services sector, in particular, hospitality and tourism including the sub-verticals comprising of bars, cafés, car rentals, event organisers, hotels, holiday rentals, tour operators and travel agents.
The key takeaway from the seminar for the participants’ benefit will be the ability to effectively leverage the Industry 4.0 platforms for rejuvenating driving value in their day-to-day operations.
The specific objectives pertaining to knowledge, skills and attitude are as follows:
Knowledge related objectives
- Recognize the need to familiarize with Industry 4.0 platforms.
- Identify the suite of platforms best suited for line of business.
- Analyze the resource implications and financial impact of deploying these platforms.
- Revise existing standard operating procedures in line with the adopted platforms.
Skills related objectives
- Use evaluation templates for assessing best-fit technologies.
- Operate cloud based platforms for capturing and analyzing guest sentiment data with live dashboards.
- Chart real-time asset sanitizing protocols with agile cloud based PMS tools.
Attitude related objectives
- Adopt the right attitudes about the importance of Industry 4.0 tools.
- Advocate a design thinking and futures thinking culture among internal stakeholders of the business.
- Recommend the right culture in the organization that will build and support confidence to self-manage critical digital assets, independent of third party agents.
Recent Program Participants
Hourly Schedule
Day 1
- 7:45 - 9:45
- Seminar overview and introduction
- 9:45 - 10:00
- Coffee Break
- 10:00 - 12:30
- Case Study 1: Feasibilities of Industry 4.0 for the Hospitality Sector with the Lens of Management Practice
- 12:30 - 13:30
- Lunch Break
- 13:30 - 14:30
- The Hotel Tech Stack
- 14:30 - 14:45
- Coffee Break
- 14:45 - 16:15
- Agile PMS demo in post Covid Context
Day 2
- 07:45 - 09:45
- Seminar recapitulations
- 09:45 - 10:00
- Coffee Break
- 10:00 - 12:30
- Practical implications of the use of IoT and Big Data in hospitality on information technology infrastructure, business models, security and standardization highlight the scope for further empirical research.
- 12:30 - 13:30
- Lunch Break
- 13:30 - 14:30
- Identify use cases for smart voice assistants specific to your business.
- 14:30 - 14:45
- Coffee Break
- 14:45 - 16:15
- Tech Innovations for Food & Beverage Industry
Terms and Conditions
The above seminar is fully subsidized by HRDA on the condition that the following criteria is stringently adhered to:
1. Cameras and microphones must be open for the duration of the seminar.
2. Participation for the whole seminar must exceed 75%.
3. 1 device per person must be used.
4. You must ensure you check in punctually at the beginning of the seminar and check out at the end of each day.
5. You are obligated to participate in the follow up onsite 4 Hour visit and you must ensure you check in and check out promptly.
In the event the criteria is not fulfilled satisfactorily and you are rejected by HRDA, please note that you as an individual or your company will be liable to pay the participation fee of €1800.
Finally, please see our cancellation policy:
– Cancellations can be accepted up to 5 working days prior to the seminar without penalties. For any cancellations received after the deadline (or no-shows), the individual or company will be invoiced the full amount per participant.
– Substitutions can be accepted up to 2 working days prior to the seminar without penalties.