South African Wine Information

Here is a short article just published by the Wall Street Journal. You may need to be on campus to read it or have a subscription: http://www.wsj.com/articles/south-africa-the-best-fine-wine-for-your-money-1437648173

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Final Projects

The end of the semester is a little of a week away. I am in the mist of meeting with your supervisors and learning more about your progress.

If you wish to submit your final project via an eportfolio please make sure to invite me to your site. If you plan to do the more traditional version as listed in the syllabus it is preferred that you save it as a PDF and email it to me. This will save us all a trip to campus. If you do plan to submit the final project in person it must be in my office no later than 11:30 am on Friday, July 31.

All evaluations must be in by that time as well. A PDF is available in the file section of the site or you can provide  your supervisor with this GOOGLE Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1x6TF4VzikgrD4WRFTc9Jc1OcorOWUoJcxY34Odgky24/viewform

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Dominique Ansel Moves From Cronuts To Dessert Tasting

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/dining/dominique-ansel-moves-from-cronuts-to-dessert-tastings.html

I have always loved the Pastry Arts field because you can be creative and you can always experiment in order to find something new. This is the case of Dominique Ansel, owner of Dominique Ansel Bakery And inventor of the cronut, who have come up with the idea of having a dessert tasting on the second floor of his establishment. He wanted to create new and unique creative plated desserts. He also came up with different themes and each theme will have a dessert that will represent it.

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TravelClick Expands Partnership with TripAdvisor

TravelClick is operated for hotels around the globe to grow their revenue, reduce costs and improve performance. They have local experts and have helped more than 38,000 hotel clients in over 160 countries drive their room reservations. They are able to do this by providing better revenue management decisions and innovative marketing. TripAdvisor is one of the world’s largest travel sites. Many travelers use TripAdvisor for accommodations, restaurants and attractions.  This article states TravelClick’s expansion to partner with TripAdvisor. This is huge news for our industry and is sure to draw more traffic to TripAdvisor. Users can now book directly from TripAdvisor. Reviews on these sites will be more valued than ever before. It will generate a lot of revenue for those with great reviews, and may drop for others. http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article84650.html

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Mobile Trends for Hoteliers

This PwC report shares insights into the behaviors of mobile, specifically smartphone users. It was reported back at the end of 2014 that 75 percent of mobile users had a smartphone. The numbers are only expected to increase over the years. Many users today are digitally savvy and hotel and resort operations are well aware. This article talks about going to the next level with apps that can enhance guest’s experiences. Many guests now take advantage of booking and making reservations through their mobile devices. There are hotels launching keyless. The article sees a future where guests can personalize their stays using just their mobile devices. For example, they can select a particular room, check-in time, preset the room’s temperature, specify if they need any additional amenities such as extra towels and unlock their doors. Guests staying at a resort can benefit by flipping through a menu, reserving and purchasing items to be delivered to their rooms without physically being present. They can even enhance the guest’s experience by allowing them to order drinks, book a spa treatment or reserve a car all with just a mobile device. I too believe this will be the future but I wonder how the front desk will look like. I think even with keyless and personalized hotel apps, we will always have a front desk/welcome desk for those who still want and enjoy a real face to face experience. http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article84663.html

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Website Scams

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/fake-hotel-booking-sites-stirring-turmoil-travelers-n395106

More and more people are traveling and booking hotels online has become a common thing for people. But beware, there are some people that have been in the hospitality business for over 20 years that have been scammed as well. Fake websites are becoming very similar to actual website that people are not aware and at the end, they get charged large fees for no reason. Protecting your information is very important and always research!

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Make it Work : The Zen of Event Planning

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2011/10/27/make-it-work-the-zen-of-event-planning/2/

This is a valuable article about the truth of the event planning industry.  Being an event planner you have to know that nothing will go perfect and you will experience ups and downs of the business.   If you love being an event planner, you have to make things work and strive for excellence.  Some of the tips that I found valuable in the article are face -to -face contacts with perspective clients and customers is important you need to make connections and open the doors of opportunity.  Another tip I found valuable is the importance of small details. Clients and guests of an event may not notice every little detail but to an event planner if it’s not perfect, it can threaten to ruin the event.

 

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SAMSON

Corruption in FIFA? Its Auditors Saw None.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/06/sports/soccer/as-fifa-scandal-grows-focus-turns-to-its-auditors.html?ref=topics&_r=0

This is one of the ironical headings I have read in recent past. Considering the massive corruption widely reported to be spanning more than a decade, this heading was irresistible. And true to its juicy heading the article did not disappoint. As an international organisation it was very telling that as far back as 2002 the organisation was flouting the GAAP rules especially the matching and revenue recognition principle. “This accounting principle requires companies to use the accrual basis of accounting. The matching principle requires that expenses be matched with revenues. For example, sales commissions expense should be reported in the period when the sales were made (and not reported in the period when the commissions were paid).” But FIFA “an unusual move for an organization that at the time used accounting methods that recorded income when it was received, not in advance, according to accounting experts.

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Aspiring women

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/ehost/detail/detail?vid=27&sid=35756b13-6a72-4893-9a66-a3249ba8fecb%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4209&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=hjh&AN=100242307

The article goes over key points from a women’s only conference that was held for the employees of Corbin & King, which is based in London. As the amount of women in senior roles are steadily increasing it is important to motivate other women and aspire them to climb up the corporate ladder. We deserve equal pay and equal opportunities as men! The 10 key points of the article are very important and can be applied to anyone in this industry.

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