January 7, 2025 • 37 mins
Mike Blake joins Skip Kimpel on the Tech Chef Podcast to share his insights on the evolving landscape of hospitality technology. As Vice President of Information Technology at KemperSports, Mike draws from his extensive experience in the industry, highlighting the critical importance of strategic leadership in implementing technology solutions that enhance operational excellence. The conversation begins with Mike recounting his transition from finance to IT, where he became a specialist in understanding the cost implications of technology investments during a time of rapid change. He reflects on his tenure at Hyatt Hotels, discussing the challenges faced in migrating systems to the cloud and the revolutionary impact it had on the hospitality sector. This foundational experience informs his current role, where he oversees technology for a diverse portfolio of golf courses and resorts.
The episode delves into the pressing challenges of cybersecurity in hospitality, with Mike emphasizing the need for proactive measures to safeguard sensitive data against increasing threats. The discussion also explores the significance of adopting emerging technologies like AI and IoT, which Mike believes are essential for creating personalized guest experiences. He advocates for a data-driven approach, urging hospitality leaders to develop comprehensive data strategies that prioritize security while fostering innovation.
Throughout the episode, Mike's leadership philosophy shines through as he discusses the importance of partnership and collaboration in achieving technological success. He encourages professionals in the hospitality industry to embrace a broker, integrate, and orchestrate mindset, focusing on integrating off-the-shelf solutions rather than reinventing the wheel. The conversation concludes with Mike sharing his passion for innovation and encouraging listeners to engage with the technology community through events like CES, where they can discover new tools and ideas that can be applied within their organizations. This episode is rich with insights and practical advice, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology and hospitality.
Takeaways:
- Mike Blake discusses his extensive experience in hospitality technology, emphasizing the importance of adapting to cloud-based solutions.
- He highlights the need for a strategic approach to attending major technology events like CES for maximum benefit.
- Blake believes in the concept of 'broker, integrate and orchestrate' rather than building systems from scratch in hospitality.
- He stresses the significance of networking and helping others in the industry, as connections can lead to unexpected opportunities.
- Cybersecurity initiatives are prioritized in the hospitality sector due to increasing threats, calling for better tools and awareness.
- Embracing digital innovation while balancing security is crucial for businesses in the hospitality industry.
Links Referenced In This Episode:
How To Contact Me
Website:
- https://SkipKimpel.com (all archived shows and show notes will be posted here)
- https://magicgate.com
Instagram:
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You are listening to the TechChef Podcast.
This is episode number 83January 7, 2025.
This show is powered by GrowthAdvisors International Network where
travel and hospitalitycompanies come to grow.
For more information pleasevisit gainadvisors.com this.
Is Mike Blake, Vice Presidentof Information Technology at Kemper
(00:23):
Sports and you are listeningto Skip on the Tech Chef Podcast.
Offering a strategy business continuity.
How about a taste test ofrestaurant technology?
Drive thru or curbside?
Mobile apps or AI?
It's all on the menu.
(00:44):
Cook it up for the day.
It's a recipe for success.
You're in good hands with aTech Chef.
Make a plan to be your best.
Strategize with the Tech Chef.
Welcome back to anotherepisode of the Tech Chef.
(01:04):
I'm your host Skip Kimplbringing you insights and inspiration
all the way from sunny South Florida.
Whether you are a longtimelistener or tuning in for the very
first time, welcome.
Your loyalty and engagementinspire us to keep raising the bar,
ensuring we deliver highquality content that empowers professionals
like you to to stay ahead ofthe curve, solve challenges and innovate
(01:27):
with confidence.
Thank you for being anessential part of our journey and
success.
I hope everybody had a greatholiday season with your friends
and family.
It seems like we prepare allyear long for this and within a blink
of an eye it is over with andwe are back to the grindstone.
Well, this week I'm in LasVegas for CES.
(01:48):
Yes, the 2025 ConsumerElectronics show is upon us and I
will be spending the week withover 4,000 vendors spread across
12 properties and 135,000 ofmy closest friends.
This is one of those showsthat if you don't walk in with a
plan, it will be a completewaste of time.
I can't wait to report on itnext week and share some of the cool
(02:12):
stuff that I saw when I was there.
I am like a kid in the candystore when I go to this show today.
Starting off the year with abang is my friend and industry rock
star, Mr.
Michael Blake.
He recently joined KemperSports as Vice President of Information
Technology.
Kemper Sports is a leadingsports, entertainment and hospitality
(02:33):
company that deliversoperational excellence in property
and experience management.
Kemper Sports manages morethan 140 golf courses, private clubs,
sports ventures anddestination resorts nationwide.
With over 20 years ofexperience in the hospitality IT
sector, Mike brings a wealthof knowledge from his previous leadership
(02:56):
roles including serving asChief Technology Officer for the
American Hotel and Lodgingassociation and the Chief Information
Officer for notablehospitality brands such as Commune
Hotels and Hyatt throughouthis career, Mike has spearheaded
major cloud migrations,enhanced cybersecurity initiatives,
(03:16):
and driven change managementacross diverse environments, all
focusing on delivering costeffective, high impact technology
solutions.
Sit back and take notes asMike shares his years of expertise
as we talk about the past,present and future of hospitality
technology and the leadershipskills that are needed to become
(03:38):
successful.
Welcome, Mike Blake.
It's a pleasure to have you on today.
For our listeners who may notknow, Mike has an incredible career
in the hospitality and techindustries, serving as a global CIO
at Hyatt Hotels, CEO ofHospitality Technology Next Generation,
(04:01):
otherwise known as hdng, andas CTO of the American Hotel and
Lodging association, otherwiseknown as the ahla, and now leading
it as Vice President at Kemper Sports.
Mike, your journey is nothingshort of remarkable.
Welcome to the show and it isextreme pleasure to finally have
(04:23):
you on here.
It's great to be here, Skip.
Thank you very much.
You've had a unique blend ofleadership roles in IT and hospitality.
What inspired you to combinethese two industries and what drew
you to technology in the first place?
For instance, you started yourcareer in finance, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, you're right, Skip.
(04:43):
I started IT in finance, butthe interesting thing is I was the
finance guy for a lot of ITshops, so I started being a specialist
in finance for it, which wasactually a perfect time because at
that point in time, IT and thecloud and some of these other things
were coming.
So very few people reallyunderstood the cost ramifications
(05:06):
of these things.
So you almost needed to be aCPA or an MBA from the University
of Chicago to figure thosethings out.
From leading tech at HyattHotels globally to spearheading innovations
at the HLA and the htng, howhas your leadership style evolved
over the years?
(05:27):
Yeah, I think, Skip, what I'velearned over the years is, and I
think this is true foreveryone, you can't really take things
overly seriously.
I mean, with enough money andresources, you can solve just about
any problem.
But at some point in time, youjust got to recognize that as they
(05:49):
say here in golf, there are no emergencies.
The reason I bring that up isbecause the majority of our listeners
are either C level or decisionmakers within an organization.
So they're looking forleadership aspects regarding how
you actually progressedthrough your career.
Let's start by looking back atyour time as the global CIO at Hyatt
(06:10):
Hotels.
What was the most challengingtechnological initiative you led
and how did you navigate it?
Yeah, it's funny because someof the more interesting ones actually
seem mundane today.
Right.
And that's.
It wasn't so mundane at the time.
I remember I inherited anorganization that was with Lotus
(06:32):
Notes and this was thePrecursor to Office 365 being in
existence.
And for some of the olderfolks who do listen to your podcast
might remember a product byMicrosoft called BPOS that was that
precursor to Office 365.
At the time it was somewhatradical to kind of move to that.
(06:55):
But today it seems likeeveryone, you're either on that or
you're on Google Docs.
So cloud based support muchbetter than some of those things.
So it's kind of interestingthat at the time it felt revolutionary
and we were one of the bigfirst chains to move to that direction
(07:16):
and move to the cloud.
But now it's just abouteverybody's doing it and there you
go.
You just got lucky, or atleast I did.
And I had a great team that executed.
So moving on, at htnng, youwere instrumental in advancing next
generation tech standards.
Can you share some of themajor initiatives you're most proud
(07:39):
of from that period?
Well, I think the proudestthing I am skip is probably of the
merger itself because when youlook back at HT&G here, we were a
pretty scrappy association andwe had a very nice niche.
But I do think that over timewe had, we had to evaluate the, the
(08:06):
entire landscape and you know,HLA just made to be a perfect partner.
And I think, you know, with,with some of the leadership there
and with our, with thestrength of our board, we kind of
were able to pull it off.
And now HT&G will continue tokeep living.
It'll live through thehospitality show, it'll live through
(08:26):
some of the other initiativesand it'll keep doing great work through
work groups.
There's a great team there andit's still pretty exc that it's going
to continue to flourish worldwide.
Even though it's AHLA, it'sstill a worldwide initiative.
Yeah, 100% actually.
I think that it's definitely amisnomer of the A in that piece because
(08:49):
it is really global.
All right.
So I'm actually a littleembarrassed as we, we met up at the
last conference about a monthago and we spent the entire time
catching up and reminiscing onstories from the past, which was
quite entertaining.
But the one thing we didn't dois talk about your new job.
Now.
You've recently taken on therole of VP of Information Technology
(09:11):
at Kemper Sports.
Tell us about this companythat you joined, you know what they
do.
And this, by the way, is threepart question.
How does it enable KemperSports to deliver exceptional experience
both internally and to its clients?
You know, it's interestingsometimes when you have relationships
and who finds who during thesethings and how it happens, but some
(09:33):
of the folks at Hyatt that Iworked with are actually working
here, so both Jim, Jim Lawlerand Sarah Kearney, who are both senior
leaders here at Kemper, kindof found me, Skip.
And for those of you who don'tknow who Kemper Sports is, it's,
it's very similar to a hotelmanagement company, but instead of
(09:55):
doing hotels, we do golf courses.
So I basically am the head oftechnology for 100 and soon to be
148 different golf coursesaround the US and we have everything
from a daily fee municipalcourse all the way up to a dream
(10:17):
destination resort like Streamsong.
And that's kind of neat to beable to play in a world where you
have all kinds of technicalchallenges but still can lay back
and rely on some of the oldexperiences with big resorts.
So I have all those funtechnical challenges, Skip, of a
(10:39):
PMS and a POS and a CRS andall the S's and all those three letter
acronyms we all love.
Well, okay, that brings up agood question.
How has it in the hospitalityindustry changed since your time
to Hyatt with emerging toolslike AI, IoT, cloud computing up
until now?
(10:59):
Well, I do think that, youknow, things are becoming a lot more
integrated.
I mean, we, this is, we triedto make them integrated back in the
past and you know, any guy,any hotel has anywhere between four,
you know, 40 to 50 differentservices and software on any particular
(11:23):
property and you got to kindof make all that work.
Well, now things are becoming,they're not seamless yet, Skip, but
they're getting closer and closer.
And I do think as we continueto evolve and depending on, you know,
some of the partners are doingthis a little bit better than others.
I mean, we're pretty fortunatethat, you know, we have a partner
(11:45):
that is working pretty closelywith me to kind of build a stack
that is seamless to work withand that it once again, I think I'm
helping the industry throughmaking our products stacked better.
Were you directly involvedwith helping creating those standards
for the hotel side whileyou're at HT&G?
(12:08):
Well, the beautiful thing ofit is, Skip, it takes a village to
do any of the standards and Ithink any of the HT&G standards,
I think some of the best workis done at the work group level.
And you have, you know,stalwarts like a Sandy angel who
is out there leading a lot ofthis work group effort, along with
(12:30):
a name from the past, PatrickDunphy, who did a lot of work in
that space.
Yeah.
And it's just great to havethese people who are so committed
and to bring others together.
And I can't tell you thecountless number of hours spent on
particular work groups pullingtogether standards and best practices
(12:52):
and artifacts.
And all those artifacts stillreside within the AHLA website.
So under the HTNG auspices,you can still pull a lot of those
standards down, look them up,they're free to consume, so you don't
even have to be a member toavail yourself of the standards.
And I do have to put out a bigshout out to the vendor base because
(13:18):
the vendor base spent a lot.
They donated a lot of theirengineering hours to help the standards
better.
And it's good to be part ofthat, and it's great to be part of
that process as they continueto evolve.
I mean, I believe they'relooking at standards now around AI
and some of these othercurrent initiatives, so definitely
(13:40):
get engaged.
What I love about our synergyis Sandy and Patrick were instrumental
from the restaurant side withthe Restaurant Technology Network
as we started to put ourstandards together.
Sandy to this day still leadsthat whole initiative.
So I can't wait to tag them inthis post because they are very,
(14:01):
very good people.
And man, they put in a lot ofhard work and guidance to get us
where we're at.
But the beautiful part is theyhad the expertise from the hotel
side to translate back to us.
Where I'm getting to is from astandards perspective.
You know, you talked about allthese integrations, all these different
systems that you have inplace, the standards that you are
(14:23):
part of and the AHLA HTNG havein place or are available.
You know, what's the adoptionlevel and has that helped you on
the.
The hotel and hospitality sideof things?
I think it's interesting, skipthat you brought up rtn, because
I do think there's a.
You will see a lot ofsimilarities between HT and G and
(14:46):
rtn.
Yes, only because both Angelaand Abby, you know, were able to
take a lot and I help themquite a bit through, you know, my
experience at HTG and beingable to say, how do we build standards
and how do we work through.
(15:07):
Work through them?
I do think that, you know, wedo have a Technology Innovation Acceleration
Award.
I know that's a mouthful, butit's, it's given at the hospitality
show, but, but it's meant forthose innovators who are adopting
standards that kind ofdemonstrate them to the industry.
(15:29):
So I do think now you have avery tangible way of showing that
there's some level of adoptionbecause generally those, you know,
it's a fairly well subscribedaward show that David Showander has
been emceeing for the past twohospitality shows.
(15:50):
And I think that'll continue.
I think, you know, if, if youhave, if you are an entrant into
this industry, it's good totake advantage of those or be a part
of trying to put thosestandards together.
Because you'd rather be partof the standard than trying to invent
something that nobody will follow.
Well, so yeah, you hit on agood point earlier when you're talking
(16:14):
about from the, from the hotelside is you need the vendor community
along with the operatorsworking side by side on this in work
groups.
And that is what impressed meabout how we approached it from the
RTN side is we got everybodyinvolved and the level of people
that got involved were impressive.
(16:35):
From the food and beverageside, we are now trying to, you know,
now that we've finished, Iguess it's never a finished project.
We're always going to beworking on those standards.
As, you know, technology evolves.
But, you know, now it comesdown to adoption and you know, I'm
out there encouraging everysingle operator to actually demand,
you know, or at least ask thequestions, are you implementing the
(16:59):
data standards from RTN inyour tech stack because it helps
the operator at the end of the day.
I mean, you and I have bothsat in CIO roles where integration
into systems can be a nightmare.
Without standards, when datadoesn't match, a sale isn't a sale.
You know, they don't have thesame definitions of things.
Creating standards is critical.
(17:19):
Yeah, and I do think, skip that.
The beautiful thing is that,you know, there isn't 100 organizations
who are doing this work.
There's two.
Right, right.
So, so it's not like we haveto sit here and kind of choose between
and, and the thing with anHTNG or RTN is we try to lever the
best of that which is available.
(17:39):
So, you know, when we weredoing WI FI standards, we didn't
invent.
We went to IEEE and said,okay, what's the next standard coming
down that we can embed withinour own right to make it hospitality
ready?
So there were always, and Igotta tell you, the association community
(17:59):
Works very closely togetherand there is no level of redundancy
that's out there or you try tolimit it.
Well, we're gonna take alittle break here, but when we come
back, we're going to talkabout the current and future challenges
that not only the industryface, but specifically face.
We're going to talk about techand cyber security, the post pandemic
(18:20):
era, you know, leadership and vision.
Just from, from.
Because we have so manyleaders on this podcast listening.
Just, you know what that lookslike from your perspective.
So everybody hold on.
We will be back in just acouple of seconds.
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(19:05):
All right, let's talk aboutsome current and future challenges.
Given the increase in cyberthreats, especially around industries
like hospitality.
We've seen a lot of headlines.
How do you prioritizecybersecurity initiatives to keep
systems and data secure?
Yeah, I think, Skip, this isprobably one of our.
If it's not my number one,it's certainly number one a as far
(19:29):
as priorities.
Because I think all of us areunder the threat and the challenge
of, of trying to keep up inthis arms race.
We do have better tooling.
We try to get, you know, aheadof it.
But I gotta tell you, one ofthe most effective tools I think
I have in my toolbox is our.
(19:50):
The rhisac, which is hopefullyfolks who are not aware of it should
be aware of it.
The rhisac, the retailhospitality isac, is definitely something
to get engaged with andinvolved with.
We share on a daily basisdifferent threats that are coming
(20:12):
down at a very detailed level.
So, you know, kind of what'sgoing on.
This is a group that veryearly on had its start in htng.
I'm very proud of.
And at some point in time, itgrew Beyond, I think, HTNG's capabilities
and now it's on to its own.
You know, they combined withretail, which I think is a great
(20:35):
fit.
Yeah.
So moving, moving together,able to share kind of current issues,
possibilities, techniques,tools, you name it.
It's a very specialized, very.
It's highly specialized to thecyber security space for that we
(20:56):
deal with.
And I gotta Tell you, I can'timagine l without it.
So digital innovation is thebuzzword out there today.
Through digital innovation,you're, you're trying to create this
perfect profile on a guest,which means collecting a lot of data
and information on that guest.
What advice would you give tobusinesses looking to balance digital
(21:17):
innovation with the evergrowing need for security?
Yeah, I think, Skip, this is,this is a classic.
You want to think big, startsmall and scale fast.
Exactly, yes.
So, you know, I think, youknow, golf, the, the industry I am
currently in is, is veryanalogous to where hospitality was
(21:38):
probably 10 years ago.
So I'm going to kind of skippast all those 10 years of learning
and kind of jump into a moremodern look at CRM and being able
to get to that golden recordof a guest and being able to understand
them with structured andunstructured data.
(21:59):
I do think that the tooling ismuch better than has been and never
will be.
So I do think this is onewhere if you don't have a data strategy,
you better sort one out prettyquick and understand your subsystems
and then understand thesecurity profile around it.
Because if you're not doingit, your competitor is.
(22:22):
So we've had a lot of talk onthe show recently about tech innovation.
You've led techtransformations in large organizations
in the past.
What is your approach tomanaging teams, driving innovation,
and building a strong IT culture?
Oddly enough, Skip, I think alot of it is just trying to be aware
(22:43):
of innovation.
And what's interesting isinnovation is all around us and I
think you just kind of got tobe aware of it and you got to try
to apply it into your own space.
For example, I'm heading outto CES at the beginning of January.
I'll see you there.
Right, fantastic.
(23:05):
Because I do think that that'sabout a five year look into the future
for all things that arehospitality or even in our space
in golf, you're going to startseeing things that will be applied
at scale later on.
I mean, and I do think ifyou're able to have that lens and
(23:27):
be able to see it, you'regoing to see some cool stuff that
could be applied in your space.
And that's really kind of, youknow, one of the definitions of innovation.
Right.
Being able to use somethingthat somebody else uses in their
own space into you and applyit to yourself.
I think it's just a fantastic look.
(23:47):
See?
So whether it's ces, whetherit's publications, whether it's just
going to a conference ortalking to some of your Peers, you'd
be surprised at what you'll learn.
Yeah.
Ever since going off on my ownwith Magic 8 and really concentrating
on those emerging, emergingand disruptive technologies, you
know, my landscape ofconferences has really expanded now.
(24:10):
I've always gone to nrf,always gone to ces.
There's some greatopportunities there.
Nrf, being the retail side ofit, recently started going to iapa,
which is military simulation,certainly from an XR and a VR perspective.
That's where the money andresearch is being spent.
Sure.
So, you know, I walk in therelooking through the eyes of entertainment,
(24:31):
through sports andentertainment and as well as hospitality.
How can some of thosetechnologies translate to hospitality?
You know, is it future comingor is there something immediate that
you could just easily justmake a suggestion, pull a trigger.
They could modify somethingand it could be applicable to our
industry.
So, you know, you talked aboutgoing to conferences and staying
(24:54):
ahead of the curve when itcomes to identifying technology.
How about adopting emerging technologies?
What advice do you give there?
Yeah, so first of all, I wouldhope that anytime somebody has a
vendor or a partnership with,with a large company that they choose
(25:16):
the partner that's innovative.
Because I, you know, I, I dothink that innovation curves are
additive.
So what that means, Skip, isthe more innovation you take on with
a partner, the more innovativeyou too become.
Right.
Because those innovativepartners are the ones that are going
to be adopting things like AI.
(25:38):
Right.
Because we're looking attechnology within the, the view.
I don't really want to do AIthings on own.
I would rather have one of mytechnology partners, you know, subsume
that into their stack and thenwe'll be able to use that AI module
or what have you through theirdevice and through their tool.
(26:00):
There's a lot of advantages to that.
There's some, you know,especially when you talk security
and what have you.
They, they are probably, youknow, I, I look around and I don't
see a lot of securityprofessionals on, on my team, but
a lot of them at Microsoft.
I do see a lot of them in theGoogle world.
(26:22):
Right.
I do see a lot of them withinour partners.
So there you go.
So for aspiring technologyleaders, especially in hospitality,
what are the skills andmindset you believe are most crucial
to success?
And let me preempt that with,you know, just a few seconds ago,
the audience heard anadvertisement for an XR bootcamp
(26:44):
which Magic 8 is putting on.
And the whole goal of that isnot for a technology based person.
I mean, you could have atechnology background, but it's more
to Talk about these emergingtechnologies and have knowledge and
be able to understand theadvantages or disadvantages of implementing
some of these things.
So the question back to youis, what are the skills or at least
(27:07):
the mindset that you believeis most crucial?
Yeah, I think.
Skip that.
One of the biggest mindsetshifts within hospitality or restaurants
or any one of the other what Icall kind of enabled environments,
let's say, versus wheretechnology is the product.
(27:30):
Right.
The enabled environment is.
Hospitality has a differentmodel altogether.
I call it the broker,integrate and orchestrate model.
So you're basically taking aoff the shelf solution.
You're integrating it withinyour environment, and then most of
(27:51):
the time you're not evenrunning it, but you're orchestrating
it to make sure it goes right.
Whereas if I was a bank,that's where you get into the world
of plan, build, run, where Igo ahead and I plan it, I code it,
and boom, out comes thechecking account software.
Two different models.
And I think when people inhospitality are kind of trying to
(28:14):
get that through their mind,that whole broker, integrate and
orchestrate model is what theyshould be looking at.
They shouldn't be thinkingabout building the next CRS or building
the next pms.
They should be thinking morein the tune of, okay, how do I go
ahead and negotiate the bestdeal I possibly can, how do I integrate
(28:34):
that within my environment andalso have enough faith and confidence
in my, in my vendor base thatI don't need to step on them and,
and run it.
All I need to do isorchestrate it and make sure that
they are the right people todo it and it's safe and it's secure
and all that good stuff.
(28:56):
You know, as a cio, I neverlooked for a vendor.
I looked for a partner.
I wanted, I wanted to makesure that, you know, they were in
it as much as I was.
You know, my reputation was atstake and, you know, I wanted, I
wanted them to be part of thatjourney to make sure that they were
a valuable partner for us.
You know, looking back at yourcareer as we close things out here,
(29:16):
what's one lesson that youwould, that you carry over to this
day from a leadership perspective?
Yeah, I think to this day is,you know, the, the strength of your
network.
We're not talking bits andbytes here.
We're talking more the people element.
We're talking all about, youknow, the individuals out.
(29:39):
You know, all of us are inbetween jobs, Skip.
And we should recognize that,yes, even when we have a job, we're
in between a job.
And I gotta tell you, youknow, we're gonna live in a world
of upheaval.
And we've lived in upheaval.
You know, if somebody needshelp, help them.
And you know, if you know ofsomebody in transition, help them
(30:01):
out, because you never knowwhen that might happen.
And I do feel, you know,throughout my career, I think I've
helped a lot of people out andI will continue to do that because
I think what you'll find iseven a simple conversation could
make the difference for someone.
And, you know, just, youshould be able to do that.
(30:23):
I'll give you a perfect example.
And this just happened today.
So I had a individual reachout to me.
At first I just thought it wasspam, saying, hey, I would like to
get some career advice.
I heard you speak a coupleyears ago.
Do you mind jumping on a call?
And I'm like, absolutely.
So this individual saw apresentation I gave at the University
of Las Vegas, the hospitalityschool, and they recently graduated
(30:46):
and they're now they have ajob, entry level job at a very large
resort or a large hotel on thestrip in Las Vegas.
And they were asking about,you know, career advice.
You know, they told me aboutwhat they were looking for, how they
were looking into, to proceed,you know, what, what the best way
to approach some of this stuff.
So I, you know, I gave my twocents, whatever that's worth.
(31:10):
But it is those types ofconnections that you never know where
that person's going to end up.
And say, Skip was the guy thatled me here.
He gave me some really,really, really good advice.
Hopefully he says that and youknow, we're, we're, like you said,
we're in the business.
You're, you're, you're onestep away from your next job and
you never know where your nextopportunity is going to come from.
(31:32):
So.
That's right.
And I didn't do it for that purpose.
I honestly have a good heartand was just trying to help this,
this individual out.
But you just really put theexclamation point on why I did what
I did today.
Right?
And that was the right thing, Skip.
I mean, you never know, right?
And, and a lot of the thingswe do, you know, it may never come
(31:53):
back around and that's okay.
But you've just made the worlda better place and that's not a bad
thing.
What's one technology trend orinnovation you believe the industry
isn't focusing enough on andshould be?
I, I still think, you know,the whole, we call it robotics, we
(32:15):
call it autonomous machines.
Whatever you want to call it,I do think that it's not a room to
replace human beings.
That's not what hospitality is about.
But I do think that forcertain roles, for certain functions,
for certain areas, there isprobably a need to automate to bring
(32:38):
in the robots.
Whether it's selective,selective vacuuming in rooms, I mean,
whether it's just flippingfries, there's some very specific
modes that I think can makethe world a safer, better place and
actually enhance the productand make, you know, employees much
(33:03):
safer than they are right now.
Okay, so I have an off thewall question, and this is like a
question that we'd have after,you know, hanging out for a couple
hours.
Sure.
And certainly a question Idon't know the answer to, but.
So in the golf industry, isthere such a thing as a, or being
developed a self driving go kart?
No, not yet, but there are.
(33:23):
I, there are some cooltechnologies, Skip, I'll give you.
And I'll leave you with thisone, which I think is probably the
coolest one that I've seen ina long time.
But, you know, we're alltalking about drones now and, and,
and what have you, I'll justleave it at that.
But we actually have a dronethat can scan a golf course in about
(33:44):
18 holes in about two hours,but it can actually look at the color
of the grass and start to tellyou whether it needs to be watered,
fertilized, or what have youfrom that point of venture.
I mean, at one point, youknow, we have agronomists who kind
of walk the course and kind oftry to do that, but oddly enough,
(34:08):
they're not as effective asthat two hour stint of a drone, which
I think is fantastic.
I mean, it's a step in that direction.
Well, I'll tell you what, whenthis podcast drops, you and I are
actually going to be the daythat we're in Vegas.
This podcast drops.
So that will be exciting.
Hopefully we get to celebrate together.
(34:29):
And it's been great hearingabout your new journey and vision
for technology role and hospitality.
And before we close, is thereany advice or final message you'd
like to leave with our listeners?
Well, Skip, I'm going to meetyou in Eureka park.
And for those of you who havenot been to CES before, please go.
Eureka park is where reallythe new entrants are coming.
(34:54):
They don't really afford wherethe big, the big layouts and the,
the big booths are, but Eurekapark is where to go and, and what
I would always tell all myfriends who are technologists.
You know, hook up with with some.
You know, hook up with someone.
Make sure to use the hell outof LinkedIn.
(35:14):
Link in with me if you'd like.
Happy to extend my network to you.
And by all means don't.
Don't take anything too seriously.
Just keep a straight face andkeep moving.
Keep on keeping on.
Love it.
Simple but effective.
Mike, thank you so much forjoining the show.
I look forward to seeing youin a couple weeks.
(35:35):
Yeah, take care Skip.
Mike is always a wealth ofinformation and he is really one
of the good guys out there.
If you would like to reach outto me or the show, you can do so
via everything social.
Skip Kimple or everything magicgatetech.
This includes X, Facebook,Instagram and LinkedIn.
(35:56):
You can also visit thewebsite@SkipKimple.com for all of
the archive shows and the shownotes are also there.
And you can also hear thesenew episodes on the Magic gate website@magicgate.com
and of course you can email meat skipagic8.com Next week I have
a fascinating show to share aswe talk with our guest, Brandon McRill,
(36:20):
co founder and CEO of Fiveout, with a discussion around artificial
intelligence and machine learning.
Wait, I'm not supposed to sayAI as it does not exist yet.
What?
That's right.
Tune in next week's show tohear this discussion.
I am wishing you a very happy,healthy and prosperous new year.
(36:43):
2024 was amazing, but 2025will be revolutionary.
Until next week, stay safe,stay healthy and stay hungry.
My friends.
RA.
You are listening to the TechChef Podcast.
This is episode number 83January 7, 2025.
This show is powered by GrowthAdvisors International Network where
travel and hospitalitycompanies come to grow.
For more information pleasevisit gainadvisors.com this.
Is Mike Blake, Vice Presidentof Information Technology at Kemper
(00:23):
Sports and you are listeningto Skip on the Tech Chef Podcast.
Offering a strategy business continuity.
How about a taste test ofrestaurant technology?
Drive thru or curbside?
Mobile apps or AI?
It's all on the menu.
(00:44):
Cook it up for the day.
It's a recipe for success.
You're in good hands with aTech Chef.
Make a plan to be your best.
Strategize with the Tech Chef.
Welcome back to anotherepisode of the Tech Chef.
(01:04):
I'm your host Skip Kimplbringing you insights and inspiration
all the way from sunny South Florida.
Whether you are a longtimelistener or tuning in for the very
first time, welcome.
Your loyalty and engagementinspire us to keep raising the bar,
ensuring we deliver highquality content that empowers professionals
like you to to stay ahead ofthe curve, solve challenges and innovate
(01:27):
with confidence.
Thank you for being anessential part of our journey and
success.
I hope everybody had a greatholiday season with your friends
and family.
It seems like we prepare allyear long for this and within a blink
of an eye it is over with andwe are back to the grindstone.
Well, this week I'm in LasVegas for CES.
(01:48):
Yes, the 2025 ConsumerElectronics show is upon us and I
will be spending the week withover 4,000 vendors spread across
12 properties and 135,000 ofmy closest friends.
This is one of those showsthat if you don't walk in with a
plan, it will be a completewaste of time.
I can't wait to report on itnext week and share some of the cool
(02:12):
stuff that I saw when I was there.
I am like a kid in the candystore when I go to this show today.
Starting off the year with abang is my friend and industry rock
star, Mr.
Michael Blake.
He recently joined KemperSports as Vice President of Information
Technology.
Kemper Sports is a leadingsports, entertainment and hospitality
(02:33):
company that deliversoperational excellence in property
and experience management.
Kemper Sports manages morethan 140 golf courses, private clubs,
sports ventures anddestination resorts nationwide.
With over 20 years ofexperience in the hospitality IT
sector, Mike brings a wealthof knowledge from his previous leadership
(02:56):
roles including serving asChief Technology Officer for the
American Hotel and Lodgingassociation and the Chief Information
Officer for notablehospitality brands such as Commune
Hotels and Hyatt throughouthis career, Mike has spearheaded
major cloud migrations,enhanced cybersecurity initiatives,
(03:16):
and driven change managementacross diverse environments, all
focusing on delivering costeffective, high impact technology
solutions.
Sit back and take notes asMike shares his years of expertise
as we talk about the past,present and future of hospitality
technology and the leadershipskills that are needed to become
(03:38):
successful.
Welcome, Mike Blake.
It's a pleasure to have you on today.
For our listeners who may notknow, Mike has an incredible career
in the hospitality and techindustries, serving as a global CIO
at Hyatt Hotels, CEO ofHospitality Technology Next Generation,
(04:01):
otherwise known as hdng, andas CTO of the American Hotel and
Lodging association, otherwiseknown as the ahla, and now leading
it as Vice President at Kemper Sports.
Mike, your journey is nothingshort of remarkable.
Welcome to the show and it isextreme pleasure to finally have
(04:23):
you on here.
It's great to be here, Skip.
Thank you very much.
You've had a unique blend ofleadership roles in IT and hospitality.
What inspired you to combinethese two industries and what drew
you to technology in the first place?
For instance, you started yourcareer in finance, if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, you're right, Skip.
(04:43):
I started IT in finance, butthe interesting thing is I was the
finance guy for a lot of ITshops, so I started being a specialist
in finance for it, which wasactually a perfect time because at
that point in time, IT and thecloud and some of these other things
were coming.
So very few people reallyunderstood the cost ramifications
(05:06):
of these things.
So you almost needed to be aCPA or an MBA from the University
of Chicago to figure thosethings out.
From leading tech at HyattHotels globally to spearheading innovations
at the HLA and the htng, howhas your leadership style evolved
over the years?
(05:27):
Yeah, I think, Skip, what I'velearned over the years is, and I
think this is true foreveryone, you can't really take things
overly seriously.
I mean, with enough money andresources, you can solve just about
any problem.
But at some point in time, youjust got to recognize that as they
(05:49):
say here in golf, there are no emergencies.
The reason I bring that up isbecause the majority of our listeners
are either C level or decisionmakers within an organization.
So they're looking forleadership aspects regarding how
you actually progressedthrough your career.
Let's start by looking back atyour time as the global CIO at Hyatt
(06:10):
Hotels.
What was the most challengingtechnological initiative you led
and how did you navigate it?
Yeah, it's funny because someof the more interesting ones actually
seem mundane today.
Right.
And that's.
It wasn't so mundane at the time.
I remember I inherited anorganization that was with Lotus
(06:32):
Notes and this was thePrecursor to Office 365 being in
existence.
And for some of the olderfolks who do listen to your podcast
might remember a product byMicrosoft called BPOS that was that
precursor to Office 365.
At the time it was somewhatradical to kind of move to that.
(06:55):
But today it seems likeeveryone, you're either on that or
you're on Google Docs.
So cloud based support muchbetter than some of those things.
So it's kind of interestingthat at the time it felt revolutionary
and we were one of the bigfirst chains to move to that direction
(07:16):
and move to the cloud.
But now it's just abouteverybody's doing it and there you
go.
You just got lucky, or atleast I did.
And I had a great team that executed.
So moving on, at htnng, youwere instrumental in advancing next
generation tech standards.
Can you share some of themajor initiatives you're most proud
(07:39):
of from that period?
Well, I think the proudestthing I am skip is probably of the
merger itself because when youlook back at HT&G here, we were a
pretty scrappy association andwe had a very nice niche.
But I do think that over timewe had, we had to evaluate the, the
(08:06):
entire landscape and you know,HLA just made to be a perfect partner.
And I think, you know, with,with some of the leadership there
and with our, with thestrength of our board, we kind of
were able to pull it off.
And now HT&G will continue tokeep living.
It'll live through thehospitality show, it'll live through
(08:26):
some of the other initiativesand it'll keep doing great work through
work groups.
There's a great team there andit's still pretty exc that it's going
to continue to flourish worldwide.
Even though it's AHLA, it'sstill a worldwide initiative.
Yeah, 100% actually.
I think that it's definitely amisnomer of the A in that piece because
(08:49):
it is really global.
All right.
So I'm actually a littleembarrassed as we, we met up at the
last conference about a monthago and we spent the entire time
catching up and reminiscing onstories from the past, which was
quite entertaining.
But the one thing we didn't dois talk about your new job.
Now.
You've recently taken on therole of VP of Information Technology
(09:11):
at Kemper Sports.
Tell us about this companythat you joined, you know what they
do.
And this, by the way, is threepart question.
How does it enable KemperSports to deliver exceptional experience
both internally and to its clients?
You know, it's interestingsometimes when you have relationships
and who finds who during thesethings and how it happens, but some
(09:33):
of the folks at Hyatt that Iworked with are actually working
here, so both Jim, Jim Lawlerand Sarah Kearney, who are both senior
leaders here at Kemper, kindof found me, Skip.
And for those of you who don'tknow who Kemper Sports is, it's,
it's very similar to a hotelmanagement company, but instead of
(09:55):
doing hotels, we do golf courses.
So I basically am the head oftechnology for 100 and soon to be
148 different golf coursesaround the US and we have everything
from a daily fee municipalcourse all the way up to a dream
(10:17):
destination resort like Streamsong.
And that's kind of neat to beable to play in a world where you
have all kinds of technicalchallenges but still can lay back
and rely on some of the oldexperiences with big resorts.
So I have all those funtechnical challenges, Skip, of a
(10:39):
PMS and a POS and a CRS andall the S's and all those three letter
acronyms we all love.
Well, okay, that brings up agood question.
How has it in the hospitalityindustry changed since your time
to Hyatt with emerging toolslike AI, IoT, cloud computing up
until now?
(10:59):
Well, I do think that, youknow, things are becoming a lot more
integrated.
I mean, we, this is, we triedto make them integrated back in the
past and you know, any guy,any hotel has anywhere between four,
you know, 40 to 50 differentservices and software on any particular
(11:23):
property and you got to kindof make all that work.
Well, now things are becoming,they're not seamless yet, Skip, but
they're getting closer and closer.
And I do think as we continueto evolve and depending on, you know,
some of the partners are doingthis a little bit better than others.
I mean, we're pretty fortunatethat, you know, we have a partner
(11:45):
that is working pretty closelywith me to kind of build a stack
that is seamless to work withand that it once again, I think I'm
helping the industry throughmaking our products stacked better.
Were you directly involvedwith helping creating those standards
for the hotel side whileyou're at HT&G?
(12:08):
Well, the beautiful thing ofit is, Skip, it takes a village to
do any of the standards and Ithink any of the HT&G standards,
I think some of the best workis done at the work group level.
And you have, you know,stalwarts like a Sandy angel who
is out there leading a lot ofthis work group effort, along with
(12:30):
a name from the past, PatrickDunphy, who did a lot of work in
that space.
Yeah.
And it's just great to havethese people who are so committed
and to bring others together.
And I can't tell you thecountless number of hours spent on
particular work groups pullingtogether standards and best practices
(12:52):
and artifacts.
And all those artifacts stillreside within the AHLA website.
So under the HTNG auspices,you can still pull a lot of those
standards down, look them up,they're free to consume, so you don't
even have to be a member toavail yourself of the standards.
And I do have to put out a bigshout out to the vendor base because
(13:18):
the vendor base spent a lot.
They donated a lot of theirengineering hours to help the standards
better.
And it's good to be part ofthat, and it's great to be part of
that process as they continueto evolve.
I mean, I believe they'relooking at standards now around AI
and some of these othercurrent initiatives, so definitely
(13:40):
get engaged.
What I love about our synergyis Sandy and Patrick were instrumental
from the restaurant side withthe Restaurant Technology Network
as we started to put ourstandards together.
Sandy to this day still leadsthat whole initiative.
So I can't wait to tag them inthis post because they are very,
(14:01):
very good people.
And man, they put in a lot ofhard work and guidance to get us
where we're at.
But the beautiful part is theyhad the expertise from the hotel
side to translate back to us.
Where I'm getting to is from astandards perspective.
You know, you talked about allthese integrations, all these different
systems that you have inplace, the standards that you are
(14:23):
part of and the AHLA HTNG havein place or are available.
You know, what's the adoptionlevel and has that helped you on
the.
The hotel and hospitality sideof things?
I think it's interesting, skipthat you brought up rtn, because
I do think there's a.
You will see a lot ofsimilarities between HT and G and
(14:46):
rtn.
Yes, only because both Angelaand Abby, you know, were able to
take a lot and I help themquite a bit through, you know, my
experience at HTG and beingable to say, how do we build standards
and how do we work through.
(15:07):
Work through them?
I do think that, you know, wedo have a Technology Innovation Acceleration
Award.
I know that's a mouthful, butit's, it's given at the hospitality
show, but, but it's meant forthose innovators who are adopting
standards that kind ofdemonstrate them to the industry.
(15:29):
So I do think now you have avery tangible way of showing that
there's some level of adoptionbecause generally those, you know,
it's a fairly well subscribedaward show that David Showander has
been emceeing for the past twohospitality shows.
(15:50):
And I think that'll continue.
I think, you know, if, if youhave, if you are an entrant into
this industry, it's good totake advantage of those or be a part
of trying to put thosestandards together.
Because you'd rather be partof the standard than trying to invent
something that nobody will follow.
Well, so yeah, you hit on agood point earlier when you're talking
(16:14):
about from the, from the hotelside is you need the vendor community
along with the operatorsworking side by side on this in work
groups.
And that is what impressed meabout how we approached it from the
RTN side is we got everybodyinvolved and the level of people
that got involved were impressive.
(16:35):
From the food and beverageside, we are now trying to, you know,
now that we've finished, Iguess it's never a finished project.
We're always going to beworking on those standards.
As, you know, technology evolves.
But, you know, now it comesdown to adoption and you know, I'm
out there encouraging everysingle operator to actually demand,
you know, or at least ask thequestions, are you implementing the
(16:59):
data standards from RTN inyour tech stack because it helps
the operator at the end of the day.
I mean, you and I have bothsat in CIO roles where integration
into systems can be a nightmare.
Without standards, when datadoesn't match, a sale isn't a sale.
You know, they don't have thesame definitions of things.
Creating standards is critical.
(17:19):
Yeah, and I do think, skip that.
The beautiful thing is that,you know, there isn't 100 organizations
who are doing this work.
There's two.
Right, right.
So, so it's not like we haveto sit here and kind of choose between
and, and the thing with anHTNG or RTN is we try to lever the
best of that which is available.
(17:39):
So, you know, when we weredoing WI FI standards, we didn't
invent.
We went to IEEE and said,okay, what's the next standard coming
down that we can embed withinour own right to make it hospitality
ready?
So there were always, and Igotta tell you, the association community
(17:59):
Works very closely togetherand there is no level of redundancy
that's out there or you try tolimit it.
Well, we're gonna take alittle break here, but when we come
back, we're going to talkabout the current and future challenges
that not only the industryface, but specifically face.
We're going to talk about techand cyber security, the post pandemic
(18:20):
era, you know, leadership and vision.
Just from, from.
Because we have so manyleaders on this podcast listening.
Just, you know what that lookslike from your perspective.
So everybody hold on.
We will be back in just acouple of seconds.
Are you ready to level up yourtech game and understand the world
of xr?
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(18:43):
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that's bootcamp.magicgate.comyour future in XR starts there.
(19:05):
All right, let's talk aboutsome current and future challenges.
Given the increase in cyberthreats, especially around industries
like hospitality.
We've seen a lot of headlines.
How do you prioritizecybersecurity initiatives to keep
systems and data secure?
Yeah, I think, Skip, this isprobably one of our.
If it's not my number one,it's certainly number one a as far
(19:29):
as priorities.
Because I think all of us areunder the threat and the challenge
of, of trying to keep up inthis arms race.
We do have better tooling.
We try to get, you know, aheadof it.
But I gotta tell you, one ofthe most effective tools I think
I have in my toolbox is our.
(19:50):
The rhisac, which is hopefullyfolks who are not aware of it should
be aware of it.
The rhisac, the retailhospitality isac, is definitely something
to get engaged with andinvolved with.
We share on a daily basisdifferent threats that are coming
(20:12):
down at a very detailed level.
So, you know, kind of what'sgoing on.
This is a group that veryearly on had its start in htng.
I'm very proud of.
And at some point in time, itgrew Beyond, I think, HTNG's capabilities
and now it's on to its own.
You know, they combined withretail, which I think is a great
(20:35):
fit.
Yeah.
So moving, moving together,able to share kind of current issues,
possibilities, techniques,tools, you name it.
It's a very specialized, very.
It's highly specialized to thecyber security space for that we
(20:56):
deal with.
And I gotta Tell you, I can'timagine l without it.
So digital innovation is thebuzzword out there today.
Through digital innovation,you're, you're trying to create this
perfect profile on a guest,which means collecting a lot of data
and information on that guest.
What advice would you give tobusinesses looking to balance digital
(21:17):
innovation with the evergrowing need for security?
Yeah, I think, Skip, this is,this is a classic.
You want to think big, startsmall and scale fast.
Exactly, yes.
So, you know, I think, youknow, golf, the, the industry I am
currently in is, is veryanalogous to where hospitality was
(21:38):
probably 10 years ago.
So I'm going to kind of skippast all those 10 years of learning
and kind of jump into a moremodern look at CRM and being able
to get to that golden recordof a guest and being able to understand
them with structured andunstructured data.
(21:59):
I do think that the tooling ismuch better than has been and never
will be.
So I do think this is onewhere if you don't have a data strategy,
you better sort one out prettyquick and understand your subsystems
and then understand thesecurity profile around it.
Because if you're not doingit, your competitor is.
(22:22):
So we've had a lot of talk onthe show recently about tech innovation.
You've led techtransformations in large organizations
in the past.
What is your approach tomanaging teams, driving innovation,
and building a strong IT culture?
Oddly enough, Skip, I think alot of it is just trying to be aware
(22:43):
of innovation.
And what's interesting isinnovation is all around us and I
think you just kind of got tobe aware of it and you got to try
to apply it into your own space.
For example, I'm heading outto CES at the beginning of January.
I'll see you there.
Right, fantastic.
(23:05):
Because I do think that that'sabout a five year look into the future
for all things that arehospitality or even in our space
in golf, you're going to startseeing things that will be applied
at scale later on.
I mean, and I do think ifyou're able to have that lens and
(23:27):
be able to see it, you'regoing to see some cool stuff that
could be applied in your space.
And that's really kind of, youknow, one of the definitions of innovation.
Right.
Being able to use somethingthat somebody else uses in their
own space into you and applyit to yourself.
I think it's just a fantastic look.
(23:47):
See?
So whether it's ces, whetherit's publications, whether it's just
going to a conference ortalking to some of your Peers, you'd
be surprised at what you'll learn.
Yeah.
Ever since going off on my ownwith Magic 8 and really concentrating
on those emerging, emergingand disruptive technologies, you
know, my landscape ofconferences has really expanded now.
(24:10):
I've always gone to nrf,always gone to ces.
There's some greatopportunities there.
Nrf, being the retail side ofit, recently started going to iapa,
which is military simulation,certainly from an XR and a VR perspective.
That's where the money andresearch is being spent.
Sure.
So, you know, I walk in therelooking through the eyes of entertainment,
(24:31):
through sports andentertainment and as well as hospitality.
How can some of thosetechnologies translate to hospitality?
You know, is it future comingor is there something immediate that
you could just easily justmake a suggestion, pull a trigger.
They could modify somethingand it could be applicable to our
industry.
So, you know, you talked aboutgoing to conferences and staying
(24:54):
ahead of the curve when itcomes to identifying technology.
How about adopting emerging technologies?
What advice do you give there?
Yeah, so first of all, I wouldhope that anytime somebody has a
vendor or a partnership with,with a large company that they choose
(25:16):
the partner that's innovative.
Because I, you know, I, I dothink that innovation curves are
additive.
So what that means, Skip, isthe more innovation you take on with
a partner, the more innovativeyou too become.
Right.
Because those innovativepartners are the ones that are going
to be adopting things like AI.
(25:38):
Right.
Because we're looking attechnology within the, the view.
I don't really want to do AIthings on own.
I would rather have one of mytechnology partners, you know, subsume
that into their stack and thenwe'll be able to use that AI module
or what have you through theirdevice and through their tool.
(26:00):
There's a lot of advantages to that.
There's some, you know,especially when you talk security
and what have you.
They, they are probably, youknow, I, I look around and I don't
see a lot of securityprofessionals on, on my team, but
a lot of them at Microsoft.
I do see a lot of them in theGoogle world.
(26:22):
Right.
I do see a lot of them withinour partners.
So there you go.
So for aspiring technologyleaders, especially in hospitality,
what are the skills andmindset you believe are most crucial
to success?
And let me preempt that with,you know, just a few seconds ago,
the audience heard anadvertisement for an XR bootcamp
(26:44):
which Magic 8 is putting on.
And the whole goal of that isnot for a technology based person.
I mean, you could have atechnology background, but it's more
to Talk about these emergingtechnologies and have knowledge and
be able to understand theadvantages or disadvantages of implementing
some of these things.
So the question back to youis, what are the skills or at least
(27:07):
the mindset that you believeis most crucial?
Yeah, I think.
Skip that.
One of the biggest mindsetshifts within hospitality or restaurants
or any one of the other what Icall kind of enabled environments,
let's say, versus wheretechnology is the product.
(27:30):
Right.
The enabled environment is.
Hospitality has a differentmodel altogether.
I call it the broker,integrate and orchestrate model.
So you're basically taking aoff the shelf solution.
You're integrating it withinyour environment, and then most of
(27:51):
the time you're not evenrunning it, but you're orchestrating
it to make sure it goes right.
Whereas if I was a bank,that's where you get into the world
of plan, build, run, where Igo ahead and I plan it, I code it,
and boom, out comes thechecking account software.
Two different models.
And I think when people inhospitality are kind of trying to
(28:14):
get that through their mind,that whole broker, integrate and
orchestrate model is what theyshould be looking at.
They shouldn't be thinkingabout building the next CRS or building
the next pms.
They should be thinking morein the tune of, okay, how do I go
ahead and negotiate the bestdeal I possibly can, how do I integrate
(28:34):
that within my environment andalso have enough faith and confidence
in my, in my vendor base thatI don't need to step on them and,
and run it.
All I need to do isorchestrate it and make sure that
they are the right people todo it and it's safe and it's secure
and all that good stuff.
(28:56):
You know, as a cio, I neverlooked for a vendor.
I looked for a partner.
I wanted, I wanted to makesure that, you know, they were in
it as much as I was.
You know, my reputation was atstake and, you know, I wanted, I
wanted them to be part of thatjourney to make sure that they were
a valuable partner for us.
You know, looking back at yourcareer as we close things out here,
(29:16):
what's one lesson that youwould, that you carry over to this
day from a leadership perspective?
Yeah, I think to this day is,you know, the, the strength of your
network.
We're not talking bits andbytes here.
We're talking more the people element.
We're talking all about, youknow, the individuals out.
(29:39):
You know, all of us are inbetween jobs, Skip.
And we should recognize that,yes, even when we have a job, we're
in between a job.
And I gotta tell you, youknow, we're gonna live in a world
of upheaval.
And we've lived in upheaval.
You know, if somebody needshelp, help them.
And you know, if you know ofsomebody in transition, help them
(30:01):
out, because you never knowwhen that might happen.
And I do feel, you know,throughout my career, I think I've
helped a lot of people out andI will continue to do that because
I think what you'll find iseven a simple conversation could
make the difference for someone.
And, you know, just, youshould be able to do that.
(30:23):
I'll give you a perfect example.
And this just happened today.
So I had a individual reachout to me.
At first I just thought it wasspam, saying, hey, I would like to
get some career advice.
I heard you speak a coupleyears ago.
Do you mind jumping on a call?
And I'm like, absolutely.
So this individual saw apresentation I gave at the University
of Las Vegas, the hospitalityschool, and they recently graduated
(30:46):
and they're now they have ajob, entry level job at a very large
resort or a large hotel on thestrip in Las Vegas.
And they were asking about,you know, career advice.
You know, they told me aboutwhat they were looking for, how they
were looking into, to proceed,you know, what, what the best way
to approach some of this stuff.
So I, you know, I gave my twocents, whatever that's worth.
(31:10):
But it is those types ofconnections that you never know where
that person's going to end up.
And say, Skip was the guy thatled me here.
He gave me some really,really, really good advice.
Hopefully he says that and youknow, we're, we're, like you said,
we're in the business.
You're, you're, you're onestep away from your next job and
you never know where your nextopportunity is going to come from.
(31:32):
So.
That's right.
And I didn't do it for that purpose.
I honestly have a good heartand was just trying to help this,
this individual out.
But you just really put theexclamation point on why I did what
I did today.
Right?
And that was the right thing, Skip.
I mean, you never know, right?
And, and a lot of the thingswe do, you know, it may never come
(31:53):
back around and that's okay.
But you've just made the worlda better place and that's not a bad
thing.
What's one technology trend orinnovation you believe the industry
isn't focusing enough on andshould be?
I, I still think, you know,the whole, we call it robotics, we
(32:15):
call it autonomous machines.
Whatever you want to call it,I do think that it's not a room to
replace human beings.
That's not what hospitality is about.
But I do think that forcertain roles, for certain functions,
for certain areas, there isprobably a need to automate to bring
(32:38):
in the robots.
Whether it's selective,selective vacuuming in rooms, I mean,
whether it's just flippingfries, there's some very specific
modes that I think can makethe world a safer, better place and
actually enhance the productand make, you know, employees much
(33:03):
safer than they are right now.
Okay, so I have an off thewall question, and this is like a
question that we'd have after,you know, hanging out for a couple
hours.
Sure.
And certainly a question Idon't know the answer to, but.
So in the golf industry, isthere such a thing as a, or being
developed a self driving go kart?
No, not yet, but there are.
(33:23):
I, there are some cooltechnologies, Skip, I'll give you.
And I'll leave you with thisone, which I think is probably the
coolest one that I've seen ina long time.
But, you know, we're alltalking about drones now and, and,
and what have you, I'll justleave it at that.
But we actually have a dronethat can scan a golf course in about
(33:44):
18 holes in about two hours,but it can actually look at the color
of the grass and start to tellyou whether it needs to be watered,
fertilized, or what have youfrom that point of venture.
I mean, at one point, youknow, we have agronomists who kind
of walk the course and kind oftry to do that, but oddly enough,
(34:08):
they're not as effective asthat two hour stint of a drone, which
I think is fantastic.
I mean, it's a step in that direction.
Well, I'll tell you what, whenthis podcast drops, you and I are
actually going to be the daythat we're in Vegas.
This podcast drops.
So that will be exciting.
Hopefully we get to celebrate together.
(34:29):
And it's been great hearingabout your new journey and vision
for technology role and hospitality.
And before we close, is thereany advice or final message you'd
like to leave with our listeners?
Well, Skip, I'm going to meetyou in Eureka park.
And for those of you who havenot been to CES before, please go.
Eureka park is where reallythe new entrants are coming.
(34:54):
They don't really afford wherethe big, the big layouts and the,
the big booths are, but Eurekapark is where to go and, and what
I would always tell all myfriends who are technologists.
You know, hook up with with some.
You know, hook up with someone.
Make sure to use the hell outof LinkedIn.
(35:14):
Link in with me if you'd like.
Happy to extend my network to you.
And by all means don't.
Don't take anything too seriously.
Just keep a straight face andkeep moving.
Keep on keeping on.
Love it.
Simple but effective.
Mike, thank you so much forjoining the show.
I look forward to seeing youin a couple weeks.
(35:35):
Yeah, take care Skip.
Mike is always a wealth ofinformation and he is really one
of the good guys out there.
If you would like to reach outto me or the show, you can do so
via everything social.
Skip Kimple or everything magicgatetech.
This includes X, Facebook,Instagram and LinkedIn.
(35:56):
You can also visit thewebsite@SkipKimple.com for all of
the archive shows and the shownotes are also there.
And you can also hear thesenew episodes on the Magic gate website@magicgate.com
and of course you can email meat skipagic8.com Next week I have
a fascinating show to share aswe talk with our guest, Brandon McRill,
(36:20):
co founder and CEO of Fiveout, with a discussion around artificial
intelligence and machine learning.
Wait, I'm not supposed to sayAI as it does not exist yet.
What?
That's right.
Tune in next week's show tohear this discussion.
I am wishing you a very happy,healthy and prosperous new year.
(36:43):
2024 was amazing, but 2025will be revolutionary.
Until next week, stay safe,stay healthy and stay hungry.
My friends.
RA.
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