…
Leading business analytics firm SAS has become the newest senior partner of the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR), upgrading its former status as a CHR partner. As a senior partner, SAS will increase its support of CHR’s activities, including sponsoring a roundtable in Las Vegas, producing a new series of webcasts, and making presentations at the upcoming Cornell Hospitality Research Summit (CHRS), in October 2010. Radhika Kulkarni, Ph.D., vice president of advanced analytics research and development, will continue as a member of the CHR advisory board.
"This is an excellent partnership, and I am glad that we can do more to increase research information available to the industry. Together, CHR and SAS create excellent synergy," said Dr. Kulkarni.
"Both CHR and SAS have a goal of sharing top-level, research-based information with the hospitality industry, and SAS has been a tremendous supporter in the past year," said Jennifer Macera, CHR associate director. "We are looking forward to expanding our relationship with SAS to support the industry in the next year." SAS joins these other CHR senior partners: Hilton Worldwide, McDonald’s USA, Philips Hospitality, STR, Taj Hotels, Resorts, and Palaces, and TIG Global.
SAS’s support of the CHR includes strong activity in the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, where three SAS associates will be participating in breakout sessions. Dr. Kulkarni will chair the presentation on industry loyalty programs; Kelly McGuire, PhD, director of business development for hospitality and travel, will discuss advanced methods for analyzing social media data; and Ravi Mehrotra, PhD, president and chief scientist, IDeaS, A SAS Company, will explain how to use guests’ willingness to pay to optimize hotel room rates.
As a senior partner, SAS will exclusively sponsor a Hospitality Analytics Roundtable to be held in Las Vegas on April 1, 2011. The Roundtable will be chaired by Cornell faculty member Chris Anderson, and will focus on advanced analytics that use guest data to understand and predict future behavior.
During the 2010 academic year, the SAS-CHR partnership produced a series of seven webcasts that addressed key topics in the hospitality industry, including social media, sustainability initiatives, and loyalty programs. As a senior partner, SAS will work with CHR to produce a new series of webcasts, beginning on October 15, 2010.
This year’s topics include:
- Four Hospitality Industry Studies You Need to Hear
- Advanced Analytics for Hospitality and Gaming
- New Pricing Techniques for Hotels and Casinos
- Applying Analytics to New Service Design
- Preparing for the Recovery, Revisited
- Social Media Analytics.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
