„The Innovation Circle” is officially launched…..8th December Am Kaiser Kai 69 Hamburg, at the A-Ja head quarters we had our first innovative afternoon…..and night!
Journalist:”Adriaan tell me a bit more, sounds interesting, Innovation Circle, what is it, who is in it….and what is your goal?”
Adriaan:”it sounds very complicated, but it’s absolutely the opposite. The Innovation Circle is a straight forward forum where friends, business partners and specialists who work with, for, or in the Hospitality Industry discuss what is happening, and how technology will change and can help keep abreast of this rapidly developing Industry, from a technological point of view”.
Adriaan:”as to the question….who is in it, the Innovation Circle is not a fixed closed group. Obviously now at the beginning there are many clients who I know personally, who are partners or clients of Next Gen Opti Ltd. and HSDS.
We have people from all sectors of the Hospitality Industry. For example at the first Innovation Circle Event just held in Hamburg on the 8th of December, hosted by Holger Hutmacher CEO of A-ja Resorts…we had Hoteliers from 5 Star + through trend setters in the Budget design sector: Arco Buijs (former Steigenberger CEO, now CEO Next Gen Opti Ltd.), Marco Nussbaum (Prizeotel CEO), Holger Hutmacher (A-Ja Resorts CEO), Vassilis Syropoulos (Demand Director Pandox SA / & CEO & Owner of Juyo SRL), Kay Rissom (CEO & owner of Conrad Gley Thieme Advertising Agency), Andreas Erlemann (COO Next Gen Opti), Maria Puetz-Willems (leading Hospitality know how and Journalist editor in chief HospitalityInside.com) and me (Adriaan Kleingeld) and my great team of CIO, CTO & COO of HSDS, Ghitza Tocaciu, Silviu Maghear & Liviu Olos.
Adriaan:”Our goal or topic at the first Innovation Circle meeting was <<The Digital Realm>>, where Liviu Olos and Andreas Erlemann sketched the current landscape in the Hospitality Industry, the threats and opportunities and the direct effects on the Hotels through the legion of changes taking place. But as stated at the beginning of the discussion, these meetings are very hands on, because my philosophy is we must make what the Hotels need, not what developers think are the solutions. As usual, the input was fabulous, and instead of ending up with a great white paper….my team of developers translate the results, requirements into our development road maps immediately…so let’s say…very fast to market, but according to the real world requirements.”
Adriaan:”the real Goal is continual dialogue in an informal atmosphere with the best people (most qualified…drivers and changers), to make sure we remain five steps ahead of market requirements, enabling Hotels to manage themselves and not be managed by others”.
„For this reason we also have and welcome other technology experts like Samuel Kamber, boss of Infrastructure worldwide at Edenred (the world’s largest Corporate Prepaid Services provider) and Cor Geertsma (founder of ISDC, one of the leading Software Development Houses in Europe, based in the Netherlands, Romania & Bulgaria)”.
