Meetings: Minnesota's Hospitality Journal

EDITOR’S NOTE

“Everybody’s talking at me. I don’t hear a word they’re saying, only the echoes of my mind.”

Harry Nilsson wrote the song lyrics 40 years ago, but he could just as well have been describing the social networking blitz, circa 2009.

Have you ever stopped to wonder at how much of our day-to-day human contact and exchange today takes place absent any human contact at all? The technology hasn’t been around that long, but we’ve come to accept that so much of what we do to stay in touch with each other and the outside world takes place more online than in person: catching up on email or text messages, following a few favorite blogs, keeping in touch with colleagues on LinkedIn. The real world increasingly seems to be less “real” unless it has its own Facebook page.

Is that the way things should be? In this day of corporate cutbacks, increasing media scrutiny and quickly emerging new trends, the hospitality industry is not unlike others in that it is taking a hard look at how business is being conducted. We obviously live in a world that has gone digital, but has it done so to the detriment of human interaction—encounters that hospitality relies on so dearly for its business? As travel and hotel rooms are increasing seen by corporations as excess expenses rather than a cost of doing business, a burgeoning networked multimedia environment,

complete with young eager adopters and ongoing technological advancements, calls some executives to move toward seemingly lower priced virtual meetings.

But how do we know what we believe is true? Does new technology always offer the better way? Are we premature in our call for “online” to replace “in person”? Such issues could be the premise for both of this issue’s feature stories. In “The Medium and the Message” we ask a few experts to look at the questions head-on: What does the technology allow us to do (or not to do)? Is one medium always better than another? These are complicated ideas that are not easily summed up in this short column. Yet the gift of a recession is that it allows leaders to take stock of their businesses. As we try to figure things out, it’s best that we think clearly about the implications of our actions.

This month’s cover story on page 38 looks at the very best of human interaction: the powerful influence of a mentor. These profiles of mentorship in Minnesota’s hospitality industry stand as a testament to what can happen when one professional guides another through business pitfalls and celebrates in personal success.

Now an admission: Not long ago, if I would have heard someone talk about tweets at a hash mark, I would have thought it was part of a joke about birds at a football game. There comes a time when we must all shout down our inner Luddite and continue to embrace new technology. Yet even though I’ve come to enjoy Twitter and all it offers, I’d still prefer to hear about the latest goings-on over a quiet conversation with friends.