IH/M&RS Commences 90th Show With Keynote Purchasing Session
NEW YORK, NY, Novwember 13, 2005. The 90th International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show is under way here at the Jacob Javits Convention Center with 1,400 exhibiting companies and 35,000 trade attendees.
Following the opening ceremony this morning, the keynote session led off IH/M&RS' seminar and special events schedule. Titled "Winning Strategies in Selling to the Hospitality Industry," the session was a chance for many of IH/M&RS' exhibitors and attendees to ask a panel of hotel purchasing executives how they make their product purchasing decisions.
Moderated by Matt Schwarz, vp and general manager of Courtesy Products, the session featured Jim Freeman, vp of preferred alliance services for Cendant Hotel Group; Michael Madigan, the director of the Air Force NAF Purchasing Office for the U.S. Air Force; Cynthia Milow, executive vp at Purchasing Management International; Michael Neilson, project manager for Sunstone Hotel Investors; and Sidney Rabin with InterContinental Hotels Group's Supply Chain Management.
Among the topics discussed were the importance of time versus price in terms of product delivery, what role distributors play in purchasers' relationships with manufacturers and whether U.S.-made products are more valuable today to purchasers.
That last topic was of major interest to many of the audience's U.S.-based vendors and also is part of an increasing trend in the hotel purchasing industry, according to Milow.
"Our company bids out for products across North America and China and our bid analysis for our hotel owners will show them the merits of North American-made and China-made products," she said. "Today, we're seeing more and more clients going for North American-made products because it takes a lot less time for delivery. We've seen this specific new trend develop within just the past 12 months."
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