Twenty years after the official inception of the international association, its forefathers recognized a growing segment in the hospitality industry — technology. Technology in 1972 did not involve customer relationship management applications, in-room Internet or hand-held computers; but instead the large hotels were looking into the first renditions of front office property management systems, electronic cash registers and point-of-sale systems. Today HITEC® is a well-known event with over 5,500 attendees and over 300 companies who gather to exhibit their products and services. HITEC serves as a vehicle for encouraging the dissemination of the most current applications to the industry worldwide. The very first version of HITEC, the NAH-MA Computer Users Conference, also had the same goal, but with only 38 attendees.

(L to R) Ray Schultz, Larry Chervenak and John Pignataro at 1983 HITEC Conference in Dallas.