Startup leaders spoke with hotel company representatives in the area about sustainability advancements.
The startups joined a pitch event with the Hospitality Tech Accelerator on Wednesday at the Montgomery County Parks and Planning building in Wheaton.
“This is our first ever pitch event for hospitality technology companies tied to sustainability,” said Bill Tompkins, President and CEO of the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC).
“What you’re going to see is some exciting ideas about what the hospitality industry should be doing to help with sustainability,” he said.
MCEDC developed the Hospitality Tech Accelerator to boost innovation in the hospitality industry. The initiative connects startups with hospitality brands.
“Our goal here in Montgomery County, we want to support the businesses that are here,” said Patty Simonton, Strategic Initiatives Manager for MCEDC. “The hospitality industry is huge here in Montgomery County, we want to do what we can to support them and if we can connect them with the innovations that make their business stronger, then we’ve done our job.”
Startups addressed sustainability challenges and presented to hospitality companies.
“We’re certainly very excited to be showing what we’ve accomplished and talking about how we can be helpful to the industry,” said Frank Yang, President and CEO of Liatris, Inc., a thermal insulation company.
Susan Springsteen, CEO of H2O Connected, LLC, which develops technologies that can detect water loss problems with tank toilets, said she wanted this opportunity to showcase her company’s technology to “deepen those relationships between all the different hotel organizations in Montgomery County.”
“This is where a lot of the hospitality industry is located,” Springsteen said.
“As a part of our sustainability and social impact platform, we are always interested in understanding what innovations are out there to help our hotels solve some of the big challenges like reducing their waste, driving more renewable energy, understanding better sourcing of products and really making sure that we are tapping into these great innovations,” said Denise Naguib, Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity for Marriott International.
