The results are in for the first eConnect poll of the year:

Do you expect your business results in 2010 to be:

• Up significantly vs. 2009: 17%
• Up slightly vs. 2009: 43%
• About the same as 2009: 22%
• Down slightly vs. 2009: 17%
• Down significantly vs. 2009 : 0%

60% of respondents to the poll expect business results for the year to be up slightly or significantly. But 40% says things will be about the same or down slightly from 2009. What are you seeing during the first two months of the year to make you more or less optimistic about buisness in 2010?

New Poll: Which social media channel do you think is best for hotel marketing?

2010 is going to be a great year for the Hotel Director of Sales & Marketing Special Interest Group. I'm looking forward to announcing new tools and services as they become available throughout the year which will include an "Ask the Expert" audio-conference series and an innovative program that will help you connect with customers at the national, chapter, and unit levels. Also coming is a new Mentoring Program that will foster more meaningful connections between members.

In the meantime, I'm happy to report that our very popular DOSM Toolbox has a new home on the HSMAI Foundation's eConnect research portal. For those of you who may not be familiar with the DOSM Toolbox, it is a one-stop virtual warehouse of best practices, templates, and other resources for marketing, training, advertising, public relations, brand management, resource allocation, employee management, annual budgeting and more. You can access it through www.hdosm.org.

Finally, I encourage you to enhance your marketing efforts this year by participating in your association's annual series of customer events -" HSMAI's Affordable Meetings®. More than 3,000 meeting and event planners attend the shows each year and they come looking for options from the magnificent to the moderate…and everything in between. Most of these customers (59%) don't attend any other industry event, so this is your chance to connect with decision makers you won't see any where else. I hope to see you there:

* Mid-America (Chicago) April 14-15, 2010
* West (Long Beach) June 16-17, 2010
* National (Washington, DC) September 8, 2010

Best wishes for a prosperous new year!

Ron Loman
Chair, HDOSM Advisory Board and,
Director of Field Sales, Crestline Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

The "Top Ten Challenges Facing Sales & Marketing Professionals" is a direct byproduct of HSMAI's annual membership survey. Hopefully you participated in it last fall. If not, you'll have the chance to participate in this year's survey.

These challenges are facing thousands and thousands of sales and marketing professionals throughout the world. The HDOSM Advisory Board contributed their collective wisdom to provide sound advice and resources for how we can get past, or at least manage, some of the great challenges we're all facing today (all the while taking full advantage of our membership in HSMAI).

Among the issues addressed are:

• Current economic situation
• Increased competition
• Finding & qualifying business
• Recruiting, motivating & retaining good staff
• Keeping up with technology & industry trends
• Reaching decision makers in an online world
• Defending budgets, sales efforts, and marketing spend

Heather Allison Smith
HSMAI HDOSM Advisory Board Chair