If you attended this year's Hospitality International Technology Exposition and Conference in search of trends, you came to the right place. Not only did the June 16-19 HITEC take place in the funky, tech-savvy Texas city of Austin, it featured insightful presentations on trends and showcased products that spoke to them.

Among those talking trend were David Berkus, a technology expert with an unusually long perspective (HITEC tagged him as “Mr. Trend” in the venture capital world) and Michael Tchong, the rumpled, enthusiastic proprietor of the determinedly current website, Ubercool. Among those presenting something more akin to a commercial was Paul Bell, president of Dell's Americas region. Bell touted the computer maker's technological brawn and “green” orientation. Like HITEC sponsor Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals, Dell is based in Austin, the state capital.

Not surprisingly, the technology was state-of-the-art, particularly in Guestroom 2010, the model hotel room HITEC stages to demonstrate what its advisory committee deems the latest, greatest and most necessary in that field.

No bedside telephone was evident in this edition of HITEC's model guestroom. But there was plenty of virtual reality in evidence, both in Tchong's talk and at the entrance of Guestroom 2010, where IBM demonstrated Second Life-like, 3-D virtual tours of hotel properties.

When iteration four of this model guestroom surfaces at next year's HITEC, set for June 22-25 in the Anaheim, CA Convention Center, it will be called Guestroom G2X.

According to HFTP, more than 5,200 hospitality professionals attended this HITEC in the Austin Convention Center. They included more than 300 exhibitors; the event also featured more than 40 panels and educational sessions, Guestroom 2010 and a Club Technology Pavilion featuring some 15 companies.

The continued interest at HITEC despite a challenging economy was no surprise, considering over a dozen new companies are listed on the following pages in this year's Tech Handbook.

Even though the venue was far more manageable than the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, where HITEC was held in 2007, the 2008 edition drew fewer people. The Orlando HITEC attracted 5,736, according to HFTP.