HFTP Honors Gerdts and Gilbert at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals is set to spotlight two of the sector’s most influential technology leaders at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio, recognizing Mary Gerdts and the late Bob Gilbert for contributions that have reshaped hotel payments and commercial strategy across the global hospitality industry.

Hall of Fame Recognition for Payments Pioneer Mary Gerdts

Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals has named entrepreneur and technologist Mary Gerdts to the HFTP International Hospitality Technology Hall of Fame, the association’s highest recognition for technology leadership. Publicly available information indicates that the honor acknowledges more than three decades of work in designing secure, hospitality-specific payment solutions and advancing standards for electronic transactions in hotels.

Gerdts founded POST Integrations in 1991 as a payment processor focused exclusively on the hospitality sector, at a time when hotels were grappling with rapid changes in card security, cross-border transactions, and brand-standard compliance. She later launched EboCom in 2000 to provide back-office clearing and settlement services that link seamlessly with POST’s platforms, helping hotel operators consolidate complex, multi-property payment flows into streamlined systems.

Industry coverage notes that her companies were early in tailoring payment architecture to hotel operations, from front-desk check-in to spa, golf, and food-and-beverage outlets, reducing chargeback exposure and aligning with evolving data security rules. Her leadership has also been recognized beyond hospitality, including honors from electronic transaction associations that cite her influence on secure processing, risk management, and the integration of payment data into hotel finance workflows.

The Hall of Fame designation places Gerdts among a relatively small group of technology figures whose work is seen as having long-term impact across global hospitality. Since the award’s creation in 1989, fewer than 60 individuals have been inducted, underscoring how closely HFTP guards the distinction for those credited with creating or enabling transformative platforms used across the industry.

Award of Merit for Bob Gilbert’s Legacy in Commercial Strategy

HFTP will also confer its Award of Merit posthumously on Bob Gilbert, whose three-decade tenure leading Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International in the Americas is widely associated with redefining how hotel companies organize around technology, data, and revenue growth. Public summaries of his career describe Gilbert as a central figure in elevating revenue management and digital marketing from niche functions to core disciplines within hotel commercial teams.

The Award of Merit is reserved for individuals whose technological contributions have proven durable and far-reaching. Reports on HFTP’s awards history show that the honor is given infrequently, underscoring the association’s view that Gilbert’s initiatives in education, certification, and cross-company collaboration have had lasting effect on how hotels use systems and analytics to guide pricing, distribution, and demand generation.

During his time at HSMAI, Gilbert championed the creation of communities of practice in revenue management and digital marketing, building programs that connected hotel brands, management companies, and technology providers. Publicly available material credits these efforts with speeding adoption of data-driven pricing tools, demand forecasting platforms, and performance dashboards that are now standard across many chains and independents.

HFTP has indicated it will pair the Award of Merit recognition with a contribution to the HSMAI Foundation, reflecting the association’s emphasis on workforce development and leadership pipelines in technology-enabled commercial roles. The gesture aligns with Gilbert’s long-standing focus on education, as seen in industry program archives that highlight his role in developing conferences, certifications, and research centered on digital transformation in sales and marketing.

Spotlight at HITEC 2026 in San Antonio

The honors will be presented during HITEC 2026, scheduled for June 15 to 18 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. HFTP materials describe HITEC as the world’s largest and longest-running hospitality technology exposition and conference, bringing together thousands of hotel owners, operators, technology suppliers, and consultants for four days of education and product showcases.

According to event information released for 2026, Gerdts is slated to be recognized during the Tuesday Headliner session on June 16, placing her induction into the Hall of Fame at the center of one of the conference’s highest-profile stages. Gilbert’s Award of Merit acknowledgment is planned for the opening Headliner session on June 15, ensuring early visibility for his legacy among attendees and exhibitors.

Conference previews indicate that HITEC 2026 will feature an extensive exhibition hall with hundreds of technology suppliers, ranging from property-management and point-of-sale systems to guest-facing applications, cybersecurity providers, and emerging artificial intelligence tools. Educational tracks are expected to examine how hotels can reconfigure technology stacks for greater resilience, integrate payments and revenue management more tightly, and leverage data for personalized guest experiences.

HFTP has positioned the recognition of Gerdts and Gilbert within this broader program as a way of connecting past breakthroughs to current innovation cycles. By highlighting a payments specialist and a commercial-strategy leader, the association is drawing attention to how foundational systems and disciplines, when modernized, can enable hotels to adapt to new guest expectations and distribution models.

Payments, Data, and AI Shape the HITEC 2026 Agenda

Beyond the individual awards, hospitality technology observers point to a strong thematic link between the careers of this year’s honorees and the issues expected to dominate conversation at HITEC 2026. Gerdts’s work in secure, high-volume transaction processing and Gilbert’s focus on using data to inform pricing and marketing both reflect long-running priorities that are now being reshaped by artificial intelligence and cloud-based platforms.

Recent announcements associated with HITEC 2026 reference an AI-focused learning environment designed to help hoteliers experiment with practical applications such as fraud detection, dynamic pricing optimization, and predictive maintenance. Such initiatives mirror the incremental but cumulative innovations that characterized Gerdts’s and Gilbert’s contributions, where new capabilities are layered onto essential operational and commercial processes rather than built as stand-alone tools.

Analysts following hospitality technology note that payments and revenue management are among the areas where automation and machine learning can have the most immediate financial impact. The focus on these disciplines at HITEC 2026, framed through awards that emphasize long-term influence and practical outcomes, underscores the industry’s renewed attention to return on investment as hotels weigh upgrades to property systems, connectivity, and analytics platforms.

Industry commentary also suggests that honoring figures whose work spans several decades sends a clear message about continuity in a period of rapid change. While generative AI, cloud migration, and contactless experiences dominate current headlines, the selection of Gerdts and Gilbert highlights the importance of building on established foundations in payments, data governance, and commercial strategy to ensure that new technologies deliver sustainable value.

HFTP’s Evolving Role in Global Hospitality Technology

The 2026 honors arrive as HFTP continues to expand its global footprint and portfolio of educational offerings. Association updates show a growing schedule of conferences, regional events, and online learning initiatives that reach finance and technology professionals in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

HFTP’s stewardship of resources such as the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry positions the organization at the intersection of finance, operations, and technology. By recognizing leaders who have advanced payment integration and data-driven commercial strategy, the association is reinforcing its emphasis on aligning technology investments with financial performance and governance.

Observers note that the Hall of Fame and Award of Merit selections also reflect HFTP’s ongoing effort to document the history of hospitality technology, tracing how early work in transaction processing, networked systems, and commercial analytics created the conditions for today’s innovation. This narrative is increasingly important for hotel companies seeking to understand the long-term implications of choosing particular vendors, architectures, and standards.

As HITEC 2026 approaches, the celebrations for Mary Gerdts and Bob Gilbert are expected to serve as focal points for discussions about where hospitality technology has been and where it is heading next. Their recognition at one of the sector’s flagship gatherings underscores the industry’s view that enduring progress rests on both technical ingenuity and a sustained commitment to education, collaboration, and practical implementation.