BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (April 4. 2005) – The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) will hold its first regional human resources conference next month as a means of broadening its annual Tourism Educators Forum. Themed Raising Standards and Organisational Effectiveness in the Tourism Workplace, the May 23-25 conference will provide a forum for discussing issues which impact on human resource functions. It also aims to impart new knowledge and skills in how to optimise organisational performance and will showcase good human resource practices. “With this conference we will be fulfilling an important need of bringing together our human resource professionals, including the educators and trainers, to speak about the issues that are relevant to them in their own environments, ” said Bonita Morgan, CTO’s director of human resources. “It’s also a great opportunity for professional networking for our colleagues across the region.” “The broader focus is to bring together a wider parish of human resource practitioners to share and disseminate information and to enhance existing skills and knowledge,” she added The programme for the Tourism Human Resources Conference includes a number of plenary sessions and “How To” workshops. The plenary sessions will explore major challenges and opportunities facing Caribbean tourism; trends in human capital management and development and critical thinking for optimum performance. CTO will also present the result of a study on good human resource practices in Caribbean tourism. The workshops will challenge delegates to improve their training effectiveness; to use technology to enhance face to face and distant learning; to build quality performance systems in a hospitality environment and to take coaching skills to a new level to produce extraordinary results in their companies and organisations. “We want, at the end of the day, for delegates to gain knowledge and skills that they can apply in a very practical way within their work environments,” Mrs. Morgan said. The Tourism Human Resources Conference targets persons who work in the tourism industry in the areas of education, training, human resource management and human resource consultancies, as well as persons who are interested in the areas that will be covered during the three day event. The conference is being organised by the CTO, in collaboration with the Caribbean Tourism Human Resource Council (CTHRC) and the Universidad del Este International School of Tourism and Hospitality Management in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which will be the host venue. Conference details and registration forms are available on the CTO intranet site, www.onecaribbean.org.