[At the recent Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) Global Conference on Service Excellence,] 77th Street founder and President Elim Chew said that businesses must make sure they retain the human touch even with the current manpower crunch. She added: "It's really, I think, the shortage of manpower that's leading to a lot of issues." Automation and technology is often offered as a magic bullet to manpower issues, but Ms Chew believes that business owners must be more discerning. "Technology makes services more efficient, but it will never replace the human touch," she said. On the broader question of where technology substitution is acceptable, Fred Phillips, Professor and programme Chair in the Department of Technology and Society at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, stressed the importance of culture. He cited the example of Korean restaurants, where the tables have buttons installed, such that service staff can be called over only when they are needed, allowing them to serve multiple tables concurrently.