The first three rows of the vast convention center stage is devoted to bloggers and media. They sit with their laptops pecking out messages on Twitter, commenting on the innovators who one after another got their ten minutes to pitch the crowd on the worthiness of their travel website. I […]
The opening speaker this morning, Philip C. Wolf, put our industry in perspective with this daunting statistic: Eight percent of the entire world’s workforce has something to do with travel and tourism. Wow! With this heady stat about our relevance, we launched into this morning’s parade of innovators, a group […]
Isn’t it the little things that often make the difference? For me it’s been a combination of goodness since I checked in last night to the Magic Castle hotel here in Hollywood. First the honest-to-goodnessly friendly guy at the counter upgraded me to a suite for my $155 a night […]
This afternoon I fly to Hollywood California, and at about 7:30 tonight I should be checking in to the Magic Castle Hotel, a block away from the event venue the Renaissance convention center. I’m going to attend my second PhoCusWright travel conference, where the leaders of today’s biggest on-line travel […]
Malcolm Gladwell looks like somebody wearing a big funny wig, with hair that shoots up all around and the serious demeanor of a scholar. The New Yorker writer is out with a new book that if anything like the first two, (The Tipping Point and Blink) should sell well and […]
Last night I sat at a bar and learned quite a bit from a new friend. I had arranged to meet my usual Friday night cohorts at the Brewery, in Noho’s bustling downtown. Shoul and Joe were there and Kevin Downey, the cave photographer. Then we were joined by Jim […]
I’m becoming all too familiar with the vernacular of today’s amazingly dire economic realities, as written in the pages of the WSJ. Many businesses seem to be ‘stung’ by the tough retail climate, and ‘struggling to cope’ or deciding to ‘unwind or unravel’ the deals they made in the ‘good […]
I sat this morning in my kitchen while we waited for the men to arrive to work on the new bathroom. I had a chance to see a positive story in the WSJ, about how voters said yes across the US to Mass Transit projects of all stripes. That’s good […]
Caribbean round grains, favored in creating smooth surfaces for plastering and finishing, are being hauled away by the truckload late at night. On some islands, towns and ecologically sensitive areas get exposed to tidal surges and rough seas.Among the hardest hit is Grenada, where officials are building a $1.2 million […]
Score one for the good guys: I read today on Times Online about the Royal Navy’s first shootout on the high seas in living memory. Pirates off the coast of Somalia were trying to hijack a cargo ship, and made a bonehead move. They opened fire on one of her […]
Whenever I read the WSJ, it’s so full of terrible news, it’s almost hard to continue on with my life. How bad can it get? Bad, really bad. A few days ago I read dire reports about radio networks. One analyst said it was the perfect storm…highly leveraged companies in […]
The cafe requires such a range of different talents. Like last night when I had to empty out the grease trap, and saw six month’s worth of gunk there waiting for me to remove it. Egads that’s awful! That’s one job I don’t want to do from now on. I […]