A Blogger’s Summit: Is There Money In This?
I’m sitting in a room at the Renaissance hotel in Hollywood, it’s a session on blogging, led by a woman from Singapore named Siew Hoon Yeoh who writes a blog there and who told us about the Burmese blogger who went to jail and other horror stories. There is a […]
Taking the Subway to Get a Visa
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 […]
Innovators Gather and Wow the Crowd in Hollywood
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 […]
At the Magic Castle, These Little Touches Add Up
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 […]
A Chance to Hobnob With Travel’s Biggest Players
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 […]
What Does It Take To Be Great?
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 […]
Meeting New Friends on Barstools in ‘Hamp
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 […]
The Vernacular of a Dismal Economy
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 […]