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The new iPhones feature the ability to record, edit and post video to YouTube. A million were sold during their first week of availability. Video uploads from mobile devices jumped 1700% that week.
Coincidence? Not.
Those DMOs that were on the bleeding edge of trying to get visitors to post videos on their sites that didn't get much traction? It might be time to reconsider.
No doubt about it. Google has developed a game changer with its new City Tours app. And, as Travel 2.0's Troy quipped, "yeah...they beat you to it."
Enter a city in the search box and you are rewarded with a mapped out itinerary for a day or more of your visit. Naturally, bigger destinations have more robust choices...and Google still has some work to do to make the walking tours customizable and logical. But, I have no doubt that they will...and quickly.
Last Thursday one of their itineraries included a walk across my city's largest lake. By Friday, it had been corrected.
Once again, the question of DMO relevance is being posed. Will we be the trusted source of information and recommendations...or merely content providers to private sector companies that are figuring out how to monetize destination marketing?
I have no idea why I found this funny enough to snap on my last visit to Springfield MA...but I did.
Found on the door post of the downtown Student Prince Cafe...it's not just a Burglar Alarm. It's a Burglar Hold-Up Alarm.
I know, I know...I'm easily amused.
I have Sirius in my house and XM in my car. That they are one and the same doesn't seem to matter much. I still get screwed with their pricing.
This week, they are both breathlessly bragging about their new app that will let me listen to SiriusXM on my iPhone. It's FREE, they scream.
Except...err, it's not. The app is...but the service is an additional $3 a month.
I know that's not a lot of money in the big scheme of things. But, when you have as awesome of an iTunes collection as I do? Ummm...no. I'll stick with the music that I have selected...not you guys.
Nice try at attaining solvency through airline-like nickle and diming, tho.
OK, I'm not a software developer...and I have never played one on TV. I don't know the first thing about running a software company...but I do know something about customer service.
We've been using Now Contact as our database management system since starting Zeitgeist in 1995. In the '90s, it was pretty rad. However, it has grown very long in the tooth over the past few years, and Now Contact customers have eagerly awaited the seemingly vaporware successor known only by its code name: Nighthawk.
The Beta finally arrived (two years late) and, at least from our standpoint, is stunningly incomplete and frustratingly inelegant. So...time to suck it up and change platforms. And we looked at a bunch of options...finally settling on FileMaker Pro.
Now, I developed the first Convention Sales database in Filemaker when I headed the Greater Madison CVB in 1990...so I know it's capability. But, does it have the elegance I demand today? So I download the 30-day Trial in March...then got slammed with a gazillion projects all at once. Needless to say, no trial occurred.
So, here I am, months later, with a couple weeks that aren't slammin...and I'm ready to check it out again. But, FileMaker Pro Trial places code in my computer that prevents me from restarting the trial after 30 days. I e them for a workaround on Sunday...no response. I call yesterday and am confronted with a very un-engaged member of the team. "Nothing I can do," he says...except send you the last version of the software.
I don't want the last version. I tried the last version as my frustration grew with Now Contact...and I wasn't completely sold. I want to see what you guys have done to change my mind in version 10. Besides...the online tutorials in the V9 download no longer work. Like THAT's gonna help me sign a big check.
But, no. FileMaker is apparently willing to forgo over $1000 of my money (and their affiliates hundreds more) because they're convinced I'm trying to use their software to run my business for 60 days for free. Clearly, that's stoopid. But, I'm not buying their product if I can't test drive it.
As they say in the Twitterverse: FAIL.
You know how, every once in a while, you just start noticing a trend? Something you just never saw before and, all of a sudden, you see it all the time?
We’ve all heard the admonishment in pre-flight announcements that, in the issue of air flight safety, the lav in First Class is reserved for First Class passengers. And, with very few exceptions, the passengers back in steerage have followed this edict.
But in the past few weeks, at least on the flights I’ve been on, it’s been a non-stop pilgrimage from the cheap seats to the ‘spensive loo.
Do they think the First Class lav has better hand soap? Toilet Paper? Seat Warmers?
Have they, en mass, realized that it is their duty to even out the shit load on the plane so that it doesn’t become dangerously tail heavy?
Or, has the air travel consumer just decided that they’re not gonna follow the rules any more?
Guess it’s time to start using those imposing “No Access” curtains again.
You know how people in the south temper their criticism by adding the line, “bless their heart” (e.g. “That’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen, bless it’s heart”)?
Former Connecticut State Tourism Director Ed Dombroskas did something similar last week as he criticized Governor Jodi Rell’s proposed torching of the State’s Tourism Budget:
"Let's give her the benefit of the doubt that she doesn't understand the full equation of tourism economics.”
Too funny...but, sadly, too true.
During my last two visits to Tallahassee, I've driven by Kool Beanz Cafe a few times. Figured it must be a coffeeshop. And, since that is one of the addictions I don't have, never gave it another thought.
Good thing my friend Lee Daniel suggested we try it for dinner a couple weeks ago. Lee is having the time of his life sampling restaurants, nightspots and attractions that are all new to him as he settles into his new position as CEO of the Leon County TDC. He'd heard good things about Kool Beanz...so we went.
And were blown away with one of the more eclectic menus either of us have ever seen. So diverse, in fact, we opted to eschew the entrees and focused our attention on the appetizers. Among the favorites you should try when you go (though, we were told, the menu changes daily): Cornmeal fried oysters with cheddar cheese grits and remoulade sauce, Panko breaded calamari with ancho chile-mango catsup and the Mideast spiced lamp patties.
When I go back (and I know I will), I'm hoping the Bayou Gator is on the menu...
With all this talk about states seceding from the Union, the always chuckle-provoking Where's My Jetpack has developed a possible scenario for such a re-districting.
At least, as the folks in New York City and Los Angeles would design it....
A number of bloggers, twitterers and friends have hipped me to this great Ben Stein defense of the Meeting Industry.
If you haven't seen it, here it is.
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