Month: March 2008

The Finger of Suspicion

The Finger of Suspicion 1
The Finger of Suspicion by Lisa Roet

Fellow Travel Blogger Darren Cronian informs us in his Compulsory Fingerprinting to be introduced in UK Airports that soon to be opened Heathrow terminal 5 will have installed fingerprint taking machines and that more airports will follow suit.

Many of my posts are inspired by mere association. As soon as I saw Darren’s post I had to think of the photos I took this summer at 2007 The Hague Sculpture

The Finger of Suspicion 2
The Finger of Suspicion by Lisa Roet

Actually the sculpture of Lisa Roet, an artist of Down Under is not coined The Finger of Suspicion, but an earlier solo exposition of her.

Why the association?
It demonstrates a bit how I feel when I read such nonsense: Like a Caged Ape and that is a subject that intrigues Lisa Roet a lot.

Further investigations

If you Google on The Finger of Suspicion you get some interesting results:

  • Once It was a song by Dicky Valentine. Very poetic and romantic
  • J.F Kennedy used the phrase in a famous speech:
  • Shelley Jofre reports on a series of disturbing cases that have revealed serious flaws with some fingerprint evidence in Britain, see BBC
  • Within hours of the attacks in New York and Washington, the US and other western intelligence organizations put Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born terrorist in …the Guardian

Will it ever stop?

Winding Down from ITB Berlin part 1 – General

After returning from ITB Berlin I needed some time to digest my experiences. Moreover I had to look after guests and address various social events.

I have a couple of observations. Some of them will result in separate posts.

  • Tuesday March 4, 2008:Berlin’s more than 531 hotels were almost sold out. Consequently getting a hotel was difficult. I have reported already about my experiences. I will give a review of the hotel I actually slept in in a separate post. I was able to leave The Hague around 16.30 hr (4.30 hr PM) and drove the 700 km in 8 hours including traffic jams because of the snow that lasted until half way Hannover. I arrived at 24.30 in my hotel.
  • Wednesday March 5, 2008, morning session:My main goal was to meet a couple of fellow Travel Bloggers who would attend the Bloggers Summit that was organized by PhoCusWright together with three Bloggers. In that respect the summit was a success. In a separate post I will introduce the Bloggers to the readers.

    There was a strike going on in Berlin and many people had troubles finding their way to Berlin Messe.

    Finding your way inside the Berlin Messe is even more cumbersome if you are a first time visitor. It has 26 or more different numbered halls while various halls are subdivided. They are draped around a square with the Messe Tower. Some halls are interconnected. Some are not. Their system of road signs is simply horrible. There is no clear map. In that respect WTM at London Excel, maybe not as huge as ITB, is much more compact and has several strategically located information points where you can tie exhibitors’ names, boot numbers and boot locations together.

    As a result most Bloggers didn’t show up at the anticipated time, or not at all (but that was for other reasons).

    In addition there was the opportunity for Bloggers to get in contact with various new and/or interesting players in the field. So the major part of the morning session was, after a short introduction by the Bloggers of themselves, filled with short introductions by various people.

    All in all there was very limited time left to get to know the colleagues a little bit better, which I regret.

  • Wednesday March 5, 2008, Afternoon Sessions:
    In two sessions two subjects were covered. The first session was more or less an introduction to travel Blogging for the uninitiated. The second session’s subject was Journalists vs Bloggers:
  • Organize yourself: Be (like) a real Journalist
    It happened to be the subject of an afternoon session, but organizing yourself for such an event is a hassle in itself. I had two bags, one with my camera and lenses and one with my laptop with me. My laptop is so old and bulky, it didn’t fit in my backpack, also because it is in constant dire need of a wall outlet, as it has a short battery life.
    During the morning session it was difficult to connect with the Wifi access point. The same happened the next day, which made Kevin of Travolution Blog make the assumption that Google was down,
    Furthermore I had forgotten my card reader. So I wasn’t able to put photos on my laptop nor upload them on the fly. When I returned home, I found out that I had run out of space on my computer HDD and had to address that problem as well….

    As to the discussion itself I would like to refer to an excellent article of John Glaser on the subject that I found through Joe Buhlers Blog . In the “Talk Back” part of the session I would have liked one or two journalists to ask questions rather than only Bloggers giving their opinion. Claude had the best observation: Bloggers usually have other jobs and don’t blog full time.

  • The March 6 PhoCusWright@ITB BERLIN seminarIt was the first time I attended one of their seminars. They do an amazing and very professional job. Every session starts and ends in time. Speakers are well introduced. Sometimes the speeches are followed by a “Talk Back”. Then one or to three panelists ask questions. The people who are at the panel are extremely well connected. During the speeches, the presentations are on one or two giant screens while sometimes one of the screens is used. There was a nice mix of old know it alls an new startups. I will devote one or two separate posts to the various subjects.

    One small note is that the sessions follow each other at such pace over a whole day that at the end of the day I had the feeling I had an information overload. Hardly time to regroup your thoughts. Hardly time to mull over the presentations with other attendants.

    I found out that I am not able to divide my attention between paying attention to what is going on and at the same time blogging on the fly. In that sense I am not a journalist and I admire Kevin who was extremely productive during the various sessions. Look at Travolution Blog for more detailed coverage of the Bloggers Summit and the PhoCusWright@ITB BERLIN seminar

  • Bloggers Summit Final Gathering
    Thursday March 6, Anhalter Bar M̦venpick Hotel, Berlin: 8:30 p.m. Р??
    Again I was one of the first to arrive at the bar. Traveling by car proved to be one of my best decisions. I was totally worn out from the information overload. I stepped into the Mövenpick Restaurant to have a quick bite before the drinks. When the others arrived, they were as hungry as I was a few moments earlier and they decided to step outside for a quick bite, only to return past 10.15 pm, when others had left already. In the meantime I had a chance to have some chats with the ones who stayed. I kindly suggest for the next summit the seminar to end earlier, or the get together to be planned directly after the seminar at or close to the premises of the seminar rather than in Berlin center. Then everybody could have hit the restaurants for a bite at around 9.00 pm. My 2 cents.

Conclusions

Friday I had to return to look after our hotel guests. This was a bit unfortunate, as I had hoped to be able to look around a bit more at ITB and in Berlin, but alas, no time left.

The next time I’ll need to have a smaller format laptop with me with and a card reader and I also have to re instate my UMTS card for mobile internet connection in case the local Wifi doesn’t work or is overloaded.

All in all I don’t regret having attended the Bloggers summit at ITB Berlin. A Big “Thank You” to all organizing people.

Tony Wheeler

Tony Wheeler

Tony Wheeler

Who is Tony Wheeler?

Tony Wheeler is the co-founder of Lonely Planet. And the link is to his blog.

When Tony and Maureen Wheeler arrived in Sydney the day after Christmas 1972 after a six month Asia overland trip from Europe they had 27 cents left between them. In late 1973 they started Lonely Planet Publications to publish Across Asia on the Cheap, the story of their trip from London to Australia. From that self-published guidebook Lonely Planet Publications has grown to become the world’s largest independent guidebook publisher with more than 500 titles in print, over 400 staff and offices in London and Oakland as well as the head office in Melbourne. Tony and Maureen still travel for nearly six months each year and Once While Travelling, the story of their life together and the creation of Lonely Planet, was published by Penguin Books in late 2005. The New York Times described Tony as ‘the trailblazing patron saint of the world’s backpackers and adventure travellers.’

I lost this link and am glad I found it back today.

ITB Berlin Blogger summit – Snow and Strikes, but Bloggers come through

Very unusual: I am the first to find the meeting room where the first informal get together, the ITB Berlin Travel Blogger Summit, is taking place. I have seen some of the fair. Almost lost my way on the fair and am not impressed by the way Berlin Messe provides road signs.

As to snow: Detlef , who is from Berlin, comments this is the start of ITB and the first snow of Berlin this winter.

A huge strike lames the whole Berlin public transport system, but at around 11.30 I count around 25 Bloggers.

Chapeau to the Bloggers! Not even do they prove to be able to maintain the uphill struggle to keep a travel blog in the air, but they seem also able to beat difficulties as public transport out of function because of a strike and a traffic infarct in Berlin due to the first snow!

Happy Hotelier – Off to ITB Berlin

Guillaume Thevenot and Albert Barra at WTM

Before I jump in my limousine heading for Berlin, I would like to feature two great Bloggers who I will miss at this summit, pictured here together at WTM in November where the three of us shortly met and unfortunately had no time to get acquainted better. Time is an asset Bloggers have not much of, which reminds me I had not enough time to update the T-List ranking as per March 1 It is almost finished, but publication has to wait until after ITB.

To your left Guillaume Thevenot of Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Thevenot and to your right Albert Barra, author of many Blogs among which: Spanish language Blog Albert Barra Com.