Espresso Thinking Series: Travel & Hospitality

Early this year, I received an email from DH at The Disruption Consultancy (a brand consultancy that's part of the TBWA network) asking for 45-minute to chat about travel industry trends over coffee. They were working on the positioning and branding an integrated resort in Singapore and needed some industry context/background info. Because I was still in Vancouver, DH, her colleague BF and I didn't actually meet up until more than a month later.

We met one February afternoon at Caffe Vergnano. We had a very interesting chat about what luxury travellers want and what they might want next, where they get their information and how they make their travel choices. It wasn't immediately relevant to their project, which was more mid-market, but our discussion focused on the shifting landscape within the travel industry. Where traditionally travel agents held much more sway on travellers' choice of destination, today that influence is shifting to hotels & resorts themselves (which are doing a much better job communicating directly and building relationships with guests), new media (blogs, travel community sites, even photo-sharing sites, hotel marketing and booking sites) and new services (concierge services and travel planners such as ourselves). Today's travellers are more sophisticated, demanding, fickle and with very different needs from previous generations' travellers (wifi, phone chargers, iPod docks are just a few of the new things we expect hotels to have in addition to 24-hour room service, pool, spa, gym and remembering the type of pillow we like to sleep on).

Fast forward four months later, TDC has launched a cute concept to share ideas, build networks and of course aid in their business development: Espresso Thinking Series. Over espresso and breakfast at Caffe Habitu, they present tidbits from their research as well as case studies demonstrating how they apply their findings to create innovative branding solutions and initiatives for their clients. I was surprised and grateful to DH for mentioning Little Cream Book as an example of new influencers of travellers in their presentation.

I found the presentation interesting. Here were just a few notes I jotted down:
1. ZMET -- one of the research techniques mentioned. ZMET stands for Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique and delves into how consumers' subconscious reacts to brands and how it affects their purchasing decisions.
2. Bin-sights -- another one of their research techniques. It's very hands-on and involves going through people's rubbish. One very interesting and relevant insight gleaned from going through a guestroom rubbish from a particular hotel client was the prevalance of medications, prescription or over-the-counter. We live the espresso lifestyle, and the fast-paced life of living out of hotel rooms, running for the next plane and eating processed airline food takes a toll on our systems. It's hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle on-the-road (I would know. I've just manged to get through an 11-day detox that would be utterly unmanageable if I were travelling.). So 24-hour room service menus should include options for people on alkaline or low-sodium/sugar/carb diets or perhaps the minibar could include energising or detoxing tonics. In addition to free transfers or room upgrades, hotel might offer loyal guests health/wellness-boosting services or products. This, of course, has implications beyond hotels as seen rise in popularity of spas, yoga retreats, detox holidays and medical tourism. Even airlines have to contend with the health issue of deep-vein thrombosis.
3. What a brand needs to be -- There was a slide with a bunch of words describing what a strong brand needs to be, such as "innovative". As I was looking at this slide, I realised one very important word was missing -- inspiring. All the great brands, and by great, I mean brands that we decide to buy not out of a rational decision-making process (i.e. good value for money, best-in-class etc.), but out of love. And love for a brand (think Apple or Amex or Obama) is created when the brand inspires. It inspires people to see more, do more, be more, risk more, hope more, believe more, love more, which of course, leads people to talk about, buy and consume more.

Which is why I love travel and helping others embark on their own personal journeys; because each journey holds the promise of rebirth and rejuvenation. It's a chance to see, experience or get to know something or someone for the very first time...perhaps all over again. In so doing, we rediscover who we really are and discover who we can become.

The next Espresso Thinking Series will focus on financial services.

Wyclef Jean @ MO bar

I had been chatting one day with DA and she was telling me about the TOHK launch party preparations. She was telling me that she had spoken to Wyclef Jean's promoter and they had offered to have Wyclef appear at the launch party and play a few songs as a surprise. But Wyclef would only be able to perform on 21 April, so she would have to pass since TOHK's launch was slated for 23 April. "What?" I shouted down the phone. "Move your launch date! Do you have any idea how cool it would be for Wyclef to show up and surprise the crowd with a few songs???" Anyway, to cut a long story short, DA tried to re-jig the gig, but in the end it was not meant to be.

Fortunately for me though, as a result, the TOHK got invites to the invite-only performance at Landmark Mandarin's MO bar last night (MO did a promotion earlier: for every HK$1,000 spent on Veuve Clicquot, they gave away a lucky draw ticket for a chance to win tickets for the night's show). I had only expected Wyclef to play an hour max. That was what he was supposed to do. In the end, he gave an awesome 2-hour performance! I was dancing in the wrong shoes and my feet were killing me, but it was worth it.

Wyclef is a great performer; he had the crowd all worked up and was constantly bringing people to the stage. At one point, he shouted, "I've found my Hong Kong Wyclef!" and dragged a guy up to the stage who then held his own in the rap-along. For all I know, it may have been a Canto-pop star, but I am hopeless at recognising them. The concert started pretty chill, with Wyclef on stage strumming his guitar. But then as he got into Sweetest Girl, he really amped it up and the crowd went crazy. He went from the stage to the top of the bar and, at one point, he was moving through the crowd sitting high on top of the shoulders of one of his crew members. The crowd loved it. He went through a bunch of songs from his latest album, Carnival Volume II: Memoirs of an Immigrant, some Bob Marley, old Fugees tunes, a very crowd-pleasing medley of 80s hits running from A-Ha (Take On Me) to Cyndi Lauper (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun), as well as songs he's done with other artists such as Shakira's Hips Don't Lie and Santana's Maria Maria.

Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone camera, which has no zoom and takes horrible photos in low lighting:

Chat with Desiree Au, TOHK Publisher

Hong Kong finally gets its own Time Out next Wednesday (23 April). Desiree and I go way back. All the way back to her days as a tai-tai journalist covering the arts beat of Hongkong Standard to her evolution into a hard-nosed, whip-cracking editor (typed with a ;-) of course), though never one to compromise on her sense of humour, style or fashions.

I have to blog about TOHK not because I know Desiree, but because, as fate would have it, Little Cream Life has a bit role in the story behind TOHK. Towards the end of 2006, I got an email from AF who had come across Little Cream Life while doing a search for Ingredients (the restaurant). I ended up planning her family's holiday and in the process she mentioned that her husband wanted to bring Time Out to Hong Kong. He was willing to invest, but did I know anyone suitable to get it off the ground, up and running. Basically, he needed a publisher and a team. I sat on it for a little while. At the time, I couldn't think of anyone and I wasn't sure how serious DE really was about the whole thing.

A few months later, AF mentioned it again. By that time, I knew Desiree had left her post as editor of SCMP's Sunday magazine and was finding life as a lady of leisure a bit dull. So I floated the idea to Desiree. While sceptical at first (those who have been in the biz have a healthy scepticism about the profitablity of starting an English-language magazine in a predominantly Chinese-reading city), Desiree agreed to meet DE at a group dinner I had actually organized for an out-of-town guest from Tokyo at China Club last May. DE & DA hit it off and the rest is history. Along the way, I've heard a lot of the birthing stories and am constantly amazed at what ingenuity, tenacity and just plain hard work she and her team have put into this whole endeavour. From the investors to the writers to the ad sales team, there has been no lack of passion driving them to deliver a Time Out magazine for Hong Kong that readers of TO London or New York City would expect. Just a week before TOHK launches with a party at The Pawn, I checked in with Desiree to see whether the office was a circus or war zone:

3:05 PM desiree: actually it's been amazingly calm. we've been pulling 14 hour days but everyone is still joking around'

3:06 PM think of it as gallows' humour, except i don't think anyone is getting executed

3:07 PM me: i think we're all pretty excited about TO finally landing in HK...how long did it take to get here?

desiree: the whole idea started back around May last year, at a small dinner

one thing led to another and we worked with the TO team in London for quite a while.

but the whole basic framework was started around december.

Then the team flew to London to work with the Time Out staff

3:09 PM me: actually, that's pretty lightening speed

desiree: We rented a huge flat and I felt like we were participating in some MTV reality show

well, you know what they say in HK, get this done by "yesterday"

so I guess we've already got the luxury of time

3:10 PM me: what was the funniest reality tv show moment

i.e. trailer moment

desiree: probably me in rollers in the morning

me: no way!!

desiree: i just refused to let any amount of shame get in the way of my hair

me: did the whole team see you in rollers??!!

desiree: hahahahahaahha

3:11 PM probably. but i had no choice

i get up pretty late in the morning and my routine usually encompass putting on my rollers and eating breakfast

let's just say my secret to bouncy hair is out

3:12 PM i have no idea how a conversation with a publisher about to launch a magazine led to hair. this is not good PR

me: who's "the team"?

desiree: well. the "team", and we are also an official football team as of today.......

the guys signed up to play league

me: of course it's good PR...you'll get ads for shampoo, hair salons, etc.

3:13 PM desiree: that wouldn't be half bad!

anyways, going back to the team - Paul Kay is the editor

me: you should post your football team's results in TOHK and open up for betting

hk's fave past time!

desiree: Angie Wong is at the helm of food/lifestyle

Clare Morin is the arts writer (we go way back at the scmp)

3:14 PM Dennis Lai , whom you also know, is art directing

me: yeah, me and Dennis go way back

desiree: and some new faces I've had the pleasure of working with!

me: way back to an obsolete mag

desiree: yeah. remember YA!

me: anyway, have to mention this whole fate/destiny thing

desiree: Actually i wrote two of my best stories for YA

one on Lee Lai Shan

3:15 PM and one on the founder of APC, Jean Touitou

remember?

me: wow, can't believe you remember...i hardly do...but this chat's not about YA

back to fate and destiny

since it's played such an interesting part in the birth of TOHK

desiree: totally amazing

me: what do you think is TOHK's destiny?

3:16 PM desiree: that's a loaded question

can u clarify?

do magazines have a destiny?

most of the time i get asked about "position" or "niche"

so this is a rather interesting question

me: of course! but they may not be immediately apparent...or perhaps your destiny in all this

i bring this up

because there are rumours that Asia City is selling

3:17 PM desiree: well. i don't know what TOHK's destiny is, but I do hope I make some $$ so I can eventually open an animal shelter

whatever I do in publishing, and i usually work pretty hard at stuff, is a means to an end

3:18 PM in the meantime, i hope the magazine will do some interesting features and champion some causes that may not be the most fashionable thing

although i stress that i still aim to do that while remaining fashionable.

i hope that doesn't make me sound too shallow

3:19 PM the fashion reference, i mean!

me: no, not at all...and since we are on fashion

desiree: hahahahaahhah

me: what will you be wearing on launch day?

desiree: oh, funny you ask. i've been thinking

i will attempt to dress in TO colours

red/black/white

i hope i won't look like an extra in High School Musical

3:20 PM me: i don't think you could even if you tried...haha

desiree: thanks for your compliment! it made my day!

me: oops...sorry...just realized that can be taken another way...but i meant it as a compliment on your style

rather than...

3:21 PM desiree: a girl can accomplish anything really, when sh'es got the right wardrobe.

oops typo

me: and hair!

desiree: YEAH, HAIR!

boy, i hope no one reads this.

me: just don't show up in rollers...otherwise, it'll be a bit like hairspray

desiree: i was hoping to engage in some deep conversation about arts and culture

me: this is culture, my dear

desiree: since it's so close to my heart, when i started as an arts reporter in 1994

3:22 PM thanks to YOU!

me: ok, enough...time's ip

up

desiree: ok

see you at the party!

me: it's gonna be a blast!!

desiree: look for the mascot in Red/white/Black

that would be me........

3:23 PM it will be a blast with all our friends and everyone who's been so supportive of TOHK

me: too bad wyclef's not gonna make his special appearance :-(

desiree: i can't thank them enough

yeah, he leaves the day before

but New Pants is cool!

u should watch them on You Tube

punk disco electronic

absolutely a blast to watch

For a special friends & family pre-launch annual subscription rate of HK$128, fill out the subscription form below:

How Do We Give Our Heart Wings?

This post is dedicated to BDL since he was the one who posed the question that is the title of today's post. I was skyping him good morning and asking if he'd recovered from his recent relapse of stomach flu. He replied with a :-| followed by, "bored, tired, uninspired" and the question: How do we give our heart wings? It was a weighty question for a Tuesday morning before I'd even finished my morning Starbucks. I wasn't quite sure what the answer was, but thought it might make an interesting post and made a mental note to come up with a list.

A couple hours later, the answer was right before me:



I don't know what it is about cupcakes, but seeing them always puts a smile on my face; they're just so much fun! These cupcakes were all done up in cheery, Easter Spring pastels. And they were delicious too. I've had many a cupcakes where the cake was just a bit too crumbly and dry or the frosting tooth-decayingly sweet, but Babycakes' cupcakes were just right. The light, vanilla buttercream frosting was the right amount of sweetness and the chocolate cake was moist. Since I had the mini version, I didn't even feel guilty about indulging.

Babycakes only opened for business 10 or so weeks ago. Their current shop and bakery is in Ap Lei Chau, but hopefully they will soon open near my office in Delay No Mall. Founder Lachlan Campbell quit his investment banking job last April, learned the art of cupcake baking from a 66-year-old woman in Oregon and officially became Chief Cupcake Officer late last year. He said he had always wanted to start a business that was related to kids since he has two kids of his own. And kids love cupcakes. Women too, he added, to which I can attest.

So to answer BDL's question, there are lots of things that give my heart wings. On this particular day, it happened to be a cute, little cupcake served up with another story of a man living his dream.

Delay No Mall is Delayed No More!

"What a difference a day made, 24 little hours...," sings Dinah Washington as I sit here tapping away on my keyboard. This is the song, I would like to dedicate to the G.O.D. team that transformed Delay No Mall in 24 little hours. After lunch yesterday, BL walked AW and I through what seemed like a war zone -- racks were empty, contractors were still finishing up construction work everywhere, unopened cartons of stock were stacked up in every direction:



By noon today, Delay No Mall soft opened for business. It's still not yet entirely open, but what's up-and-running is looking like a very attractive teaser of what's to come:





For the non-Cantonese speakers reading this blog, here's a little Canto lesson: Delay No More, on which Delay No Mall is based, is the transliteration of a very rude phrase having to do with someone's mother. Canto lesson no. 2: Never greet a Canto-speaker, especially a woman, with "Ciao!" and "Hi!" used in sequence, no matter how cosmopolitan you think you might sound.

Delay No Mall
68 Yee Wo Street
(across the street from JIA Hotel)
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
T: +852 2577 6988

Rising Stars Piano Series

I just got an email from AF about the new concert series she is launching in September. Can't believe she's had the time to organize all this, while having just had her second daughter and doing legal consultancy work! She and KY are a rare breed of super-moms. KY, who I saw in NYC, was juggling 5-hour conference calls with skittish investors to ensure that they wouldn't back out of funding her start-up after having just given birth to her second daughter earlier this month. Hats off to all these amazing women!

Anyway, wanted to plug AF's inaugural Premiere Performances concert series. She's put together a very impressive roster of young, talented pianists. Here's the line-up:

Ingrid Fliter Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Originally from Argentina, Ingrid Fliter (b. 1973, Buenos Aires) was awarded the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 2006. Ingrid has been making a sensation around the world with her spontaneous emotional style and phenomenal technique. This year's highlights include recital debuts at New York's Carnegie Hall and London's Wigmore Hall. Tickets are on sale now through Urbtix.

Javier Perianes Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Already a huge celebrity in his native country, Spanish pianist Javier Perianes (b. 1978, Nerva, Spain) is breaking out internationally and wowing international audiences. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Artistic and Cultural Merit by the Government of Andalucia, Spain in 2005

Alexander Kobrin Monday, November 26, 2007

The Gold Medal Winner of the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin (b. 1980, Moscow) has been lauded for his flawless technique and artistic sensibility. This year's highlights include a 50 date US tour, a UK tour with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, and recital tours in Italy and Asia.

Jie Chen Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Chinese pianist Jie Chen (b. 1985, Guangdong, China) is quickly establishing herself on the international music scene. Jie was accepted into the Shanghai Academy of Music at the age of eight, and moved to the United States when she was 13 to study at the Curtis Institute of Music on a full scholarship, where in 2006 she won the prize for best pianist of the year.

All concerts will take place at 20:00 at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theatre, 5/F Sheung Wan Municipal Services Centre, 345 Queen's Road Central.

Tickets will go on sale through Urbtix one month before the date of the event. Ticket prices are $360, $240 and $180, with discount tickets for seniors, students and disabled.

First T8 of the season!

Was going to write this post on my iPhone at IFC Starbucks yesterday, but for some reason, the keyboard doesn't pop up for the blogger content box in Safari. I could have emailed in the blog entry, but of course, I've forgotten the email address. So here it is, not quite live:

I love it when typhoon signals 8 or 10 are hoisted; it's like some higher power has mandated that we should all get a time-out. Other cities may get snow days, but if the snow is that bad, there's really not much to do aside from sit around at home and watch TV or surf the internet (that's assuming there are no power outages). Whereas typhoons are generally milder than a bad rain storm (we have rain storm days too), so it's pretty safe to wander around. Some people even take the opportunity to go surfing. The only down side is trying to get a cab. If you're lucky enough to get a cab, some cab drivers demand extra fare (supposedly to cover the lack of typhoon-damage insurance coverage).

I missed out on typhoon season last summer, so it feels like it's been a while since a big storm has hit Hong Kong. At around 2:30pm yesterday (just after lunch!), tropical storm Pabuk (where did they get this name?) gave the Hong Kong Observatory cause to raise the typhoon signal to no. 8 (10 being the next and highest). At 8, businesses shut and everyone gets to go home, supposedly for shelter. In reality, the mobile phone system gets jammed while everyone tries to call or sms their family and friends to set up typhoon entertainment. Once that's done, there's a mad rush to get from the office to the agreed upon venue. I took the opportunity to spend a guilt-free afternoon at the Four Seasons spa. I suspected that traffic would be bad and hailing a taxi nearly impossible, so opted to take the MTR to Central instead. I have never seen the MTR so packed!

Causeway Bay MTR station. Photo taken with iPhone camera.

By 6pm, totally relaxed and refreshed, I headed over to Zuma (yes, it's the same as the one in London) to join the yoga gang, who had all been drinking since 3:30pm. Which, fortunately for me, meant that I had arrived just in time to help them consume the bottles of Dom Perignon Rosé they were popping open without a care in the world.

Clearly, typhoon breaks are just one of the reasons making Hong Kong a much better place to call home than Monocle's recent list of 20 cities "that offer the best quality of life [for the Social Security set, I would have added]" (come on, Munich no. 1??!! Geneva?).

Finally Back Online!

Apologies for the long absence. First it was the busy holiday season (brother and sis-in-law in town for a week, last-minute shopping, party-planning etc.), then it was Hong Kong's internet access blackout from a damaged submarine cable caused by an earthquake in Taiwan. I had no access to my gmail account or my yahoo-hosted accounts for several days. Life without internet access just comes to a standstill. Couldn't even get onto zuji.com to book my hotel in Hanoi for 2 Jan! Anyway, big sigh of relief now that google sites are accessible again. *Phew!*

Promise to post pics of kapok and Stanley's beautiful new public toilets when I get to Macau tomorrow evening to prepare for the Casino Royale NYE party. Finally, got a game worked out, but still a few odds and ends to take care of, like picking up some Champagne and creme de cassis for kir royales. In the meantime, check out this cute, little upstairs shop called onefineday (3/F, 85 Queen's Road Central on the northeast corner by the escalator; T: +852 28106805) started by four women with backgrounds in advertising. They have a great selection of books and magazines on travel, living and gastronomy, cute gifts sourced from the owner's extensive travels and a great selection of CDs.

Tidbits: Kapok, Kahn and a Bryn Mawr dinner

Was going to blog about Kapok, this really cool shop at 9 Dragon Road in Tin Hau (T: +852 2549 9254), which has a beautiful, huge tree smack dab in the middle of this rather quiet street. But, me being my usual absent-minded self, I forgot my camera, so post will have to wait till Thursday. I only found out about this shop because daytauchung.com hosted a party there on Saturday night after having taken a group of AA (Architectural Association) students on a tour of Hong Kong.

Instead, just had to mention this NY Times article by Nicolai Ouroussoff: Restoring Kahn's Gallery, and Reclaiming a Corner of Architectural History, at Yale. Mainly because Kahn's Yale University Art Gallery was my favourite for the "Y" entry in Little Cream Book: Architecture. In the end, though, Kimbell Art Museum won over Yale as the Kahn representative. Reading the article made me a bit nostagic for the 3 years at Bryn Mawr I spent living in Erdman Hall (another Kahn work), by choice I might add (Erdman was one of the least favoured dorms on campus since most found Erdman cold). At least I can rest easy that Erdman Hall will not go the way of 1 Broadcast Drive, an apartment block in which I spent one year from 1979-1980. The Hong Kong government auctioned off the site a couple weeks ago. Sino Land won with a final bid of HK$1.94 billion or US$240 million (HK$9,868 per square foot)! In Hong Kong, you know you're getting old when your childhood memories start to disappear.

Digressing back to Bryn Mawr, had dinner on Friday at Lumiere (chosen out of practicality, but food turned out to be pretty good, although the bar ambiance was a bit to loud for diners) with a handful of alum and Prof. Toba Kerson, who's in town with her neurologist husband Dr. Larry Kerson to present a paper on the depiction of epileptic seizures in films at the 5th International Conference on Social Work in Health and Mental Health in Hong Kong this week (her thesis is that while depictions of other chronic illnesses such as cancer and AIDS in film have changed dramatically over the decades, depictions of epileptic seizures have not and continue to reinforce stereotypes). Definitely not a topic that comes up much at your typical Hong Kong dinner table conversation, but it was one that I found fascinating. She's trying to compare films across many cultures as well but hasn't come across any Chinese films yet. I'm still trying to come up with some, but coming up blank. Anyone with ideas?

Nan Lian Garden, Starbucks vouchers

A couple of cool things:

NAN LIAN GARDEN (The site's only in English, but here's the link to the LCSD info page in English.)
I visited the gardens yesterday evening with some family friends. We were led around the beautiful T'ang Dynasty style gardens by SC who has been volunteering with them, helping out with the website and various marketing and PR efforts. The gardens opened to the public just last month. I had already heard a lot of praise for the gardens from friends who have been. Normally, gardens aren't really my sort of thing, but I was really impressed with Nan Lian. First of all, it's so easy to get there! From the Diamond Hill MTR station, there are clear sign postings for the gardens that you can't help but find it! It's less than a 5-minute walk from the MTR. Once inside, I was really impressed with the quality of its design and construction (haven't seen such high quality of construction in HK in a long while!). I wish I had gone during the day so I could have taken more pictures, but suffice it to say, it is evident everywhere that a lot of heart and soul went into the creation of these gardens (the vision of the head nun at Chi Lin Nunnery. SC told me it was her dream to create a sort of T'ang Dynasty-land, an urban oasis of calm). The biggest surprise was the vegetarian dinner we had. It was delicious! So if you can get a group of 10-12 people together to tour the gardens, definitely worth booking a table at the second floor restaurant (set menu). If you're just a small group, you can also dine at the ground floor restaurant. There's also a tea appreciation pavillion (a pot of tea here costs HK$120, there's a limited menu of dim sum snacks). The garden is open to the public free of charge from 7am-9pm. There are limits on the number of visitors allowed to visit (1,000 people at any one time), so try to avoid weekends.

I love this detail here. This is on the corner of one of the pavillions to allow the water collected from the roof to flow down. They were so civilized back then! In present-day Hong Kong, we still have to contend with the nuisence of drops of condensation from air conditioners dripping on passers-by below.

STARBUCKS CHRISTMAS VOUCHERS
I just discovered a really cool thing about Starbucks' Christmas vouchers, which I stupidly had not realized in previous years. They're HK$250 for 10 vouchers, each good for a tall beverage customized any way you like it. Every morning, I order a double, tall, light toffee nut, non-fat, no-whip latte, which costs HK$33. With the Christmas vouchers, I save HK$8/day! Needless to say, I bought a whole bunch that should last me until they come out with Chinese New Year vouchers. Funnily enough, that same morning, I came across this Business Week article on how Starbucks is doing very well from sales of their loyalty cards. Don't think the cards would fly here, since we can pay using Octopus cards (HK's cashless payment card that's one of the great things about living here), but I love the fact that pre-paying for 10 coffees (which I would run through in less than 10 days), gives me a 24% discount!