Letter from Singapore: Tale of contrasting worlds
Every now and then, I feel an urge to write a letter from Singapore because when you travel a lot, you can sometimes forget what’s happening on hometurf, so couple of things got my attention this week.One, the announcement by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about “Project Jewel” [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 4: Onwards to the first bend of the Yangtze, onto Shangri-La
I wake up with a sense of excitement. Never mind the rain, but today is the day I will finally get to see Shangri-La. It’s a place I’ve long wanted to visit, it being the home of Uttara, my friend, for the last 16 years.But first, we take a detour to Yuhu, the base of Joseph Rock, a self-made bo [...]
Letter from Auckland: If you are hungry for innovation, read on
This thing about innovation and entrepreneurship is catching.I was in Auckland over the weekend and was invited inside The Generator, a start-up sharing space in the city, where you pay less than $200 a month for access to hot desks, meeting rooms and function space. Coffee is free and good, as [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 3: On the road to Lijiang
Overnight rain has left Shaxi looking drenched and there’s mist in the mountains. It’s early morning but the students are already out, taking their painting classes. In one corner, a teacher marks their work.I watch as she comments on each piece and someone keeps tabs of the scores. The students [...]
Aviation in flux as carriers strive to find right model for the times
After attending two days of the Australian Pacific Aviation Summit in Sydney, I walked away with the impression of an industry model that’s fundamentally changed and every airline chief trying to find the right formula that works for it.There’s James Hogan, CEO of Etihad, who believes the al [...]
The Flocations story and why the WIT Developer & Designer Challenge
The story of Singapore-based start-up Flocations and how it morphed from a graphical search interface into a marketplace for tour packages is a good example of how entrepreneurs with good ideas can often get lost or caught in the complex world that is travel.Let’s start at the beginning. I first [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 2: History, art and pasta collide in Shaxi
I wake up to the pattering of rain on my bedroom window. I rise from my bed of roses (the most colourful bedsheets I’ve ever slept on) to face Day 3 of my Tea and Horse Caravan Trail.We decide to have breakfast at Bakery 88 (breakfast at Landscape leaves much to be desired) and there, we meet anot [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 1: Kicking off in Dali
I’ve just returned from an amazing trip which took me on part of the ancient Tea and Horse Caravan Trail where merchants of old brought tea and horses on mules from southern Yunnan across the border to Tibet and India.In those days, it took them years to reach their destination. These days, where [...]
The making of “Journeys” as MAS aims to become ASEAN’s Premium Preferred Airline by 2014
Big data has given marketers power at the board table. Here’s how Malaysia Airlines (MAS) used it to create its first integrated marketing campaign with complete social media activation.As an idea, the message of “journeys” is not new in travel. How many times have we heard the phrase, “It [...]
Thoughts from the adobe huts of Shaxi to Journeys with MAS
It is somewhat surreal that I should be spending the night in an adobe inn in the historic town of Shaxi, Yunnan, when just five days ago I was at the global Adobe Digital Marketing Symposium learning about how much marketing has changed.At the event in Singapore, there was a lot of talk about how t [...]
