Meet the indie obsessives helping teach us who we are
It’s fair to say that when it comes to human qualities, obsession too often gets a bad rap. Some automatically link obsession to struggles with mental health. As Virginia Woolf ominously noted in Orlando: “All extremes of feeling are allied to madness.”
Sadly this likely says more about how [...]
An apology from Mews’ Richard Valtr: “We should be 20 times bigger than we are”
Most founders, asked how they feel about what they’ve built, say proud. Or exhausted. Richard Valtr says disappointed.
Not because Mews hasn’t grown. It has, from a Prague start-up in 2012 into one of hospitality’s most talked-about operating systems. But because, in his view, it should be fa [...]
Same same, but different: Rod Cuthbert finds his Zen on AI
Viator founder Rod Cuthbert thought he’d confuse the WiT Singapore audience about AI and discovery. Instead, he talked himself and the room into calm.
Rod Cuthbert does not want to be the godfather of tours and activities. “Just for the record, I really hate that Godfather thing,” he told the [...]
The return of the king – on a day for heroes
Tony Fernandes headlined WiT Singapore for the first time in 21 years, with the price of oil on his phone and a trail of headlines at his back. Do we still need heroes? He bought the answers along with him.
There is something about true disruptors. They mess with the molecules in the air. Sure, the [...]
Travel deserves its own agent, and its own soul: Key takeaways from WiT Singapore
The car has broken down. We are stuck in Kuala Selangor, a small town in Malaysia I’ve only heard about but never visited. We are two hours away from our destination, Lumut, where we’re supposed to take a ferry to Pulau Pangkor to stay at an artist’s retreat called Tiger Rock on the island.
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A tale of two AI worlds: Why Asia Pacific is speed walking around the West
I stepped out of the United States in July, embarking on an extended journey that carried me through Europe and deep across Asia. By the time I am done – I hope to have visited at least seven islands. As someone whose life splits between East and West, travel isn’t merely transit – it is a for [...]
Food, identity & tourism: The story grown when no one is watching
A soil scientist by accident, a MasterChef alum turned custodian of culture, and a data analyst who’s read 1,300 diners’ minds walked into a Queenstown pre-lunch session – and ended up agreeing on the same verdict: New Zealand’s food story is still “emerging”.
That was the key takeawa [...]
The leap of faith Instinct can’t book
I suppose it is fitting that I used Instinct to book tickets for the movie Odyssey. A robotic agent that can accomplish tasks in seconds, buying tickets to a three-hour film about one man’s arduous, perilous journey over the seas – fighting the wrath of Poseidon – to return to his family afte [...]
Online Travel in Asia: The Unwritten Story (Documentary premiere)
WiT's follow-up documentary sits down with travel tech founders, leaders and rising innovators to ask what's about to change, what never will, and what they'd tell their younger selves.
Every industry has a moment it can't quite explain until it's living through one. For online travel in Asia, that [...]
Local grit, global impact: four Kiwi founders on building tech from the world’s edge
Some people eat to live. Some people live to eat. All startups though live and die by solving the pain points they’ve chosen to tackle.
Which was how I kicked off the panel, “Local Grit, Global Impact: Kiwi Innovation in Travel & Hospitality Tech” at WiT Queenstown. I asked the question � [...]
