Beatrice Unplugged

My favorite hotels

Ok, so I decided to give-in to all the emails and calls I receive from friends asking me about my favorite hotels because they are just planning their vacation. -As I run a travel search - they tend to look up to me. I do travel myself a bit and I am a user as well. Not sure if it is ethical( well if it isn't- then post a comment)  But:::::::

Below is my personal highly subjective and not exhaustive list.
I have stayed as anonymous guest and paid a full fare for each of them.  I like each of  them because of some unique features that are important to me either for my business trips or for my personal trips.

I will be updating this list ( the order is simply by just what comes to my mind at any given time )- here goes the first:

Brazil - San Paolo Hotel Unique- the hotel is truly Unique - from the outside design and Lobby interior ( lots of Starck works there) to rooms design, to faboulous top deck and swimming pool and impeccable service!

Speaking of Sao Paulo I cannot stop myself from mentioning couple of faboulous restaurants I tried there- that should be almost a separate post in itself!

London- Soho Hotel

The hotel is both modern and Cozy. Each room is individually decorated and apparently the owner is personally involved  in choosing the style and details to create relaxing atmosphere.

The room are very good size.  The concierge and the employees are very attentive.

Library, Drawing room and restaurant good for meetings and hanging out. Definitely try afternoon tea !!

It is a sister Hotel to Charlottes Hotel- also amazing an amazing property.

Buenos Aires ( Argentina) - I have tried few hotels here so stayed tuned I will be writing up moreFaena Hotel-  Dramatic entry and truly impressive entry corridor. Go there even just for drinks! Rooms are feng shui and very comfy.

From Mobissimo Launch in Italy

On April 22, 2008  I traveled to Milan where we were holding official inauguration of Mobissimo Italia with press conference and debriefs as well as party for travel partners , journalist and of course MobiFans.

It was really great to be there- The reception was very warm. We found articles that were saying " Mobissimo is an american organization with Italian heart". 

The internet in Italy is very different than anywhere else- Italians love communication: meaning email, mobile phones , SMS is really what works very well for them.

Services like Twitter, Flickr are not very well know- there are a lot of political blogs, female blogs, travel blogs but very few technology blogs.

One final observation- which was very refreshing:
In Italy you are defined as a person, meaning people will first see me as Beatrice- a person with personality that has certain interests, hobbies, thoughts...

In the US - people often are defined by job that they are doing.

Here are couple of pictures from our conference and party

Thank you to Mobissimo Italia Team for great organization: Lucia, Serena, Fa bio and all the supporters: Romeo, Paolo, Christina, and many more people who worked with us.

More pictures here

All Eyes on Mobissimo - Mobissimo launches Italian website

Today is a special day for me and for Lucia Carniglia Schiavone -  (for me the 1/2 and for her the 100% italian co-founder of Mobissimo)  - March 13 is the day for which we have waited patiently, but certainly passionately for few years!
So what is the news?

We officially launched our 6th foreign website - and today it is fa time for Mobissimo ITALIA to see the light! And I just can't help but jump in the office and scream:  "Forza Mobissimo.!!!"

Mobissimo Italia is not just a mere translation of our US website- we have spend time and effort adding specific local travel sites and airlines that are pertinent to italian users - we wanted our friends and family in Italy to be proud of us, and most importantly to be able to find the best prices.  We have dreamed this moment and today Brian Ward our Chief Engineer just made happen with one single push of a button.!

Una piccola bambina e nata oggi!

Needless to say - we are putting in place Italian blog on Italian Mobissimo site- and we are so happy that very shortly we will be able to express ourself in italian too:)

Spread the news! and a presto!

Official press release is here
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080313006204&newsLang=en

This is a picture - from our beginning with Lucia in Paris - in our tiny office there:

Conferences and society of mutual adoration

I have not posted here for a whole year. And there are few reasons for it:
big focus on Mobissimo and the release of New UI with personnalisation, Content and Context elements, foreign version releases ( UK, France, India, Poland, Spain), more travel suppliers added ( Hotwire, Priceline, Skoosh, HotelClub, Ehotel, Agoda, AsiaRooms, Tablet Hotels, Splendia in Hotel search, Lessno, Vayama, Centralwings, TravelPlanet, Terminal A, Corsair,  etc etc)

I also focused more on my personal balance - making sure I get a time to spend with my friends and family.

Finally, I use Twitter and Facebook to communicate my thoughts, moods, questions to my friends and acquaintances. Twitter allows a "FAST Food" mode of communication- it is quick and efficient- and this is what drew me to it while I was very busy last year. But Twitter does not allow to communicate easily in depth thoughts that formulate in one's brain.

I go to conferences - as a speaker and as a participant. The conferences are diverse: travel, design, technology, CEOs meetings and finally web2.0

I usually enjoy meeting diversity of people there - learn new things - check new ideas others come up with have conversations and brainstorm- it helps me stay on the edge myself.

Lately, however, specifically with anything related to web2.0 the bloggers and media  - not the creators or people with ideas - are center of attention and I am not sure how this help pushing and getting more and more cool products done for benefit of US- THE USERS.

People hook up together no longer to discuss the ideas- exchange opinions but more and more so only to "CLIMB"  in the web2.0 social ranks.

And so the society of mutual adoration within web2.0 slowly is taking shape. Mutual adoration, because some of these folks are there to praise each other for INFLUENCE, the competition to be the top "WIND" is fierce, unrelentness and unforgettable. Attacks on each other, criticisms etc -seems like a form took over the CONTENT.

And irritably for me - more and more of this sough after  "influence" has nothing to do with a new revolutionary product, feature or idea ....

You can be amazed by social ascention of some of these folks who come to  events  - without true contribution to the advancement on internet and its services for users- but on long term - it is no inspiration.

I do not give up though - it takes just one or two meetings to make entire conference totally meaningful.

And it is true that far away from Silicon Valley - where everyone runs too fast - the conferences allow people to establish closer ties and links and form relationships over time that one can call upon when the right time comes.

Being optimist - I hope  that we will focus again on making cool things rather than on making power trips about who is going to bash and smash the hardest.

Good ideas from: SK-rt.com

I met Gabrielle Blair and  Laurie Smithwick the founders of sk-rt.com at the SXSW in Austin.

Sk-rt.com is a Digg like service which as the website says is " A place to find cool things. To read smart scoop. To connect with fab ideas, exceptional people, useful information, excellent products. All of it. And more."
It caters to female interest zone with categories such as , Arts and Entertainment,  Design and Crafts, Family and Parenting, Fashion ans Style, Food and Home, Mind Body and Spirit, Travel and Leisure and finally World and Business

As many users where women- the founders realized that women did not engage in Voting on a story ( Digg Style)  just as much as men did,  and so they changed the system - the  most popular story is not the one that was voted for, but the one that users actually read ( clicked on the link ).

The site has both- the articles submitted by users and articles submitted by editors
They are clearly distinguished by a different color and they are splitted in to columns.

Good luck Gabrielle and Laurie

PS. Laurie also blogs on Design Mom

Inspiration and enterpreneurship

Very often people ask me how come I have great energy and untired enthousiasm for Mobissimo, just as if I started it yesterday,  while so many enterpreneurs get burned out after a year or two of challenging work.

I was thinking of it lately, what really makes it for me.
The answer is very simple- I am inspired and amazed and sometimes even revolted by human creativity and intelligence under different forms and shapes.

I am inspired by conversations with friends and thoughts of random people, touched by art, design, music, great meal that someone is going to cook, good wine etc.
What really gets my attention is how people drive different elements together to put them in perfect harmony and balance.

I visit the interior design sites or apartments of my friends and I think how amazing is the effect of putting together tiny bits and pieces together into a visual, sensual and functional composition. I think of energy, patience, passion and dedication it takes to take things from idea to a completion. I react to results of completion of creative process.

For me creating Mobissimo is like working with a sculpture - at the beginning there is no much more than an image of an idea which slowly starts to come into life as we are developping tiny bits of product and features into a longer term vision.

It is fun and energizing when others start to picture and enjoy the first results of my own creative process. It is incredible driver for me to know that what I do can in some ways impact, change or inspire at least one person life-  just as other people's passions and work impacts me.

As of course I am not the only enterpreneur with bunch of ongoing energy - I am wondering what drives you guys? Look forward to reading your stories in the comments :)

March 8 - International Women's Day

I love the way Polish people celebrate this day: ordinary women that make a difference.

From a tiny girl to a grandmother they usually receive a symbolic 1 tulip from brother, father, friend, boyfriend, classmate or office colleague- to say simply that every woman is special.

I am double spoiled this day because my parents played a trick and choose my name day to be on March 8 as well :)

For clarification, according to my brother, it does not mean that I am automatically entitled to 2 tulips - oh well, he gets away by cooking something special.

BTW Beatrice means happy and bringing joy
so can't think of better way to break the silence but
-Happy International Women's Day!

Photo by Melanie Cook

Ma Maman - Une étoile s’éteint.

I was to post about Eyefortravel conference, Buenos Aires and Urugway... but the Life has the quality of being unknown.

My planned trip from Buenos Aires back to San Francisco turned with one single phone call from my sister into emergency flight to Europe. Thanks to invaluable help of Jean Paul Beer in last minute shortest flights planning- I have made it just on time to say how much I love her.

My Mum, the brightest star of my univers has dissapeared- I now only have her light but it is shining so strong I cannot even yet understand she is gone.

On the way to Buenos Aires

October and November are months of travel conferences : from Chicago via New Delhi to Los Angeles and now Buenos Aires - the industry insiders meet to discuss the online marketing and define what web2.0 brings to travel industry and end users.

I am going to speak about meta search engines at EyeforTravel Latin America adressing audience of Latin America airlines, low cost airlines, travel agencies, tour operators, hoteliers and car rentals.
Latin America is similar in many respects to India ( with cost conscious travellers, credit card payments issues, internet penetration etc) so it will be very interesting to share our experience at Mobissimo and learn from the insiders about the challenges they are facing. I will post a debrief on the conference.

This time I will be a traveller myself - it is my first time in Buenos Aires - and I will share with you all the sites I have visited to prepare for the trip.

Thanks to the friends of the friends, I am looking forward to meeting local entrepreneurs and discovering the city, its history, technologies and my peers over here.

Une Fille dans la Ville - A girl in the City- The story of our Net Generation

This book is for the moment in French only - but for those of you that can read French- I recommend this book.

Flore, the heroin of "A Girl in the City" is a Net Generation Girl.
She is a young business woman in constant search of "self". A graduate of French Ivy League School - Flore has a great future in a French establishment. But the routine of the "big entreprise", the boredom of everyday job, apathy and conformism scare her to death. Flore wants to experience freedom, she wants self-realisation and she wants to find the love. Flore is a rebel with dreams and ideals.

She quits 'the job' and leaves for United States with no visa, the proverbial 'two dollars' in the pocket and a passion to change the world. Its 2000 - the Internet El Dorado years. The net economy religion is simple: one can write a page in internet history - participate in its creation and progression and make money.

Flore creates a startup...

"A girl in the City" is a chronicle of our times and of our generation:
- The era of permanent information and Net Slaves - prisoners of a new system driven by performance, excellence, pressure to deliver and make money.
- The era of the Individuals TBD ( to be determined) who live in a constant stress of not having the last version of..., the last model of..., the individuals in fear of not delievering , not being on top... the individuals trying to fill the void in themselves.
- The society of stop and go- defined by utilitarian conception of human relations. The importance of people is defined by what they bring to you and your performance.

Flore forces you to step back and seek your own "self".

You can find the book on Amazon.fr