metarand » Travel

Infinity, Marina Bay Sands – A Video Exploration

metarand — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 04:28:13 +0000

Here is a video tour of the Infinity Pool from my recent stay at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore:

HIGH DEFINITION VERSION:

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore: A Photo Essay

metarand — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:55:17 +0000

Last week I spent a few days relaxing in Singapore and stayed at the Marina Bay Sands. Even before I arrived I anticipated that my passion for photography would emerge. Upon arrival it didn’t take me long to haul out my iPhone and begin capturing some of the awesome views that presented themselves. I hope you enjoy these pictures:

Stand Up Paddling: Upper Reaches, Lane Cove River

metarand — Sun, 16 May 2010 08:06:00 +0000

A relaxing Autumn paddle on the upper reaches of the Lane Cove River, which runs through the north shore of Sydney.

Metarand Unplugged: NileGuide’s Josh Steinitz on Interactive Travel 2.0

metarand — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:25:06 +0000

Metarand unplugs with Josh Steinitz, CEO of San Francisco-based NileGuide.

Josh talks about their vision of being the world’s first truly interactive travel guidebook. A vision which involves collating a lot of moving parts and simplifying the complex workflow which travellers face when planning, booking and mobilizing their trips.

It’s a great show and well worth the time to hear his thoughts on both moving away from the human integrator approach to travel organization as well as how NileGuide fits into the social media puzzle.

Stream the Session in Quicktime:

here

Stream the mp3:

here

Customers First – the key to flying high

metarand — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:37:40 +0000

Richard Branson says it’s a brilliant time to be in the air travel business provided you put your customers first. He was talking in a NY Times Freakonomics piece about the future of US air travel.

While many of the other folks who commented seemed to bang on about the status quo, Richard put forward a clear case for a differentiated approach based on improving air travel for the people that matter: travellers.

Noting the cause and effect of happy staff flowing on to customers, Gary Topping of Topping Travel also made the following point: maybe an enlightened US airline CEO will see through the fog of the bean counters and realize that “happy employees” also make happy (and dedicated) customers.

Gotta love those bean counters!

Jack Uldrich picks up on the conversation and offers a balance of on the cards improvements based on technology already under development (in labs around the world) and a few more off the map ideas — where’s my Moller flying car, I ordered it last decade!

[Picture courtesy of ferrous]