Your flight is leaving in three hours

I recently booked airline travel for the first time through a well known online travel provider. Interesting feature - they call you three hours before each flight to let you know if it's still on track. I'm wondering how much benefit there is to this - most airlines don't move a departure time until much closer, but I suppose it would be helpful if a flight has completely canceled. Of course, the 5am call to remind me of my flight later that day seemed like poor programming on their part. What do you think - useful feature?

>> So far, one vote in favor of the programmer from Jeremy.

Marketing Wisdom 2009

Marketing Sherpa is out with there annual compendium of marketing wisdom. It's titled Marketing Wisdom 2009 and you can download it from their website: There are 94 great anecdotes, of the variety that you'd hope to hear from marketers and agencies at lunch or a conference, covering the whole spectrum of online marketing.

Fly Williams

One of my favorite spots books growing up was Heaven is a Playground. There's a nice update in this weeks Sports Illustrated on what happend to Fly Williams, one of the two main characters in the book.

Lessons from the stairwell (pt 2.)

Lessons from the stairwell, pt. 2.
Focus is important - running in a stairwell demands focus and attention to detail. Once you're in oxygen debt, that last thing you want to do is misjudge a step, slip, and land on your face.

In contrast, a recently received email from a hotel in Hawaii -


Hello!
Please see attachment for a great offer from the beautiful [Upscale Hotel Chain] Village!


[-- Mrs. X name removed]

Director of Sales - Worldwide Accounts

No personalization, an attachment with information on group meetings, and the email is sent by Mrs. X's assistant. How focused was that email? :)

Lessons from the stairwell

After the conference finished up today, I wanted to get a quick workout in, and decided to run stairs in the hotel. The fitness center was uninspiring, and with 8 floors, it figured to be a good workout. It was a typical cement stairwell, with not much to recommend it, and something stenciled on each floor about a fire retention wall, good for two hours, and to keep all openings closed in case of fire. A definite lack of ambiance - but great for a workout.

About 5 minutes in, I noticed a guitar case and a small amp tucked behind some of the visible piping. I spent the next few trips up and down wondering what the story was behind it. Did a hotel employee hide it in the stairwell, and sneak out to practice. Was there a front desk clerk who hid it there, planning to race to his after hours job at and underground club? There was definitely some thought and determination that I read into the placement.

Towards the end of the climbing, I noticed that a cook had come out into the second floor. He had taken off a chefs hat and heavy Dewalt workboots, and unrolled a prayer rug. He was lost in his religious observance, and didn't even seem to notice me as I went huffing and puffing by. I was impressed by the concentration, and his planning in finding a quite, relatively peaceful spot.

Which raised a fascinating question in my post exercise haze:
What motivates you enough to head into a stairwell (real or virtual)?

Shop.org - Strategy and Innovation Forum

I'm at the Shop.org Strategy and Innovation Forum. If you're interested in following along, the Shop.org blog will have live blog updates, and you can also see updates on Twitter Search.