The Future of Australian Tourism

I was privileged this morning to present a keynote on the Future of Australia’s Tourism Industry to the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) annual conference, after which I did this impromptu interview with eGlobal Travel Media.

Take a look:

Travel Extraordinaire

George Jetson lives, well almost.

This new drive / fly incarnation is one of the most oft questions get I asked, will be available for sale at this year’s New York auto show and for a deposit of $10,000 you can reserve yourself one.

If that isn’t enough Mercedes Benz is working on a prototype invisible car ; Google is perfecting the driverless car and Japan’s Obayashi Corporation is working on an elevator that will take you up to your local space station – so all in all tomorrow’s travel choices are set to change.

These are just a few of the stories Adelaine, Clem and I chatted our way through in this week’s ABC Radio Australia’s Future Tech segment.

Listen now:

and listen live each Wednesday at 5.35 p.m.

The Future is nearer than you think

Invisible army tanks, flying cars, space elevators and artificial meat were all part of this week’s FutureTech segment on Perth radio’s 6PR with Jason Jordan and me.

This nostalgic look at tomorrow’s more unusual stuff was our way of closing off another year of summer radio.

Thanks Perth and I’m looking forward to returning for my 8th season in mid October 2012.

Personal jet packs and supersonic travel

For a cool $100,000 you can soon buy your own jet-pack, only catch is that it only works over the water and has a 30 foot chord that tethers you to a small boat that travels behind you, but it is the iconic jet pack that many people associate as a symbol of having arrived in the future.

Whilst this is going on the United States this week trialled its newest hypersonic weapon that travels at five (5) times the speed of sound and makes it possible to launch a missile from anywhere on our planet and for it to arrive anywhere else on the planet within one (1 hour). This technology, used for military purposes leaves me cold, but used for commercial travel allowing us to travel from Melbourne Australia to London England in one (1) hour excites me.

This is where I always quote the great sage Maxwell Smart (Control’s Agent 86) when he said if only he had used his genius for niceness and not evilness.

These stories and the invention of the worlds lightest material being unveiled, made of tiny hollow metallic tubes arranged into a micro-lattice, that weighs in at 100 times lighter than Styrofoam, made up this weeks discussion between Perth 6PR’s Jason Jordan and myself as we look at what’s happening now, that may shape tomorrow.

Listen now:

or listen live each Sunday at 5.10 p.m. (WST).

Life is a beach – Radio 6PR FutureTech Segment – 12th December 2010

What will be beaches look like in 2060? What a great question, and I’m glad you asked cos 6PR’s Ted Bull talk about beaches 50 years from now. The notion that we will still have them and want to be on them, but that our leisure time will be very different and our use of them evolved.

Sand will contain more plastic in it, because we’ve thrown so much crap into our oceans over the preceding 100 years that it’s finally breaking down and coming to haunt us as tiny sand-like particles on or coasts. We also talk about increase numbers of man-made beaches and islands and of course virtual beaches, no home should or will be without one.

We also turn our attention to Google’s annual zeitgeist list of most searched terms to find Justin Bieber leads the list of music related searches.

listen now:

till Facebook us do part – 6PR Big Weekend – FutureTech Segment – 5 December 2010

Facebook is being blamed for 1 in 4 divorces in the United States and in our in-depth comical discussion we seek to find out why and perhaps that it’s not Facebook that’s causing divorces, but people – ah if only they would use it for niceness instead of evilness (Maxwell Smart circa 1960).

Ted Bull of 6PR and I then go onto to travel through Lonely Planet’s and Google’s top tourist destinations for 2010 and those predicted for 2011 and work our way through some really interesting travel apps and websites – ah, where’s the holodeck when you really need it ?1?.

Listen now

Konichiwa – Radio 6PR FutureTech Segment – 21 November 2010

This weeks segment is live from Tokyo Japan as we discuss my travels around Tokyo’s Akihibara – the electronic and gadget district, the Japanese view on all things gadgetry, the future and electronics, my driverless cars experience and meeting robots.

Listen now

Where oh where is Geotagging taking us?

Just thirteen months ago the Apple App store had three geo-tagging applications. Today there are around 3,000. It shows how we have become accustomed, very quickly, to involving geography in the way we use the Internet.

In today’s BTalk podcast Phil Dobbie and I ponder whether Geotagging, or devices and applications that know where you are and give you real-time, real-place advice is all a fad that will provide little benefit for businesses and marketers. We also take a look at some examples of how it can be used effectively to promote to your customers and make some money.

So where will all this take us? Phil extracts his pound of flesh by asking me to forecast how this technology will develop over the next few years.

Subscribe to BTalk Australia on iTunes.

Postcard from the Future – Events 2020

I was recently commissioned by BT Publishing, producers of Micenet Australia, Australia’s leading bi-monthly publication for the business events community, to ponder how events might be in the year 2020, here is a reprint of the article:

Postcard from the Future – Events 2020

I’m sitting here in August 2020, preparing for another conference keynote and reminiscing on how the business events, meetings, exhibition and incentives industry has changed over the last 10 years and how much of it is still the same.

The biggest difference for me over the past decade is that the industry offerings have become far more intimate and hyper personalised and the line between event organiser, client, venue, supplier, presenter and attendee has blurred.

The hype in 2010 of technology, virtual meetings, 3D meetings, social networking and constant online communications being the death of the industry has, as I had thought, not harmed the industry but strengthened it. It has become far more robust with those that innovated their offerings to take full advantage of the changes not only surviving, but thriving.

Technology has continued to enmesh itself in our lives and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the real and virtual worlds, but strangely it has also become less intrusive and far better at discerning and presenting real time in situ knowledge when and where it is needed.

Turning up to events, meetings and venues now, as opposed to 2010, is a self-check in behind the scenes technology driven process.

Our me-centric superphone has already received, reviewed, stored and replied to all our bookings and event briefings. It has booked us into our room, sent our session attendance notifications, dietary and other needs to the organisers and is on standby ready to give us step by step in situ instructions of where we need to go, when we need to be there, how to get there, who’s around us and any last minute briefings we need before getting started.

Behind the scenes organisers now routinely and collaboratively use virtual 3D on line technology to trial venue and meeting spaces, decide on layouts and setups, design theming and lighting. In this online virtual space all suppliers are able to meet, negotiate, test, build and eventually run a virtual audition of the event or meeting and when it’s finalised use the online model as the collective 3D template for every facet of the event.

Attendees have become far savvier and acutely focused on their event needs. Long before deciding to attend they tap into their online communities to engage with prospective attendees, organisers, sponsors, suppliers, venues, speakers, industry delegates and other interested participants to get a real sense of what the event or meeting may be and how best, if at all, to attend.

Attendance decisions in the past were often influenced by a narrow band of work colleagues or networks, but now information, comments and critiques come from everywhere and the decision making process has shifted to include and value a wider circle of influence.

Events and meetings have also evolved over the past decades offering a far more diverse range of attendance options ranging from the traditional entire event in person attendance, to being able to choose and pay only for those specific segments you want to attend either in person or online, through to complete virtual and online opportunities to attend and participate. These even include post event online pay per view opportunities to watch previously delivered content and presentations.

One of the other interesting shifts I’ve seen over the last decade is events and meetings being commissioned by members of self-assembled interest groups that have spent time on line with each other around their professions, hobbies, experiences, needs or interests and have the community desire and numbers to turn their ad hoc interaction into an event or meeting .

The demands of these groups have spawned a new breed of meeting specialist, someone who is capable of pulling together a multi-faceted online and offline event or meeting often with very short lead times, in a less formal or structured manner and in what may have once been considered less traditional meeting venues or spaces.

The other interesting change looking back is that it is now far more common for disparate suppliers, venues and organisers to work collaboratively and share resources and to come together around a tender or event and then disband only to form again with others as the need requires.

Looking around the year 2020 the meetings, events, incentive and exhibition companies that have thrived and grown over the last decade have been those that have embraced the changes.

They have clearly understood what they do but have constantly been willing to innovate and adapt, to find new markets and new opportunities and not been afraid to reach out and grab for them.

I’d love to know what you see ahead for the travel, meeting and events industry