City of beauty. City of water. Check out these inspiring photos & tell us what you think of Venice.

REVIEWS, Adelaide – Australia is blessed with great airports by US, UK and in some cases, continental European standards.
Most Australian small airports are superior to most North American small airports. Although in larger airport terms, Boston’s Logan or SFO are superior to the large Sydney airport most international visitors experience.

One of Australia’s great smaller airports is the comfortable, practical Adelaide airport.
With crisp clean design lines, comfortable seating, work desk areas for non-lounge members and a good choice of food and shopping, Adelaide airport does it well.
Lounges at Adelaide
The Adelaide Qantas …

TRAVEL, Boston — Boston is ranked 2nd in the world as an Innovation City, after Vienna, in the Global Innovation Review 2007.
The contribution of Harvard university and MIT to world knowledge and learning is barely measurable across the broad scope of all professions.
In addition Boston in New England, is one of the few cities in the USA where the food supply is adequate. Most US cities have a food supply that is below world best practice.
In truth, Boston, like San Francisco or New York is one of the American cities …

TRAVEL, Austria — Culturally Vienna, like Paris, is one of those cities you must visit for artistic and cultural depth.
Of course, many European cities have great museums and art galleries and hidden treasures.

Vienna has a secret museum though. Well secret in the sense few people visit it as tourists. If you are arts-minded though you will enjoy it. …

TRAVEL COMMENT, Sydney — Having retired at a graceful hour last night, I was hoping for a good night’s sleep.Not possible.

The nice view I had of Darling Harbour, was interrupted (like everything in Sydney) by 24/7 traffic.

TRAVEL COMMENT, Sydney — Tonight I am in the glamorous Sydney, in the Four Points Sheraton at Darling Harbour (actually the old Hotel Nikko).
After having spent my day in the not so glamorous suburban Parramatta.

COMMENT, Global – Which cities have the best espresso coffee in the world?
Well we may have some ideas about which have the worst… But the best?
Before we get to that let’s look at some interesting facts and insights about why coffee is important…

[ratings] TRAVEL COMMENT, PARIS — So here are 4 top Paris Hotels if you like luxury travel. There are many others, especially those of the boutique kind.
These are French people’s Paris hotels, as far as I can tell, and if you like a Marriott or other US chain instead stay there.

COMMENT, Sydney, Parramatta – APEC is over and the last of the politicians has gone home. So I am back in not-so-central Parramatta.
Parramatta is the demographic heart of broader Sydney, being the secondary centre and a major work and residential hub.
The tale of two Sydney’s
APEC Sydney.
Glitzy. Glam. Harbour. Flashy. If you have money and a local on your arm a good place to dine out. Not my taste, but popular. If you like LA, you’ll like Sydney.
Add to that the Eastern beaches and the leafy green North shore. (When …

COMMENT, Global – A few of you will recall I started a travel log of global travel & food some time back.
My focus was food, wine, airlines & accommodation as they effect global cultural innovation.
Particularly food, wine, hotels, airports, galleries, museums, cities and cultural destinations.
Why is culture everyday important?
Nothing inspires our better ideas so much as art, food, wine, song, language, design, beautiful architecture.
Inspiring cultural destinations like the Bristol in Vienna, Louvre in Paris or inspiring transit points like the Qantas First Lounge will make you want to be there.
But …

COMMENT, Melbourne – In Melbourne broadsheet paper The Age, today there was a neat reminiscence on ‘trains’ from staff writer, Peter Hanlon.
“WE’RE on our way home for Dad’s funeral, his grandson and I. It’s good that we’re going by train; Dad worked 35 years for the railways, back in the days when human beings sold tickets, and machines that accepted only correct change were a dream for the future.”
He goes onto say…
“Whoever wins the next tender to run the state’s public transport would do well to acknowledge that there …

ANALYSIS, Melbourne –I loved rail as a kid. That trip from the small town I lived in to the ‘big smoke’ always took a 5 hour bus and a train trip.
And there was something inspiring about the rattle of that train.
Nostalgia aside, railways now are once again are on their way to leading the innovation zeitgeist in transport.
Railways – Back-to-the-Future Innovation
In cold hard fiscal terms railways have a bright future with some caveats.
Most importantly, trains have a very long-term future mainly due to the fact that trains carry more passengers …

COMMENT, Australia — You said: I’d come to Australia, but…
A land far far away, Australia…
For all the people I have spoken to since starting the Global Innovation Conversation in April, a lot of you have expressed interest in visiting Australia.
It’s a long flight, but I’m hoping to make it easier for all you eager visitors from USA & Canada so you can do it in comfort. The easy way…
Flying times disable Innovation
Many bright and clever people have expressed to me they’d love to fly to Australia, but it is simply …

ANALYSIS, San Francisco, USA — Airline Qantas recently announced that internationally in the new airbus A380, first-class passengers will have their own suite and their will be a new dedicated business class domestic lounge areas in Sydney, Melbourne & Canberra for super-premium frequent flyers.
Now Qantas lounges are already among the best in the World, and better than any single American lounge I have been in both internationally or domestically.
They have included at no charge food, wine, decent range of drinks, magazines, free wireless, plenty of work cubicles, leather sofas, big-screen …

OPINION, Sydney — The Qantas First lounge at Sydney airport is world-class. When you travel a lot you appreciate world class facilities.
What makes Qantas First lounge innovative?
Let’s start with the physical and obvious.
The comfort is great, lounges are great, it has restaurant and marble shower suites.
The shower suites have plenty of amenities and are marble and very well fitted out. The shower feels fabulous.
There is a dining room, with far better choices than most, although it still is a little airline food, it tastes very good.
The design of the airport …

NOTICE — Yes I will be attending WordCamp in San Francisco on 21/22 July. I’m also doing some more research into San Francisco, and having a couple of meetings nearby.
As a believer in Wordpress as an emerging force in social networking trends, we will be writing about what we find, and any new innovation whilst there.
If you are in arts, creative professions, design, cultural, web 2.0, social communities or those sort of areas, and in the Bay Area, do let me know. Further, if you’d like to contribute to …

Melbourne has some pretty great food. Food that can inspire good ideas and with a cleansing beer or wise choice of red the occasional flight of fancy.
Melbourne World leader in Food Inspiration & innovation
The world’s best pizzas. The worlds best coffee. And some of the worlds’ best Greek and Italian food, as well as fresh cheeses, hams, dairy and delicatessen food.
Other cities (NYC, Paris, Vienna) might have individually greater restaurants. But for general consistency of greatness in food, you can’t beat Melbourne, especially with a local on your arm…
Of …

I just looked (last night) at a Coke ad for Coke zero, and wonder how exactly is that innovative? More Fried Chicken innovation we don’t need.
Last night, I went and saw a members exclusive viewing of the Australian Impressionism art exhibition National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Australia.
Over the long weekend in Australia, Queens Birthday holiday (yes Australia shares the UK monarchy), for innovation inspiration I visited the National Gallery of Victoria International and the Astor Theatre, an art deco beacon, and a very enjoyable and inspiring cinematic experience.
The post of …

Well President Bush has been in Albania, Tirana, the capital to be precise.
This is a huge and welcome milestone for the small country that Bismarck once called a geographical expression. During the visit, Albanians were handed out America/Albania partners t-shirts. Albanians were encouraged by their government to welcome him. I don’t think they needed much encouragement, as it’s been a long-term dream for Albanians generally speaking, to have a US president visit. Symbolic, but important.
And it wasn’t about Kosovo (Despite some of the press coverage by journalists who get ‘confused‘.). …

Building on our practical observations and my personal experience which lead to the Innovation pockets model, the modern gathering place is the shops.
The modern source of innovation is ideas that are inspired (by art, culture, cultural exchange, music, friends, multi-cultural hotspots, food, travel, border towns, cultural artefacts. books, museums). One key source is small cafes, shops, and service businesses where retailers can afford to experiment.
So in other words they have a low enough cost base, as well as cultural permission to innovate, as well as incentives these can be financial …