Niches… er zijn er duizenden van ieder jaar en in ieder idee zit wel een goede gedachte. In m’n posting van vorige week had ik het al over wat belangrijk is om te slagen, dus daar ga ik het nu niet over hebben. Door mijn werk heb ik buitengewone interesse in startups in de Travelbranche. Ik kwam vanavond Triplandia.com tegen. Leuk en niet alleen omdat het er fris en nieuw uitziet en de naam lekker klinkt.

Het idee is ook prima volgens mij! Waarom?

1. Standaard op reis is zo 1999! hier geef je aan wat je geregeld wilt hebben en hoe. Wil je basic reizen en luxe overnachten dan kan dat. Bij standaard reizen loop je altijd tegen onderdelen aan die niet passen bij je interesses en dat is jammer. Een vakantie vliegt voorbij en is duur genoeg. Riksja Travel springt hier al op in met bouwstenen reizen, waar ik in een artikel voor Zeenz.nl Travel al eens over schreef.

2. Internationaal! Internet is juist zo mooi omdat de markt waar je als consument uit kan kiezen wereldwijd is. Daardoor kun je specifieker een vraag neerleggen.

3. Het marktplaats concept! Internationaal is nog zoveel markt naast de online veilingen (ebay).

Verbeterpunten:

1. Ik zou, zeker in beginstadium, niet kiezen voor Google advertenties.

2. Mensen gaan op vakantie, maar worden niet enthousiast van hoe alles wordt gepresenteerd op de site. Daar zijn anno 2008 genoeg middelen voor.

3. Sociale site, mis sociale tools… Ik was dan ook de eerste die de site op del.icio.us opsloeg.

Een betere variant zou het zeker goed kunnen doen.

stay hungry, stay foolish…

We raised about 2700 euro at the chairity evening with friends for ‘our’ kids in La Paz, Bolivia… here the kids present themselves. They made a ‘thank you’ photo for all the people that visited that evening or donated money or support/knowledge.

With the money the kids get the attention that they deserve as a child. They can play, get food, some education and most of all love and attention. The future starts with helping the kids… we start with a small group but are planning to support a second group asap.

Support, suggestions, ideas or donations are always welcome of course! 

Yesterday I was in Groningen. Actually it was the ’suburb’ Haren, and even more specific in pavilion Kaap Hoorn. A great location near a beautiful lake and with a trendy interior.

We were in Haren to manage our first chairity event. There were about 75 guests. Together with them, our volunteers and a list full of sponsors we achieved to gather a large amount of money!! Not for ourselves, but for a development project called ‘Corazon Inquieto’ in La Paz (Bolivia). This project helps poor children of the indian people. There is no money to let the children go to school and no time (the parents must work hard to buy enough food) to give the children the attention that is so critical and essential when you’re young. Corazon Inquieto is a day care center for children. They get a meal, attention, love and the chance to actually play with toys and other kids. Essential for their evolvement.

It was touching to see what you can do with motivated people and the shared will to succeed. Something I read in a book (The Greatness Guide, by Robin Sharma) was what happened this evening. I also believe in the fact that if you are open minded and do positive things in life, life will be good for you, too.

By organizing this single evening we managed to keep an important child project open for this whole year. With the money we can pay five Bolivian employees, buy food and toys and manage some essential healthcare. That’s something to celebrate I believe !!

The buildings show you where the welth is in the world. Dubai, the center of the oil-world and therefore maybe even the center of our modern world presenst one after another great and imposant building. Below a short video about rotating skyscrapers.

I’m wondering if and when we have a new architectual project that we, citizens of the Netherlands, can be proud of. Like the ‘Afsluitdijk’, ‘Deltaplan’ and ‘Flevoland’. Maybe, alike Japan, a extension of Schiphol Airport in the North Sea. Maybe a large city of water-houses (that dry on water). Who will tell?!

The prestigious Coc d’Honneur prices for best marketeers ‘08 were given away this week in the Netherlands. All of them realy deserved the price for the great work they accomplished the last deccade (or so). I see them as the ‘heroes’ of our branche. They knew how to act at the right moment with the right decision more than once. More than that they became an example in their discipline and achieved to reach the status of inspirator.

Who needs heroes anyway? Everyone, I think. Small ones, like your parents dedication during your upbringing. Also bigger heroes like e.g. Ghandi, or -in my case- people that not only know how to survive in the exploding business of online marketing-communication (where the environment and its rules change within every few months) but also know how to reach above the average.

Because of the success of others, one of my business goals is to -also- bring our projects to another level in 2008 and not only that… also accomplish to perform individually and as company above average! Thát’s why we need heroes!

 Ilse, my brothers girlfriend, sings in a band and also can play the piano. When her friend Edda drops by, they always went to the room with the piano and sing and play around the piano together. They both have a nice voice and therefore it was a pleasant suprise that they showed up on Youtube singing a slow piano version of Baby One More Time.