Sparkle Obscura: Tat

Location: Egypt
Date Taken: August 3, 2007

Dubai: Grandiose, vacant, mostly under construction.

Oh my! I’m exhausted after a 12-hour long day in Abu Dhabi!! I’m behind in writing about this trip though, so I’ll start at the beginning.

For those of you who haven’t been followingqa along (ahem, Christine), I’m in Dubai right now on a Spring Break study tour put on by the Foster School of Business. We are here to learn about the business environment in this region. We will be meeting with numerous business executives, and hopefully throwing in some fun and cultural events along the way. Yes! This is what MBAs do for fun over their Spring Break.

Our tour started with a very long flight from San Francisco to Dubai. We got in on Sunday evening and were greeted by this amazing airport terminal. Of course, it was empty. Grandiose and vacant seems to be the theme of Dubai, actually. So it was a good introduction.

The next day we started our company visits with Ten Sports. Ten Sports is a media company that produces and broadcasts sports television across the Middle East. The most popular games here are cricket and soccer. (And actually the person who started Ten Sports is also a cricket promoter. He started the company in order to broadcast his own events, instead of relying on existing networks. His venture was successful and he recently sold it to an Indian company.) Our host was an expat who had also lived in Russia and India, so the discussion centered around business in emerging markets.

Next up was Dubai Sports City… Dubai is a really strange place in that it gives developers land in exchange for the developer building the infrastructure and handling the services for that land. So these “master developers” are kind of like municipalities and landlords at the same time. Dubai also has multiple places that are named “Fill In the Blank City”… Sports City, Internet City, Knowledge City, Media City. Many of them also operate as free trade zones for a particular type of business. Dubai Sports City is obviously focused on sports. Their master plan includes a mix of sports stadiums, residential housing, office buildings and retail. It’s maybe 15% complete, with many, many buildings under construction, or half constructed and waiting for the economy to recover before restarting operations. (That’s another theme of Dubai. So my summation is evolving: grandiose, vacant, mostly under construction.)

Our group had dinner at the mall next door to our building. The mall houses Ski Dubai, and we were able to watch people going down the slope. After dinner, most of our group spent the rest of the night on the rooftop bar, smoking shisha and watching the lights change on the Burj al Arab hotel (on the left in the photo below).

Just a note on the time zone adjustment. Dubai is 11 hours ahead of Seattle, so the morning/night schedule is almost exactly flipped. I’m mostly adjusted in terms of sleep, but my head still feels fuzzy!

Flight to Dubai

I’m about an hour away from Dubai, after a very long flight. I slept most of the time, which is very typical for me. I came prepared with my travel pillow, blanket and iPhone. Scott’s noise cancelling earphones with Tosca got me through the kids crying. In my few waking hours I got to level 5 in “Plants versus Zombies” (a game) and listened to a few chapters of a book. Can wait to get there! Check out the star lights on the Emirates flight.

Google Earth – Dubai Hotel

Oh yes, this is where I will be staying during my time in Dubai next week! See that little red dot to the left? That’s the Holiday Inn. See that big building next to it? That’s the indoor ski resort. The shot on the bottom is another angle… We’re close to one of the two Palms! I’m in serious count down mode.

Sparkle Obscura: Public Art

Location: Florence, Italy
Date Taken: July 24, 2004

[Currently] 500th post.

This is my 500th post! I started blogging in August, 2007 and have written a post every other day since. That seems like a lot, doesn’t it?

The process of documenting your life through digital forums is pretty fascinating to me. My blog writing plus photos, Tweets, Facebook status updates, Goodreads list, Epicurious recipes, Amazon purchases, Pandora favorites, Delicious links, search history and every other digital footprint I have made is out there to be understood. (By the way, some people call all of that your “lifestream“. And I definitely foresee a day when it will all be aggregated and easily searched.) My family (and really whoever wants to) can have a better understanding of who I was and am because of this blog and everything I document. And given the fallibility of memories, it’s a way for me to remember for myself what was on my mind back when I was 27.

I think blogging is a pretty powerful medium. There is a thought process and curation that happens, and I’ve learned a lot about by doing it. Here’s to 500 more!

[Infovore Links]

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

10 Easy Ways to Super Charge Your Small Business’ Yelp Presence | Hubspot.com I love small business who engage customers via Yelp (and other social media outlets). I like that they go out of their way to participate!

The Missing Google Analytics Manual | FutureNow This is going to be helpful in my Web 2.0 class next quarter.

Location Based Social Networking | Whrrl SlideShare Whrrl presented this at a Social Media Club Seattle event last week. I’m now addicted to their iPhone app!

BUSINESS & RELATIONSHIPS

Exiting a Conversation Gracefully | Harvard Business Review Somebody used one of these techniques on me while I was explaining Twitter to him today! And the technique worked – no offense taken.

Practice Good Business Kharma, You Might Be Rewarded | Puget Sound Business Journal Lynn Parker was a mentor for a group of 1st year MBAs this quarter. What she says in this article is very true.

Be Lucky – It’s an Easy Skill to Learn | Telegraph Yes.

How to Sell New Innovations Without Killing the Excitement | FastCompany.com I love this… A communication tool to keep in mind.

Warren Buffett’s Tip for the Rest of Us | WSJ.com Thanks Warren!

PRODUCTIVITY

Configuring Google Calendars on Your iPhone | Robert Chien Now I can know where Scott is 24/7, not just 18/7.

Easy Scheduling & Meeting Planning | Doodle.com I love this tool – it’s a way to vet meeting times, which is seriously handy among business students who all have different calendaring systems.

GADGETS

Microsoft Courier | Engadget.com I think this is cooler than the iPad! I said it.

Pantone Huey Screen Color Calibration | Amazon.com Mmm. Gift idea! I think the color on my new monitor is funky. This would be really helpful to have.