AllenBurt.com

I have to whole heartedly disagree with GQ on this one. Man up,...

Sun, 27 May 2012 13:55:42 -0400

I have to whole heartedly disagree with GQ on this one. Man up, put on your red sash and run like you’ve never run before. You won’t regret it …

gq:

50 Things a Man Does Not Have to Do Before He Dies

42. RUN WITH THE BULLS

Sometimes it’s the fate of a good writer to bear the blame for what he inspires a bunch of idiots to do. Hunter S. Thompson is on the hook for a generation convinced it’s charming to be a drug-addicted asshole. Jack Kerouac spawned a million annoying vagabonds. And then, of course, there’s Ernest Hemingway, who has to answer not only for reams of bad, muscular prose but also for turning the San Fermín festival, celebrated in the town of Pamplona, Spain, into a three-minute institutionalized rite of passage, offering a frisson of real danger to the proceedings without being automatically fatal. It’s worth remembering, though, that courting death is not, ipso facto, cool. If there were a contest in Toledo where you drank a bottle of Drano and saw what happened, would you be proud to tell stories about it over dinner?

No doubt that this is Abraco on 7th street in the East Village....

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:18:10 -0400

No doubt that this is Abraco on 7th street in the East Village. Best coffee in NYC.

Couldn’t agree more …

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:16:49 -0400

Couldn’t agree more …

"Fear of failure constrains you and life becomes dull. Life becomes interesting when we fail because..."

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:06:05 -0400

““Fear of failure constrains you and life becomes dull. Life becomes interesting when we fail because it means we’ve surpassed ourselves..””

- Regina Dugan: From mach-20 glider to humming bird drone via TED.com

Take a Deep Breath And Jump I just got back from a long weekend...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:59:45 -0400

Take a Deep Breath And Jump

I just got back from a long weekend skiing in Breckenridge, CO where I had the chance to push my comfort zone a bit. On the second day, we hiked to the summit and ran one of the hairiest chutes I’ve ever skied. Starting with a 10ft vertical drop, the chute quickly narrows like a funnel between two rock walls before opening up to a nice wide run.

Once in the chute, the run is no different from skiing any other on the mountain. But, taking that initial jump required a 10 minute self-pep talk. In fact, standing at the top and starring down that 10ft vertical drop was, itself, 10x scarier than physically running the chute.

It was a friendly reminder that the scariest and hardest part of many new endeavors is taking that first big jump. And, looking back, it’s never as scary as it first appears.

Entrepreneur and grade-A badass, Elon Musk, sat down with 60...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 19:15:31 -0400

Entrepreneur and grade-A badass, Elon Musk, sat down with 60 minutes to talk about his insanely ambitious venture, SpaceX.

What can I say, I freaking love this guy. Starting a private, space exploration startup with zero experience (he has an undergraduate physics degree …that doesn’t count) is the definition of “Go Big or Go Home”.

What grabbed me the most about this interview was his deep emotional response when asked his feelings towards the recent derogatory comments made by childhood hero Neal Armstrong. Musk, on the verge of tears, displayed a deep seeded passion for his work that can only come from someone who honestly believes they are changing the world.

This interview is a must watch for all entrepreneurs.

The Forgotten Stages of Travel I’ve been preaching for a...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:21:00 -0400

The Forgotten Stages of Travel

I’ve been preaching for a while now to partners and colleagues in the travel space about the “forgotten stages” of the travel experience.

It’s been my personal belief that many players are short sighted in their view of what I call the travel life-cycle - the various steps and stages a person goes through before, during and after a trip.

Today, Google published an infographic laying out, better than I ever could, these missing stages and reaffirming my belief that most companies are missing the big picture by ONLY focusing on 3 areas of the travel life-cycle:

Planning
Booking
Experience (the trip itself)

I’ll dig into the stages I believe are missing in a minute, but first, lets talk about why this industry short sightedness exists. In general, the travel industry is divided into two main groups of players: 1) Operators (hotels, tour companies, cruise ships), and 2) Distributors (travel agencies, online booking engines like Kayak/Expedia/etc, flash sales sites).

Distributors focus on converting travelers from the Planning stage to the Booking stage, while operators focus on the Experience. This dynamic leads to a 3-stage, step-by-step process that has a defined beginning and end, as shown below:

Planning -> Booking -> Experience

However, this narrow view fails to recognize the 2 critical stages that exist on either end of the life-cycle: Inspiration and the Post-Trip High.

Inspiration being the point in which you develop an urge to travel and begin to daydream about the possibilities. And, the Post-Trip High being all feelings and actions that occur after the trip. These include the sharing of photos/stories, the feelings of depression after returning to the office, the yearning for the next vacation, etc. Oftentimes, the Post-Trip High leads directly back to Inspiration.

Inspiration -> Planning -> Booking -> Experience -> Post-Trip High -> (Back to Start)

Thinking of the travel process in this light forces us to reconstruct the entire dynamic. It is no longer 3 distinct stages, but instead a life-cycle that occurs continuously over and over again.

Google recently published an interactive infographic called “The 5 Stages of Travel” where they broke down the travel experience into the same 5 distinct stages I mention above (Google calls the 1st stage “Dreaming” and the 5th stage “sharing” which I think is short sighted as it involves much more that just sharing), with corresponding data to quantify each stage. (See breakdown below)

Dreaming: 68% of business travelers watch travel-related online videos. Among them, 68% are thinking about a trip.

Planning: The average traveler visits ~22 travel related sites during 9.5 research sessions prior to booking.

Booking: 37% of leisure travelers report that the internet prompted them to book, up from 28% two years ago.

Experiencing: 70% of business travelers check into their flights/hotel with their mobile device. Almost 1 in 4 hotel queries come from a mobile phone.

Sharing: About 1 in 3 business travelers have posted reviews online of places they’ve been.

I believe the next-generation travel product must seamlessly merge all 5 stages into one complete experience for the customer. As a travel company, our product is not just the trip itself but the entire travel life-cycle as a whole.

Hard to believe that the NY Times still curates and filters its...

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:31:20 -0400

Hard to believe that the NY Times still curates and filters its materials by “most emailed” only. Tweeted? Facebook shared/liked?

"53% of consumers plan to travel more in 2012 than 2011—an 18 percentage point increase from 2011—..."

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:48:40 -0400

““53% of consumers plan to travel more in 2012 than 2011—an 18 percentage point increase from 2011— despite a lack of confidence in the economy. Additionally, two-thirds of travel-bound consumers plan to increase their travel budgets.””

- ~ via a recent Travelocity Report. Further proof that consumers are shifting dollars away from physical good purchases to investing in “life experiences”.

Photo

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:00:25 -0500

“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear”

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 19:47:58 -0500

“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear”

"The average traveler is spending something like … nine web sessions and visiting 21 websites..."

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:49:58 -0500

““The average traveler is spending something like … nine web sessions and visiting 21 websites in order to book their travel,””

- Travel + Leisure magazine

Was just reminded that I moved to NYC exactly one year ago...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:07:29 -0500

Was just reminded that I moved to NYC exactly one year ago today. Calling it a wild year would be an understatement. (thx to @timehop for the reminder) (Taken with instagram)

"I’m a big believer that you can try to change the world based on philosophy, doctrine, and..."

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:46:25 -0500

“I’m a big believer that you can try to change the world based on philosophy, doctrine, and belief. But I think the thing that really drives the world is hedonism, the pleasure factor. As far as I’m concerned, the best way to convert people to eating fresh local grown produce is to show them that local fresh grown produce tastes better.”

- Danny Meyer’s Magic Touch: How To Create 4-Star Experiences And Lines Around The Block (via FastCompany.com)

I love Danny Meyer’s philosophy on food and restaurants, as it can be translated into any facit of human decision making. If you want people to radically change their behavior (whether that be adopting a new political party, a healthier lifestyle, or using a new product), you must find a way to satisfy their inner “pleasure factor”. As a race, we respond to self-interest and desire much more strongly than preached doctrine.

At Barnes & Noble w/ Jess and can’t help but think...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:28:11 -0500

At Barnes & Noble w/ Jess and can’t help but think that in 5-10 yrs the idea of ‘going to the bookstore’ will be looked at the same way as ‘going to Blockbuster to get a movie’ (Taken with instagram)

"Risky ideas can turn into smart businesses when core values and goals remain clear. As people adopt..."

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:14:38 -0500

“Risky ideas can turn into smart businesses when core values and goals remain clear. As people adopt new technologies and are bombarded by mass-produced goods, they’ll increasingly search for emotional connection and individualization.”

- Craig Dalton on the rise of DodoCase via FastCompany

Patagonia: One of my favorite places on earth.

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:20:18 -0500

Patagonia: One of my favorite places on earth.

"A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the..."

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:57:34 -0500

““A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.””

- via “How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work” NYTimes

This is why we will never be able to compete with China for manufacturing jobs. Time to start educating America for the work of the future and stop trying to recall what is lost forever.

Want. It. Now. Cervelo’s newest triathlon bike, the P5....

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:32:19 -0500

Want. It. Now. Cervelo’s newest triathlon bike, the P5. Sticker price = $6,500.

#bikelust

(via WIRED)

Smashing … watermelons? A few years ago, I found myself...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:08:54 -0500

Smashing … watermelons?

A few years ago, I found myself mountain biking through the rural countryside of Laos, right along the southern border of China. I took this picture at the time and then immediately forgot about it, until today.

I’m not exactly sure what went on here. But, someone must really freaking hate watermelons.