Alan Weinkrantz PR Web Log

En Route to Cuba With Jewish Federation of San Antonio

This morning I am departing for a 5 day trip to Cuba with Jewish Federation of San Antonio.  I will be posting photos in the days to come.  I am very excited about the prospects of this adventure.

So I Run Into Jeff Pulver Partying With a Few Friends In Tel Aviv

When you are partying, the heck with jet lag.

I really needed to crash and get some sleep, but instead I attended The Marker's Internet Party at my hotel.  I was with my son, Aaron, who is a Freshman at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and Yossi Vardi (who was the founding investor in Mirabilis, which was sold to AOL and re-branded at AOL Instant Messenger or AIM), was kind enough to extend Aaron an invitation as well.

I met some of Israel's latest generation of Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, including Oded Felled, who has a very compelling technology platforom in IP TV broadcasting. 

Cruising the room, who do see: our client and buddy, Jeff Pulver, (center in photos) who will be speaking tomorrow on disruptive broadcasting.

So far, day one has gone quite well. 

In San Miguelle de Allende

My six week travel adventure continues.  This week I am on a partial vacation in San Miguelle de Allende, Mexico, and will continue to check emails, do some routine client work, and blog daily.

I brought all of my camera gear and will be building an inventory of photos that I will be able to display when I am supposed to have my very first photo exhibit at Lara August's Robot Studio Gallery in December.  I will also be shopping to source metal photo frames that are made here by local artisans.

This photo was shot from a wonderful Italian restaurant overlookiing the main town square. 

More photos to come during my week's stay here.

 

Commentary and Observations of the London Tube Bombings

Having been in London during the time of the Tube bombings, I contributed an editorial to our local newspaper, the San Antonio Express News.  Additionally, I sent in photos from the day after showing that life carried on.

Back at The Ranch After Being Gone for Two Weeks

My six week travel adventure continues.  I have been in Paris, London, Iceland and then back in London for a period of two weeks on a combination of a partial vacation and scheduled meetings. 

Broadband enables me to continue with running the business, working with clients, and conducting outreach to the journalist and analyst community, and with my Apple AirPort, I can set up a wirless LAN in my room when wireless is not available. 

My Blackberry performed flawlessly, except in one remote part of Iceland when we were on a glacier.  The most telling point of the whole trip that shows that there is no escaping your daily life at home was receiving a recorded call on my cell when I was in Paris from my local Blockbuster store on Broadway in San Antonio telling me that I had an overdue DVD.

Missing: Looking for Loved Ones from the London Underground Blasts

I have just landed at George Bush International Airport from London.  Last night, my son Aaron, became very ill with stomach pains and wound up going to the emergency room at Queen's Free Hospital in Hamptead. 

Upon registering him I noticed there were three "Missing" notices at the front desk.  These were three individuals who never made it home that day.  The doctor who attended to Aaron told us that she happened to be in the building next door to one of the bombings and wound up tending to several of the injured. 

En route home, I thought about my junior year abroad when I attended the Antioch Centre for British Studies.  It was the 1973 - 74 school year.  This was the height of the Mods and Rockers movement, the Rolling Stones were going strong with their release of the It's Only Rock and Roll album, and the Irish Republican Army was conducting random bombings of the Underground system.  I remember in my own way being defiant and not letting the IRA get in my way of having a fantastic year. 

Three weeks ago I was in Israel, where it's been relatively quiet.  You do see a strong security presence in public spaces, restaurants, and office building.  And in three weeks, my son is starting his Freshman year at the Rothberg School at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he will be arriving right before the process of the witdrawl from the Gaza Strip.  When people ask me about his safety, my standard answer is that he is much safer in Jerusalem than he is in his car on 410 on a Saturday night. 

London - The Day After the Bombings

Our London trip continues with this now being the day after the tube and bus bombings. Buses and tubes were running with the only exception being the stations that were affected in the blasts.  You see people going about their daily lives.  The headlines in the daily newspapers focus on the missing, the dead, and the on-going investigation to figure who pulled this off.  While the tubes seemed less crowded for a Friday morning, upon arriving to Oxford Street, it was swarming with Londoners and tourists alike.

As the day progressed, I looked for telling signs of normalcy.  Being a tourist myself, I did see the tour buses like the one here.  The only really different thing I did see during the day was a  marked increase in security at the tubes, bus stops and major tourist attractions.  When I  returned to the hotel Friday evening I was pleased to see that the terrorists underestimated one thing:  the resiliance of the the stock market amidst bad news.  The day after this horrible event, the Dow shot up 148 points.

Iceland on the 4th of July

Rather than fighting the Texas sun, I am sitting near the top of the world in Iceland with my family on the 4th of July.

Happy Independence Day!

London - Dinner at Parliment

Tonight was a family dinner at the Houses of Parliment. It included an amazing private tour of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.   

We were also joined for dinner with an MP who provided his insight on the workings of the government, political issues in Britain and around the world.

A Clear Message from Paris.....

Am taking the day off to enjoy Paris. It's lovely, expansive, very hot, and air conditioning only seems to exist in minimal form.  In reading the International Hearald Tribune, the discussion on the heat wave not only in Paris, but in Europe, is due to global warming.
 

So a clear message to hotels, restaurants, and shops: adapt to air conditioning, but do it in an intelligent manner-- do it with solar energy if you can.