It's not often that you can say "back by popular demand" and mean it, but in this case that's absolutely true. Your feedback (and our enjoyment, frankly) was so all positive that we are doing it again. mesh is coming back, next Spring, here in Toronto.

More details are to come, but in the meantime please save the dates and plan to join us. Registration (which we are working hard at keeping affordable) and keynotes will be announced soon.

In the mesh spirit, we are also hosting a meet-up after 6pm on November 15th at the Irish Embassy Pub in Toronto, for anyone involved in the online technology, media, financing or any other vaguely connected web-type. Or if you like Guinness :) It's just a chance to get together and share some web-by conversation.

Check out the mesh blog for more, including links to the podcasts of last year's keynotes (finally...I know, I know) and more from Rob, Mike, Mark and Mathew.

And see you at mesh07.

Tags: mesh, mesh07

Before I started Expedia.ca, I was with Signature Vacations which was Canada's largest packaged vacation company. Our Vancouver office was run by a long-time airline guy, one of these buttoned-down, big-talking, operations-focused veterans who, like many in the Canadian aviation landscape, had begun at Pacific Western, then moved on to what became Canadian Airlines, and with its passing found other things to do.

His name was Mel Crothers, and that same Mel Crothers today finds himself on the cover of the Globe and Mail in a quarter-page, above-the-fold, full colour picture and huge story under the heading "This WestJet staffer blew the whistle on his employer's corporate spying. He's still waiting for someone to say thanks."

Wow.

In reading the piece, I have to say that I am not at all surprised to learn of Mel's reaction. He always struck me as a very principled man, and I can only imagine how difficult it has been for him to walk away from the industry he loved. I was surprised to read the in the account that he called Steve Smith at Air Canada's Zip, rather than taking it up the food chain within WestJet. Sure, Clive was on holiday - but what about Don Bell or somebody else? In any event, I don't doubt that Mel was doing what he thought was right.

I was startled to see the name of Duncan Bureau in the piece, identified as the guy who showed Mel the Air Canada internal website his computer screen with Air Canada's logo and load factors between Calgary and Vancouver. When we were firing up Expedia in Canada, Duncan was our go-to sales guy at WestJet, who we saw as an aggressive, upcoming and sharp mover-and-shaker. From the piece:

"It all came down to four hours on the Friday afternoon of Dec. 19, 2003. At 1:30 p.m., Mr. Crothers was having a “casual conversation” at the desk of Duncan Bureau, WestJet director of sales, according to the informant's sworn affidavit.

Mr. Bureau couldn't be reached Tuesday for comment.

Mr. Bureau displayed his computer screen bearing Air Canada's logo, said the affidavit, and the screen also showed Air Canada's load factors, or the proportion of available seats filled, between Calgary and Vancouver."

I have no idea where Duncan fits into this picture - I don't even know if he is still at WestJet. And he certainly was a friend to Expedia.ca. But, I for one cannot help but get an awful niggle about the oh-too-often link between "agressive mover-and-shaker" and "pushing it too far". I mean, we have all seen that movie too many times.

UPDATE: Duncan called me this afternoon, and told me that he is now VP Sales for WestJet. This was the first time I had ever spoken with him, as in the past this relationship was held by other people who worked for me when I was running Expedia Canada. After speaking with him, I also made the change to the paragraph above, reflecting more accurately what was said in the Globe and Mail article. To be clear, the article does not state that it was Duncan who showed Mel the AC site on his computer, but refers to an affadvit which makes the claim quoted above.

In the story, Mel wonders if he will ever get a Thank You card from Uncle Miltie over at Air Canada. He clearly isn't expecting one from Clive.Well, given that I have my doubts over whether Miltie would even know what a Thank You card is, I'd say don't hold your breath.

But Mel, regardless, you did the right thing.

UPDATE: I have received a lot of email traffic on this post today, which is oddly not reflected in the comments. The biggest question most people are asking is why Mel went to Steve at Zip rather than taking it up the chain internally. Fair question, and as I said in my post, I continue to imagine that Mel must have had what he thought were good reasons and it is still best that this came out.

Tags: air canada, westjet, mel crothers, duncan bureau, expedia, signature vacations

News today that another Expedia person is off to do something new. Francois Daoud was my 7th (I think?) hire at Expedia Canada, and was brought on initially to work on marketing in French Canada as we rolled into that new market.

He is leaving to move to the US to run marketing for a San Francisco based start-up. Quick with a laugh and always game for anything, Francois will certainly enjoy himself back on the Left Coast.

Happy trails, Frankie :)

Well, not really, but my Wife and I did spend last week recording our radio listening habits for the latest round of Toronto BBM (Bureau of Broadcast Measurement) ratings. You know, those things that the stations use to figure out who's listening, and advertisers use to figure what stations to buy to reach what audience. We hadn't done it before, and given I have an, um, more-than-passing interest in media and advertising, we figured what-the-heck.

While filling out a little booklet was fine and dandy, what was most interesting to me in the process was realizing how little radio I listen to anymore. It was really surprising. Not that I am not listening to anything, but that it's not radio. For instance, we went away as a family so the music was kid's tunes on the iPod. Then, it was me in the car, listening to CDs, music and podcasts. On the subway? All iPod, all-the-time. Home? Same. Kid's music and iPod tunes and podcasts.

I also found it interesting that the BBM people don't seem to be interested in knowing that I am listening to my iPod, or CDs for that matter - although, you'd think that they'd want to know what is happening around substitution. Oh, wait, right, they *don't* want to know.

Tags: BBM, tags, radio, ratings

Aer Lingus being bought by Ryanair would be smart. If, and it's a big if, the vagaries of transatlantic aviation regulation can be managed. Long-haul equipment and routes utilizing a Dublin LCC hub might make for an interesting alternative, and goodness knows the European skies need those. It does seem like the sell-off IPO price that the Irish government set was likely too low, though, if Ryanair can turn around and do this deal so quickly. But these are smart guys, Aer Lingus has cut a whack of cost and it feels like it could work nicely.

Porter Airlines, the new Toronto Island, er, City Centre Airport-based outfit is set to fly shortly. Backed by Robert Deluce (of Air Ontario and Canada 3000 fame...I'd say that the only more jet-fuel-in-the-veins Canadian commercial aviation guy might have been the late Max Ward, although I would be hard pressed to put Deluce in that esteemed bucket for many, many reasons). They will be operating the new version of the Dash 8, the Bombardier Q400 and are coming to market with 20 flights daily between the Island and Montreal and Ottawa. The look-and-feel is all very boutique-hotel, with chocolate brown and sea blue, comments about "a Porter being someone who carries your bags" and a tagline of "Flying refined. (tm)."

Uh huh. Dudes, yer flying a Dash 8 from the Island, porter is thick beer and yer mascot is a racoon. For goodess sake, kids, get over yourselves.

Tags: aer lingus, ryanair, porter, goat rodeo

 

Kudos to my friend and mesh-mate Mark Evans who has decided to put his talent where his mouth is (or something like that). Yesterday, Mark resigned his post at The National Post, where he covered the technology scene, and announced that he is becoming VP Operations for the newly-formed b5 blog network. I think a lot of Mark, and know that he believes strongly in the potential of this type of new media. That, plus the fact that they just scored $2 million in VC funding from John Albright's JLA Ventures and Mark Skapinker's BrightSpark, seems to have been what it took to get him to make this big step.

I wish him, and the b5 crew, nothing but success.

Tags: mark evans, b5

News today that Airbus, the European aircraft enterprise and not-too-long-ago wunderkind of the global aviation world has dropped the ball *again* and will be pushing first deliveries of their huge A380 twin-deck behemoth for another entire year. The parent company, EADS, is projecting that this second, major slip will cost them $6.1 billion in operating profit.

Parking the whole "man, I get that it's a complicated thing to create a new thing like this, but how could they have messed this so badly?" line of thought for a moment, let's think about the downstream implications. Singapore Airlines and Emirates - two of the most successful global players, with well deserved reputations for service and strength via small-but-well-located hubs as their home bases - have committed to buying a whack of these machines. Which means, they did not commit to other alternatives, such as the latest Boeing 747 for instance. The result of these slips means that their entire business plan has been thrown for a loop, for years to come. Airports have done major upgrades, pilots have been trained, revenue has been projected. Just as traffic from China looks set to ramp - prime business for both these guys - they look to be short of capacity. And Virgin, who seems to have ongoing gifts of "oopsies" from British Airways landing in their lap, is also left holding the bag. And Lufthansa, FedEx...da da da.

I guess after all the changes in the Airbus executive suite, it's better to call it and take the hit, but I can't help but think that this could have all been avoided. The Boeing folks in Chicago/Seattle, Embraer in Brazil etc. must be doing all they can not to high five around the office.

Tags: airbus, a380, goat rodeo

Congratulations to all who were elected, and to those who did not - many thanks for your participation.

Tags: CIRA