Special venue for your next Management meeting

This is your perfect venue for your next management meeting:

Bonefish Cay, Bahamas

Location
This 13-acre island is located in the Abacos chain of islands in the Bahamas and takes its name from its interesting shape and the amount of bonefish in this region.

Accommodation
2 guest villas with 6 suites and the impressive master bedroom and a large Main Lodge (a total of 7 double rooms) can be rented to a total of 14 guests. Each double room has modern bath and finishings. The main building of 5,000 sq. ft. is the centre of this island paradise and the meeting place for eating, drinking, for a game of pool, or for taking your chances at a round of poker. The 30-foot-high cypress cathedral ceiling brings a feeling of majesty to the main house. The entertainment area also features a stereo system and home-theatre system with satellite television and large-format screen for comfortable viewing.

Activities
There are island boats always ready for your excursions. The island manager will give you a tour of all the nearby highlights, and you may even greet dolphins along the way. Professional diving tours can be arranged with the neighbouring island. Snorkelling equipment as well as ocean-going kayaks are provided for your use. Take a swim at low tide around the island's own coral reef and see the multitude of coral and fish. The island has two long, sandy beaches, and paths over the island. There are many shells and native plants that make a stroll interesting. Reservations for golf (18 holes) on the neighbouring island of Treasure Cay can be made on request, or a game of tennis on Spanish Cay.

Getting there
Flights from Fort Lauderdale fly daily to Treasure Cay, where you will be picked up by car, delivered to a private harbour and then taken by boat to Bonefish Cay. Or charter a flight from Miami or Nassau to the neighbouring island, Spanish Cay, where there is a port of entry and 5,000-foot runway

Rates:
From EUR 50,000 per week plus local taxes for the entire island for up to 14 guests, including gourmet full-board, service and use of all water-sport facilities. Alcoholic beverages, diving, golfing and flight transfers are at guests' expense.
20% surcharge for peak season rentals Christmas/New Year.

Not happy with my suggestion? See here more options for Islands to rent: Vladi Private Islands

MICE goes Mobile

Over the past two years I have become a Mobile junky. My iPhone became very important to me and I use it where ever I can.

Looking for a mobile conference guide solution, I found this interesting iPhone and Android application called ConferenceGuide.

ConferenceGuide is a full suite of tools aimed at improving the overall conference experience for organizers, speakers and attendees alike. It's based on a conference-agnostic platform accessible via several mobile native applications. There is an iPhone and an Android app that offer advanced online schedule and speaker information browsing.

Both of these applications are free, and with the next version, you will be able to unlock premium features for a small event-specific fee. Those premium packages will include the ability to browse content offline, Twitter integration, push notifications, a personal schedule builder, the ability to communicate with other attendees, and much more.

The organizer console will evolve too in the months to come, with a session planner, a speaker manager, a survey builder and more.

So watch out and stay tuned for news about this application.

A Nightmare in Tourism Logistics

A Nightmare in Logistics, the Hajj pilgrimage which involves almost 3 million human beings congregating at Makkah, then moving on to Minah, Arafat, Muzdalifah and back to Mina, over a short 6 day period, is effectively managed by the Saudi Arabian Government and its designated administrative authorities, each year.

The logistics, administration and management of the annual pilgrimage of Hajj by the Saudi Arabian authorities and related public and private sector organizations is truly a nightmare beyond the wildest imagination of any operational exercise in the world. With the volume of pilgrims participating in the Hajj increasing by leaps and bounds each year the authorities have had to spruce up their act, re-define procedures, and come up with better control mechanisms and facilities to provide a smooth and successful process to enable a successful execution of the pilgrimage.
In 2008 Saudi missions abroad issued almost 2 million visas for pilgrims seeking to perform the pilgrimage from overseas. In addition the number of local pilgrims who travel to Makkah from all parts of the Kingdom usually amounts to another million, at least.

The majority of foreign pilgrims in 2008 — 1,645,135 — came by air, 216,532 by land and 30,550 by sea, according to Maj. Gen. Salim Al-Belaihed, Director General of the Passport Department.

About 1,000 foreign dignitaries including 720 from Europe, 200 from Asia and Australia and 61 from Arab countries also performed the Haj in 2008 and the numbers are expected to be similar this year too. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz also invited almost 12,000 prominent Muslim personalities from around the world to perform Haj as his guests over the past several years.

Read the full article here by Fazil Sameer from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

About the Hajj festivities

The main reason Muslims go to Makkah is to pray in the Holy Mosque. Often, they perform the Umrah, the lesser pilgrimage, while visiting the Holy Mosque. Once a year, the Hajj, the greater pilgrimmage, takes place in Makkah and nearby sites. During the Hajj, three million people worship in unison.

If a person performs the Umrah or the Hajj correctly, all his/her sins are forgiven.

Every adult, healthy, sane Muslim who has enough money to travel to Makkah and can make arrangements for the care of his/her dependents during the trip, must perform the Hajj once in a lifetime.

In 2009, the Hajj will begin today Wednesday, November 25.

What is the 7th Annual MICE Europe Congress in Dubrovnik, organized by NASEBA?

I have come across this event called "7th Annual MICE Europe Congress in Dubrovnik".

Do you know about it? I didn't. So let's have a closer look:

Looking at the video, I got some interesting thoughts about this event.
Look at the video and check out the following:

After 0:27 (Coffee Break?), I count 15 people
After 1:37 (Exhibition?), I see the table number 29 but this table is already empty. So let's assume there were 29 exhibitors (but where is exhibitor No 29?)
After 1:43 (Dinner?), I count 10 tabels with a total of 18 people
After 3:06 (Exhibiton?), are there two people from the same company talking to each other? At least the name boards suggest this. It must have been a great trade show. (Maybe the lady behind the Name Kerim is not "Kerim"? Is Kerim a man's name?)
After 3:34 (Dinner reception?), I count approx. 30 people

And so on. Did you attend this event? What is your feedback?

I wonder why Event organizers don't do a proper marketing campaign... And start to embraze the entire industry because only if we work together we will become stronger.

Zürich Schlaflos, the other Travel guide to Zurich, Switzerland

The man drinks regularly. He smokes. He is a gourmet and art lover. A voyeuristic gambler with nostalgic tendency to glorification and a toilet fetish. And he is your faithful travel companion for Zurich.

Netcetera, a software company from Zurich, Switzerland, has created this unique podcast available on iTunes Store for your iPod or iPhone.

Two authors on behalf of the transporting enterprises Zurich (VBZ) did come up with the content. Philippe Amrein and Thomas Wyss gathered 60 marvelous stories about cool places along the 32 and 4 Bus lines for the new Podcast “Zurich sleepless” along Langstrasse and Niederdorf.

If you are going to Zurich (and speak German, or have a personal guide...) follow these bus lines and discover Zurich as you wouldn't imagine.

Travel history, part II

Bridgewater Canal: AD 1759-1761

In 1759 a young self-taught engineer, James Brindley, is invited to visit the duke of Bridgewater. The duke is interested in improving the market for the coal from a local mine which he owns. He believes his coal will find customers if he can get it more cheaply into Manchester. He wants Brindley to build him a canal with a series of locks to get barges down to the river Irwell, about three miles from the mine.

Brindley proposes a much bolder scheme, declared by some to be impossible but accepted by the duke. He will construct a more level canal, with less need for time-wasting locks. He will carry it on an aqudeuct over the Irwell on a straight line to the heart of Manchester, ten miles away.

On 17 July 1761 the first bargeload of coal is pulled along the completed canal. Brindley's aqueduct (replaced in 1894 by the present swing aqueduct) crosses the Irwell at Barton. The strange sight of a barge floating in a gutter high up in the air becomes one of the first great tourist attractions of the Industrial Revolution. The investment in this private canal rapidly pays off. The price of the duke's coal is halved in the Manchester market.

The Bridgewater canal is the first in Britain to run its entire length independently of any river. It is the start of the country's inland waterway systerm, for which Brindley himself will construct another 300 miles of canals.

Will this hotel ever been completed?

In 1987, the Government of South Korea did start with this tremendous project called Ryugyong. A hotel with 3000 rooms, 360'000 sqm space and 7 revolving restaurants in the heart of Pyongyang.

It supposed to open in 1989, but it never did.

But lately, a photo captured workers completing the windows and other bits and pieces of the facade. The Egyptian construction company Orascom is apparently working on it.

Do you know more about this hotel project? Please write comments...