LUXURY TRAVEL KEVIN KELLY ISSUE How the industry is changing Wired founder on the future BANGKOK GAMERS TED TALKING 134 A Thai cafe with a difference Thirty-three years of TED
#WINNING?
A year on from Jack Dorsey’s return as CEO, is Twitter still in the social media race?
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CONTENTS UPFRONT 14 TED REVISITED It’s 33 years since the advent of TED. LIVING So what next for the home of ideas worth 74 spreading? HOTEL An historic landmark 18 in the heart of Dublin CLEAN ENERGY We explore the 78 economic realities WHAT TO PACK of President From sunshine in Rio to Trump’s climate snow in Toronto, we’ve got change promises you covered 22 84 MOST WANTED FOOD & DRINK From colourful We meet a French chef who bikes to cutting-edge gave up his Michelin stars speakers, a curated to start a new venture in the selection of eye-candy heart of Chelsea 28 88 BANGKOK CONSUME GAMERS This superb Robert How one British Rauschenberg retrospective expat set up a board in the Tate is a must-see game cafe with a difference in the Thai capital 90 COLUMN How one American architect reimagined the shopping mall experience
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CONTENTS FEATURES 34 TWITTER TROUBLES With everything from trolls to fake news spooking investors, can Jack Dorsey turn the ailing social media giant around? 44 LUXURY REIMAGINED Luxury travel has always been the most difficult sector to crack – we examine how the industry is changing 54 KEVIN KELLY An exclusive interview with the Wired founder and author Kevin Kelly 64 DRIVE TIME An illustrated look at the glory days of the American automobile
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PF_22017.P14-16_Upfront_TED.indd 14 1/22/17 1:12 PM FEBRUARY / TECHNOLOGY ISSUE 134 The future of TED On the 33rd anniversary of TED, Emma Woolacott examines how the non-profit has pushed innovation into the mainstream
hirty-three years ago minutes on topics that have long this month, a group of expanded beyond the original technology enthusiasts design and technology brief to gathered in Monterey, encompass subjects as diverse as California, for an event the discovery of gravitational waves Tthat was – even according to its and how to spot a liar. creator – a flop. The Technology, Speakers have included Entertainment, Design (TED) everybody from Bill Clinton to conference failed to make money, Billy Graham, Richard Dawkins and it was six years before a second to Bono; and, famously, some one took place. remarkable predictions have been But following this unpromising made. At that first conference, for beginning, TED has clearly been example, Nicholas Negroponte doing something right. Alongside foresaw touch screens and the main conference, which is teleconferencing, while there were now an annual event, more than demonstrations of early versions of 3,000 talks are given around the the compact disc, the e-book and world every year under the TED 3D graphics from Lucasfilm. umbrella. But it’s TED’s videos The organisation also awards a $1 of these talks – and there are million grant each year – the TED now more than 80,000 available Prize – to make one individual’s online – that have really helped the wish come true; last year’s winner, organisation gain its cult status. Sarah Parcak, is working to “Our greatest success was also crowdsource archaeology by asking perhaps our greatest stroke of luck: volunteers around the globe to that we experimented with putting check satellite photos for signs of a few TED Talk videos online at the ancient sites. But it’s the TEDx dawn of the internet video era back spin-off that has really made the in 2006. YouTube was still in its organisation a household name. infancy and most people were still Under the TEDx licence, getting familiar with the format,” individuals around the world says TED’s head, Chris Anderson. can independently organise their “The result stunned us: those own TED-style conference, and six original videos went viral, and it there are now around 10 a day, 14 15 became immediately obvious where in locations from the slums of we should focus our efforts going Nairobi to the Sydney Opera forward. We never looked back.” House. The videos of these The motto of TED is ‘Ideas performances are rated by viewers worth spreading’, and its principles to highlight the most inspiring, TED’s owner, Chris Anderson on stage are simple. Speakers talk for 18 fascinating or persuasive.
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Some, such as Ken Robinson’s a catchy title and a carefully FIVE TO WATCH ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ have structured talk that builds to a been viewed tens of millions of times. revelatory conclusion – has become But as the organisation has the lodestone of public speaking. Ken Robinson – Do Schools Kill Creativity? grown, there have been rumblings If you regularly give presentations, Sir Ken Robinson makes an of criticism. Some speakers have the chances are that a fair number entertaining and profoundly alleged that they are treated like of the people in the audience will moving case for creating commodities; they aren’t paid, secretly be comparing you with an education system that nurtures (rather than despite fees of $8,500 for conference TED speakers – and finding your undermines) creativity. attendees, and are expected to do the presentation wanting. work for the glory alone. Anderson One speaker, associate professor brushes off this concern. of visual arts at the University Of Amy Cuddy – Your Body “Our speakers – including major California, San Diego, Benjamin Language Shapes Who names who command high speaking Bratton, actually used his TEDx You Are fees elsewhere – understand our platform three years ago to deliver Body language affects how others see us, but it may also non-profit mission, and view the a talk titled ‘What’s Wrong With change how we see ourselves. opportunity to reach potentially TED Talks?’ Social psychologist Amy millions of people as recompense “If we really want transformation, Cuddy shows how ‘power enough,” he says. we have to slog through the posing’ – standing in a posture “Actually our whole business hard stuff (history, economics, of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident – can model is based on the generosity philosophy, art, ambiguities, affect testosterone and cortisol of so many who want to help contradictions). Bracketing it off to levels in the brain, and might spread ideas.” the side to focus just on technology, even have an impact on our There have also been accusations or just on innovation, actually chances for success. of censorship from TEDx speakers, prevents transformation,” he said. some of whom complain that videos “Instead of dumbing-down the Simon Sinek – How Great of their talks haven’t made it onto future, we need to raise the level of Leaders Inspire Action the TED website – or have done so general understanding to the level of Simon Sinek has a simple but with a derogatory note attached. complexity of the systems in which powerful model for inspirational But, says Anderson, “There’s we are embedded and which are leadership – starting with a no censorship. Occasionally we embedded in us. This is not about golden circle and the question ‘Why?’ His examples include get alerted to specific TEDx talks ‘personal stories of inspiration,’ it’s Apple, Martin Luther King, and uploaded to YouTube that are about the difficult and uncertain the Wright brothers. political or religious in nature, for work of demystification and instance, or share science that hasn’t reconceptualisation: the hard stuff been peer-reviewed. But our guiding that really changes how we think.” Brené Brown – The Power ethos is radical openness.” Anderson accepts that there Of Vulnerability Brené Brown studies human Of the tens of thousands of TED are plenty of things that could connection – our ability to talks available online, he says, just be improved, and points out that empathise, belong, love. In a few dozen have been flagged as the organisation and its various a poignant, funny talk, she unreliable, and ‘informational context’ initiatives are still in relative infancy. shares a deep insight from added. “We do so out of a duty of The slick style, he says, is just a way her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to care to our audience,” says Anderson. of making interesting ideas more know herself as well as to Lately, TED talks have even accessible – and it works. understand humanity. been attacked as yet another “TED Talks have only spread manifestation of the so-called liberal because people see them, get excited elite – “A thought control tool of by them, and share them with Susan Cain – The Power the establishment,” as one activist friends, saying, ‘You have to take a Of Introverts In a culture where being social website put it. look at this,’” he says. and outgoing are prized above More plausibly, there have been “Storytelling is one of 16 all else, it can be difficult, even PB suggestions that the talks are simply humankind’s original rituals for a shameful, to be an introvert. too slick and superficial, and that reason: we learn, we remember and But, as Susan Cain argues in they are becoming the status quo we share. It is through stories that this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents that they once aimed to challenge. we relate to others, make sense of and abilities to the world, Over the last few years, the TED the world, build our experience and and should be encouraged style – immaculate presentation, our memories.” and celebrated.
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UPFRONT
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This is an ambitious goal, as governments aim to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions On thin ice by the end of the century, Marianne Guenot explores the economic realities of while promoting productivity President Trump’s climate change promises and investment, and providing electricity to the one billion people in developing countries he days of the “This would create global who currently do not have access demagogic polar bear temperatures that haven’t been to power. balancing on the tip seen for tens of millions of years, In this new global context, of a melting iceberg well outside the expanse of the “there is an inescapable arithmetic are gone. Today, modern human species.” that hydrocarbon companies have Tclimate change is about business According to the most to face”, says Ward. “If all the plans, forecasting and global recent assessment by the world’s known reserves of fossil economics. However, the recent Intergovernmental Panel On fuels were burned, enough carbon inauguration of President Donald Climate Change, the last dioxide would be released to take Trump has revived a discourse interglacial period was probably global temperatures well beyond of climate change denial, which no more than 2°C warmer than the 2˚C limit.” many had thought had been pre-industrial levels, but sea Within this new framework, abandoned in the past decade. So, levels were between five and 10 companies need to reassess at this pivotal moment in clean metres higher than they are now. the value of the assets they are energy development, what are A 5˚C increase would create an 5˚C holding, as they quickly become the policy, corporate plans and apocalyptic world, where extreme increase in unrealisable. Economists argue political strategies that will decide weather patterns would cause temperatures that the price of hydrocarbon the future of climate change? displacement of hundreds of would see an might also currently be An estimated 50 billion millions of people, threatening apocalyptic undervalued, as it doesn’t account tonnes of carbon dioxide are geopolitical stability. change in for the damage carbon releases released into the atmosphere While no scientific projection weather cause to human health and climate every year, and an overwhelming will ever conclusively predict patterns change. The IMF calculated that majority of scientists now the future, “climate change is in 2015, energy subsidies reached agree that the raise in global essentially a risk management more than $5 trillion, or 6.5 per temperature is manmade. challenge”, says Ward. “We simply cent of the global GDP. “If we just carry on increasing cannot take the risk.” On the other side of the emissions along their historical With this data, the historic Paris equation, clean energy is now path, by the end of this century, agreement was designed during increasingly competitively priced we could potentially see rises in the COP21 summit. It was signed and efficient. In 2016, Germany global surface temperatures to by more than 190 countries, and announced it ran almost entirely 18 19 5˚ higher than the pre-industrial came into effect on November 4 on clean energy for a day and temperature,” says Bob Ward, last year. Signatories agreed to Portugal reported that the entire policy and communications support a global effort towards one country ran on hydro, wind and director for the Grantham driving goal: to limit the rise in solar power for 107 hours straight. Institute’s Centre For Climate global mean surface temperature In this context, there are Change Economics And Policy. to well below 2˚C by 2020. concerns that we might
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be facing a ‘carbon bubble.’ THE LAST HURRAH OF industry, and intends to remove “[Hydrocarbon companies] either CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS President Obama’s signature from have to downscale their business, While governments and the Paris agreement. Whereas this or think of their options for corporations seem to be rallying can seem like a step backwards, diversification and become true behind a common goal, the a closer look shows that the energy companies,” says Ward. election of President Trump casts discourse does not match up with “It’s a huge gamble for a company, a shadow over the global move proposed policy plans. in my view, to bet against towards cleaner energy. The US On an international scale, international climate policy.” is amongst the largest emitters of removing Barack Obama’s Leading hydrocarbon carbon worldwide, second only to signature from the Paris corporations such as Shell, Total, China. Contrary to Barack Obama, agreement is a long-winded BP and Statoil are now publicly President Trump famously denied procedure, which could only integrating the transition towards the impact of climate change, take effect the day after the next presidential election. Last year, Germany ran almost entirely In terms of domestic policies, Trump could face some on clean energy for one full day resistance from states that have already heavily invested in the cleaner energy into their business stating in a tweet in 2012 that clean energy transition such as strategy. Last November, a “global warming was created Texas, which is currently the consortium of the world’s biggest by and for the Chinese in order largest wind power generator in oil companies, the Oil And Gas to make US manufacturing the country. Climate Initiative, injected $1 non-competitive”. Reviving the coal industry billion into climate-friendly He has put many climate could also prove to be a very technologies. As chief executive change sceptics in charge of his costly endeavour. “Coal has of Total, Patrick Pouyanné, said administration, including Rex been suffering against natural during the launch: “If the CEOs Tillerson, the former CEO of gas, which produces less carbon of the 10 largest corporations ExxonMobil. He has also declared dioxide per unit of electricity,” meet six times during the year that he would cut Nasa funding for says Ward. It also depends on it’s not for philanthropy, it’s climate change research, pledged what Trump calls the “clean real business.” to revive the American coal coal” approach, which relies on the use of carbon capture and storage, a technique where carbon is pumped back into depleted underground gas reservoirs. That technology, while promising, is still very costly. “It is difficult to see how Trump could revive the coal industry without a major subsidy program,” adds Ward. “We’ll have to wait and see what President Trump does when he takes office, but whatever he does is likely to have a limited impact,” predicts Ward. At this momentous time, it now seems that the transition towards clean energy will push forward, powered by international cooperation and market forces. 20 PB Ward says: “It’s really a question of competitiveness, it doesn’t look like you can maintain a competitive economy based on dirty energy if the rest of the world is moving towards clean energy.”
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ell’s Kitchen art deco gem with 14-foot-high A gorgeous staircase leads to was once one ceilings and a huge private roof an absolutely jaw-dropping master of Manhattan’s terrace overlooking the city. The floor with unparalleled eastern and less salubrious first thing you notice is the light southern views of Midtown and neighbourhoods – – the design (lots of open-plan Downtown Manhattan. A spacious Hindeed, its name arose from being areas) means the place is flooded sitting area with a wet bar and a hotbed of roving Irish gangs in with sunshine at all hours of the powder room leads to a sprawling New York the 19th century. After decades of day, with the kitchen and dining private terrace. This extra-large neglect, the area has finally come areas particularly bright and master bedroom features double into its own – witness the last spacious. We also love the polished PRICE height ceilings, dramatic city From $11,495,000 phase of the High Line and the concrete kitchen counter tops views, an enormous walk-in closet huge Hudson Yards development, and the Smallbone Of Devizes and over the top en-suite bath. both set to be completed in the cabinetry. The second and third The windowed master bath 26 sothebyshomes. PB next few years. It’s filled with bedrooms feature en-suite baths, com/nyc/ features a large glass enclosed hip bars and restaurants, and with glass enclosed steam showers, sales/00110326 steam shower, cast iron soaking is probably the closest you can soaking tubs and custom steel tub, double sinks, steel vanities get to newly gentrified Brooklyn vanities. There are custom solid and Black Zeus marble radiant without taking the ferry. oak floors throughout, as well as a heated floors in a chevron The property is a light-filled hi-tech Nest thermostat system. mosaic pattern.
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Playing the market Gregor McClenaghan meets an English expat who has built up one of Bangkok’s most successful board game cafes
ome people see business according to the time people as a battlefield, but to spend playing, but Battlefield’s Chris Sanderson it’s all tables are free. fun and games. Nine “Our motto has always been: Syears ago, with his wife, Thaewarat ‘Why pay to play?’ I don’t want (Cheer), he opened Battlefield people to be distracted and have to Bangkok, the first dedicated game rush so they don’t get charged for and hobby store in the Thai capital. another half hour; I want people He initially worked as a to relax, have fun and immerse teacher, before moving to IT; he themselves in a game,” says Chris. got married in 2001 and set up The rise of rival game stores Battlefield Bangkok in 2007. Like initially seemed like a challenge, many entrepreneurs, he set up his but Chris realised the competition business to fill a personal niche. was actually helping his business. “As a kid, every Sunday at “When we first opened we’d home, me, my sister, my mum panic every time we saw someone and dad, would sit down and else selling games, especially play board games together,” if they could sell cheaper, but says the 48-year-old, who has actually every store that opened lived in Thailand since 1993, raised awareness of board games when he moved to Bangkok from and brought in new players, so Nottingham in the UK. “Once business increased. I had kids of my own I wanted “We were the first full-on game to carry that on, but the only store and club. I prefer to think of place selling games in Bangkok it as a hobby store – we don’t do was a book shop, and if you just games, we do miniatures, we asked the staff about a game they do paints, paint brushes, all the wouldn’t have a clue. Battlefield accessories that go with gaming. Bangkok came from that; I wanted When Battlefield first opened, something to do with the family, 90 per cent of its customers were and a place where people could foreigners; now Chris says 95 per come to play games, talk to people cent of his customers are local, as who knew about games and teach Thais embrace the social side of 28 29 them how to play.” gaming. “People have got bored Game cafes have become of computer games; there’s only popular worldwide; there are now so many times you can shoot more than 60 in Bangkok, and something in 3D,” says Chris. Myanmar’s first game cafe opened “People are looking for a in Yangon in 2016. Most charge more mature, interactive
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experience, and the best Chris says Thais generally play developing property that are interaction you can get is to sit lighthearted party games that can much more challenging.” down at a table with a bunch of be played quickly, but there are Board games were huge in the friends, play a game and make growing numbers playing more 1970s, but suffered as computer it a social event. Our players are complex games that can take 95% games emerged in the ’80s and mostly university students and hours to complete. “Games have of Battlefield ’90s, but the industry picked up older, although we do have kids’ so many themes, and there’s a again after 2000. In 2016, Chris 30 Bangkok’s 31 games, and there’s a bunch of girls lot of depth. customers went to EssenSpiel in Germany, from one of the local schools who “Something like Monopoly are locals the biggest gaming event in the come in every weekday. In some has brand awareness, but it’s world, for the first time. countries gaming is a very male limited in terms of playability; “It was mindblowing; nine halls oriented hobby, but here there’s a there are games with the same packed to the brim with companies lot of girls getting into games.” theme of buying real estate and from all over the world showing off
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“We are a distributor, and we won’t do franchises ideas they liked, but it’s become more of a shopping process; you as I don’t want to compete with my customers” can preorder a game before it goes to print and it gets delivered straight from the publisher to your door, cutting out the retailer. If I owned a store in the US I think Kickstarter would be hitting my business hard,” says Chris. “However, because it’s expensive to ship to Thailand, it’s not cost effective; consumers pay the price of the game, plus $20 or $30 shipping, plus tax on top of that, so they end up paying far more than they want to. “We’ve actually helped customers get Kickstarter funding by using our established freight partners. Some Kickstarter projects are quite supportive of retailers and will give us a bulk deal; they know that having a game on our shelves makes their brand more visible. It’s a good system; the customer gets the their latest games; you also have we had it on the shelf for ages Chris Sanderson in game, the publisher gets the sale, people going with beta versions of and nobody touched it – people his Sukhumvit café and we don’t get cut out.” games, trying to get picked up by a assumed it would be rubbish, Although some Bangkok game publisher. It was a great chance to just cashing in on the brand. stores are starting to open franchises meet our suppliers and get a sense Eventually we said, ‘Nobody’s in other parts of Thailand, Chris of what new kinds of games are buying this, let’s crack it open doesn’t think he’ll take the business coming out.” and have a go.’ Now the Game Of in that direction. “We distribute In any industry, products that Thrones card game is our biggest now to other stores, and I don’t don’t sell disappear, but even game and we have tournaments like the idea of running franchises successful games often have a and competitions, simply because and being a distributor at the same limited life span. As with books, one day we decided to try it, and time; we shouldn’t compete with production is measured in print it turned out to be good.” the people we’re selling to. I’d prefer runs; games go out of print and Game of Thrones isn’t alone; pop to build stronger partnerships lie dormant until the publisher culture brands from The Walking with some of our retail partners develops an expansion or the Dead and Spartacus to Family Guy and focus on distribution, with copyright changes hands, at which have tie-in games; some, like Star Battlefield as a flagship store.” point they get a new lease of life. Wa r s , have several. He says Thailand’s appetite for Many successful games stop at two Many games are produced games shows no sign of slowing print runs; others might be hidden in China for US companies, but down. “More and more people are gems that are just not discovered despite Thailand’s proximity to playing board games and seeing by enough players, which is where China, it is cheaper to order from it’s a fun way to spend their time, a store like Battlefield can help. the US, due to differences in trade and parents are seeing it as far “It can be quite challenging to tariffs and shipping costs. more educational and sociable for sell a game without a demo copy Those quirks of international their kids than sitting playing on 30 31 to play in the store,” says Chris. trade have, however, helped an iPad. There doesn’t seem to be “Some games on the surface insulate Battlefield Bangkok from a any end to the growth in sight.” might not appeal, but when you potential business risk: the growth of Battlefield Bangkok, 71 Sukhumvit actually play they turn out to crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter. 101/1 Road, Second Floor, Bangchak, be fantastic. A good example is “Kickstarter began as a way Prakanong, Bangkok 10260 the Game Of Thrones card game; for people to support projects and battlefieldbangkok.com
PF_22017.P28-31_Upfront_TheBusinessBangkok.indd 31 1/22/17 1:23 PM Massachusetts General Hospital named among America’s Top Hospitals
To request an appointment, visit massgeneral.org/international
Ranked as one of the top three hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) is the only hospital in America to be ranked across all 16 specialties. FEBRUARY UPFRONT / CLASSIC READ ISSUE 134
that would play golf with his biggest customers. Barbarians The eventual victor would be Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), a private equity firm run by Henry At The Gate Kravis. He looked at Johnson’s $75-a-share bid, knew it was too By Bryan Burrough & John Helyar low, and raised it to 90 a share. $ THREE MORE Kravis ultimately prevailed with BOOKS a bid of $108 a share, at the end FROM BRYAN of a battle that dragged on for BURROUGH six gruelling weeks. The authors chronicle this six-week battle Days Of Rage with verve, and it reads like a A multi-threaded thriller in places. Even more account of six violent radical interesting is what happened after underground the buyout. KKR began selling groups that pieces of RJR Nabisco to meet operated in its interest payouts, and most of the US at the the company’s top executives left, tail end of the 1960s. From getting huge payouts as they did so the Weather (Johnson’s was worth $53 million). Underground to This is a story with no heroes the Symbionese – all parties are equally greedy – Liberation Army, and if there was ever any concern their goals seem about the largesse on show, it quaint today, but their violence was was always about appearances. very real. Corporate America learned to live large in the 1980s, and for the The Big Rich first time, executives were more The story of four concerned about figures on a of Texas’ richest computer screen than products in oil families and a factory. The 1980s were the new their rise and onsidered one of the leveraged buyout was the best way gilded age, the decade that paved fall – this is raw capitalism at its best business books to reward shareholders. the way for the current corporate most entertaining ever written, Barbarians So, in October 1988, Johnson domination of the financial world. as Burrough At The Gate is about and some of the company’s top The authors’ skill is in making weaves a tale of Cthe leveraged buyout of RJR executives announced their plan the minutiae come to life – of how greed, avarice and politics. Nabisco, a huge American food to buy Nabisco for $17 billion, or RJR Nabisco came to dominate and tobacco conglomerate. $75 a share. Johnson assumed there their industry and how men like Written by The Wall Street Journal would be no real competition, given its CEO F Ross Johnson came to Public Enemies investigative reporters, Bryan that his bid was worth a third more be in charge. This is investigative Burrough Burrough and John Helyar, the than the company’s market value, journalism merged with a tackles the most spectacular crime book takes a look at what was the but he had fatally underestimated compelling narrative arc, and it’s wave in American 1980s’ biggest corporate deal, one the hunger of Wall Street. that combination that had many history: the worth $25 billion. Johnson’s plan to make lauding the book as the best on two-year battle Nabisco’s demise can be traced millions for himself and his business ever written. between J Edgar back to two things: the rampant shareholders backfired as Wall The book paved the way for Hoover and criminals such as avarice of 1980s corporate Street got its claws into the deal the likes of Michael Lewis to write John Dillinger, America and the relentless drive and the ensuing melee would business books that explained PB Bonnie and Clyde 33 for higher stock prices. When F push the bidding for the company arcane practices in accessible and Pretty Boy Ross Johnson, Nabisco’s chief up to $25 billion. It also shone a language. And for all the great Floyd. Epic and executive, had exhausted all spotlight onto Johnson’s largesse business books written in the often revealing, the book explains other avenues to raise the stock – he had two private maids, past two decades (many of them how – after many (including a much derided 10 corporate planes and gave by Lewis), none is better than early failures – smokeless cigarette), he decided a millions of dollars to sports stars Barbarians At The Gate. the FBI prevailed.
PF_22017.P33_Upfront_TheBook.indd 33 1/22/17 1:24 PM Despite being one of the giants of social media, Twitter is in trouble. Ever since going public, its business prospects and relevancy as a communications tool have been called into question. Ronan Shields analyses its fall from grace and examines whether its CEO Jack Dorsey can move the brand forward
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 34 1/22/17 2:05 PM #IDENTITYCRISIS What Next For Twitter?
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 35 1/22/17 2:05 PM TWITTER
he first thing you need to understand about Twitter is that is not a normal public company. It has existed in an almost permanent state of chaos Tsince its inception in 2006. It has already had four CEOs in that time, a remarkable turnover, and one that illustrates the problems that have engulfed the brand since it launched. Some of its most recent problems can be traced back to its 2013 IPO, and the resulting focus on quarterly earnings that every public company faces. That pressure has resulted in something of a conveyor belt at the top of the company. Its new CEO – and co-founder – Jack Dorsey is now the man tasked with finding new audiences and fixing the company’s myriad problems. The move to (re) hire Dorsey was strange in itself, given he had been fired nine years previously for, according to Vanity Fair, “prioritising the pleasures of running a start- up over the many rigours involved”.
The move to (re)hire Dorsey was strange in itself, given he had been fired previously for “prioritising the pleasures of running a start-up over the many rigours involved”
It was claimed Dorsey spent too much of his time going to yoga classes instead of fixing the company’s server issues. His co-workers were unimpressed and his investors spooked, and he left the CEO role, acrimoniously, in 2008. Dorsey is nothing if not resilient, and in the intervening years he founded the mobile-payments company Square (estimated value: $5 billion) and garnered a reputation as an inspirational ideas man, the polar opposite of Twitter’s then-CEO, Dick Costolo. When Twitter’s board offered Dorsey the CEO role, he rejected it, telling them he would not leave Square. Feeling they had no choice, the board hired Dorsey as interim CEO, while he simultaneously ran Square, a move unprecedented in Silicon Valley history. 36 The list of items in Dorsey’s ‘to-do’ list was long and foreboding. For one, Twitter’s growth was stagnant, hovering around 300 million users. User retention was low – nearly one billion people have signed up for Twitter, the vast majority not sticking around. The platform was increasingly
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Chaotic scenes during Twitter’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange
37
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 37 1/22/17 1:27 PM TWITTER
TWITTER TIMELINE being seen as a home of abusive (often racist) trolls, many of whom were anonymous, and critics complained not enough was being done to stifle the daily flows of bile. Influential users left, 2006 Jack Dorsey comes including comedian Louis CK, who said Twitter up with an idea didn’t make him feel good. for an SMS-based Venture capitalist and early Twitter investor communications Chris Sacca pointed out some of the company’s platform that allows issues in a 2015 essay, an article that some friends to keep tabs claim pushed the board to force out the then- on each other via CEO, Dick Costolo. Costolo was hired five years status updates. previously, seen as a safe pair of hands after the Dorsey sends the tumult of Twitter’s early years. Under his watch first tweet on March the company had grown from 300 employees to 21st: “just setting up more than 4,000 and had increased revenues my twttr.” from zero to $2 billion a year. What Costolo couldn’t control was perceptions: Twitter was no longer cool. As Vanity Fair’s Nick Bilton put it: “It had lost out on news to Facebook; on 2007 millennials to Snapchat; on China and India The company to WhatsApp. Instagram was eviscerating it on experiences a huge images. In a remarkably short time, it had slid growth spurt during the from the second-largest social-media company to South By Southwest interactive conference the ninth.” Twitter’s board hoped that if anyone with more than 60,000 could stop the slide it would be Dorsey. It was tweets sent per day at never going to be that simple. the event. In his third quarter earnings call for 2016, Dorsey announced a second significant series of Due to the huge staff cutbacks (nine per cent) in 12 months, as number of sign-ups, well as the closure of its video-sharing service Twitter often finds itself struggling to keep up in Vine. In typical fashion, Twitter put a positive its first few years. spin on the revelations, claiming they formed part of its plan to “create greater focus and efficiency to enable Twitter’s goal of driving was despite the company beating earlier analyst profitability in 2017”. 2008 forecasts of quarterly revenues of $605 million. And despite revenue growth of eight per cent Whatever the short-term gains, the following Co-founder Evan year-on-year during the quarter (totalling $616 months saw a swirl of speculation about Twitter’s Williams takes over million), there were several other factors that long-term future, the popular sentiment being as CEO while Jack reflected poorly on its performance. Among them: Dorsey becomes that the company can’t go it alone, and indeed, Twitter’s sixth consecutive quarter of flat user chairman of the board. some of the industry’s biggest names (Google, numbers (one per cent increase year-on-year) and Microsoft, enterprise-IT firm Salesforce, US declining growth rates in ad engagement (which telecoms giant Verizon, and entertainment halved between Q2 and Q3 to hit 14 per cent). In behemoth Walt Disney) have been touted as short, Twitter – despite Dorsey’s rehiring – was potential suitors. 38 2009 39 stagnating, and the markets didn’t fail to notice. If Twitter does get bought, Dorsey’s position The Twitter ‘Lists’ These results were met with a mixed response as CEO would be vulnerable. Detractors continue feature is added, by investors, and following the earnings call, allowing users to to ask how he can run Twitter and Square; can Twitter’s stock price was worth a little over half follow groups of a part-time CEO manage the turnaround that of what it had been 12 months previously. It was authors ranked Twitter desperately requires? valued with a market cap of $12 billion. This by interest. Another ongoing concern for Twitter is
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 38 1/22/17 1:27 PM TWITTER
A Tahrir Square shop in Cairo during anti- Mubarak protests in 2011
to navigate”. Added to this is the failure of the new products Twitter has launched – such as Vine. With the cloud of uncertainty hanging over Twitter’s future as a business, it’s worth citing the opinions of those primarily charged with bankrolling the social network, primarily advertisers (who contributed $545 million to its quarterly earnings in Q3 of 2016). Many in the media and advertising world struggle to understand the role of Twitter, a hangover from the company’s earliest days. Was Twitter a social network, a media company, a messaging platform? As Twitter’s early growth was spectacular the answer to that question didn’t really matter, but now, particularly for its advertisers, it’s the question that needs answering. Lara O’Reilly, a senior editor at Business Insider, argues that Twitter still maintains many assets as a media forum, although its inability to win over small-to-medium size businesses’ media budgets – something both Facebook and Google do brilliantly – will cost it in the long run. “If you are going to use Twitter, you really have to have something to say; so if you’re a journalist or an analyst that’s easy to do, but if you’re a small window cleaning business from Doncaster then that’s not so easy,” she says. Wayne Blodwell, an experienced media buyer and chief executive of The Programmatic Advisory, says that Twitter has taken a backseat in the eyes of many advertisers. “It’s not a priority platform for clients and you could say it has an identity problem, it’s just fallen down the priority innovation, or its lack of it. Silicon Valley is an list,” he says. “If Twitter was a more defined innovation machine, and the longer the company 2010 platform, then it could figure out how to position doesn’t roll out new features, the more likely a Williams steps down its media sales strategy and come up with separate younger, leaner start-up will emerge to poach as CEO and Dick and more focused propositions. At the moment Costolo, former the all important youth demographic currently it’s so diluted that it almost can’t compete.” COO, takes over. using Twitter. According to O’Reilly, the seeds of Twitter’s A recent forecast by analyst house eMarketer downfall as an advertising platform were sown predicts that Twitter’s share of the social media in its early days, when it didn’t sufficiently market in the US is on the wane – it currently differentiate itself from its peers and allowed stands at 28 per cent and is predicted to fall to 27 2011 itself to be tarnished within the ‘social media tag’ per cent by 2020. Alternatives such as Facebook The Arab along with Facebook, a comparison it was never 38 39 and Snapchat are predicted to grow in the same Spring is one of going to win. the first mass period, cannibalising Twitter’s market share. She adds: “Twitter and Facebook launched demonstrations For report author Oscar Orozco, a forecasting to use Twitter as a their advertising propositions at the same time, analyst at eMarketer, the slowdown in its numbers means to spread and they were both the shiny new things in the is predominantly due to difficulties among new information toolbox for brands, and it was a must-buy and users, with many finding it “unwieldy and difficult and news. people wanted to test on their media plan
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“If you look at Twitter’s acquisition strategy, and compare it to Facebook, you can see the difference”
[the industry standard term for where and when brands should place their adverts].” For both O’Reilly and Blodwell, there are simply more strategically simple answers for advertisers when it comes to engaging with youth audiences, even if metrics point to the ongoing utility of Twitter ads. “There are more platforms out there now,” says O’Reilly, who compares Facebook’s “meteoric” rise in user numbers compared to Twitter’s less positive numbers. “If you want to reach more people, then you’re going to have to go to Facebook. Twitter has done a really good job of showing that advertising with it works, and they have partnered with lots of third parties to demonstrate this.” Evidence of this was shown in an eMarketer poll of advertisers that buy ads on social networks. It showed that money spent with Twitter was second only to Facebook when it came to providing value. Despite this, Blodwell claims that Twitter has failed to position its investments in a manner that’s appealing to advertisers, and ultimately it has been usurped by rivals riding the crest of a PR wave. “If you look at Twitter’s acquisition strategy and compare it to someone like Facebook, then you can see the difference,” Blodwell says, contrasting Twitter’s purchase of Vine in 2013 40 41 with Facebook’s similar purchase of Instagram, and their subsequent diverging fortunes. “Nowadays, if you want to buy video, you’d just go to Snapchat,” he adds. This brings us to Moments, one of Dorsey’s Former Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo big pushes after he rejoined the company –
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 40 1/22/17 1:27 PM TWITTER 2013 Twitter launches a music app called Twitter Music, and acquires Trendrr, a real-time social data company.
Twitter releases Vine as a standalone app, allowing users to create and share looped six- second videos.
Twitter launches its IPO and starts trading on the NYSE, with shares valued at $26.
The Associated Press Twitter account is hacked, and a message sent out claiming Barack Obama is injured in an attack on the White House. Stocks lose more than $134 billion as a result, but recover quickly when the hoax is revealed. 2014 Twitter buys start-ups SnappyTV (a video editing service), CardSpring (an online shopping coupon service) and Namo Media (a mobile native advertising firm). 2015 Dick Costolo resigns as CEO and Jack Dorsey takes over the role.
Users can now attach polls to their tweets, which stay up for 24 hours. 2016 Stock price hits a low 40 of $14. 41 2017 Twitter stock price is worth $17.25 at the time of going to press.
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 41 1/22/17 1:27 PM TWITTER
an attempt to take back some of the momentum However, Twitter’s leadership remained tight- Twitter had lost. Moments was launched with lipped when questioned over how these efforts much fanfare at the end of 2015 – billed as a will translate into increased revenue, although it showcase for ‘big conversations’ curated by its is clear that Twitter now appears to be banking internal content teams as well as journalists from “Twitter on compensating for its slowing growth in user the likes of Buzzfeed, Vogue and The New York is just not numbers through “growth in audience”. In Times. Twitter was keen to showcase Moments media circles this can differ greatly from user as the future of the company, as well as live showing the numbers, as advertisers will often pay increased video streaming of NFL matches across the hockey stick premiums for better audience data as long as it US. The company’s finance chief, Anthony performance increases the likelihood of serving ads to those Noto, also highlighted the launch of a service more likely to purchase, no matter how small the allowing advertisers to dynamically insert ads that a lot of audience numbers. into this more premium experience (which should investors are The end of 2015 also saw the fever pitch theoretically command a bigger premium than its around Twitter’s ‘troll’ problem reach its height. 42 looking for” 43 earlier offering). “That’s very important, given This has dogged Twitter since its inception, and the auction dynamics of our overall advertising the controversy surrounding the abuse – and the marketplace, to be able to deliver specific targeted company’s seeming inability to tackle it – would ads to individual people, as opposed to everyone scare a number of possible buyers away. Indeed, getting the same ad, and we’ve seen great response potential suitor Marc Beniof, Salesforce’s CEO, there as well,” he told investors. is on record as saying Twitter was “not the right
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 42 1/22/17 3:50 PM TWITTER
fit” for his outfit when pressed over his potential interest in acquiring it, with many pointing to the endemic trolling as one of the reasons for the snub. The same reason was also allegedly TWITTER KINGS behind similar unsuccessful negotiations with Walt Disney – hence Dorsey’s drive to position AND QUEENS the company as a curator of news, rather than an anonymous repository of hate. For Ciaran O’Kane, CEO of research house ExchangeWire and a pundit on digital media monetisation models, Twitter’s future as a business lies in its ability to harness the vast swathes of audience data at its disposal, and in particular its traction with high-profile influencers such as media professionals and politicians. He also believes that Twitter should rely less on its media sales business model and instead focus on Katy Perry Justin Bieber Taylor Swift Followers: Followers: Followers: offering its audience insights to brands and media 95.3 million 91.2 million 83.1 million owners on a licensing model – popularly referred Tweets: Tweets: Tweets: to as software-as-a-service, or SaaS. 7,582 30,600 4,156 “I think Twitter should have pushed the SaaS Followers per tweet: Followers per tweet: Followers per tweet: model to begin with – it’s still an important 12,569 2,980 19,995 channel in terms of consumption, and as a news resource it’s amazing for real-time information, but as an advertising medium, it’s all wrong,” O’Kane says. An analysis of Twitter’s latest publicly filed earning figures would suggest that he is not alone in this view. Twitter’s SaaS revenue for the third quarter of 2016 increased 26 per cent year-on-year to hit $71 million, a contrast with the eight per cent annual increase in its media sales model. Most analysts agree that if Twitter wants to fulfil its potential, it needs to escape the quarterly Barack Obama Rihanna Followers: Followers: scrutiny of being a publicly listed company. This 80.5 million 69.2 million year will likely see Twitter sold, a move that will Tweets: Tweets: probably be brought about by shifts in the market 15,400 9,890 as a result of Snapchat’s own IPO (tipped to be Followers per tweet: Followers per tweet: worth $25 billion). 5,227 6,996 A Snapchat IPO would “eat a lot of Twitter revenue”, as it would aggressively pursue advertiser budgets in a bid to satisfy Wall Street’s Luma Partners, an advisory firm that has demands, says O’Kane. “This would kill Twitter’s helped broker some of the biggest digital stock price, and in my opinion it will be taken media deals in recent years, calculates the private as soon as you see its market cap go to current landscape consists of approximately about $8 billion,” he predicts. 4,000 companies – it has organised them into It’s an opinion shared by Business Insider’s chart popularly known in the industry as ‘The O’Reilly, who agrees that Twitter would provide Lumascape’ and predicts that this number will huge value for companies looking to monetise contract significantly ahead of 2020, as the its audience insights, by offering them to larger players in the industry subsume distressed 42 43 organisations eager to measure popular public (but valuable) assets. The question remains: will sentiment uploaded to the social network every Twitter be such a statistic? For now all eyes are day. “Twitter is performing well, it’s just not on Jack Dorsey. As one executive told Vanity showing the hockey stick performance that a lot of Fair, if Dorsey can’t turn Twitter around, there is investors are looking for,” she says. “I personally no other alternative plan. “There is no Plan B,” think the best idea for it would be to sell.” he said. “This is it.”
PF_22017.P34-43_Feature_Twitter.indd 43 1/22/17 1:28 PM The Changing Face
PF_22017.P44-53_Feature_LuxuryTravel.indd 44 1/22/17 1:29 PM of Luxury Travel
Ben West examines how the luxury travel market is changing: free-flowing champagne is out, one-of-a-kind experiences are in
PF_22017.P44-53_Feature_LuxuryTravel.indd 45 1/22/17 1:29 PM LUXURY TRAVEL
here are two images in Paul Fussell’s seminal book, Abroad, that illustrate the pull of the South – and of travel: one, a row of slums in Salford, Manchester, in Tthe 1930s, and on the opposite page, holidaymakers enjoying the sun overlooking a Cannes beach during the same time period. The drab North versus the picturesque South, the lure of travel versus the mundanity of staying home. Travel was even more appealing at the start of the 20th century than it is now, as it was so rare – the vast majority of Europeans would never leave their home countries (unless it was to go fight in a war). Travel itself was a luxury – witness the period at the start of the 20th century when, due to the First World War, travel was discouraged, as it wasted precious fuel, and some returning travellers found their baggage ransacked by crowds outraged at the tourists’ flippancy. Travel as we know it now was then a preoccupation of the rich and the artist class – the early 20th century saw countless writers, artists and poets leave the North (US, England) for the South (the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East). The ability to ‘escape’ was a luxury all of its own – something the vast majority could only but dream of. It wasn’t until the 1960s that places such as Cannes came within reach for the average traveller. The South, which in practice meant the Spanish coast and the Greek islands, opened up to the working classes – luxury was a room with a balcony and a sea view and two weeks of all inclusive food and drink. There is a general rule when it comes to travel – what was once considered a luxury is now commonplace. The bar is continually being raised – as the emergent middle classes seek the material aspects of luxury travel, while established luxury markets increasingly desire a new, evolved kind of luxury, where experiences and enrichment are key. Viennese tourists is perceived by customers and executed by the A recent report co-produced by travel analysts on holiday in world’s best travel companies. Amadeus, Shaping The Future Of Luxury Travel, Switzerland in 1880 “What is considered luxury today will confirms that global travel is growing faster than continually shift to become mainstream global gross domestic product – with luxury travel tomorrow,” says Julia Sattel, global head of Airline growing even more rapidly. Over the next decade, What was IT, executive committee member, Amadeus. “For the growth rate in luxury travel is projected at 6.2 once thought example, spas used to be associated with high-end per cent, almost a third greater than overall travel, luxury is luxury; now they are virtually mandatory in every at 4.8 per cent. four-star hotel and included in many business So what do we mean when we talk about now seen and first class airport lounges, thus raising the bar luxury? Do we mean a ticket on a suborbital and threshold service levels over a relatively short 46 as standard 47 spaceflight, or a $500 a night villa in Bali with – the bar is period of time.” a private infinity pool and a butler on call? There’s no doubt that the idea of luxury The private villa and the butler were once what continually is changing: while in the 1930s the height of we meant – now though, things are changing. being raised sophistication would have been to fly from Everything from Instagram to the way we consume London to, say, Singapore in just eight days food and culture has changed how luxury travel (with multiple stopovers), or in the 1970s for
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Tourists sit on a Harvard University, one of the world’s foremost balcony overlooking writers on language, mind and human nature, and Monte Carlo in 1965 known for his advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. Dr Rebecca Goldstein, recipient of a MacArthur ‘Genius’ award, author of 10 books, NYU professor and recipient of the National Humanities Award from President Obama for “bringing philosophy into conversation with culture”, will also escort excursions and lecture during the cruise. There’s just 32 places on the boat, and passengers will receive personalised service and an insightful your hotel room to boast a gleaming wood- narrative on all the wildlife and habitats seen. It’s effect Corby trouser press and tea and coffee- certainly a completely different take on the idea of making facilities, today’s discerning travellers a luxury cruise to what you’d expect in the past – want different kinds of luxury. but then silver service and a large wine selection Access and experience are the current bywords is, in 2017, somewhat passe. for luxury – the very wealthy have the high- “Having a celebrity on board is a definite end equipment and the luxury furnishings at hook for the luxury sector,” says Eric Andrews, home, so merely replicating that on holiday is sales manager for Quasar Expeditions. “We have not enough. They want access to a special place several outings during the year with special guests or experience off-limits to most people, or to on board, such as Professor Richard Dawkins, a celebrity or someone eminent in their field. and these tend to sell out in the luxury sector in 46 47 Quasar Expeditions, for example, currently offers the blink of an eye.” access to Steven Pinker, one of the greatest minds Both Dawkins and Pinker are renowned in the of his generation, on one of its cruises to the field of science, but neither are what you would Galapagos Islands. Described as “an exclusive call celebrities. Both are, however, exceptionally charter”, the trip – sailing next month – will be intelligent, and the opportunity to understand the accompanied by the professor of psychology at Galapagos – where Charles Darwin came up
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A cruise for just 32 passengers with one of the world’s smartest men, typifies luxury in 2017
with the theory of evolution – with either men is a rare opportunity indeed, and in some ways the definition of a luxury experience. It’s not just scientists that Quasar brings along on its cruises – names such as Martha Stewart, Robert De Niro, Russell Crowe, Susan Sarandon, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Michele Pfeiffer and Prince Charles have all taken part (or will do so in the future) on its cruises. “Another interesting change is that we see, more and more, that the luxury sector is travelling as a family, or multi-generational travel, as we call it,” says Andrews. “We even note that for this type of travel, parents have no qualms in taking their kids out of school mid-semester, for the trip is educational in itself and will assure a growth experience for their kids. We, of course, see this as a very positive emerging trend because destinations such as Galapagos, Ecuador and Patagonia offer exactly this type of experience.” Luxury tour company Artisans For Leisure, based in New York, has also seen an increase in family travel in the luxury sector. “Family travel continues to rise,” says Ashley Isaacs Ganz, the company’s founder. “More than ever, parents and grandparents tell us that they want every activity designed with the kids in mind.” The company also strives to move on from the established motifs of luxury travel, be they a turn-down service and cut glass tumblers by the minibar. The company offers arts-based tours featuring private art gallery visits, preferred 48 49 rooms in luxury hotels, first-hand, sophisticated destination knowledge and recommendations from travel specialists, private airport transfers, VIP and fast-track airport assistance. They offer such private, behind-the-scenes- tours with curators and local experts, skipping the
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lines at museums and other cultural sites, exclusive access to private art collections, private meetings with artists, gallerists, museum curators, restorers, artisans and other specialists, and VIP tickets to music, dance, opera and theatre performances. “Luxury clients definitely expect more and different things than they did in the past,” says Ganz. “We were early pioneers of extremely upscale, customised travel that emphasises local lifestyle and culture. In recent years requests have become even more personalised and hyper-customised, based on the interests and requirements of each traveller. “Also, travellers have a better sense of what they want to experience. Social media has played a big role. Instagram, for example, inspires people to go to places and influences what they want to see and do there. As a result, travellers often have very specific wish lists of what they want incorporated into the private, customised tours that we arrange.” “Those that are looking for experiential, and/ or adventure travel at a high-end or luxury level are indeed changing their focus from lavish accommodations and the ultra fancy restaurants to travel experiences that are more personally enriching and, therefore, memorable,” says Andrews. “It’s not that they are necessarily switching from four- or five-star to three, they still do expect comfort and good food. In addition to this, they are looking for experiences that are out of the norm, or more hands-on and/or ‘local’. 48 49 “We’ve noted that for this sector, they may partly reduce their expense for the actual bed they sleep in, maybe not going all out or as lavish as they may have in the past, but they do invest more in the experience overall in order to attain personal growth and the enrichment.
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“Dining is a great example. The food of course has to be great quality, safe and delicious, but they prefer that it comes along as a part of a local experience, such as ‘street food’ or a family (home- cooked) meal, in a special, exclusive location, such as on the rooftop of a colonial church in Quito, or as a part of a local event or tradition where they can actively participate.” Andrews believes that luxury clients now expect more and different things to the past – ‘more’ meaning, at times ‘less’ in terms of the lavish and over the top. For this sector, the trends are pointing towards the value in the actual experiences. Again, those that allow for personal growth, education and, needless to say, true unforgettable memories. To achieve this, one not only needs to be able to visit destinations that are life-changing in their uniqueness and exclusivity (as in, remoteness, that have special qualities or attractions that are not the usual, and/or that do not have tourists in the millions etc), but what you do at these destinations is also key. “Real cultural and/or natural exchanges and experiences are a huge attraction in this regard,” says Andrews. “Ecuador and Patagonia, for example, are destinations where travellers can be very comfortable but also have easy and safe access to Tourists on the Paris to “These people have seen the whole world, diverse, authentic local cultures and experiences, not Calais train in 1880 so just by offering the nicest room and the most to mention unique natural encounters. Hands-on expensive champagne and having the biggest TV experiences, where travellers can visit local artisans, screen in the room you cannot impress them, participate in local events, and actually interact because they have the better TV at home and the one-on-one with locals and with nature, are of most expensive wine in their cellars.” tremendous value, more so than the lavish and over- With a view to offering the luxury traveller the-top cold or dry ‘luxury’, as in the past.” more than the usual things like good food and Jan Stiller, director of Relais et Châteaux’s accommodation, Lenkerhof Gourmet Spa Resort 50 51 Lenkerhof Gourmet Spa Resort in Switzerland, is just launching a Route du Bonheur, but instead says: “In the past a five-star hotel guest always of by car, for hikers. Guests start at Lenkerhof and wanted to stay in a five-star hotel. These days, walk to Kandersteg, then to Leukerbad and finally guests want to have a special experience and if the to Crans Montana. In the evening they can enjoy situation allows, they’ll also sleep in a cabin, but a Relais et Châteaux chef dinner and the spa, and there has to be a certain detail of luxury. the next day they walk to the new destination with
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“Before tourism there was travel and before travel there was exploration”
In a way everything has come full circle. The first travellers – long before the dawn of the tourism industry – were adventurers in the best sense of the world. As Paul Fussell points out in Abroad, “Before tourism there was travel and before travel there was exploration.” He defines the three as: “The explorer seeks the undiscovered, the traveller that which has been discovered by the mind working in history, the tourist that which has been discovered by entrepreneurship and prepared a lunch bag. Their luggage is transported to the for him by the arts of mass publicity.” next destination. The resort is convinced that this Before the dawn of mass tourism, travel was sort of initiative complements well the new way seen as something akin to study, a thing to broaden luxury travel is going. the mind, to develop the soul – not something that Andrews sees that the luxury sector seems to could be said of two weeks on the Costa Del Sol. be branching off in different ways: one branch What then are the new breed of luxury travellers? remaining focused on the more typical very high- These are a group of people with more time and end type of accommodation, food, and general more disposable income than any in history, and experiences, but another that focuses on luxury the fact that they spend that free time attempting 50 51 experiential travel. These do have their ‘basic’ to discover new places and experience new things expectations for things like very comfortable should be a cause of optimism. accommodation, personalised service, a close eye Of course the top tier of luxury travel will on detail and great food, but their travel goals and continue to evolve, but, as our lives at home get dreams are truly met when the above mentioned more and more comfortable, we can expect our factors are a part of their travel experience. free time to get more adventurous.
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LUXURY ADVENTURES
Space Travel There are a number of companies aiming to pioneer the space tourism market, including the US firm Space Adventures, which has already sent the first privately funded individuals into space. Its Cosmonaut Overview Training package – based at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow and priced at $89,500 – gives affluent adventurers a taste of what they can expect should they decide to embark upon full training, including a spacewalk mission simulation in a neutral buoyancy tank and dinner with a real life cosmonaut. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is also making great strides in the same field.
Blue Origin launches from Texas in 2015
Branding One of the newest trends in luxury travel is where luxury brands dip their toes into the hotel world. As well as the Armani Hotel in Dubai, there’s the Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge, the Karl Lagerfeld-designed Schlosshotel in Berlin and the Baccarat Hotel in New York. From a marketing perspective, this all makes sense – these luxury names 52 already have brand recognition 53 and access to high-net worth individuals. Although there is a danger of these hotels veering over into tackiness, most of them have successfully executed their The entrance to a suite in the Baccarat Hotel brand extensions.
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Food Food is an essential part of any trip and it’s no surprise that there are countless food-based luxury companies that offer everything from one-on-one lessons with chefs to private tasting tours of Michelin-starred restaurants. From vineyard tours of Italy to private dinner parties in Seoul, this is probably the biggest sector of the luxury travel business right now.
The Road To Oxiana Venice Abroad The Places In Between Robert Byron Jan Morris Paul Fussell Rory Stewart (1937) (1960) (1982) (2004) – – – – 52 One of the first – and still Morris’ writing goes A remarkably insightful Stewart bravely walks 53 one of the best – travel deeper than most in the book about the history from the Iranian border to books. This was travel to travel genre – she uses of travel writing between Kabul proving that the era broaden the mind, rather the city’s story to explain the two world wars. of travel adventure is not than to relax, as Byron why we travel and why Still considered the over. Moving and insightful journeyed from London certain places have such greatest analysis of travel prose combine with some to Afghanistan. a profound effect on us. literature ever written. hair-raising adventures.
PF_22017.P44-53_Feature_LuxuryTravel.indd 53 1/22/17 1:30 PM THE MAN WHO SEES YOUR FUTURE
Narain Jashanmal interviews Kevin Kelly – the most important thinker that you’ve never heard of
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like to think that Kevin Kelly mainlines the to his home in Pacifica, California, I ask him to internet, which makes sense given that he’s elaborate on this idea. been online since before anyone could even “Being confronted by something bigger than get online. Where others fear the future, “Embracing ourselves can be scary. Robots sound scary. IKevin Kelly embraces it. virtual reality that’s more addictive than the video the future is “By embracing it, it’s the best way that we can games we’ve got today, sounds scary.” actually steer it,” he said on stage at the 2016 the only way He describes two possible stances toward edition of South By Southwest (SXSW), the that we can technology, the first being the Precautionary annual conference of technology, music and film Principle: don’t engage with something new 56 actually steer in Austin, Texas, during the introduction to his the future” until it’s safe. Which sounds sensible until one talk, in which he would explore three key trends realises that we’re constantly dabbling with new shaping our future: artificial intelligence, virtual technology and, in fact, can’t really understand reality and tracking. the consequences, intended or otherwise, of When I catch up with Kevin over video a new technology until it is applied. Which conference from my apartment in New York City, brings us to the second stance, which is that the
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only way to understand both the benefits and A woman wears an Whole Earth Catalog, Kevin launched Cyberthon, downsides of a technology is to use it. Doing so Oculus Rift VR headset the first event of its kind, a 24-hour virtual reality enables industries to be built and legislation to at CES Las Vegas jamboree at which the 400 attendees were able be written. For example, globally, there are more to experience the then state-of-the-art of this than a million automotive-related deaths per nascent field. year. Had we known this to be the case prior to It was at this event, in the early hours of the inventing it, would we have given up all of the morning, that science fiction author William social evolution that the cars and trucks gave Gibson coined one of his most oft-quoted rise to? phrases: “The future is already here, it’s just not 57 It also helps that he has been there at the early very evenly distributed yet.” days of many of the technological trends currently According to Kevin, this idea would become shaping our world. His relationship with virtual one of the guiding principles of Wired magazine, reality (VR), for example, goes back to 1989 when which he would go on to co-found in 1993, and he first met Jaron Lanier, an early pioneer in the one which mirrored Kevin’s own path to becoming field. In October 1990, while an editor at The the world’s foremost packager of ideas about
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how to cope with the challenges of the future and capitalise on the opportunities it presents. Born in 1952, he grew up amidst the hippy counterculture of the 1960s and, after spending a year studying geology at the University Of Rhode Island, dropped out to backpack across Asia, taking photographs along the way. He supported himself by doing odd jobs in America, such as working in a warehouse where he packed running shoes, from which he would make enough to survive for four or five months in Asia, living a life of “volunteer simplicity”, making do with the minimum required for survival and comfort. By the late 1970s he found himself in Iran, where he ran a newsletter for the American expatriate community until being forced to leave during the Revolution. Technology’s progress is almost hidden: it drives the future in small steps, by a few per cent a year
Once back in America with a self-acquired PhD in East Asian Studies and a sense of just how unevenly distributed the future was, Kevin had his first contact with personal computers, about which he had previously harboured scepticism. They were a product of The Man, of corporate America, personified by the blue pinstripe suited IBM executives. But he had an epiphany when he first connected to the pre-internet via an Apple II/e with a modem. The magic was the network, in Bulletin Board Systems, in The WELL, one of the oldest virtual communities that he helped found in 1985. He observed an embryonic culture that felt organic and good, because it was based on communication – this Wired has grown from This sounds like the scenario of so many is more obvious today than ever before, with humble beginnings to dystopian science fiction stories and is a good the proliferation of social media and messaging become one of the world’s enough reason for many people to fear the future. most popular magazines applications taking a central role in our lives. Hidden within this concept is the invisible nature Technology can be thought of as something of how technology drives progress: in small steps, rigid and inflexible, but, as it started to permeate by a few per cent per year. Kelly admits that new more aspects of the world, Kevin started to technology produces almost as many problems think of it in organic terms, as something living. as it solves. But, and here lies the source of his When viewed this way, technology can be seen optimism, technology makes better solutions to as anything that has been produced by another problems and, even if that progress happens mind, whether as rudimentary as a dam that incrementally, it compounds over time. Only when 58 a beaver builds, to something as complex as looking back can we see how far we’ve come. the algorithms that govern search engines. This However, there is very real social upheaval makes technology into something that is greater associated with this progress. A good example than ourselves. The machines and software that being automation in the workplace. Lest anyone we will make in the future will, eventually, create think this is an abstract example, look no further technology of their own. than the recent strikes among the Transport
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For London workers, protesting the decreasing the reason, but the major reason is lower fertility number of jobs available to them as ticketing rates as a consequence of ageing and increasingly windows continue to be replaced by machines. urban populations. People wait longer to have This trend will continue and it is something children and then have fewer, given the space that we’ve faced before, most notably following constraints of city living. the Industrial Revolution. For all of the manual What this means for the human race is unclear. jobs it replaced, it created entirely new jobs. We Society functions because workers produce goods have the capabilities to retrain people but an for which there is a market. What happens when equally important part of the task is convincing What happens both the number of workers and the number of people that they are capable of learning new skills when the consumers decreases? Would introducing robots required for the future – the challenge being that, change things? One reason people delay having in many cases, we don’t yet know what those skills number of children are time constraints. Could having will be. Imagine asking farmers of a previous era workers and robots that help raise children induce people to imagine that their grandchildren would work the number to once again have more children and reverse as web designers. population decline? In parallel, we’re dealing with significant of consumers We don’t know. What we do know is that demographic transitions at a global scale. In decreases? robots are coming. They’re already here. Largely what was, to me at least, one of Kevin’s most as software and algorithms, in the form of machine counterintuitive notions, the big shift that’s learning, which powers artificial intelligence (AI). coming is one that we’ve never had to deal Apple’s Siri, the Amazon Echo and Google Home with before: long-term population decline. are examples of consumer products that use AI, Most of us think that the world’s population though most of the benefits of AI are likely to be is growing, when, in fact, the opposite is true. captured by businesses, especially the corporations With a few exceptions, currently sub-Saharan that maintain them. Kevin envisions a future in Africa, historically in America, and more recently which AI becomes a commodity, delivered as a Germany as a result of immigration, the world’s service, much the same as electricity is today and population is decreasing. China’s one child per consequently sparking a similar wave of innovation Automation is family policy – which was phased out in 2015 already a huge part as when electrification first happened. It will offer – and similar programmes in India are part of of our daily lives manufacturers the ability to add ‘IQ’ to their products. For example, industrial robots have to date been very difficult to program and required specialised technicians. Baxter, a robot made by Rethink Robotics, whose founder Rodney Brooks previously invented the robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba, trains itself by watching human workers perform tasks that it will take over. This offers a glimpse of what things will look like, of humans and robots working side-by-side and perhaps a job title of the future: Robot Whisperer. 2016 was the year in which conversational input came to the foreground in computing. Notably, voice interfaces such as the one used by the Amazon Echo but, equally, with messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Messenger and Snapchat. Another trend has been the increase in visual communication with emoji, photos, stickers, animated GIFs and videos augmenting and even replacing text as a means of conversation. What’s driving this, Kelly believes, is the evolution from an Internet Of Information to an Internet Of 60 Experiences. Humans crave experiences, they become a unit of exchange: a selfie in an exotic location, a picture of artfully arranged dish of food. If this is to be the case, then it is likely that virtual reality will be the platform that succeeds the mobile phone, in no small part thanks to
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61
Kevin Kelly in 2000
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the mobile phone. It is not the technological Drones will begin to play actors playing roles in various scenarios – another advancements to the VR that Kevin first a bigger role in the lives new job opportunity. It is hard for him to imagine experienced in 1989 that have impressed him of those in the West that AI will not play a significant role in VR, the most, though he doesn’t want to understate especially when it comes to programming ethics how impressive those advancements have been. into simulated worlds. Rather, it is the vast drop in the costs associated Our own ethics and conduct in the real with delivering an immersive and convincing world tend to be slippery and somewhat relative, VR experience that he thinks is the more crucial subject to all sort of exceptions. However, when factor. The commodification and mass availability programming ethics into an AI, it will force us to of mobile phone components such as processors, confront our own humanity. The example that has screens, gyroscopes and accelerometers have It’s likely gained a lot of currency is applying this to self- enabled VR headsets to be manufactured at low that virtual driving cars. When presented with the following cost and high quality. scenario, what is the most ethical thing for the AI What VR itself will enable opens up an entirely reality will driving the car to do? A child darts into traffic, a different realm of speculation. While first person be the self-driving car “sees” it but is going too fast to perspective has been around for a long time in platform that stop. It can either decide to swerve to avoid the video games, the immersive, 360-degree aspect child, in which case it will jump the median and of VR will take this to a new level. However, it succeeds send the car into oncoming traffic, potentially will still be a simulation of reality rather than the mobile harming the passenger in this and other cars, or to reality itself and new language of gestures will phone hit the child. To us, the answer is likely clear, but develop to enable us to interact with these virtual what if you’re the passenger in the car? worlds and with each other in them. Kevin In the process of society confronting itself in speculates that some of these gestures will find this way, coding ethics, working alongside robots, their way back into the real world, much in the spending significant time in VR, Kelly thinks it 62 same way that gestures associated with using a possible that we’ll find ourselves in an ongoing mobile phone like swiping and pinch-to-zoom state of identity crisis. Asking ourselves questions have become more common in other interfaces. like, “Who am I?” and “What am I here for?” He also believes that VR will be the most social of It is a consequence of living in a period of time all social media, enabling people to meet not just where we can witness our own societal evolution people they already know but also to interact with happen in near real time. One ugly byproduct of
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this, and one of only two things that give Kevin The future will happen with or without us, pause about the future, is the rise in nationalism. as the title of Kevin’s most recent book, The It is a way for people to assert themselves in the Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological face of fundamental shifts of the definition of Forces That Will Shape Our Future, implies. It is what it means to be human. The problem that our choice to what extent we should participate it presents, beyond the immediate and obvious in its arrival. consequences, is that the real threat of the future Predicting the future is not about saying is global in nature, not local. exactly what will happen and by when, just as The rise of cyber warfare, the most well known studying history only tells that something will early example of which is the weaponisation of happen, but not what that something will be. the Stuxnet computer virus 2010 by the United Rather, if we return to the quote from William States in an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Gibson, it’s about being able to see where the highlights, in Kevin’s opinion, the fact that going future is already happening and figuring out how forward we cannot have local security without its distribution will be equalised. global security: they are one and the same. By this definition, Kevin Kelly is the discipline’s What concerns him the most is that we have undisputed master. no common framework established, no rules to govern cyber warfare, no equivalent of the Geneva Convention. He fears that we may need some A scene from Ex level of disaster to happen in this area before we Machina, the 2015 film take it as seriously as it deserves to be. that touched on AI
KEVIN KELLY is the co-founder of Wired magazine, of which he was the executive editor for the first seven years, and where he continues to serve as senior maverick. He is a futurist and the author of 12 books on the topic and related issue including, most recently, The Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. You can find out more about Kevin at kk.org. 63
NARAIN JASHANMAL is based in New York City and works as an industry manager at Facebook, where he tries to help businesses solve tomorrow’s problems today. He is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School Of The Arts.
PF_22017.P54-63_Feature_KevinKelly.indd 63 1/22/17 1:32 PM PF_22017.P64-73_Feature_PhotoEssay.indd 64 1/22/17 1:33 PM When The Car Was The Star
A Taschen book celebrates the golden era of the automobile
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Automobile Design Graphics, by Jim Heimann, Steven Heller and Jim Donnelly, is out now on Taschen. taschen.com
hysically, an automobile is pieced together of the most unforgiving sort. According to available from precisely formed steel, glass and records, something on the order of 5,000 companies rubber. The building process can be produced cars between 1900 and 1930 in the United distilled to visceral sensations – repetitive, States alone. Those that were successful at selling Pdeafening, the hammers of the gods of fire and war: their cars, and outlasted the Great Depression, went foundries glowing orange, stamping mills crashing, on to build cars by the millions. Those that failed to power tools screeching, foremen yelling to hurry sell joined thousands of other firms that built only a all these tasks. Those images are the polar opposite handful of them. of the gentle, very personal art of suggestion that For all the automobile’s increasing complexity encourages a person to buy the car after it’s been and performance, the giant factories in Detroit forged by such primal, elemental forces. and elsewhere relied on simple marketing: the This form of persuasion is like walking through illustrated sales brochure that awaited buyers who a narrow hallway lined with mirrors. Stripped strolled into a showroom. The strategy: reach bare, the function of automobile advertising is to buyers and keep them thinking – constantly – about hold up a looking glass into which the fascinated how the car could change them. Rarely have human customer peers, seeing a car reflected back at him ambitions – needs, so deep and personal – been – along with a satisfied version of himself. The massaged so effectively, for so long, through such a message, even if expressed through something as rudimentary medium. humble as a dealer brochure, was that buying the At its simplest, a new-car brochure was an product could change your life for the better. inexpensive catalogue. It was an indispensable tool An accepted business guideline dictates that the for the dealer. True, the foldout giveaways might more expensive the purchase, the harder the seller end up in a wastebasket, but they also might linger 66 67 must work to close the deal. In the early era of the on the kitchen table or beside the easy chair. And automobile, most mortals made only three major stay there, thumbed through again and again. At investments in their lifetime: their home, their own leisure, readers could visualise how a car might funeral, and a new car. The car and home were change them. They could become that attractive, optional, so automakers had to make the automobile smiling person in the brochure. Who wouldn’t purchase seem essential. It was economic Darwinism want to take such a pleasurable dream for a spin?
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CHRYSLER
An automaker could convince you that you were smart, a good spouse, and a hero to your kids if you 66 67 picked its car. The brochures were powerful tales about the automobiles, and ourselves.
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CORVETTE
Roadside billboards and full-page magazine advertisements captured attention and directed consumers into glass-walled 68 69 showrooms across the nation. Car brochures turned on ignitions of desire and floored the senses. In addition to their visual allure, they bathed cars in a golden glow, emphasising style and fashion yet balancing the technological with the aesthetic.
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BUICK
Legions of agency copywriters in Detroit, Philadelphia, and NewYork kept the automobile myth rolling and armies of bullpen artists, expert 68 69 in the art of rendering precision highlights, embedded the mythic image of the car in the public’s dreams. Drawing and painting was so much more heroic and romantic than even the most impressive photography. Illustration was expressive, representative, and surreal.
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70 SUN MOTOR CAR CO 71
Based in Elkhart, Indiana, the Sun’s light went out after it built just 337 cars. It was a costly car, priced at around $1,100. Sun over-ordered engines and other materials and quickly went bankrupt.
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70 LINCOLN-ZEPHYR 71
Americans were seduced into accepting the automobile as the embodiment of modern dreams, urges, and passions. Brochures promised a better life through automotive pleasure. They were fairy-tale books that sublimated the daily grind.
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72 VOLKSWAGEN 73
From 1960 on, Americans were pulled to less excessive cars – from Europe, from Japan and, eventually, again from the United States. The ad people now had to convince buyers that less was more. Their success was amazing. The wry campaign that the Doyle Dane Bernbach agency ran for Volkswagen in these years was most notably and memorably brilliant, as were the Volkswagen brochures, even more so once the first Opec oil crunch hit in the 1970s.
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72 STUDEBAKER 73
Studebaker was founded in 1852. Even their early cars were robustly engineered, with a Hotchkiss-type drive, removable axles and four-wheel brakes that were easily replaced. The Studebaker was never marketed solely on price, but it did famously produce some low-priced models such as the Scotsman and the Lark.
PF_22017.P64-73_Feature_PhotoEssay.indd 73 1/22/17 1:33 PM PF_22017.P74-77_Living_Opener&Hotel.indd 74 1/22/17 1:34 PM FEBRUARY ISSUE 134
Georgian charm One of the country’s most storied hotels, the Shelbourne combines old-world charm with the best location in the city
75
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WHERE TO STAY SHELBOURNE HOTEL, DUBLIN
Stephen’s Green, Dublin
PRICE From $300 here is something unfailingly expect, are unfailingly courteous, per night romantic about the Shelbourne and there is a genuine warmth to the Hotel – one of Dublin’s iconic interactions here: at times it feels
landmarks, and a byword for more like a family-run boutique hotel theshelbourne.ie Tluxury for generations. Opened in 1824, than part of the Marriott group. The when three Georgian townhouses were rooms are spacious, beautifully finished, renovated, it quickly gained a reputation There is and quiet. a genuine DUB as the city’s best hotel. It was even to Downstairs, The Horseshoe Bar is play a role in the country’s history, when, warmth the perfect place for a pre-dinner tipple in May 1922, in room 112, the Irish to the – long the favourite of politicians and Constitution was written. That event, interactions journalists, it has seen its fair share of and some of the more notable guests memorable evenings. who have stayed here over the years, is here: at times Both the Saddle Lounge (fine dining) celebrated in the tiny – but fascinating – it feels like and the No 27 (more casual) offer museum in the lobby. a family-run extensive menus, if you don’t feel like The most recent renovation was boutique venturing out into the city, although the carried out in 2007, and the main Shelbourne is walking distance to some 76 77 staircase that winds its way into the hotel of Dublin’s best restaurants. lobby is particularly spectacular. The It’s not hard to see why the design of the hotel means that there Shelbourne is Dublin’s most loved hotel are plenty of nooks and crannies to – in a city not known for the quality while away the hours in, and it never of its accommodation, it is an oasis of feels crowded. The staff, as one would glamour and decadence.
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LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Every city should have a museum like The Little Museum of Dublin – a wonderful collection of the everyday, donated by the public, SEE that illustrates the history of Dublin so well. Three floors and rolling exhibits make this a must visit. 15 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2 Tel: +353 1 6611000
A converted Georgian townhouse, the Powerscourt Centre is home to an array of independent retailers. We love SHOP the home decor in Article and the cacti in Shop The Garden, but there’s lots of eclectic fare across three floors. 59 William Street, Dublin 2
Restaurant FortyOne is a favourite of visiting tech executives and it’s not hard to see why: simple, wonderfully cooked food in warm, yet elegant EAT surroundings. Even the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood 76 waxes lyrical about 77 the place. 4 Nassau Street, Dublin 2 Tel: +353 1 6703865
PF_22017.P74-77_Living_Opener&Hotel.indd 77 1/22/17 1:34 PM LIVING / STYLE What to pack ...for cold weather in Toronto and beyond
Average temp -4°c
Chance of rain: 20%
TORONTO FEBRUARY
C C -2 ° -1 ° -7°C -4°C
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WHAT TO SEE
ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO gallery front and centre of the Canada’s largest art gallery was city’s cultural scene. Of the current redesigned by Frank Gehry in 2008, exhibitions, we recommend Toronto: and is a spectacular building with a Tributes + Tributaries 1971-1989, a huge glass façade, home to more collection of more than 100 works 78 79 than 80,000 works of art. There’s from a period of social upheaval in also a library, artist-in-residence the city – a fascinating glimpse into spaces, a research centre, lecture Toronto’s rebirth. hall and a theatre, putting the ago.net
PF_22017.P78-81_Living_Style.indd 78 1/22/17 1:34 PM FEBRUARY ISSUE 134 ACCESSORIES NN07 Bruket Travel Set and Tom Ford Neroli Portofino Persol Round-Frame Wash Bag $110 Eau De Parfum $282 Tortoiseshell Sunglasses $210
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78 79 1. The Elder Statesman Ribbed Cashmere Beanie $300 2. Barena Neoprene Blazer $460 3. Gucci Houndstooth Wool and Cashmere Scarf $350 4. Visvim Wool Hooded Duffle Coat $3,435 5. The Elder Statesman Cashmere Sweater $895. All products available at mrporter.com
PF_22017.P78-81_Living_Style.indd 79 1/22/17 1:35 PM LIVING / STYLE What to pack ...for warm weather in Rio and beyond
Average temp 27°c
Chance of rain: 33%
RIO DE JANEIRO FEBRUARY
C C C C ° ° ° ° 24 27 22 30
ALSO WEAR IN... Entebbe Colombo Muscat Manila
WHAT TO SEE
JARDIM BOTANICO visit, a long central avenue shaded This massive garden is home to by 200 imperial palms, huge trees more than 8,000 species of plants, descended from a single planted in as well as birds, butterflies and even early 19th century. Equal to the size monkeys, who live in the vegetation. of 137 football pitches, it’s impossible 80 81 Start off at the Grotto Kar Glasl, to see everything, but there are two which offers spectacular views of the restaurants with gorgeous outdoor Christ The Redeemer statue. Avenida terraces and an interpretive centre. das Palmas Imperiais is also worth a rio-explore.com
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1. Eres Belted Cotton-Gauze Dress $590 2. Current/Elliott Distressed Denim Shorts $215 3. Roberto Cavalli Silk-Chiffon Top $790 4. Adidas Originals Metallic-Trimmed Sneakers $124. All products available at net-a-porter.com
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Romancing the stone Lauren Razavi discovers that when it comes to investing, diamonds really are forever
othing says everlasting love But first, a little history. While Today, diamond production has spread like a glittering diamond. there’s evidence that diamonds were around the world, with significant But while brides around traded in India in the fourth century deposits in Russia and Canada. the world – including BC, our modern fascination with them De Beers launched its famous 82 83 Nsome 75 per cent of modern American has its roots in South Africa. In 1866, slogan ‘A Diamond Is Forever’ in 1948, brides – are still wooed by diamond diamonds were discovered in the town and although the phrase lives on in engagement rings, for would-be jewel of Kimberley, Northern Cape, and De popular culture, sales have fluctuated. investors, a diamond presents an equally Beers, which quickly became the world’s Following the global financial crisis intoxicating proposition: the promise of largest producer and distributor of of 2008, for example, demand for enduring resale value. diamonds, was founded 22 years later. diamonds plummeted. Then, just when
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the market was making a recovery, expensive and risky,” explains Richard According to Donaldson, the blood China’s economic slowdown in 2015 Ross, chartered wealth manager at diamond exposé simply shifted the put a fresh damper on sales. Reduced intergenerational wealth planning firm concerns of consumers rather than buying led to a supply glut, and Chadwicks. “This means that increases deterring them altogether. “Perceptions diamond prices tumbled. in demand tend to translate into higher of diamonds haven’t really changed,” While recent volatility might prices fairly quickly.” she says. “The majority of people intimidate potential investors, there’s Higher demand could also be are keen to ensure that they have the no need to balk just yet: the emergence satisfied by another source: the best stone for their money and, as a of new markets is leading experts to laboratory. Advances in technology secondary point of view, that the stone predict an uptick in sales. mean that diamonds can now be hasn’t come from a region where the “Like every business, the diamond ‘grown’ by technicians. Even the most proceeds are funding conflict.” industry has had to evolve to respond to astute pair of eyes would be hard- For would-be investors there is no changing consumer trends and macro- pressed to tell the difference between substitute for expertise. Diamonds economic realities,” says Lynette Gould, a natural diamond and a synthetic have not traditionally been treated a spokesperson for De Beers Group. one. Lab-made diamonds could as investments in the same way as “Future growth in demand is expected replace lower-quality and lower-value gold and property, but with the right to continue at a healthy pace, driven diamonds in consumer markets, but knowledge and expert help, buyers can primarily by economic recovery in the investors shouldn’t be too concerned. select gems that will become assets USA and the growth of the middle Authenticity matters at the higher end over time. classes in China and India.” of the market, so luxury customers “The problem with investing in diamonds is that you have to know the market, you have to understand the “The problem with investing in diamonds is that you pricing structure, and you have to buy have to know the market, you have to understand the at source,” says Lewis Malka, a bespoke jewellery designer based in London. pricing structure, and you have to buy at source” Based on perceived characteristics, there are more than 16,000 varieties Jewellers and retailers must now are unlikely to turn their backs on the of diamond. Experienced jewellers will sell the timeless image of the diamond real thing. evaluate a stone based on the four Cs to this new generation of luxury “The first diamonds were found – cut, clarity, colour and carat – and customers. And as desire for diamonds more than 6,000 years ago and even generally, the more rare qualities a grows, mining firms will have to then the rough, uncut crystals were diamond possesses, the more money it contend with a more precarious task: prized for their sparkle,” says Ruth will be worth. Flawless and colourless extracting the precious gems from Donaldson, founder of Heirloom, a diamonds, for instance, are hard to depleted reserves. As supplies grow London-based jeweller. “I don’t think find, and command higher prices as scarce, mining companies must dig these stones are going to cease to be a a result. deeper into the earth, and in more source of desire, wonder and fascination “Someone who’s looking for an remote locations, to find economically for consumers any time soon.” engagement ring and has spent two viable deposits. One topic the industry has had to hours searching online thinks he’s got The need to find and exploit new address, however, is the association of the best price,” says Malka. “And he deposits is becoming stronger day by diamonds with human rights abuses, has. But he hasn’t necessarily got the day. Recent analysis from consulting which has threatened the industry’s best diamond.” group GlobalData predicts that global reputation since the late 1990s, when A diamond might be forever, but production of ‘rough’, or uncut, ‘blood’ diamonds were used to fund market conditions are not. Millennials diamonds will peak in 2019, with three brutal civil wars in central and western worldwide spent nearly $26 billion of the world’s major mines largely Africa. But positive action came swiftly: on diamonds in 2016, more than any drained of their resources already. in 2002 a coalition of international other generation on record. At the Unless significant discoveries are made governments, civil society groups same time, diamonds are becoming before the end of the decade, supply will and diamond companies unveiled the more difficult to find in natural 82 83 begin a gradual decline in 2020. The Kimberley Process, a certification environments. With new consumers combination of growing demand from scheme guaranteeing that gems are clamouring to get their hands on new markets and shrinking supply could ‘conflict free’. While controversies diamonds, and dwindling supplies to drive prices up – and draw investors in. linger around blood diamonds and satisfy them, investors can rest assured “There’s a finite supply of diamonds, the exploitation of workers, ethical that the world’s favourite gemstone and increasing production is both concerns have not steered buyers away. won’t lose its lustre in a hurry.
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Kitchen confidential James Brennan meets a chef aiming to shake up Chelsea’s dining scene
or most chefs, happiness is running your own Michelin star restaurant in one of the world’s greatest cities. But for Claude FBosi, that wasn’t quite enough. The Frenchman gave up his two stars and a thriving business when last year he sold his renowned Hibiscus restaurant in London’s Mayfair. The risks were huge, but the lure of a fresh challenge with an exciting new business partner proved too strong for Bosi to resist. His new venture looks set to offer something that was missing at his old restaurant. Something simple and more traditional; something colourful and fun. Something a little more French. Later this spring, Bosi will take over at Bibendum at Michelin House. Owned by the designer and restaurateur Sir Terence Conran, the prominent art nouveau building is the former headquarters of the French tyre manufacturer, whose name has become synonymous with fine dining the world over. Conran approached Bosi with a proposal when he learned he was selling Hibiscus. And when he saw Bibendum he was smitten. The first-floor restaurant occupies what Bosi calls “a fantastic building in the middle of Chelsea”. Two glass cupolas shaped like tyre stacks stand above the entrance, where intricate mosaics greet visitors. The dining room is spacious, bright and airy. Its stained glass windows show ‘Bibendum’, the famous Michelin Man, in various frivolous poses, including riding a bicycle while smoking a cigar. “As a Frenchman,” says Bosi, “it can’t be more French than this.” Bosi has co-owned a number of gastro pubs and other businesses with 84 85 his brother Cedric, notably the Fox & Grapes in Wimbledon Village. But now he will own a one-third equal share in Claude Bosi at Bibendum, along Michelin House in with Conran and his business partner the heart of Chelsea
Michael Hamlyn. Stuart Peskett Words:
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Claude Bosi, during his time at Hibiscus
Conran made a name for himself “One day I decided to sit Bosi’s first plan of action was to with his Habitat furniture and refurbish the dining room. “Something household goods stores, and has since in my own restaurant and where you feel a bit more relaxed. We been a hugely influential figure in eat my own food and I made it a bit lighter, less pompous, took London’s dining scene with restaurants some of the skirting off.” such as Bibendum, Quaglino’s and Le thought, ‘I don’t want to The results were immediate. “You Pont de la Tour. His Conran Roche be here. This is not me’” could feel the atmosphere in the architecture firm worked on converting restaurant, you could feel people, Michelin House into offices, shops bring back the same feeling and it made and you could hear them a bit more. and restaurants when it was acquired the restaurant very stuffy. It was a new Sometimes when the restaurant was full in 1985. So if ever there were a steady building and it looked like an office.” it felt like you were in Old Trafford, you business hand for Bosi to hold as While Hibiscus’ new home was know, really noisy. That’s what I wanted he moves across the city to his new staid and uninspiring, the food was my two-Michelin star restaurant to have. venture, it would belong to Sir Terence. anything but. Bosi’s trademark light You can’t hear your neighbour because While it’s a short hop from Mayfair to and sophisticated French-influenced the place is noisy.” Chelsea, Bibendum is a world away from European cuisine won back the And yet according to Bosi there Hibiscus. The restaurant Bosi originally restaurant’s second Michelin star in was still something about the food that opened as a 23-year-old in the market 2009, which it kept until the end. But needed tweaking. “The idea of fine 84 85 town of Ludlow in 2000 moved to the Bosi knew something wasn’t quite right. dining where you think it’s old fashioned capital in 2007. “The idea was let’s find “One day I decided to sit in my own and boring. It’s wrong somewhere along a restaurant in the middle of London, restaurant and eat my own food,” he the line. You have to represent yourself. and try to reproduce what we did in says. “I sat in that place and thought, I We started changing the food and I was Ludlow,” Bosi explains. “That was a bit don’t want to be here. This is not me. very happy. We made it a bit lighter and of a mistake to be honest. We tried to This is not the food I want to do.” started representing the restaurant.”
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Design legend and Bosi’s partner, Terence Conran
“We started doing a tasting less stuffiness all round. The move Meanwhile, he promises other “old menu only. It was a great way to be marks a sea change that echoes what is fashioned” French dishes such as lamb’s consistent. We tried it for nine months happening in the world of fine dining brain, pan-fried with brown butter. “I and it looked like we were losing some today. Tasting menus are on the way think this is what the future of food is of our early customers. The food was out. Restaurants are becoming less stiff in my eyes,” he says. “You need to be getting great, different styles, lighter and more welcoming places in which to happy and you need to believe in what and more precise. But I said to my head enjoy Michelin-standard food. And at you do and not follow the trend. Trends chef, it’s boring.” Bibendum, a restaurant that has never are dangerous. It was [dangerous] for So Claude Bosi set fire to his won a Michelin star, it’s no secret what me to do the tasting menu. But it’s $165-a-head prix-fixe tasting menu Bosi’s goal is: to win three stars, but with very important to do your own food, (literally), and that was the end of that. relatively simple, traditional food. understand why you’re doing it, where “I’m a big believer that if you’re not “I want to cook food that brings you’re doing it, and from that moment happy your food will represent it,” he back my childhood memories,” says decide to change.” proclaims. “So we said we’re going back Bosi. “I’m a big believer that you can Michelin House will be closed for to basics. We want to enjoy the style of use classic style and classic technique refurbishment until April, when it will food we’re going to do. I said to myself, with modern touches. And this is really reopen with an oyster and seafood bar I want to cook what I want to cook, something very special for me.” He on the ground floor, and Claude Bosi somewhere else. I put the restaurant on likens the traditional en vessie method at Bibendum on the first floor. After 86 PB the market. I got an offer. I said, if that of cooking whole chicken in a bladder that, whether Bosi can reach for three guy was prepared to pay that amount immersed in hot water to the modern Michelin stars remains to be seen. of money – the mise en place is in the sous vide technique. But he doesn’t care “Accolades are great,” he muses. “But do fridge – I’m out of there.” too much where the chicken is from. “It they really make you happy? This is the And so to Bibendum, a more relaxed can come from Scotland, France, Italy - thing. I am ready to start again, doing and exuberant setting, and considerably as long as it’s the best produce.” the food I want to do.”
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ENJOY RESPONSIBLY - DOMPERIGNON.COM 10/01/2017 10:02 LIVING / CONSUME
Iconoclast celebrated The Tate’s Robert Rauschenberg exhibition is a must-see
Untitled (Spread), from 1983
ne of the most feted of art, something that had him generated huge controversy when it was exhibitions of 2016, the at loggerheads with many of his first shown in New York in the 1950s. Robert Rauschenberg contemporaries, particularly in the By the 1960s, his work had taken on retrospective at the Tate 1950s, when he was considered an a more political bent – witness the silk Modern in London, is enfant terrible of the art world. Part screens of JFK – with none of the ironic Ostill on this month (it runs until April 2). of this was down to his approach: he detachment of Warhol’s work. He died The show brings together more than 200 blended elements of kitsch and fine in 2008, a man who had left an indelible sculptures, paintings and photographs art by inserting found objects and mark on the art world, and according from the artist’s 60-year career in what is photographs into traditional paintings. to those who knew him, was one of the his first posthumous retrospective. Ultimately Rauschenberg was a risk- nicest men in the industry. Rauschenberg’s influence has been taker – he pushed artistic boundaries Rauschenberg has never been more 88 89 immense, not least on the current and refused to contemplate art as a appreciated as he is now, nine years generation of superstar British artists static thing. Fitting then, that pride after his death, and the Tate’s exhibition – with everyone from Tracey Emin of place at the Tate’s exhibition is is a must for any fans of modern art, or to Damien Hirst owing a debt to the Monogram 1955-59, a horizontal canvas indeed art in general. Texan. His experimental approach on which stands a stuffed goat with a The exhibition runs until April 2 at the expanded the traditional boundaries tyre around its midriff – a work that Tate Modern, London; tate.org.uk
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88 89
Clockwise from top left: Untitled, photograph of Robert Rauschenberg’s Pelican, Retroactive II, Monogram, Stop Side Early Winter Glut, Triathlon, Bed. All artwork © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York
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The birth of the experience mall By Wade Graham
n 1977, the veteran suburban mall developer city streets outside, cutting diagonally through Ernest Hahn found himself with an the core of the six blocks. The street would be unwanted downtown problem. He had his lined by a series of buildings to house all the eye on some juicy sites in the fast-expanding elements of a regular mall: hotel, theatre, shops, ISan Diego region, including in Mission Valley, restaurants, offices, cinema, and four anchor where hundreds of millions of dollars of new department stores; and a series of spaces freeway construction was set to converge, and in designed to encourage movement: a galleria, a Escondido, a booming northern suburb. But city terrace, an open courtyard. It all added up to of San Diego mayor Pete Wilson held the key to an elongated, multilevel version of the festival one of the real estate options Hahn needed, and marketplace. The armature consisted in plan of Wilson wanted the developer to solve the mayor’s two long, shallow arcs, which reversed direction own downtown problem first – with a shopping near the middle, channelling people from one mall. The city’s site covered six abandoned blocks side to another the way a river switches its of the dilapidated downtown area, a classically main current from bank to bank as it flows “blighted” mixed-use district between the old downstream. In keeping with the postmodernist waterfront to the west; the concrete-and-glass sensibility ascendant in architecture at the time, towers of a new financial district to the east; with its free use of historicist decoration and and a US Navy base’s sprawling stagey, populist borrowing from docks to the south. When Hahn, a They brought lowbrow commercial design, the formidable salesman, brought the team sought out examples of local chairman of the Montgomery Ward the mall back buildings to integrate. department store group to see the to the centre “In Horton Plaza’s 40 acres opportunity there, a homeless man we tried to draw upon all the urinated on his shoes. Clearly, the of the city, by elements that make up San standard suburban mall wasn’t reimagining it Diego,” Jerde wrote, “from going to work. Spanish revival churches all the Hahn called Jon Jerde, an architect at way up to modern Art Deco buildings, up to Charles Kober & Associates, with whom he very bad contemporary mall buildings and had collaborated on several projects. Trained everything in between.” He believed that the in fine arts and engineering before moving technique wasn’t mere pastiche, but a way to to architecture at the University Of Southern distill the “personality or persona” of a place, California, Jerde worked up to executive vice the “collective fantasy” its inhabitants have of president at Kober, but remained frustrated with it – “a primary perceptual method by which his career. When Hahn told him that something people form a bond with their home.” different was needed to make the San Diego site Horton Plaza opened in 1985 to accolades, work, he jumped, forming the Jerde Partnership consternation, enormous press attention, and with Eddie Wang, a colleague at Kober. What crowds – 25 million visitors in its first year. Its they set out to do was reinvent the shopping success catalysed the redevelopment of the entire mall with “a deliberate urban script, a conscious area, renamed the Gas Lamp Quarter, and major creation of human urbanism” – in other words, investments in a light rail line to Tijuana, just 90 PB to bring the mall back to the central city, by across the border in Mexico, a convention centre, reimagining it as an image of urbanity. and a baseball stadium. For the Jerde Partnership, From Dream Cities by Wade The architectural solution he and his team it was gratifying proof that the recipe of reviving Graham © 2016. Reprinted came up with for the Horton Plaza site was an the central city with a top-off, urbanistic retail courtesy of Harper, an imprint “armature,” a pedestrian street three levels high, experience worked. And another shopping genre of HarperCollins Publishers. open to the sky, with entrances aligned with the was born: the “experience mall.”
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