Summertime in Florida is hot and sticky, even here in Downtown St. Pete, aka DTSP, with the cooling breezes off the gulf and bay. So when I can, I escape to somewhere else. Not a vacation, which implies NOT working. Traveling is how I describe it. I know, whaaaa poor me! See we created a digital system to run NOVA 535, my historic wedding and event venue, remotely. NOVA is where most every (physical) Entrepreneur Social Club (ESC) meeting is held. So this week, July 21, 2016, When the Cat was away the mice did play. Play, well mainly some “forgot” to show up for our weekly Thursday night ESC meeting. I mean we’ve only been holding these EVERY THURSDAY night since February 2009. Some habits take longer to sink in I guess…haha! Though some of my favorite meetings have been when there are under 20 guests; it allows for much deeper discussions than where our table is overflowing with 50 and more. Tonight big
Month: July 2016
Athen’s Surprising Street Art Scene
Athen’s Surprising Street Art Scene.
So I arrived late into Athens Saturday night, about 11pm, and “Tubered” to my AirBnB apartment. “Tubered” meaning using the Uber app but riding in a taxi. See many cities around the globe caved into the taxi union’s pressure and don’t allow Ubering they only allow “Tubering” with taxi (new word =Tubering). It DOES make the shitty taxi service better, less chance to sit around waiting, getting “lost” and being ripped off. (Props to all our fellow Entrepreneurs for making traveling in the 21st Century SO MUCH EASIER!! AirBnB, Uber, Expedia, Google Flights, etc. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!) Anyhoo, so after skipping dinner, and finally getting an excellent night’s sleep (check out my previous blog’s as to why), I awoke to a spectacularly gorgeous 1st day in Athens. Time to go out sightseeing! I was having some stomach issues, likely from
Pokémon GO: Gamify Your Business or Lose
You may have seen or read about owners and managers angry at swarms of people invading their place of business in search of virtual monsters on their phones. They have wandered in, perhaps not even knowing what the business does, and are attracted by incentives in the new viral game Pokémon GO. The business managers don’t understand why they are there and just want them to go. I have a simple message for these business people. I suggest you get a job where your interaction with customers consists of the phase “Do you want fries with that?” because it’s obvious you are a terrible business person and should have no contact with potential customers! (more…)
Lovely Vilnius Strange Little Uzupis
Lovely Vilnius Strange Little Uzupis.
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and was chosen as my post Riga next stop on my Summer 2016 Entrepreneur Social Club travel adventures. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, which, when you plan weddings and complex events for a living (NOVA 535 Unique Event Space) it’s nice to just let things happen as they happen. Minimal planning involved. So I took the 3.5 hour bus ride from Riga, easy peasy, and landed here in lovely Vilnius, on a beautifully sunny day. And Sunny night as this part of the world seems to enjoy looooooong days. Let’s explore!
Just the Fax Ma’am
Just the Fax Ma’am. Fax? Don’t you mean Facts? Er, nope. Read on… Spending a day experiencing the Belarus Consul (and their delightful 1950’s style of customer service, brought to you by Stalin.Inc) to a modern, friendly, tech savvy Latvian Entrepreneur named Dovainis Sinkevičius, owner of a new, really cute cafe, Localt. End to end of the spectrum here ladies and gents. See while traveling through the delightful Latvia and Lithuania, I decided to pop over to neighbor Belarus, into the capital Minsk….but not before a few days here in lovely Vilnius!
Design and Decisions. Good Bad Ugly Beautiful.
Design and Decisions. Good Bad Ugly Beautiful.
What goes into decision making? Does it feel good or bad? Is it beautiful or ugly? Would you do it again? Ultimately, for me, it’s would I do it again? Yes or No. It’s a binary answer to a complex set of questions. Would I go back to a restaurant? Take someone out for date #2? Watch a film again? Buy a 2nd bottle of that same wine? Take a 2nd or last bite??
Lietains Riga Retains it’s Vess
Lietains Riga Retains it’s Vess.
Day two in Riga, the capital of Latvia, sandwiched between Lithuania to the south and Estonia to the north. As recently as 1991, all formerly controlled by Russia. Lietains, in Latvian, is rainy, and Vess means cool. Today Sunday July 3, 2016 it rained (lija) all day, yet the charm and vess of Riga, Latvia never diminished! Just like while under Russian authority, the sparkle of Riga remained strong, even when soaking wet. Better, brighter and more beautiful days are here for this gem of a city. So after a hearty (and included) breakfast in the swanky cellar of this renovated, historic structure, the Royal Square Hotel, I borrowed an umbrella and headed off for my Lietains Riga adventure!
Off to Casablanca Whoopsie Hello Riga
Off to Casablanca Whoopsie Hello Riga!
Our aloha pos system went down at my main gig, wedding and event venue NOVA 535 (ugg, hard drive crash, quickly fixed by fellow ESC member Justin Petro of Advanced Millennium Computers, he’s fabulous!!). Too bad the NRC team wasn’t as great as Justin, they got 50% right then I left, and well the crazy busy night we have every First Friday was rocky. The POS wasn’t returned to “good to go” condition as planned. Luckily my amazing brother Chris Novilla and big Nick Mazeika were there to lead our team NOVA and our 100s of partying guests to victory, rough night but they got things done! Bravo guys!!
This was followed by our sound system crashing at NOVA, (a HUGE thanks to Chuck Taylor of Production Source, [he’s the Gandalf of the AV world] for saving our arses, THANKS CHUCK!!). Plus my packing and the usual craziness inside the NOVAverse. My original plan of going Tampa Airport to JFK to Casablanca got scrapped yesterday due to bad weather around JFK.
My heart dropped upon seeing this delightful update…