Tag Archives | geek

In an Airport

By on October 7, 2009 in Travels

Someday I will live in a place where I only need to take one flight to get to where I’m going, but until then I will stick with Yellowknife.

I am currently in the Edmonton Airport and am halfway home. This morning was like any other, I got up at 7am had breakfast, showered and turned on the computer. I had packed everything the previous night and was ready to go. I did although need to do some dishes, which is always a joy. No really, it helps me relax and get my mind off things. Anyways, just before 10am pacific time I hit the road from Dawson Creek to Grande Prairie. When I arrived in GP 1 hour and 20 minutes later it was 12:20….. pick up on that?

When I drove in to Grande Prairie the blizzard that is everywhere in the NWT and Alberta hit and there was very low visibility and because of that my Air Canada flight delayed 20 minute. No matter we got off the ground thank goodness and arrived in Edmonton. Although when I arrived in Edmonton and went to get my bags, I waited and waited and waited until I gave up on my second checked in bag. I went to AC’s luggage desk they told me it would be in Yellowknife by tonight or tomorrow morning, thanks guys. Luckily I did get my important bag, which has some electronics in it. By the way, thinking about it, I am currently traveling with $4000 worth of electronics. Now if that doesn’t say geek I don’t know what does.

I check in for my Canadian North flight to Yellowknife and found out the flight isn’t yet full and I may get a row to myself. Thank you Canadian North, gotta support the locals, right.

So here I sit typing away, watching people rush by. Oh and the one thing I love about the Edmonton Airport is, you’ll always run into someone you know.

See you in Yellowknife

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Coffee Shop Online

By on April 24, 2009 in Social Media/Internet, Travels

Why Coffee Shops should be online.

Let me give you a brief reason as to why I have come up with this statement.
Many moons ago when I worked in a coffee shop, like most of you know by now. I would constantly have regular customers come down from their cubical (or office) and ask what kinds of coffee there were for the day. On the occasion there would be somebody who wouldn’t get a cup because they didn’t like anything and that is understandable. I have had new customers who have never been to the shop before have been amazed at the selection of beans, and other trinkets.

That is why Coffee Shops should consider using the Internet to let their loyal customers know what is going on for the day. Here are a few ideas
First lets look at a blog. A blog can be free and is easy to setup or if the shop already has a website a blog can be easily integrated.  Once you have a blog setup it doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to quickly make a post with the day’s coffees and specials. On top of that you can keep customers up to date with things like when a new shipment of coffee beans has come in or if the Espresso machine breaks and you only have coffee for the rest of the day. The nice thing about a blog is you can put in the details about what it is you a posting about. You can describe that smooth lovable favorite specialty of the day or explain that the Espresso machine blew a seal and you got steamed milk all down the front of your pants. Either way a blog is a good way to tell your customers in detail what is going on.
The second thing I want to talk about is Twitter. Call me a geek if you want but Twitter could, and is, a very good information tool for a Coffee Shop or any business. You could go about it basically the same as a blog. Twitter is free; you can’t pay for it even if you wanted to. Go to twitter.com and sign up now. With Twitter you don’t have to worry about a website, to get to your Twitter page is simple. It would be www.twitter.com/COFFEESHOPEXAMPLE and anyone can see it, even if they don’t have there own Twitter account. Unlike a blog you have to keep it brief, fewer than 140 characters but that’s all right because on the upside you can update it more often and quicker. The beauty with Twitter is you can update it from the web, from a desktop client and from your mobile phone. The phone would be the key one here. So when your jumping around because the seal on the Espresso machine blew, and you have steamed milk down the front of your pants you can still text twitter and let everyone know the machine is down.

There you have it a simple reason why Coffee Shops should be online and a simple solution. With many younger people working at Coffee Shops it is almost a guarantee they have had a blog or been on twitter so why not approach them with one of these ideas? Could you imagine ordering a coffee via Twitter (I know Starbucks does something similar already)? It would be just another way to use social networking and technology in our everyday lives. Mind you I always enjoyed conversation with customers………….

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