I did some cooking last night for the party. It was my job to make a few desserts. I decided to make something that would be fun for my little cousins to eat yet still delicious for the adults. I made homemade raspberry and strawberry Jello with fresh raspberries mixed in. I put the Jello in individual serving dishes. It took all my self control not to eat one this morning!

The second dessert was an easy classic. I mixed chocolate pudding with Cool Whip and put the mix in a graham cracker crust. When the pie sets, I’ll add another layer of Cool Whip on top and sprinkle some chocolate chips to top it off. I can’t wait to try it.

The family party will be the beginning of my Labor Day celebrations. I am going to Manasquan Beach for the weekend, which will probably be the last weekend I’m able to spend at the beach. Summer went by too quickly. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

– Amanda Smith, advertising and editorial coordinator

This year, the big guests were Adam West, Julie Newmar and Burt Ward from TV’s Batman, along with William Shatner of Star Trek fame. Long lines of fans waited to meet their favorite stars. Even some of the stars wanted to meet the other stars.

Pro-wrestler Shane Douglas was hoping to meet West, a childhood favorite. Douglas talked about his passion for comics and how excited he was to attend the convention.

Being the intrepid reporter that I am, I came away with a celebrity scoop. Actress Beth Horn, who appeared as ‘Venom’ in the 2008 season of American Gladiators, told me about plans for an American Gladiators movie next summer, and she will be auditioning. Horn is also excited about the upcoming release of her film Fancy Pants. Horn’s favorite vacation spot is Florence, Italy, because she loves the people and culture.

Not everyone is interested in the celebrity aspect, however. Attendees Dave Pauwels (of Sisters Grimm Comics) and Joey Rodriguez were more interested in the Artist Alley. Rodriguez thought the event was pretty cool, but was disappointed that Marvel and DC and some major publishers such as Darkhorse were not there. Hopefully, as Wizard World continues to grow, this will change.

Conventions like these are huge business. Unfortunately, attendance figures are not released. As an indicator, all hotels in the area were booked solid, according to the concierges. That doesn’t even take into consideration all of the local attendees.

Additionally, since most people spend a major portion of each day at the convention, they tend to dine nearby (thus bringing more money into the area). The total revenue it brought into the Rosemont area was tremendous.

In 2010, there were Wizard World conventions in nine major U.S. cities, and there are plans for adding five more cities in 2011. Wizard World keeps growing and improving every year. My friends and I are already looking forward to the first announcements about next year’s convention.

– John Wroblewski, distribution specialist

I am very excited that Global Traveler is introducing 2D barcode technology. I know advertisers will be taking advantage of this great marketing tool. Before the technology was presented to us in a recent meeting, I was not even aware of its existence. Now that I have been made aware of it, I keep seeing barcodes all over New York City. Just this past weekend, I was shopping and walked by Norma Kamali. Each item in the window had a barcoded sign with it. I asked the storekeeper if the barcodes were popular, and he said yes. When the code is scanned from the window display, it links to the item online and allows consumers to purchase the item directly. He went on to inform me that mostly businesswomen are using this technology as they simply don’t have time to go inside and make the purchase.

Stay tuned for more on this technology and keep an eye out for it on ads, billboards, everywhere. Your favorite articles, brands and products could be just a barcode away. Simply point your Smartphone at the code, take a picture, and you are instantly transported to the desired link!

– Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher

Alex presented, in a very artistic way, all the destinations she has traveled to in her eight-year tenure with Global Traveler — Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Seoul, Tokyo, Seattle, Montréal, London and Singapore were just the tip of the iceberg shown. I followed suit, covering my destinations, including Fiji, Norway, Korea, Thailand, China, Australia and Mexico — just to name a few. Dick Evans even talked about his near capture while on a horseback safari near the Afghan border.

We then presented and summarized our airline clients, pasting their logos on their home markets as we discussed routes and services. In between the presentations, we viewed videos and commercials from Thai, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Delta, United, Air Canada, Asiana, Korean Air and many more. Highlights from Emirates’ first class and Lufthansa’s A380 were shown.

We covered Global Traveler‘s new 2D barcoding capabilities and discussed the possibilities for linking these barcodes from Smartphones to any websites desired. We thought linking a GT 2D Barcode to Dale Moss’s video interview on our website was an interesting use for the new technology.

We ended the seminar in true Philadelphia fashion — with a trip to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies take on the Astros. It was a great event and sure to be an annual gathering from now on. Maybe we should consider Palm Spring or Hawaii next?

– Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO

Not only do we bid on items for these auctions; we also like to contribute something to be bid upon as well. Our go-to item is an evening of wine and food for eight to twelve in the winning bidder’s home. Over the course of our married life together, Harry and I have hosted countless parties in our home for family and friends, so we’ve developed a pretty well-honed routine and built up our repertoire of recipes. Our 500-bottle wine storage unit is always bursting at the seams, with new acquisitions never quite keeping up with our consumption. So it’s become a natural for us to replicate the format of our favorite evening with friends for someone else’s group of buddies to benefit our favorite charities.

This morning we are recovering from the labors of providing such an evening. Last spring the Rogue River High School’s FFA group held their annual Beef Feed and Auction, and a local couple bid on our wine tasting party. Last week they called, asking if, on such short notice, we might be able to pull together the event for this Saturday evening, when they would have friends in town. Well, Harry rallied and graciously said, “Yes, of course,” while I was thinking, “What? When?!!”

Harry provides the brains and talent behind these things, planning the selection of wines and doing most of the cooking. I do prep work, shopping, clean up and, most important, questioning some of Harry’s choices: “Don’t you think we should have some fruit? What about veggies? Isn’t that a lot of wine? Are you really going to cut the zucchini that way? (You can tell we’ve been married a long time.) He manages to maintain his cool, we refine the menu and, in the end, everyone has a great time.

The hosts and their guests last night tell us they indeed had a marvelous time. They enjoyed two white wines, four reds and two dessert splits. We served up a variety of cheeses and crackers followed by a host of hot and cold “heavy” hors d’oeuvres and concluded with a decadent dessert. We enjoyed ourselves, too, sharing our love of good wine and food with some lovely folks and seeing them enjoy each other’s company. But I gotta say, I am happy to be able to put my feet up today!

– Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor

We’ve only all come together once, on the occasion of GT‘s fifth anniversary celebration, so you might think that ours are strictly business-like relationships. However, over the years we’ve interspersed work-talk with more personal matters, and shared aspects of our lives and interests apart from the magazine.

Working alone at home can be a somewhat isolating experience, so it’s nice to be able to develop a warm and friendly partnership with those linked to you by computer and phone. We swap stories involving families, trips and gardens and commiserate with each other over weather (too cold, hot, wet or deep!) and car and home repairs.  

I especially enjoy the sharing of just-this-moment bits of interest. Earlier this summer Jan reported she was under a tornado warning (in Connecticut?!), and we waited to hear that she was in the all-clear afterward. This week, Tracey sent a great photo she’d just taken in her backyard. She reported having heard a lot of commotion out there in the preceding days, with the birds being literally all a-twitter over something. That morning she discovered the cause of all the ruckus: a hawk had been hunting, and she snapped him in a tree feasting upon an unlucky mole. (Tracey actually had little sympathy for the mole, as her husband had been trying to eradicate them from the yard for weeks.) Jan then replied with a possible identification of the bird (complete with a description of its cry) and stories of her own encounters with the raptors. I shared my own humbler version of backyard battles: I’d been distracted that day by aerial dogfights, that would have made the Red Baron proud, between two hummingbirds battling over the choicest flowers.

These little tidbits from our daily lives are hardly earth-shattering, but they comprise the building blocks of a positive working relationship between far-flung individuals. I have no doubt that this same kind of sharing occurs between business people on every continent all over the world – the exchange of children’s pictures at dinner, the swapping of battle stories across the aisle on a jetliner, a tip for a great place to visit as a meeting adjourns – bringing each of us a little closer to another.

– Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor

Over the last two weeks, I have been working to make Global Traveler a Wikipedia article.  When I started, I figured I would just need to do some research about the company, add in the things I knew and then put in the finishing touches. I was mistaken.

First of all, Wikipedia has a ton of rules.  Rules that you never thought would matter but that Wikipedia thinks is super important.  There are rules about making lists and including people’s names.  One large rule is the “Point of View” rule.  You have to be unbiased and present your article from a completely neutral point of view.  That tends to be incredibly difficult when you are making a page about a company that you work for.  One of my favorite obstacles is that you cannot have a user name that is a company name.  Despite reading hundreds of pages about Wikipedia and articles, I never came across this rule.  I learned this the hard way when trying to find out something on a help chat.  The person in the chat was so serious about this rule that he would not help me until I filed a “name change request.”  Wikipedia is not for those people just playing around.

Wikipedia has its own language.  Everyday tasks done on the word processor become difficult and bothersome.  Pressing ctrl and “B” no longer makes something bold.  The Wikipedia user has to use apostrophes (‘’’) to initiate the bold and then another set of three apostrophes to end it.  Similar programming techniques are used to get italics, bullets, lists and headings.  I would tell you how to underline, but I don’t even know if that is possible in Wikipedia world.

So after you master the rules and the language, there is one more problem.  People and robots continually check the site to make sure that people are posting things fairly and legally.  I tried to upload the GT logo and immediately two people were leaving messages on my “MyTalk.”  If only they knew I had no idea what was going on and didn’t even know how to find their messages!  Right now I have my page up for feedback. We shall see how that works out.

Working with Wikipedia has given me a new-found respect for the articles that people put up.  Every link is the result of hard work, and every picture is the result of an intense copyright law.  It has been fascinating learning the ins and outs of the Wikipedia world, and by the end of the process I hope to be so knowledgeable that I can call others out on their mistakes.  My interaction and work with Wikipedia has confirmed my opinion that teachers and professors should count it as a reliable source.  If they only knew how hard it was to get information published on it!

– Mary Carpenter, intern

The best part about this restaurant is that the food quality stays high and the prices stay low. Usually when you are eating in a city, entrées can easily cost anywhere between $20–$40. La Baia has entrée prices starting from $12, and the specials are around $20.

Inside, the seating was a bit cramped, but the servers moved gracefully around the tables. I couldn’t believe they didn’t bump into anything. The owner of the restaurant was there, and he greeted everyone with a thick Italian accent.

Our food came out steaming hot, and it was delicious. The portion size was very generous; I ended up taking most of my meal home and eating it for lunch the next day.

I’m going to try to start eating at new places in Philadelphia once or twice a month. I hope each time I have just as good an experience as I did at La Baia.

– Amanda Smith, advertising and editorial coordinator

When discussing their favorite cities to visit during the baseball season, some of our interview subjects immediately picked their hometowns. Mets manager Jerry Manuel named Atlanta, and Astros infielder Geoff Blum picked San Diego. While I can’t argue with that logic (family, friends and home-cooked meals), I really tried to get everyone to go beyond.

Future Hall of Famer and Astros coach Jeff Bagwell said he liked Chicago because the people are so nice. Astros manager Brad Mills agreed with Chicago and added it is a very clean city.

Astros All-Star outfielder Hunter Pence thought for a few seconds and named Chicago as his favorite. He mentioned the food and fun available there. Fellow Astros All-Star outfielder Michael Bourn agreed with Pence on all fronts.

Matt Lindstrom, who started his career in Florida and joined the Astros this year, also said Chicago, and his reason was simple. He loves Gibson’s Steakhouse.

Astros outfielder Jason Michaels continued the Chicago trend, but listed San Francisco and Houston as other favorites. Michaels said he was grateful for baseball, because it allowed him to spend time in so many great cities.

Astros coach Jamie Quirk likes Boston and New York. Quirk noted the history, the beauty and, of course, the food.

We switched to the other side of the field, and got more love for Chicago from Mets outfielder Jeff Francouer. Frenchy said Chicago because the day games allow the players to see the city at night. He added the restaurants in Chicago are great.

Mets infielder Mike Hessman took a more practical approach when he mentioned San Francisco and Philadelphia. Hessman says he loves playing in those ballparks.

Mets coach Razor Shines gave us the surprise of the day when he said Montreal (although they no longer house a baseball team). Shines talked about the friendliness of the people and the beauty and class of the city.

I always find it interesting to hear the thoughts of these well-traveled people. I hope you do, too.

– John Wroblewski, distribution specialist

I do believe that as a business traveler, I have the same goals as my male counterparts — to get business done. However, the way we view the world along the way can be very different. I believe I take note of different aspects of a trip than a male traveler might. It could be the details of the hotel room — is it clean? Is the carpet dirty? What floor am I on? How close is my room to the elevator? — to noticing the everyday details of the people I pass on the street.

The differences in the way men and women view the world is an argument that could last a lifetime. But, as a woman business traveler, I enjoy witnessing other women from around the world and seeing how they vary and compare to me.

In the boardroom, we all get work done. It’s fun for me, however, to see a beauty salon in Abu Dhabi or a shopping mall in Tokyo and know the women inside are doing the same things I would do in Manhattan.

Whether I am in the United States, Asia or the Middle East, I do not need to wear the same clothes or speak the same language to understand my surroundings. It’s the small things in life that are fun to appreciate — watching a group of girls in Tokyo giggle as a group of boys walk by, for example. Some things are universal — compassion, health, family. I’m proud to be a woman who travels for business. I know that oceans may separate us, but women everywhere encounter similar day-to-day challenges and accomplishments no matter what.

– Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher