Perth, Australia: An International Traveler's Guide

A charmed isolation

BCD Corporate Travel presents to you the most isolated capital city on Earth:

Perth lies upon a similar latitude to Sydney but over 3,400 kilometers (2,110 miles) to the west – as far away as London is from Beirut.

The capital of the state of Western Australia, located in the southwest corner of the Australian continent, Perth sits on the banks of the Swan River, and is probably the most outdoorsy of all Aussie cities. The climate, Perth's brilliant setting along both the Swan River and the Indian Ocean, and the abundance of parkland mean that it's almost obligatory to get outside and enjoy the sun and fresh air. One of Perth's great advantages is that virtually the entire river and seafront is public land; everyone can stroll, cycle, or picnic along the waterfront – and they do.

With four universities, a modern, well-designed city center and a culturally diverse population, Perth manages to project a cosmopolitan atmosphere while at the same time being disarmingly friendly and laid-back. The city is home to 1.47 million people. Nearly 200,000 of them are emigrants from the U.K., but there is also a considerable number of New Zealanders, Italians, Malaysians, Indians and South Africans.

Commercially, Perth provides the distribution point for West Australia’s wheat industry, the growing wine industry and the state’s vast mining operations.

Go for a wander, if not a walkabout

Perth seems to have been designed with people in mind. Its attractive malls and elevated walkways make it pleasant to navigate on foot.

Kings Park & Botanic Garden
Covering 990 acres, the park, a true wilderness in the heart of the city, is crisscrossed by walking trails and bicycle paths (bikes are available for hire). Particularly popular is the Lotterywest Federation Walkway, which opened in 2003 and allows visitors to walk among the park's treetops while enjoying spectacular views of the city skyline and the park. The walkway extends 620m (678 yards) along a combination of on-ground pathways and a spectacular elevated 52m (170ft) glass and steel arched bridge suspended among a canopy of tall eucalypts.
Kings Park Road, West Perth
www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/kingspark
Free admission

Perth Zoo
Perth's small but popular and conveniently located zoo boasts an Australian Bushwalk (where visitors can observe native animals in their natural habitat), Rainforest Retreat and African Savannah among other interesting exhibits. Visitors should keep an eye out for the numbat, the marsupial that is the symbol of Western Australia. Daily keeper talks allow the public to get close to the animals.
20 Labouchere Road, South Perth
www.perthzoo.wa.gov.au
Admission charge

Art Gallery of Western Australia
Perth's major gallery has a permanent collection of Australian and international art and one of the finest collections of Aboriginal art in the world. The gallery is also the venue for major national and international touring exhibitions. Free guided tours are held every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday – bookings are required.
Perth Cultural Centre, James Street, Northbridge
www.artgallery.wa.gov.au
Free admission; charge for special exhibitions

His Majesty's Theatre
Arguably the most beautiful theatre in Australia, His Majesty's still stands in all its Edwardian glory, including ornate gilded foyers, a magnificent marble staircase and a domed, three-tiered auditorium. A venue for plays, opera, musicals and dance, the theatre is also home to the Museum of Performing Arts. Guided tours available. 
www.hismajestystheatre.com.au

Perth Mint
A well preserved remnant of the gold rush era, Perth's Mint, which is over 100 years old, offers an entertaining public tour. Visitors can see A$225,000 pure gold bars being poured and can also mint their own personalized medallions and witness the production of gold, silver and platinum coins.
www.perthmint.com.au

When the night has come

From Wednesday to Saturday, there is no shortage of night-time hotspots to visit in Perth. The larger dance clubs are concentrated in Northbridge, Subiaco and Fremantle and are friendlier epicenters for the over-30 crowd. Perth is home to a healthy indie rock scene and the 'craic' is good at several Irish pubs.

Some venues demand a smart standard of dress and some have a cover charge. Free entertainment weekly XPress (www.xpressmag.com.au) is the best resource when planning a night on the town, while Teknoscape (www.teknoscape.com.au) is a useful clubbing guide.

Lounge bars have taken off in Perth, with hip venues such as Base, corner of Lake and James Street. Must Winebar, 519 Beaufort Street, offers a cool atmosphere, a comprehensive wine list, slick cocktails and smooth grooves. Luxe Bar, 446 Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley, is a cool, happening and stylish contender for the title of best bar in Perth.

If you’re in the mood for a laugh, you’re in luck – Perth has nurtured some of Australia's finest comedians. The Brass Monkey pub, 209 William Street, Northbridge, boasts handcrafted beers, food, music – and comedy on Wednesday nights. The Lounge Bar at the Hyde Park Hotel, corner of Bulwer Street and Fitzgerald Street, features comedy on Thursday nights. Burswood Casino on Great Eastern Highway hosts international touring acts.

Souvenirs galore

Popular Perth souvenirs include dried wildflowers, Western Australian wine and sheepskin and crocodile leather products. Perth is an ideal place to obtain authentic Aboriginal art – the best commercial showcases are Indigenart, 115 Hay Street, Subiaco, and Creative Native, 32 King Street.

There is an abundance of markets. The Subiaco Pavilion Markets, 2 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, are open Thursday to Sunday, selling jewelry, pottery, giftware, clothes and art. Galleria Art & Craft Markets, Art Gallery and Museum Concourse, Perth are European-style markets, open Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 17:00.

Feeling a bit peckish?

Given Perth’s geographic isolation, Visitors may be somewhat surprised by the wide range of sophisticated restaurants available to them.

Fraser's
The dining room looks past towering lemon-scented gums to Perth's panoply of skyscrapers and the Swan River – and the food lives up to the view. The menu changes daily to focus on fresh produce, with seafood and fish especially prominent. "Fraser's three taste" brings together beef, lobster, and salmon in a great starter, while crisp fried soft shell crabs married with turmeric and pumpkin curry comes as a starter or entrée.Ask for a seat on the terrace.
Fraser Ave. (near the Information Kiosk), Kings Park
08/9481 7100

Jackson’s
Understated contemporary design and ambience only help to emphasize the quality of the food here. Chef Neil Jackson has won a host of awards for his ability to bring out the best in local produce, with some quirky touches based partly on his English background. His degustation menu, called "the dego," offers nine courses, with suggested matching wines.
483 Beaufort St, Highgate
08/9328 1177

Annalakshmi
While the 360-degree views of the Swan River and the city might be romantic, Annalakshmi is actually a curry house run by volunteers. Paying by donation, assorted hippies and others line up for spicy potato-and-pumpkin curries and dahl.
Jetty 4, Barrack St, city center

Thanks for reading - we hope you find our travel tips useful!

If you would like to stay up to date with more of our travel guides, subscribe to the BCD Australia blog.

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The Trivialities of I.T. Customer Service - Time to Think Again.

It is prevalent that within the evolution of business models, many IT departments within companies are beginning to be treated as separate business entities, with growing internal expectations to perform as a holistic self-sustaining business unit.

A recent article in Computer World Australia magazine reveals that IT is beginning to function as “a business within the business”, as mentioned by Dennis Drogseth, vice president of enterprise management associates, and IT management consultancy. The article continues to state that treating IT as a service is not as trivial as it may seem to those still adapting to the modern day business model.

The fact is that in a dawn of technological advancement within the workplace, and the concentrated amount of companies looking to take their presence online, there is a growing demand for highly project management oriented individuals with a strong backbone of IT qualifications. When larger organizations struggle to keep up with the fast pace of IT, there needs to be proactive ratification of workflow and leadership provided in order to ensure shapely results and timely delivered projects.

 Like anything in IT, project management is also not very foreseeable and may involve a copious amount of work process restructure and process improvement. This is where the ITIL framework comes in.

A brief history of the ITIL structure

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework surfaced in Britain in the 1980s as a result of the growing dependence of IT within the British and government workforce as solution to cleaning up the messiness of internal information technology projects. The British government recognized that without a standard practices for managing projects, agencies were subsequently created independent IT management practices.

To date, there have been 3 volumes of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, with the latest version comprehensively outlining twenty six processes and functions, grouped into five project management life cycles. The five process life cycles of the ITIL v3 library are officially listed as follows:

1.       Service Strategy

2.       Service Design

3.       Service Transition

4.       Service Operation

5.       Continual Service Improvement

What effect is ITIL having on businesses?

As a result of ITIL integration into information technology for project management, organizations are traveling down a path of vivid realization in discovering that the way to attaining the status of a customer centralized service organization is included within the 5 tier structure of the information technology infrastructure library framework for project management. What are the known benefits of this? Organizations can make better use of their help desks to manage service requests, changes and IT assets. Downtime is avoided because unauthorized changes are screened, and the end result is higher efficiency and a better delivery of service to their customers.

The notion of ITIL is almost god-like in theory, but simply having this certification does not automatically mean that project managers will transcend the module in their business practice. Project managers need an extensive knowledge of the ITIL structure before it is implemented, where the different ITIL processes can be slotted into their current business model and foresee the cause and effect of each process – which at times can involve a lot of scoping. The onus also lies on the project manager to thoroughly educate the IT department who are directly affected by the project restructure, after all, the staff members are the cogs of the greater machine that will complete the desired project goal. Within the articles referenced earlier in this paper, in an Interview with Computer World magazine, Dennis Drogseth – IT project management professional – speaks objectively of the business-IT model. He continues on in relation to ITIL in his assertion that “The biggest misconception is that all you need to do is become ITIL certified … That’s a sure recipe for failure. You have to figure out what you’re trying to enable. The end has to transcend ITIL.”

The theory of embracing the information technology infrastructure library is fairly elaborate, but in shifting your IT department towards a more customer-centric focus, your company can look to reap the benefits of increasing your project hit rates, and creating a higher profile for the use of technology within your organization.  It can backfire, though, so implementation of an ITIL structure must be done meticulously especially if you’re organization is larger. As an IT project manager, the last thing you want is to have your new customer focused business model to yield under the unrelenting vice of your company’s structural mini-bureau. The primary flaw of IT departments who crumble in their implementation of ITIL is that in amongst the increased service queue stemming from the hierarchy of the company, the pressure turns these IT departments into order takers, rather than business advisers. The notion of ITIL is to instill leadership within the IT department to develop higher levels of customer service. Failure to adhere to a strict following of ITIL will lead you back to the role of a subservient tech-entity within the organizational structure.

Project managers should look to develop their IT departments as a separate internal business entity through ITIL implementation. In adopting ITIL into your business model, and adhering stringently to its processes, your department can reap the dividends of maximized project efficiency and higher levels of customer service.

Trust me when I tell you, the end results will show for your dedication!

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Cool iPhone Photography Apps

If you speak to any avid photographer, very few of them are huge advocates of smartphone photography, and there are certainly are a lot of reasons behind their lack of endorsement for smartphone cameras: they blur easy, images are grainy and sometimes clouded, and sometimes the colours are a little bit off. But what people fail to consider, is how far smartphone cameras have come in recent years, let alone the promising technological advancements that the future has in store for them.

Enter the iPhone and it's relatively simple 3 megapixel camera... Fair enough, it's no Karl Zeiss, and it doesn't have flash (even though there's an app for this, but whether or not it does it's job well is questionable) but it has a tonne of fun photography apps for you to use and abuse at your discretion, and a large memory capacity to support your smartphone photography hobby.

Let's run through some of the photography apps I've bought with my iPhone, and what's cool about them:

QuadCamera App - There's something fun about shutter photography that you just can't grasp, but this app says it all perfectly. Take up to 8 succesive frames in one snap, then sit back and weatch the motion fulled chaos unfold! I bought this for a couple of dollars, but it was well worth the value and has been frequently used. It also allows me to turn some of my images into some animated gifs (if I feel like it). Check out some cool QuadCam art here.

Pano App - Short for panorama of course, and as the name suggests, turn your world into one loooooooooong panorama. take photos around corners, and then watch the magic stitch together! I really like this because it gives the effect of a wide lense, which is pretty post-mod I like to think. Take a look at some previews and let me know what you think!

ColourSplash App - Ahhh, of course there has to be a couple of photo editing tools thrown in here, seeing as they make life oh so more colourful (that wasn't sarcasm, they really are amazing). ColourSplash has been rated as one of the best photo editing apps on the iPhone, not so much for it's technicality or diverse amount of function, but for it's simplicity and innovative use of the touch screen technology. This app allows you to selectively colour photo's in a really cool finger paint style. It's kind of hard to explain, but this thing is a huge boredom killer and the end results are amazing. It's also incredibly good value. Take a look for yourself.

PhotoGene - So you wanted more functionality...? Well here's your mini-photoshop for the iPhone right here. 'Nuff said, in fact, it even made the official Apple staff app "picks" for the iPhone  :-)

SO. Are you still a critic of iPhone photography now... Huh!? It may not be as appeasing to your creative senses as is the likes of traditional photography and good old fashion filters, but the iPhone does make it fun, right? Well, if you're yet to experience the fun of the iPhone, maybe it's about time you looked at getting one? Ha!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!

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Centralizing your business model around Twitter...?

When you trawl through the myriad number of blogs on the internet, take note of the topic of the post, and how frequently similar topics are being reciprocated by the author over and over again in different formats... Then ask yourself, why are these guys so persistent in blogging about twitter?

I'm going to come right out and say it, yes Twitter can be a highly profitable medium for businesses online and individual blogger alike, but it is severely over-hyped by web 2.0 geeks. Definitely. And the result? People are turned off of Twitter because they're sick to death of hearing about it. Look at the stats... A survey conducted by the participatory marketing network shows that only 22% of generation Y are embracing the social networking site as opposed to a staggering 99% who admit to being regulars on either myspace and facebook... But what about the celebrity hype? Twitter received an exponential growth when it was discovered that A-list celebrities began to use the site as a direct way to engage with fans, and then it all started to backfire as the real-time celebrity twitter streams became the prey of the press. Columns started popping up in newspapers, gossip columns started running hot with twitter news, and they even introduced a 'trending topic' segment into the 2009 VMA's. The result of all of this...? Celebrities are beginning to boycott the website, saying that it's just too invasive - need examples? Look no further than Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Miley Cyrus.

So if the most imperative generation is refusing to embrace Twitter, and celebrities are considering mass exodus, is it fair game that Twitter may be reaching the plateau of its seemingly perpetual growth? And if so, does this indicate a potential incline and eventual downfall...? We're witnessing it with MySpace right now as we speak, with the once upon a time largest social media player reported a loss of 5 million users in the past month.

Here lies the question, if you're monetizing a blog or centralizing your business model around Twitter, did you forecast the life span of the social networking site before devoting your livelihood to it? It seems that a lot of internet marketing companies and bloggers alike have their financial umbilical cords fastened to the nutrient twitter trend wave... What's going to happen when the cutting of that lifeline is highly imminent? Your twitter branded empire, complete with your hordes of followers, vanishes in a flash... The traffic trends to your blog move inversely, and all of a sudden you're out on your tail with no revenue stream and no catalyst for your content.

I'd like to here of your post-Twitter contingency, if you have one, and your thoughts on the demise of Twitter (who can tell when the trends will change).

_________________________________________________________

Yeah, not so relevant to Twitter, but if you do happen to be reading this and are an avid corporate traveller, might I recommend BCD Travel - they're a very good friend of mine, and they're an excellent corporate travel agent should you happen to need one!

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iPhone for business: Too distracting?

The Apple iPhone supports a myriad number of handy tools and applications that can be used to solve virtually all of life's daily problems... I mean, we all know that if you're ever lost in the jungle, you can use your iPhone's compass to get out (providing that you have already downloaded the app), if you want to locate the nearest McDonald's then hey, just use the conveninent fast food finder app. 

The iPhone presents itself as a bottomless toolkit, where everything is provided for low cost, and for your convenience.

So what happens when you throw business into the iPhone universe? Well, the benefits are easy to notice of course... With the iPhone supporting a number of email applications, stock ticker apps, file converters, business forecasting tools, personal organisers, calendars etc. the convenience is unparalleled. Need to order a mail courier? FedEx has an app. Need to find a business location? the Yellow Pages has an app. Everything you need for your business is included within this pocket-sized technological mircrocosm.

But the fact remains, if you issue the iPhone as part of a default business phone plan with your employees, will the distraction of having access to so many over-convenient applications have a direct impact on their productivity? One would envisage the countless number of managers getting annoyed with their employees for sneakily using facebook under their desk at work, or eating up the company bandwidth through the use of youtube on their iPhones. It all comes down to the discipline of the employee, really. The use of the iPhone for business comes down to the dedication of staff. At the end of the day, if your employees are procrastinating on their iPhones and not getting the work done, maybe that might suggest that they just aren't interested in the job.

So the iPhone does carry some potentially progress-killing features, but when used properly and efficiently, it has the capabilities to dramatically increase the productivity of your employees in the work place. What are your experiences with using the iPhone for your business? Has it benefitted you? It'd be interesting to find out more!

If you're looking for a decent iPhone for business plan, then I might suggest Arrow Voice & Data. They have some excellent deals going on mobile phones for business.

image source - Apple.com

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Charter for safe overseas travel

If you're an Aussie thinking about traveling overseas, you may or may not have noticed that there are new travel intiatives in place in order to prevent sticky situations overseas. The Australian government led initiative, known as Smart Traveler, is a comprehensive list of the do's and don't's of activies within certain cultural enclaves around the world. There is some seriously interesting stuff on the website which is updated regularly. Here are some of the Smart travel tips, as reciporocated on the BackChat Mobile website providing information for global roamers.

1. Check the latest travel advice for your destination and subscribe to receive free e-mail notification each time the travel advice for your destination is updated.
2. Take out appropriate travel insurance to cover hospital treatment, medical evacuation and any activities, including adventure sports, in which you plan to participate.
3. Before traveling overseas register your travel and contact details online or at the local Australian embassy, high commission or consulate once you arrive, so we can contact you in an emergency.
4. Obey the law. Consular assistance cannot override local laws, even where local laws appear harsh or unjust by Australian standards.
   Check to see if you require visas for the country or countries you are visiting or transiting. Be aware that a visa does not guarantee entry.
5. Make copies of your passport details, insurance policy, travellers cheques, visas and credit card numbers. Carry one copy in a separate place to the originals and leave a copy with someone at home.
6. Check with health professionals for information on recommended vaccinations or other precautions and find out about overseas laws on travelling with medicines.
7. Make sure your passport has at least six months validity and carry additional copies of your passport photo with you in case you need a replacement passport while overseas.
8. Leave a copy of your travel itinerary with someone at home and keep in regular contact with friends and relatives while overseas.
9. Before departing Australia check whether you are regarded as a national of the country you intend to visit. Research whether holding dual nationality has any implications for your travel.
10. And lastly, don’t forget to stay contactable on your mobile with a BackChat GlobalSIM

Source: http://smartraveller.gov.au/index.html

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Stuff Up The Project? ...Take It On The Chin, Man.

I've been thinking a lot lately... And with a first hand insight into the manic activities of big business and large-scale projects, when something goes wrong and things get heated, very few people to volunteer to raise their hands and claim accountability for their actions in fear of reprisal from upper management. It's a scary situation, especially if you're the guy with the guilty conscience. As the old saying goes, if it was an honest mistake, your best course of action is to take it on the chin and be held accountable... But why do they say this? Where did the cliche come from?

I've been reading a project management article outlining the quintessential elements to understanding project management and the steps that need to be followed in order to carry out a project successfully from start to finish. One point that is made explicitly clear is this... If you are to successfully manage a project, you must ensure before you commence business that everyone in the team understands the concept of single point responsibility. This means unambiguous accountability.

The blame game scenario is seen time and time again within the corporate world, and even if you are guilty of a mistake and are terrified of coming clean about it, if you want what's best for the team and for the project - you should come clean as stalling on accountability only stunts the progress of your entire team.

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Social Media: Understanding the rules of engagement

Recently, I was asked to create a social media guidelines document for a reputable management college in Sydney. They've recently just embraced social media as a means of increasing a more interpersonal element to the interaction with their students, in coming to this realisation they also recognized the importance of adopting the latest technoology as well as harness the sheer power of the exponentially growing social media communications medium. I'm not going to show you the document, because it was uniquely generated for the College (and is yet to be published), but I thought I'd outline a couple of idiot-proof rules of engagement that should always be adhered to as a business interacting with customer through social media...

Things to remember when engaging:

1. be ethical
2. be honest
3. take leadership
4. don't promote or aggrandize
5. try to add value when posting
6. apply social etiquette

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If you're a backpacker looking to save money when traveling to australia, check out the Turtle Passport Discount Card. Sign up to receieve massive discounts on popular tourist attractions, restaurants and bars.

peace.

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Sydney, Australia - Why Is It So Expensive?

According to Mercer Human Resource Consulting and a review published by the Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Australia ranks at a cool number 19 on the world's top 50 most expensive cities to live - and living here myself, I can totally see justification with regards to why Sydney is so expensive to live in....

Feel like a beer? No worries, whether it's a highly prestigious bar you go to or a quiet, run-down pub, you'll be paying on average around $6-$7 for a bottle of beer with a minimum of $4.50 for your average schooner. Fancy dining out for the night? No problem - just make sure you have a couple of 50 dollar notes with you and try to avoid tipping the waiter. When you live here however, you get used to it... That being, not getting value for your money... But if you're traveling to Sydney on the fiscal rations of a backpacker, you might want to be a little more conservative when it comes to the placement of your dollar in the hands of a product or service of little value, especially if you're coming from the likes of Wellington, New Zealand - not only will you be up against the poor exchange rate against the Aussie dollar, but you will also struggle to come to grips with the expenses of living in Sydney with your beloved Wellington ranking at number 105 on the expensive cities list.

So where does this leave you? You desperately want to bask in the sunshine and warmth of Sydney but can't quite seem to muster up the money to meet the demands of a financially vacuous holiday destination.

There is now a solution.

Turtle Passport discount cards offer huge discounts and savings on a myriad number of products and services Sydney-wide. Discounts range from 10-50% off and cover a diverse consortium of goods and services from popular entertainment venues, tourist attractions, bars, restaurants, accommodation, transport, hair and beauty, shopping... You name it, and it's there. Finally someone is offering a solution to get around the expensive costs of living in and exploring the city of Sydney, Australia. For a complete list of participating goods and services, check out the Turtle Passport website.

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Obama Slams Kanye West

There's been a lot of media hype lately about Kanye West's antics at the 2009 VMA's, and rightly so, because they guy is so up himself he seems to have lost all touch with reality. If you haven't already seen the viral video you can view it again here. What astounded me was Obama's reaction, seeing as president's never normally give a damn about escapades in the entertainment industry, let alone the music industry... So when Obama was caught calling Kanye a jackass, I couldn't stop laughing. It just makes Obama appear to be cooler in my eyes. I wish more world leaders had the freedom to comment on stuff like this.

By the way, should you ever need accommodation in Australia, you should check out Constellation hotels - they've got dozens of 4 star hotels located Australia-wide, all within a reasonable price range :-)

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