A ninety second business trip

Carlos Whittaker is one of the earliest people on my social graph.  I was inspired by a video on his blog last week called My Day In 90 Seconds.

Earlier this week, I applied the concept to a business trip.  Video embedded below.

[Click here if you can't see the video.]

Here's what's happening:

Sunday:  Left the house at 4:30 am, unseasonably warm 62 degrees.  Time check from the BBC World Service.  Up the parking ramp, past the 9/11 Memorial.  Checking in with Delta.  Fly to Atlanta, big plane.  Connecting to Austin, little plane.  Welcome to Texas!  Driving on Congress Street, Traffic by Ben Cyllus on radio.  Lunch at Whole Foods world headquarters.  Drop bags at hotel and go get hair cut at Birds.  Dinner at Freebirds and caught Obama on 60 Minutes.

Monday:  Breakfast at Austin Java, then over to the office.  View from the 22nd floor balcony.

Tuesday:  Jet to JFK.  VH1 classic.  Arrive in the new T5.  Cab it to the W.

Wednesday:  Cross street to the Waldorf=Astoria and up to PR Week panel.  Taxi to Marine Air Terminal and Delta Shuttle - exit, aft.  Back to car, sit in rush hour, and return home again, 7:00 pm and 30 degrees.

I learned how to use iMovie on the ATL-AUS flight and pieced this together in about 30 minutes.  Filmed all of the segments using a loaned Nokia N95.  You can see the first day standalone in 90 seconds, too.

If you get similarly inspired, let me know!

Comments

[Tinu]

Very cool idea. Didn't have to read your cliff notes to understand it either. Loved it.

[Martin Lessard]

Cool. Just a surprising thing: there's no one on the video beside a rare shot of the conference room (half-) full of people. Were you alone in an deserted country all the way long? I guess it isn't as easy to film people... ;-) Thanks for the trip!

[Rafael]

Awesome concept. I recognized the Hyatt downtown, Birds, Congress Avenue, whole paycheck and all the other places in the video. Of course, it helps that I live in Austin, so there you go.

[Richard McLaughlin]

Great vid. Stumbled it.

[John Welsh]

Very good indeed. I enjoyed it better watching and reading the words at the same time - than watching the video alone - kind of dynamic captions to go with the imagery. So not just a 90-second approach to video but also a Twitter-like approach to captions in order to keep everything in one window.

[Todd Defren]

In just 90 seconds, this video reminded me of every.single.business.trip.ever.

The monotony of airline travel, the relieved throwdown of the suitcase in the hotel room, the bland food options (I also often look for a Whole Foods for lunch if I am new to an area: safer than "trying out" an unknown restaurant).

Plus, I was supposed to be at that NEXT event in NYC but that 2-second glimpse in your video was all I needed to see to know I probably didn't miss much. So thanks for that, too!

[Mukund Mohan]

Very nice. I am going to steal this idea of 90 seconds for a Day in the life tour of our product. How your life gets better after using it in 90 seconds.

But I have to second Todd, this is literally every business trip save for Whole foods for me. I prefer a salad at Subway or a Veggie 6".

[Andrew Hyde]

Great video, would love to try something similar :)

[Jen Grant]

love it! can't wait to do one myself!

[Peter Kim]

Thanks man. Good point - just trying to respect the privacy of strangers

[Peter Kim]

Awesome - looking forward to seeing it!

[Peter Kim]

Dude - so aren't you glad that this one only took 90 seconds? :)

[Liz]

Brilliant! And I'm sure this was a lot more work than it appeared to be. Captures life on the road....

[Tom]

So how was the burrito at Freebirds?

[Ryan Stephens]

Mmmm. Freebirds. Did you dominate a Super Monster Peter? Hope all is well.

[Peter Kim]

Quite good. Better than Mexicali, fo sho.

[Peter Kim]

Just a halfbird, man. Gotta keep it light on the road!

[Ryan Coleman]

Nice compilation Peter! Did a similar thing earlier in the summer on a 4 hour drive home from a meeting. I'd just gotten my Flip video and wanted to do an update based on the meeting so I thought I'd give it a go... results here > http://blog.ryancoleman.ca/2008/07/video-driving-home-from-ann-arbour.html

- Ryan

[Joseph Jaffe]

Awesome video Peter. But did you actually do any work during this trip? :)

[Steve Poppe]

"All Things Considered" always feels like home. Hope the Next Conference went well for you. Peace!