Just heard a speaker I have to blog about: Rod Cuthbert, CEO of Viator — an Aussie surfer who gave a really great talk (easily the best so far this first day). There’s a difference between the terms “tourist” and “traveler,” said Rod, who splits his time between Bondi Beach, Sydney, and his company’s US office in San Francisco. 
“Travelers want to experience their destination, not just visit it,” he said. “They want to understand the local culture.”
Rod’s firm (the name is Latin for traveler) was actually founded in 1995, so he’s been coming to this conference for many years. It fits — Aussies are some of the world’s biggest travelers. Viator raised an additional $6 million in Series B financing a year ago, led by Carlyle Venture Partners, with participation by Technology Venture Partners, putting the total the firm has raised at $10 million.
Rod said that most important thing when people travel is what they plan to do when they get there — destination activities — not the “mechanics” that so much of the travel industry is focused on (flights, hotel rooms, rental cars). “Teach your customers the ‘Art of Travel’,” he said, referring to the title of a book he recommends.
“Getting people hooked on travel is perfectly legal,” he said. “And true travelers will travel even when prices are high. They need to! They generate more revenue for you.” In the on-stage interview following (see photo), he talked about the “power of anticipation” and how travel sites need to appreciate this mentality of the true traveler. 
Viator is a comprehensive online resource for travelers to plan “the things you do when you get there,” featuring more than 4,500 destination activities in 450 cities in 75 countries. It helps travelers with a variety of tastes and preferences to research, plan, and book their trips. The company has 3,500 affiliates, including Priceline, Travelocity, Opodo.com, SideStep, Zuji, AirFrance.com, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Sydney and London.
Tags: online travel, PhocusWright, Travel 2.0, Viator
Like a latter-day Henry Blodget, the onetime star Wall Street analyst who helped fuel the late 1990s dot-com frenzy, Mr. Arrington uses his TechCrunch blog to determine the destinies of new start-ups and to fan the flames of the current Internet boom.
It’s backed by Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp and America Online, among others. And it boasts a management team with senior execs from Allaire, Macromedia, ATG, Comcast, Lycos, News Corp., MediaVest, and Discovery Networks. The firm just announced the launch of its Brightcove Network, which is aimed at what it calls “video prosumers” — the ranks of which are dead certain to be growing. I know for sure that will include me, but it won’t be just us tech-savvy folks.
Let’s face it, consumer-generated video is hardly what everybody wants to spend most of their time watching on the Internet going forward! Hey, this broadband video thing is just getting going. And no firm, startup or otherwise, is better positioned than Brightcove to take advantage of what will be a very, very BIG market — all kinds of video, from professional on down to user-generated. 
Think online video marketplace, with every angle covered…and everyone makes money. Unique concept, huh? Making money. Quick, somebody get the YouTube-Google folks on the line — they’ll want to look at this!
Mike grew up in Edina, MN, just about a mile from me, though we hadn’t met till he looked me up on his latest trip home. A veteran of online music, having worked at AOL and Ruckus after college at Dartmouth, he joined with former coworker Toby Mordock to found Qloud, and the pair received funding several months ago. [It’s from a notable source who must remain unnamed, or they’d have to kill me :-)…]
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