We may all be different fish, but in London we swim together.
I learned that everywhere I went when I lived there. In the pub, in the queue, or on the Tube. People gave each other room, paid attention when it mattered, and generally got on with it with no judgement for anyone. It’s the way the world should be, and after a while, I found myself doing the same.
London makes me a better person. I’m patient, kind, and I thrive when I’m there. It’s also the only city where I’d say yes to attending MOJO, World Travel Market, and City Nation Place Global in four days. Anywhere else would sound like work. In London, I booked a fifth day.
I used to live there but had to return to the States due to COVID. What I miss most is how much of the world you can bump into on an ordinary day. London is so thoroughly itself that it makes you wonder why any place would spend good money trying to sound like somewhere else. Be yourself. Everyone else is taken. I said it at City Nation Place, and London was the perfect setting for it. Place brands aren’t created, they’re revealed... Try having AI do that in a creative workshop.
Ted’s Top 5 Things He Learned
If you have a full English Breakfast, Indian Curry for lunch and Ramen for dinner (With a few pints of Neck Oil), you sleep like a baby and are ready for day #2.
WTM always has me leaving it thinking of 5-10 places in our world that I’ve never even thought of visiting but am now watching YouTube videos of them on my flight home.
City Nation Place puts on one of the best-produced events in our industry with a team small enough to fit around a pub table. Having put on a few conferences myself, I spent half the day wondering how the hell they pull it off.
Discoverability is next. When someone asks AI where to spend a rainy weekend, does your city come up? London: ‘yes’... but what about your place?
Southbank is now my favorite place to stay in the City. It’s not touristy, lots of local pubs, great location for transport, and it’s undiscovered. (So DO NOT tell anyone!)
Living in London taught me that you can give people their space and still look out for them. On the Tube, someone who’s avoided eye contact for six stops will see you trying to get to the door and move their bag before you ask. I learned to notice those small courtesies, and to offer a few more of them myself.
We travel to see places, and so often it’s the people we meet who make us want to go back. London is our world at its best. You can spend four days talking about the whole bloody planet, then go out for a curry and find it sitting at the next table. That’s a special place.
Trip Quote:
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”- My friend at a pub
“Well... it looks like I’m going to live a long damn time!”- Me
