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Photographs & Memories - Podcast Series
The Photographs and Memories podcast was created to re-establish the human connections that make our industry unique. Listen to beautiful stories, memories, and life lessons, shared by our Memory Makers, well-known leaders, and personalities from the travel and hospitality industry.
Hosted by Michael McCartan, Produced by Travel Market Life and Sponsored by Atomize.
View our latest episodes and Memory Makers below
Most people will say they joined the travel and hospitality industry because of the people.
We are a united nation of interesting and passionate people drawn together to serve and delight, but over the last 18 months, Zoom has stolen our souls and our stories. Now it’s time to re-establish the human connections that make our industry unique.
In each episode of Photographs and Memories our travel personality, also called our Memory Maker, will take you on a journey through time by sharing the story behind 3 photographs and a souvenir from their travels.
Referencing the photos we travel on a journey through time, reflecting on the significance of that moment, the sentiment of the period, and what was going on in the world around us
So… why not pause everything for a moment and listen to his vibrant tales from exotic lands?
View our latest episodes and Memory Makers below.
Season 2, Episode 5 – Photographs & Memories
Simon Puorto:Setting fire to hospitality
With an ambition to become a philosophy teacher, our next Memory Maker entered hospitality at 19 and didn’t look back. Simone Puorto carved out a career from being at front desk to general manager of a chain of boutique hotels now one of the foreleaders on metaverse, ai and automation.
Bringing an edge of science fiction to his consultancy, Simone’s photographs and memories most certainly depict his character. A self-confessed music freak, he shares his love for Joy Division as a failed punk musician and his pilgrimage to visit the iconic spots of the band. Simone explains his disappointment at how advertising can override poignant issues in society.
Season 2, Episode 4 – Photographs & Memories
Fernando Vives: The elaborate hotel hoax
With hotels very much in his blood, Fernando’s mother was a defining influence on his decision to head to university to study tourism and hospitality. “I knew I would never die of hunger if I worked in hospitality”. But he has continued to connect back to technology and science in his role.
Season 2, Episode 3 – Photographs & Memories
Mona Faraj:When camels try climbing stairs
When war broke out in Lebanon in 1990 our next memory maker had to abandon her course in banking and moved to Abu Dhabi where she entered a hotel management programme. Mona Faraj recounts the time she took her team on an incentive trip to the desert in the middle of summer and unexpectedly got hit by floods – explaining why you should never curse her.
As Mona prepares to fly with her dog Milo, she reflects on the changes in the industry and what got her to where she is today, “I’m one of the most privileged executives that ever worked in the ME region…the time invested in me was phenomenal.” She also shares the best memory of her life walking the desert as part of Women’s Heritage and the inspiration from people encouraging her.
Season 2, Episode 2 – Photographs & Memories
Christina Tan: Pressing for attention
Our next memory maker dreamed of being in hospitality, persuading her father to send her to hotel school. Christine Tan takes us on her journey from an Island in West Malaysia to Switzerland, London, Los Angeles and Singapore joining UTELL fresh out of college to coordinate the switch of hotels to GDS. Her souvenir is a press cutting from this time, and she reflects on how things have changed since 1989.
Christine always knew travel was important to her “I wanted to climb the highest mountain and swim the deepest sea before having kids.” She recounts her 4,000 metre ascent of Mount Kinabalu, a brutal climb passing over rough terrain, tackling steep elevations with no conversation as air became thinner, eventually arriving at a breathtaking sunrise. “If you ask me to do it again, I’d take the helicopter”. From here she tells about an oceanic Island and her joy to swim with sharks in the Philippines as she witnessed the transformation of this small town.
Christine shares her Fawlty Towers story about a guest suffering severe jet lag.
Season 2, Episode 1 – Photographs & Memories
Kristie Goshow: Filling the filofax of life
Kristie started her career working with Scandinavian Airlines and Virgin Atlantic before moving into hospitality. Over the past two decades she has worked for multiple hotel brands including Le Meridien, Jumeirah and Viceroy Hotel Group and Preferred Hotels & Resorts. During her 9-year stint in the Middle East she exercised her entrepreneurial passions in launching Table4Me.
Kristie is recognized by HSMAI as one of the top 25 extraordinary minds, and is currently the Chief Commercial Officer with KSL Resorts. Kristie serves as a member of the HTNG Executive Leadership Group, and AHLA’s ForWard Advisory Committee, where it is her mission to advance women in hospitality.
Season 1, Episode 11 – Photographs & Memories
Michael Frenkel – Between disruption and rootedness
Our next guest was mesmerised by the hotel sector while working as a public affairs political consultant in Hawaii. He soon became immersed in the travel and hospitality sector – setting up his own specialist PR agency 20 years ago. In this episode, our memory maker speaks fondly of family road trips as a kid, his first international travel, and his love for the familiar.
Season 1, Episode 10 – Photographs & Memories
Peter Gerstle – Growing up as a transatlantic kid
Our next memory maker saw the maiden and final voyage Concord, sharing his memories of being a transatlantic child. Listen to Peter Gerstle’s stories and how a cake came to end up at Everest base camp and why for him it’s important to take your travels back home through a souvenir to extend the memory.
Season 1, Episode 9 – Photographs & Memories
Ronald Homsy – Defining moments building business
A graduate of the Glion Institute of Switzerland, he holds the Glion spirit with pride. Our next memory maker started life, following a two-year stint with Accor, as a young entrepreneur forming Forte Holding before co-founding the Utopian Hotel Collection. He grew up in Beirut, studied in Switzerland and lives in London.
Listen to Ronald Homsy’s hilarious experience of staying with an Airbnb landlord who disappeared for 48 hours and the moments that he has had a profound reflection on his life.
season 1, Episode 8 – Photographs & Memories
Steve Dow – Balancing family life and work travel
Before a career in hotels, our next memory maker Steve Dow started out in engineering on a North Sea oil rig, before landing on the banks of Loch Tay working for a Scottish hotel resort.
Steve Dow takes us on a journey through his adult life, meeting Orangutans in Borneo, climbing Mount Everest and meeting Mike Tyson in Las Vegas – all while holding down a young family. Listen in as he shares his regrets and why he now has a new perspective on life
Season 1, Episode 7 – Photographs & Memories
Duncan Bramwell: Gaming up to be the best hotelier
Son of a hotel inspector, our next Memory Maker was dragged around presidential suites, chauffeured by limousine as a child before joining Cape Town Hotel School founded by his father. Born in Zambia, raised in South Africa and now living in the UK, Duncan Bramwell, is an independent hotel consultant.
Find out the reason why he was carrying four baby rhino bottles, why Madagascar is on his bucket list and what came from a conversation with an old man in Egypt.
Most people will say they joined the travel and hospitality industry because of the people.
We are a united nation of interesting and passionate people drawn together to serve and delight, but over the last 18 months, Zoom has stolen our souls and our stories. Now it’s time to re-establish the human connections that make our industry unique.
In each episode of Photographs and Memories our travel personality, also called our Memory Maker, will take you on a journey through time by sharing the story behind 3 photographs and a souvenir from their travels.
Referencing the photos we travel on a journey through time, reflecting on the significance of that moment, the sentiment of the period, and what was going on in the world around us
So… why not pause everything for a moment and listen to his vibrant tales from exotic lands?
View our latest episodes and Memory Makers below.
Season 1, Episode 6 – Photographs & Memories
Alexandra Fjällman: Embracing the great outdoors
An outdoor enthusiast with a penchant for giving extreme sports a go, our next Memory Maker, Chief Marketing Officer at Atomize, Alexandra Fjallman loves a challenge, putting herself in a context that is totally new to her.
Alexandra Fjallman landed in travel and hospitality to lead the strategic brand development of Atomize following a career working in eCommerce and building SaaS companies. While new to the revenue management and pricing space, she has quickly adopted it as her new home.
Season 1, Episode 5 – Photographs & Memories
Vishal Arora: Family, work and relocating
During his 25-year career Vishal has lived and work across 3 continents in a variety of product management, commercial and technology roles within travel, hospitality and real estate tech. He is currently Head of Technology for WeWork Japan which sees him reside in Tokyo. Previously, he has held senior positions at Oyo Life, Pegasus, Yatra, eRevMax, Amadeus and Travelport. He was also part of the founding team of Dealontrip.com.
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Season 1, Episode 4 – Photographs & Memories
Dmitry Bagrov: Experiencing London Fog
Entering the travel sector through the trades entrance, our next Memory Maker started life as an email translator in an internet cafe. He went on to deliver digital transformation across multiple industries, Dmitry Bagrov reminisces on ‘catching’ office WiFi hanging out of his apartment window and experiencing real London fog
Season 1, Episode 3 – Photographs & Memories
Mona Maamari: Reminiscing a 2020 world tour
Listen to the travel tales from Mona Maamari, as our memory maker reflects on her career in the travel and hospitality sector and the memories she’s made on the road.
From a market planning and pricing job at Disneyland Resort Paris, to Thomas Cook and then to major hotel groups Radisson and NH Hotels Mona forged a career in revenue.
In 2019, she and her young family departed on a world tour, taking a step back from her career to work in schools, farms and kitchens around the globe.
For the past 8 years she has been leading pricing, forecasting and revenue transformation for hotel groups such as Radisson and NH.
Season 1, Episode 2 – Photographs & Memories
David Chestler: Look Beyond Your Boundaries
Where you start is not necessarily where you end up. Our Memory Maker began his career in marketing at Burger King before pursuing roles in advertising. It wasn’t long before he was leading the Dot.Com revolution, combining technology and publishing when he entered the travel sector with Utell.
David is currently Partner and Senior Managing Director at PROVision Partners. He has held senior management positions at Kognitiv, SiteMinder, Sceptre Hospitality Resources (SHR), RateGain, Pegasus Solutions and Birch Street Systems and most recently served as an Allied Board Member at Hedna.org and with HTNG on the Software Resource Team.
Season 1, Episode 1 – Photographs & Memories
Gene Quinn: Celebrating the influence of Philip Wolf
In the opening episode, our Memory Maker is the remarkable Gene Quinn, Co-Founder of TravelScrum and former CEO and Co-Founder of Tnooz (now Phocuswire).
From sports journalist to corporate maverick, Gene Quinn reveals his extraordinary life through three photographs and a souvenir.
In this intimate look at his life, he pays homage to friend and travel industry mentor Philip Wolf, shares tales of trout fishing, building a school in Malawi, and how he lost three toenails.