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“I remember the last time I was on tour, when I was 60, just a kid with a crazy dream…”
– Leonard Cohen on stage at 75
This month The Moodie Report turns ten years old, marking a decade since we launched our original product – a six-page PDF report.
Where did all the time go? I remember vividly writing the first edition late into the night in our original ‘Worldwide Headquarters’ – my garden shed (pictured below). It (the product as well as the shed) was basic to say the least but I had a pretty fair vision of where I wanted to take it (the product not the shed…).
The first issue (bare black and white pages, no advertising) pledged to change the traditional formula of industry media to offer “the latest intelligence on key business drivers such as currency relativities and traffic and tourism figures, plus analysis of macro eco-political events with potential impact on the travel retail business”. You can tell I couldn’t afford a sub-editor…
The major items in the first edition were:
• Travel retail braces itself for war in Iraq
• DFS losses curbed: Much hinges on Iraq, global economies
• Generation unveils 2001 figures – down -5% – due to post 9/11 slump
The invasion of Iraq was the big story though. “No question about it, war is in the air and many travel retailers are preparing for yet another drastic downturn in business,” we wrote.
War came. War went. War of a sort lingers on. Friends have come. Some, sadly, have gone. My own team has seen deaths, births and marriages. We’ve got a second (and brilliant) shareholder, driven by quality and by family values.
A decade on and the UK headquarters (below) looks a little different (though the garden shed still plays its role) and the staffing levels have moved on from that solitary ‘jack of all trades’ to a fantastically dedicated and talented team of 25 spread around the globe.
On October 5 we will celebrate that decade with around 380 industry friends at The Moodie Report 10th Anniversary Charity Ball in Hong Kong – more of which in a forthcoming Blog. What a night that promises to be as we set out to mark the occasion in the best possible fashion by raising funds for two great causes – Hand in Hand for Haiti and The Moodie Report Foundation.
Though I often feel it these days, I’m not quite as old as Leonard Cohen in either of his references above. But I do look back fondly to those dark Autumn nights at the foot of the garden when I first set out on my own ‘tour’, just another kid with a crazy dream.
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