These challenges from the International Society of Hospitality Consultants seem pretty on the mark to me. Here are just the top five (for explanations and the rest of the list, click here).

1. Changing Labor Conditions (the labor union issues should be especially interesting in 2006)
2. Escalating Operating Costs
3. Impact of Rising Energy Costs on Consumer Travel & Hotel Demand
4. Escalating Renovation and Construction Costs
5. Havoc from Recent Natural Disasters

In anticipation of slowed growth in tourism due to high oil prices for us frozen northern folks who have to save our pennies for utilities instead of vacations (boo!), Visit Florida is concentrating its efforts on getting the convention market to come on down, according to this News-Journal article. But there still linger the spectres of hurricanes past and future, which has made a lot of planners skittish, and understandably so. But while Daytona Beach isn’t getting much in the way of bookings during hurricane season, it is picking up some more winter meetings, the article says.

Why am I writing about this? Well, it’s cold here in Massachusetts and I just like thinking about Florida about now. Pardon me while I go get some orange juice to complete the illusion.

This is the week for trend spotting, pontificating, and crystal-ball gazing. Here’s Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell’s top hospitality trends. Among the things that meeting planners could take heed of:

Leisure travelers becoming more prevalent than business travelers (this has to impact room rates, especially for short-term meetings)

People want stress-reducing activities more than ever—bring on the spas!

Meetings and conventions will continue to spur more business travel needs than individual trips will.

High-speed Internet will continue to grow in importance for hotels, airports, and probably the zoo (no, they don’t actually say that).

Air travel will continue to be on the cheap side, while hotel rates will continue to rise (especially, they say, at high-end properties).

Nothing too surprising, but always good to hear the experts weigh in.

Self-restraint is good. It’s important to takes some time to really understand someone’s point of view before disagreeing. Turn the other cheek and all that.

Still, sometimes, don’t you just want to do this?

This guy tells what it was like on the flight that had to turn back to Seattle after depressurizing due to a hole in the fuselage caused by a ground worker who didn’t tell anyone he had damaged the plane.

I would have flipped completely if I had been on that plane. It was bad enough on a flight a few years ago when an alarm went off and we had to turn back to Manchester, N.H., shortly after takeoff (turns out it was just a switch malfunction and nothing was wrong on the plane, but I was freaking out hugely).

Here’s a handy tip for cocktail receptions: Use tall glasses. According to a study in the British Medical Journal (as reported by ZDNet):

researchers from Cornell University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have shown that short glasses are more likely to lead to over-indulgence. In fact, people pour 20-30 percent more alcohol into short, wide glasses than into tall, narrow ones of the same volume. The researchers obtained similar results with students and professional bartenders.

(Thanks to Slashdot for the pointer.)

Update: According to my Capsules co-blogger Anne Taylor-Vaisey, this is a hoax article, one of many BMJ runs in its annual Christmas issue. But boy, it sure looked real to me. I’ll have to do some experimenting of my own.

From speaker, futurist, and all-around nice guy Jim Carroll: 10 Great Words for 2006. I’m with you, Jim. Thanks. (And I like to ski, too.)

Ever wonder where aspiring spammers go to learn their trade? Check out Spam University. The site’s a hoot. Just don’t give them your credit card info!

And now for a little holiday cheer! The caption for this one on the Scared of Santa Gallery is: Hmm, this ball should just about fit . . .
Graham Henderson, 1991, sent by mom Janet Henderson, Lake Forest. These photos (and commentary) just cracked me up completely.

And while we’re on the Santa subject, check out Simon Sez Santa—just don’t ask him to dance or attack the tree if small children are around! (And he’s a little less freaky than the subservient chicken.)

I’ve been reading and rereading desire lines—those pathways that form when people walk the way they desire, not the way the path-maker decided would be the best way to go (I also borrowed the picture from her to illustrate what she’s talking about). Patti quotes New Zealand blogger Marica Sevelj, who relates desire lines to learning in this way:

I immediately started thinking about how this might apply to learning and teaching. One thing that sprang into my mind immediately was the disparity between the curriculum which we are required to teach and the actual needs of the learners we teach. Is the curriculum itself an example of a desire line created by a group of experts who wholeheartedly believe this is what the learner needs to know, or is the curriculum an example of a concrete path which learners are expected to use but don’t necessarily want to?

It makes me wonder how we accommodate desire lines in our learning environments. How do we meet the needs of our learners while still engaging them in learning things they may need to know although at the time they don’t know it? How does the saying go - you don’t know what you don’t know! Should we always allow our learners to be in control of their learning desire line or do we gently help them onto the path? Who decides which is the best option?

Some of my best learning experiences is when we’ve gone off the established path and, through wandering a bit, found new ways to connect different lines of knowledge. Most desire lines in parks tend to mark shortcuts between two points. But when it comes to learning, our desire lines may more closely resemble spirals, or zig-zags, or arcs that touch different paths in new ways. This reminds me a little of what someone was telling me about how they teach math (always my least favorite subject) at her kid’s school. Instead of memorizing formulas (taking the path that’s been laid out for us without questioning—and stay off the grass!), the kids have projects that entail using whatever they’re learning. But they have to figure out how to use it, where their desire line goes, to achieve their goals.

Anyway, please read Patti’s post. It’s one of the most thought-provoking things I’ve read in a long time.