10 Reasons Why Bangalore Airport Rocks

I’ve spent a lot of time airports last year. You can probably tell by how I’m motivated to write this article, and make it a listicle at that. 10 specific, bulleted reasons. That means I’ve really thought about it.

1.       Squeaky clean eat off the commode lid washrooms – Delhi, Vadodara, Abu Dhabi, Dubai….Let’s just say I’m so relieved (mentally) when I finally get back to Bangalore airport and wander into the washroom behind all the other girls going in groups. It’s shiny. It’s dry. There’s always a smiling lady who greets me as though she loves her job and feels happy to see me and she points me to the hidden tissue papers.

2.       Seat Covers – Yes, this is also about washrooms. Bangalore airport gives you disposable toiler seat covers. Since my entire family makes fun of me when I hunt these down in grocery store and carry them around in my purse, this is a big deal.

3.       Access to sanitary napkins – And one more. They tried the vending machines, but the science behind this has yet to perfect itself. However, now notices say that sanitary napkins are available on demand. I’d prefer easy and interaction free mode on this, but well, they tried.

Okay so the weightage on evaluating airports seems to sway very much toward washrooms. But I think a washroom reflects the basic standard you are happy with and says much about everything else. Mumbai International terminal comes close. Now onto the rest.

4.       Hatti Kapi – This little modern traditional coffee joint is a pleasure to come back to after a long trip. It’s got the nostalgia of homemade deep fried vadas, pure organic jiggery filter coffee, and served to you by a dignified older gentleman with ‘senior’ written on his T-shirt. Points for inclusiveness. All the aspects of being served Mysuru filter coffee in your favourite traditional uncle’s house.

5.       Sparrows – I loved this so much I wrote another article on it once when my plane was delayed for what seemed like forever. These little birds hop around the food court cute, bold and unafraid. Banished from the Bangalore of old where they were cohabitants of every house, bringing joy to children in the backyard, they thrive here in the strangest of circumstances. What this means for airport maintenance, I don’t know, but I love them.

6.       Celebrations – Bangalore airport is always celebrating. Diwali, Christmas, Karnataka Rajyotsava…. And they do this with style. Dance troupes, bands, orchestras, giant displays, promotions… they’ve taken the mundane transit experience and made it one of community. Even for the transient moment you’re passing through, you feel like you’re more than a traveler.

7.       Taxi! – Bangalore airport reacts fast to keep up with the choices of commuting. I remember how the regular curb side pickups became more organized, the queue managers got longer and more ziggy zaggy, people were employed to direct passengers and organize cabbies. Every time I go along at an indecent hour, the guy takes the cab number, my phone number and where I’m going. (I hope in a non-stalker manner I hope) Ola and Ubers started confusing the system, and honking was deafening in the drop off section. The airport then marked out an ‘app pick up’ section, had the apps bring people to the airport, put up signage. Now there’s no dearth of choice and no waiting time – you get out, you get into a cab of your choice and off you go. A metro line from my home to the departure gate would be good, but I’m not complaining.

8.       Traffic management – There’s always been lines and lines of vehicles getting in and out. I know over the years this has only grown. For a while there was the insane deafening honking, but they reacted fast and kept introducing new traffic flows, crossing guards, parking supervisors. Given the sheer number of vehicles driving in and out, there’s never a traffic jam that I’ve seen.

9.       Overnight parking – I just discovered overnight parking at the airport. Sometimes on day trips or two or three day trips, I love to drive down, park my car under the parking lot camera and be on my way. The parking fee for up to three of four days works out cheaper than cabs, and I feel safer to drive myself. Especially after a few sleepy cab drivers in the indecent hours of the morning caused me many heart palpitations.

10.   The airport app – There’s an airport app. You download it and you access a world of information on your phone. This is a good touch, and done so swiftly. Now you know if you have an app….you’ve arrived.

Although there’s still miles to go, it’s obvious to me that this is an airport that listens to its commuters, responds fast and tries to make things as easy as possible. Of course, I may be biased, it is my hometown. But I can’t ignore the feeling of pride that wells up in me every time I land here.

The newsletter phenomenon – part 2

Behind the scenes
So the newsletter is here to stay, is still much loved, and still the popular kid in school. While part 1 of this article talked about when it’s agood call to use a newsletter, we now get to the cooking. There’s practical nuances that work behind the scenes to make the newsletter an effective tool – frequency, content, technology, and just simply the skills and resources needed to create it.

The frequency and regularity is important. This depends on how easy or difficult it is to source content, the effort going into design and layout, and mindspace of your audience. The newsletter that arrives promptly in your mailbox at the same time, same day every week makes you believe it’s credible and dependable. And therefore the news in it is also credible and dependable.

To ensure regular streams of content you need a network of sources who are enthusiastic and willing to provide news on your publishing schedule, besides their day jobs. Packaging content is important – tiny digestible bites with goto links for more information. Graphical treatment of key points or emotive use of colour and design create the ‘mood’ to receive information. Engagement devices such as contests, feedback, and a call to crowdsource content make audiences feel included.

Then of course there’s technology. Is your newsletter a pdf delivered by email, or an emailer, or is it an e-zine? Or perhaps it’s just a news stream on your website that is delivered to mailboxes? The technology must be chosen based on the receptiveness of the audience. In one internal newsletter I worked on, the technology evolved with the audience. It began as a pdf, then became an interactive pdf, then grew into a slick e-book. But following an acquisition which changed employee demographics, 50% of them were not receptive to the e-book, so we scaled it back to a pdf. It’s most important to reach people – the technology is a means to an end.

And who will do all this work? Admin, CSR, sales teams, businesses and change programs would believe that that this is an hour’s work tops for a coms person. Coms people do have superhuman powers, but not here. It needs the skills of writing, design, and whatever technology you are using – maybe html, flash, maybe a tool subscription.

The newsletter generally heralds a time in the organization where there is a thirst for information, and a compelling need to share it.  While it is a positive climate for communication, newsletters are the ‘last mile’ connect. In a newsletter, the amount of information that can be shared is limited, and its job is to ‘push’ the content until a ‘pull’ is created – where people themselves visit the regular channels frequently.

Newsletters must eventually pave the way for a strong aggregated channel such as a single monthly or weekly communique, the intranet or website. In the food-related dessert analogy I use here, the intranet or website is the buffet where people can choose what information is relevant and helpful to their work. They can choose how much they want, look around and see what they may want later, and keep coming back whenever they want.

So what the ideal newsletter essentially says is “Bon appetite!”