by John Harper 

I was over at one of my favorite hangouts in Pleasanton, CA on Friday - Tullys. Tullys is a great place to hang out and get some work done. Especially, if you get a soft ice cream and pour a couple of shots of espresso over it. Tully's has FREE WiFi access, though I think the FREE WiFi zone is now operational in downtown Pleasanton.

I was at Tullys to meet up with Rhonda Fee and Karen Bartholomew, a couple of blogging converts that needed a pointer or two on blogging. The biggest table with a power outlet near was being occupied by this gent - Brian Clark. Turns out that Brian is the VP Planning & Sales for Virgin Amercia Airlines.

Well, given that I retired from Delta AirLines last August, we started talking airlines and then blogging as Brian informed me that Virgin America had a blog on their site. After taking a look, I informed Brian that you really couldn't call what Virgin America has on their site a blog. We kicked blogging around a bit, the airlines a bit more and then Brian had to make some calls and Rhonda, Karen and I needed to have our chat.

One of the points of interest in the conversation with Brian was his mention of the resistance VA is getting from unions. I found that interesting as Delta is mostly non-union and most of the low-cost startups are non-union.

I'll be keeping an eye on the VA site to see if they get the okay to fly and if they figure out blogging and what it can do to help them connect with their customers. 

FREE WiFi coming to downtown Pleasanton, CA. 

Here I am again at WiFi deprived Peets in San Ramon, CA. I’m just out of 24 Hour Fitness working on rehabilitating my protoplasmic mass that has suffered the results of six months of inactivity following my retirement last summer from Delta Airlines.

I’ve been spending the majority of my time behind a computer working on the Internet elements of The Harper Team’s business. Trading in 10 hours a day of physical activity for 10 hours of tapping my fingers has produced an organism I barely recognize as me.

Peets is located in a shopping plaza adjacent to Bishop Ranch. In the plaza are Peets Coffee, Whole Foods, Target, Borders Books, Supercuts and a dozen other stores and eateries. 24 Hour Fitness is conveniently located about ¾ of a mile away in another part of Bishop Ranch.

Bishop Ranch in San Ramon is the home to many well-known companies including Chevron, General Electric, IBM, AT&T, Toyota, Wells Fargo, and Verizon. It’s a huge business park totaling 585 acres. Over 30,000 people work here (many have laptops) and many of the building sites have yet to be built on. A lot of high technology surrounds me, but, alas, no WiFi at Peets where many coffee-up.

Sitting in technologically impoverished Peets, I can’t help but reflect on the lead story last week in the Pleasanton Weekly. The city of Pleasanton, California will soon have a FREE WiFi zone downtown. An avid blogger like me will soon be able to stroll from coffee, to books, to ice cream, to business meetings and on to what-have-you and remain connected. Perhaps I should pass on the ice cream until the twins are born.

Kudos to the community of Pleasanton.

I was in downtown Pleasanton last Friday after the Valley Marketing Meeting. I thought it was great to sit at Tully’s, have a cup of coffee and enjoy Tully’s free WiFi. I read in the Pleasanton Weekly article, that Tully’s used to charge for WiFi service like cash-strapped Barnes & Noble, Borders Books and that financially vulnerable startup, Starbucks.

Tully’s figured free WiFi was good for business and the $50 a month they had to spend on providing the service was nothing compared to the increase in business and goodwill. Here’s my pledge to all of the intelligent business people in downtown Pleasanton – I’m upping the amounts of my tips (and I am a consistently good tipper). Your employees will benefit from your intelligence and generosity as will I.