Emirates Harmony and the new globalista traveller

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When I first heard that Emirates airline was throwing an ‘Emirates Harmony’ event on Ossington Ave in Toronto, I thought whaaaaat the … ? Why the surprise, you ask? Because Emirates is an hoity toity airline with fancy First Class suites and onboard Shower Spas. Emirates makes me think of sheiks, shopping at Harrod’s and Christian Laboutin shoes. (Wait a minute, in Sex and the City 2, did Carrie and the posse fly Emirates? Is that why I’m thinking shoes?)

 

 

If Emirates is uptown, Ossington Avenue is downtown. It’s the street where the hipster trendoid foodies hang out in all their glorious art school chic-ness. And one of my favourite bars is just around the corner, the Communist’s Daughter. Oh, wait. Now that the Avenue Bar at the Four Seasons in Yorkville is gone, maybe it’s my only favourite.

So of course I had to go to the event. Besides the weird clash of luxe and street cred, I figured the food would be good. (Hurrah for lobster rolls!) For another I knew that bombshell Olga Petrycki from Punch Communications who organized it wouldn’t steer me wrong.

The event was a kickoff for Emirates new branding campaign. There were a lot of slogans flying around (Get it? An airline. Flying around.) Hello tomorrow. Boredom is grounded indefinitely. Tormorrow brings us all closer. New people, New Experiences, New Styles, New Friends

 

 

There were some musicians including a beatbox boy and I played the spoons for awhile. And then I asked Don McWilliam, the country manager for Emirates what was up with the unlikely Ossington locale. What he told me was they were reaching out to the ‘globalista’ crowd.

 

 

Cool, I was thinking. Does that make me a globalista? I’d like to be a globalista. There’s a nice ring to that. What is a globalista, you ask? According to the press release, “Globalistas represent individuals who are looking and living for new experiences. They are well-travelled, or have aspirations to join the ranks of the well-travelled … They embrace the unlimited possibility of the future and are open to an invitation to try the unfamiliar.”

That is me! That must be me, because didn’t I get an invitation to an unfamiliar event on Ossington Avenue and said yes? And I even played the spoons, albeit badly and briefly and the band was already over, but still … today Ossington Avenue, tomorrow the world, or at least Dubai! Here’s to New people, New Experiences, New Styles, New Friends.

 

PS. If you’re a music-loving globalista you can go to emiratesharmony.com and play around with various musical arrangements and add your own recording and then you might become famous on Youtube.