1. Please try to describe yourself in just 5 words!
Determined, enthusiastic, happy, friendly, slightly chaotic and reflective.

2. Tell us about ‘Viennarama’ and when it all started!
Viennarama started as a university project as part of my studies and I have always dreamed of having my own media outlet. So I thought why wait?
That’s why I created Viennarama which is devoted to the cultural scene in Vienna. We are also continually expanding our readership.

3. Why was ‘Viennarama’ brought to life?
It came to life because I adore Vienna and its culture. Vienna is the perfect fusion of tradition and modernity. I wanted to pay homage to the local culture with all its concerts, exhibitions and exceptional artists and musicians. As there was no comparable online portal, I decided to start my own.

4. What is so special about ‘Viennarama’?
We are a young team of voluntary students inspired by Viennese cultural scene and want to share this with others. So you can say, it’s from young people to young people.

5. How does ‘Viennarama’ reach its readers and how does it increase its readers?
We reach most of our readers through Facebook, where we post all new articles and events daily. We are also quite high up in Google Ranking, and word-of-mouth is one of our strengths.

6. What is your personal goal for ‘Viennarama’ for Vienna?
It would be great if we could get into print as well, but that is a long-term goal. Being able to finally pay our hardworking editors is also amongst them.

7. Have you ever come across a blog or website that you thought was interesting and if yes, which one and why?
As I said before until now I have not found a blog that’s comparable to Viennarama and this is why I started this blog.

8. Any comments you would like to share with us?
The main thrust is the love of Vienna. Vienna offers so many opportunities, and it is no surprise that it is in the top spot of the Mercer 2010 Quality of Living Survey.

The idea behind the premium car brand Infiniti was to create an entirely different kind of car for an entirely different kind of driver, and this idea is proven to be successful. They looked deeply into the rich Japanese heritage, especially the Japanese aesthetic known as ‘Adeyaka’, a concept containing the notions of grace and vibrant sensuality, and combined it with modern, progressive luxury. They call this design philosophy ‘Vibrant Design’.

Infiniti is a Japanese premium car brand, existing in the US by more than 20 years, producing powerful limousines, coupés and crossover car models. The 1^st Infiniti Centre was opened on October 1^st, 2008 in Paris, followed by centres in Madrid, Amsterdam, Prague, Istanbul and many other cities, now Infiniti is presented at 35 centres in total.

On June 28^th, Infiniti entered the Austrian market by presenting the overall philosophy, the brand and the different ‘beauties’ at a press conference held at The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel. The brand Infiniti will be represented by the well known and successful car company ‘Spes Automobile’ in Graz and the new ‘Infiniti Centre Austria’ will be opened  officially in the 1^st quarter of 2011 in Brunn am Gebirge.

Until the opening, future ‘Infiniti-rebels’ can enjoy the luxury of a hotel together with the luxury of a car @ The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel. Besides a nicely decorated corner in the lobby and an official ‘Infiniti-Lounge’ as of September 2010, interested parties can also look & feel cars like the Infiniti G37 Sedan, G37 Coupé, EX, the wonderful FX and pretty soon the new M…sorry…not only look & feel but also drive.

Besides that, The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel will develop the 1^st ‘Enjoy Infiniti @ The Ring Package’ as of September 2010, again a new approach that supports 2 premium brands.

More information on this, I would say ‘more-than-premium-car brand’ can be found on the website www.infiniti.com, press materials and images on www.infinitipress.eu or by contacting Ms. Michaela Potisk (michaela.potisk@infinitipress.at) for PR matters or the newly appointed centre manager for Austria, Mr. Karl Frittum (karl.frittum@infiniti-wien.at) for test drives.

Enjoy life, enjoy The Ring, enjoy Infiniti!

1. Who are you?

2. What do you like about what you do?
I like to see our guests enjoy their stay with us and realise they’ve had a wonderful experience in our city.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
I don’t like the low season, but rejecting guests when we are completely booked is even worse.

4. Please tell us about your hotel and your aims with it?
We are a small family run four star hotel on an excellent and romantic location, on a peaceful square, yet in the heart of the old town, amid shops and restaurants, bars and pubs. Majority of the historic sites and musea are in the neighbourhood of our hotel. Our building dates back to the 17 century so our decoration and styling is baroque, but with a touch of modern colours. Our rooms are all nicely furnished and mostly oversized. We like to offer our guests a personal treatment and an experience of a domestic yet stylish environment so they can enjoy discovering the city or their stay with us, regardless of their purposes for visiting Ljubljana.

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
No, I am not. I’m just an occasional reader of blogs.

6. Your TOP 3 hotel experiences
- One&Only, Royal Mirage, Dubai, UAE
- Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk, NL
- Punta Tragara, Capri, I

7. Your TOP 3 destination experiences
- Italy
- The UAE
- Switzerland

8. Your TOP 3 food and/or beverage experiences
- Restaurants on the Emerald Princess, Princess Cruises
- Carlton, St. Moritz
- Meneghello, Palmizana island, Croatia

9. Can you offer possible readers 3 things they absolutely need to do/visit/see when visiting your city?
- Sleep at Antiq Hotel
- Visit the old town and the marketplace, possibly also the flee market on Sunday
- Have dinner at the As restaurant

10. Any comments you want to share with us?
I’d like to thank the Ring Hotel for giving us the opportunity to present ourselves and connect us in this way. I think it’s a marvellous idea. I wish you a lot of success and I’ll most certainly visit the Ring Hotel, when I come to Vienna, it looks as a very nice hotel from the photos on your website.

1. Who are you?

In the recent past, I participated in various exhibitions in Austria and abroad; in 2009, I was nominated for the “item-art prize for painting” in Ulm, Germany, I took part in group exhibitions in Frankfurt/M. and St. Christoph, Austria, and in the near future, some of my works will be shown in the course of the “14. Art Auction” in Berlin under the patronage of film director Fatih Akin as well as at the 7th “Biennial of Contemporary Art” in Florence.
Additionally, I held a number of shows in Vienna, the current one, titled “Hunting now”, at Gallery Steiner.

2. What do you like about what you do?
In my paintings, I aim to display our present life, the daily life with its sometimes very special moments. Facing our fast-moving society, I think it’s necessary to conserve our current visual impressions, that’s just what painters have always done, and I enjoy depicting today’s lifestyle the way I see it.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
Being a freelance artist is always connected with pressure – financially and artistically. Sometimes it’s pretty annoying, especially if it’s only a self-made problem caused by one’s own perfectionism, on the other hand, being under strain can be really necessary for creating good and interesting works. So it’s quite an ambiguous thing, you hate it, but you need it, too.

4. Please tell us about your paintings and your aims?
Being inspired by the permanently changing urban lifestyle, I trace the ambivalent mixture of cultural tendencies and individual concepts of today’s people in my realistic paintings. Modern human beings are viewed against their social background, always ‘living under the lens’; and in the obtrusive, revealing style of close-ups and snapshots, complex situations are reduced to an exemplary detail or a fleeting moment while the circumstances remain untold.

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, which ones and why?
No, I’m not working with blogs.

6. Is there a gallery where you can find your paintings?
From 18.8.-14.9.2009, Gallery Steiner (Kurrentgasse 4, 1010 Vienna, open Mo-Fr 11-20h, Sa 12-17h, Sun closed) shows my current solo exhibition titled “Hunting now” – at the same time, selected photographs by Stavros von Kazinyan can be seen there.

7. Which painting do you admire the most and why?
I admire Gottfried Helnwein’s work, and I guess “Mouse I” is my favourite – disturbing, overwhelming, just amazing.

8. Any comments you want to share with us?
In 2008, I really enjoyed working together with “The Ring Hotel“, Vienna – apart from two exhibition cooperations, I painted a commissioned work for the bar “Drings” which was a great and challenging task because the product had to meet various requirements: it should thematically and visually reflect the bar’s focus on extraordinary vodka brands and cocktails, and additionally, a neutral colouring was needed because it should not disturb the great effect of the ‘mathematics art’ installations by artist Markus Mooslechner, especially the spectacular “Drings”-eyecatcher, the wide bar front. At least, I created a photorealistic work with soft restrained colours, corresponding to the unique and very special atmosphere of the cosmopolitan, stylish, and highly fashionable “Drings”-bar.

1. Who are you?
Florian Weitzer – I am 35 years old and I´m managing 3 hotels in Graz:
lifestyle design hotel daniel, Hotel “Das Weitzer” and “Grand Hotel Wiesler”

2. What do you like about what you do?
I like to have the wide range of challenges instead of being focused on routine job.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
To deal with the sort of people who are not open minded, accounting and authorities.

4. Please tell us about your hotel and your aims with it?
The Weitzer (www.weitzer.com) is a unique composition of tradition and modern lifestyle
… with the extra effort: Mercedes SL 1983 “the Legend”, “VINOFAKTUR” the best Styrian wine boutique, “Die Blumeninsel” a creative flower shop and BBQ on the balcony of a Weitzer guestroom, you can find these unusual hotel-experiences at the Weitzer in Graz, where else?

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
until now I did not find the right blog…

6. Your TOP 3 hotel / destination / food and beverage experiences?
Top hotel, top destination and top food&beverage experience are combined in the following locations:
www.kleinsasserhof.at
www.almdorf.com
www.steirereck.at

9. Can you offer possible readers 3 things they absolutely need to do/visit/see when visiting your city?
Climb up and visit the Schlossberg discover Graz from above,
take a ride with one of our “daniel” branded Vespa’s starting from design hotel daniel, enjoy a Styrian meal at “Der Steirer” with a selection of 500 Styrian wines in the Vinofaktur.

10. Any comments you want to share with us?
Graz is a destination which is almost unknown but there are a lot of unique pleasures to discover. Here you can find a lot of cultural events, lifestyle and Austria’s capital city of culinary pleasures (Genusshauptstadt) AND! you will be amazed about our prices. In times of economic crises you don not have to abstain.
Come and enjoy Graz!

1. Tell us about yourself?

2. Tell us about your daily life at work and what you like about it?
Everything, the Staff, the Guests, Every day is different. Working with other Passionate Individuals to create a high quality environment.

3. Tell us about your daily life at work and what you don’t like about it?
Not much. I am a pretty positive guy and my glass is always half Full, not half Empty!!!
I can sometimes get frustrated but that just steers me on to do even better! Life is too Short not to make the most of it!

4. Tell us about your hotel and your aims with it?
It dates back to 1856 when it opened as The Bank of The City of London. The lobby is dominated by a stunning stained glass dome, offers 69 bedrooms, 3 meeting rooms, Bonds Bar caters for up to 100 people and Bonds restaurant has 80 covers offering modern French cuisine.

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
No but my son is watching Youtube, which makes me feel old.

6. Your top 3 hotel experiences?
Good Question. Glasshouse Hotel (Edinburgh), Hotel de Paris (Monte Carlo) and Le Bristol (Paris)

7. Your top 3 destination experiences?
Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong

8. Your top 3 food and/or beverage experiences?
Good Question …

9. Can you offer possible readers 3 things they absolutely need to do/visit/see when visiting your city?
Stay at Threadneedles, drink Champagne in Bonds Bar, and eat in Bonds Restaurant.

10. Any comments you want to share with us?
Be nice to people and they will be nice with you!

Threadneedles, Luxury Boutique Hotel in London. Voted by Conde Nast Traveller as one of the top 50 hotels in the world.

Thomas Seifried, Chef de Cuisine, about the award: “I am very proud and happy that Gault Millau awarded us with a toque. It shows that we are going into the right direction. What made me most happy is that the testers said there is even more to expect in the next years!”

The menu offers all kinds of excellent dishes. An example of which is: a Bean Sprouts and Lemon Balm Crisp Role with Mountain Pepper Vegetables and Friesèe Salad or a Steak with an Artichokes-Potato-Chorizogröstl and Red Wine Chilliglace or Cardamom-Biscuit Role with a Marzipan Shake. Products used, mainly originate from biological cultivation and where possible, are from Austria.

“The preparation with essential oils is a very sensitive work because one has to work with very little amounts and this art of cooking is very rare. Therefore we had a lot of testing in advance. The art of aroma cooking, as we are calling it, is dependent on excellent products, from naturally cold pressed oils and to abstain from regular flavors like salt. The dishes are low in fat and by using the different essential oils, a positive health effect is guaranteed. There are different positive effects like a better digestion and reducing the fat of the body,” Thomas Seifried explains.

Mr. Thomas Seifried, Chef de Cuisine, began his career as an apprentice and then as a young cook at the Hotel Lärchenhof in Tirol. During 2004 he started work at the Grand Hotel Vienna as a Sous Chef in the restaurant “Le Ciel”.

“The concept of the “at eight” immediately got me because it’s up to date and represents the health mentality perfectly. The great variety of different herbs and essential oils offers endless possibilities regarding preparation and decoration of the dishes,” says Mr. Seifried.

The wine cellar of the restaurant is exceptional and can offer over 700 bottles of International and Austrian class wines and champagne! A table placed in the centre of the room offers the opportunity to sample the wine in a Professional and pleasent atmosphere.

Questions and Photos
Céline Brigg, Public Relations & Communications Manager
Tel: +43 1 515 80-761 oder cbrigg@jjwhotels.com
Presslounge under www.theringhotel.com