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On my trip to NYC to celebrate Virgin Atlantic’s 25th birthday, I had a few media appointments that allowed me to share my thoughts on the Virgin brand and our businesses and announce a bit of exciting rock-n-roll news. Here’s a snapshot of an afternoon in the Big Apple.

My first visit was with CNN American Morning’s John Roberts, an award winning anchor and genuinely nice guy, with stunning fashion sensibility (ok, we wore identical outfits). We chatted about the Carbon War Room, Virgin Atlantic, space travel, and music. Here’s his studio:



My next appointment was to record a video interview with BusinessWeek for its newly designed homepage. Writer Stacy Perman had organised an informal meet and greet with a few writers and editors but she sent me into a large formal conference room with 30 reporters, all poised with pens and notepads, sat at the ready to fire away questions!



They turned out to be a very nice bunch that asked about some of my favourite things: airlines, space travel, and the brand. One writer asked about bringing the Virgin brand to the US from the UK. Just as the brand started in the UK as the David to many Goliaths in aviation, mobile telephony, and financial services, the Virgin companies in the US are Davids offering a fresh value-for-money alternative to the bigger, bloated, legacy institutions. I think that we stay fresh because we’re constantly growing and trying new ventures. Virgin is now a group of established businesses but one with an eye to invest in new companies, offering consumers a better deal and great customer service. When they mature, we sometimes sell our shares and plough that money right back into new ventures and markets, growing new Davids every day.

Well, enough business talk, and onto the rock and roll bit. We then raced to 30 Rock for NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. A few years back, Jimmy married his wife on Necker… and regrettably I was not there for what sounded like a lovely celebration. Jimmy has got boundless energy, effortless charm, and radical ideas on saving the planet via cow methane reduction.

If you’re in the US you can view the whole episode online.

Here I am signing Jimmy’s guest book and ?uestlove’s drumsticks and mucking it up with Jimmy before the show:




The most exciting thing Jimmy and I did together was announce that this summer’s Virgin Mobile Festival in the US (at Merriweather Post Pavilion near Washington, DC) is going to be FREE. At a time when so many people are faced with economic hardship, it seems a brilliant idea to throw a free party for 35,000 people to, if for just one day, set aside troubles and enjoy life and music and have fun – on us.

Other Virgin companies are getting into the free spirit: Virgin America is donating a plane of free flights from LA to DC so that west coast festival-goers can also enjoy FREEFEST. I hope that the extra cash in people’s pockets will go towards donations for those who are less fortunate, such as homeless youth. Everyone can join in the spirit of generosity by texting “FREEFEST” to 20222 to donate US$5 to our homeless youth charity partners. Looking forward to having a pint with everyone on Sunday August 30. You can read more about it over on our Virgin music blog.



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