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How to buy Chris Stapleton tickets: Dates and prices compared for 2024 concert tour

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/03/22/music-stars-swap-guitars-for-guns-to-help-ukraine-s-war-effort"></a>"We are not afraid to play under the bombs," a member of the <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword> rock band Antytila said in a message to <keyword id="12095724" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ed-sheeran" source="Orion">Ed Sheeran</keyword>.</li><li>Antytila would perform remotely at ITV's "Concert for <keyword id="11897975" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="uk" source="Orion">Uk</keyword>raine" fundraiser on March 29 in the UK.</li></ul><p>In an impassioned and defiant TikTok post, members of the Kyiv-based rock band Antytilan are asking to perform at an upcoming benefit concert for Ukraine, saying they would play remotely "under the bombs" of their besieged city.</p><p><a href="https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPd5CjtcL/">The post shows band members</a> standing under a wrecked apartment building in their combat gear.</p><p>The members, in English, addressed UK singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, who will be performing at the <a href="https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/03/22/music-stars-swap-guitars-for-guns-to-help-ukraine-s-war-effort">two-hour benefit</a> show "Concert for Ukraine" in Birmingham on March 29.</p><p>"Hello Ed! Greetings from Kyiv!" one of the performers-turned-soldiers, lead singer Taras Topolia, said to the band's 116,000 TikTok followers.</p><p>"We are Ukrainian musicians of the Ukrainian band Antytila — one of the most popular Ukrainian bands with a lot of fans in Ukraine and all over the world. In peacetime, our concerts gather at stadiums."</p><p>He added, "Today we learned about your charity concert for Ukraine, which will take place in Birmingham. And we offer to make a live broadcast between Kyiv and Birmingham with Antytila temporarily joining the gig remotely."</p> <p>Topolia, a father of three, <a href="https://www.euronews.com/culture/2022/03/22/music-stars-swap-guitars-for-guns-to-help-ukraine-s-war-effort">told Euronews</a> on Monday that band members began volunteering for the Ukrainian army in 2014, when <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword> annexed Crimea.</p><p>Kyiv, Ukraine's capital city and home to nearly 3 million people, has been under targeted attack by Russian forces, including shelling and bombings, as the Ukrainian military continues to resist their advancement. </p><p>Topolia said he wants the band to play the benefit to highlight that resistance. </p><p>"The war has changed our lives and now we are fighting with weapons against the Russian occupiers. We thank you, and all of the British people for their support. Believe me, we are grateful, and we always — we will always remember this," he said. "Our band will play our music in Kyiv, a city that has not surrendered and will never surrender to the Russian occupiers. You will play in Birmingham."</p><p>He added, "We are not afraid to play under the bombs. Through music, we want to show the world that Ukraine is strong and unconquered. We will fight and sing for victory in front of the whole world that supports us. So, on March 29, we are ready."</p><p>Proceeds from the concert will benefit the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee and its Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Performers will also include singer Camila Cabello and Irish–Scottish rock band Snow Patrol, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/concerts/ed-sheeran-camila-cabello-itv-concert-for-ukraine-lineup-1235046393/">according to Billboard.</a></p>

'We are not afraid to play under the bombs': Kyiv rock band-turned-soldiers asks Ed Sheeran to let them remotely play UK benefit concert

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Patrick Forhane visited all 50 states, completing his goal in Kansas in 2022.</li><li>A health emergency in 2020 and the pandemic delayed his travel plans to hit the remaining states.</li></ul><p>Patrick Forhane, 45, hit his 50th state, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/get-paid-move-work-remotely-cash-stipend-internet-kansas-2024-5">Kansas</a>, in 2022. Two years earlier, he wasn't sure if achieving the feat would be possible.</p><p>Forhane, a credit review manager for a bank, had a longtime goal of visiting <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-worst-50-states-ranked-retired-boomer-all-national-parks-2024-8">all 50 states</a>, though a serious health emergency in early 2020 put a wrench in his plans. He was out of commission for a few months, then had to postpone travel plans after the outbreak of the pandemic. However, by the end of the year, Forhane was back to traveling to hit his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/50-states-ranked-according-to-frequent-traveler-2024-8">final few states</a>.</p><p>Forhane has also been to 45 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/relocate-chiang-mai-thailand-affordable-quality-of-life-best-city-2024-7">countries</a>, his favorites being Sweden, Japan, and Chile. He's also traveled to Azerbaijan, Tanzania, Malaysia, and Russia.</p><p>"When I was younger, I didn't plan on driving around the country, and I never have still. I've been to all these places randomly, and I'm just surprised at how much there is to see in the US," Forhane said. "It's sad that not everybody knows what's out there."</p><div type="image" title="Patrick Forhane and his friends in Kansas" height="3024" width="4032" msid="112651874" hostid="261" sizebytes="1830360"></div><p>Forhane ranked his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/least-favorite-us-states-according-to-frequent-traveler">favorite and least favorite states</a>, preferring the colder Northern states to the hotter South.</p><h2 id="ef5e717d-93d2-4550-9379-eb647f0137df"><strong>Aiming to hit all 50 states</strong></h2><p>Forhane grew up on Long Island, where his dad worked for United Airlines. He and his family took vacations in states such as California, Florida, and Hawaii, though he said that his parents "weren't very creative with traveling."</p><p>He moved with his family to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-california-utah-cost-of-living-san-diego-weather-slc-2024-7">California</a>, where he attended college and explored the West Coast. He then moved to Seattle for work for seven years, visiting states including Idaho and Montana. He took two trips to Alaska, where he rented a car and explored the major cities.</p><p>"When I lived in Seattle, a very large portion of the people I knew had never been to Alaska due to the cost and the remoteness," Forhane said.</p><p>He <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-to-new-york-city-nyc-weather-expensive-jersey-city-2024-1">moved to New York City</a> in 2012, getting to visit many New England states he didn't hit growing up. He said he rarely travels for work, meaning he's had to visit many states during vacations or quicker weekend trips, often on federal holidays. Having three airports close by allowed him to take nonstop flights across the country for relatively affordable prices.</p><p>While in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-to-seattle-leaving-georgia-atlanta-cost-of-living-millennial-2024-1">Seattle</a> and New York City, he would take trips to cities he'd never visited, noting he prefers exploring cities over parks. In each state, he said he would spend a few days attending concerts, visiting museums, and trying the local food scene.</p><p>He said he'd kept trips affordable by taking public transit and staying at hotels on the outskirts of downtowns. He used to rent cars to get out of the cities and see rural areas, though car rental prices have shot up over the last few years.</p><div type="image" title="Patrick Forhane in Mississippi" height="3024" width="4032" msid="112651879" hostid="261" sizebytes="1595728"></div><p>By the beginning of 2020, Forhane had been to 46 states. However, that January, Forhane had a medical emergency that sent him to the ER.</p><p>"I was sitting on a gurney, and one of the things that went through my head was, I'm not going to be able to hit all 50 states," Forhane said. "Because of that, I said, if I get out of here, I want to do this."</p><p>After his recovery two months later, he crafted a plan to visit Michigan, Alabama, New Mexico, and Kansas. Because of the pandemic, he pushed back his travel plans — including a trip he planned in March to Ukraine and Poland.</p><p>"My mom talks about wanting to see things, how she's always wanted to see the world, but now that she's older, there are many places she didn't get to see," Forhane said. "I feel that seeing older relatives not being able to do certain things they've wanted to do gave me the idea that if I want to do something, I probably should do it as soon as possible rather than waiting until later. There's no guarantee that it will work out."</p><p>In September 2020, he spent a few days in Traverse City, Michigan, choosing a smaller, less crowded city where he could stay safe from COVID-19. He later flew to Alabama, where he spent time on the Gulf Coast and Birmingham, and then New Mexico.</p><p>For his last state, he had a friend who lives in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/leaving-texas-moving-to-missouri-retirement-expensive-cost-of-living-2024-5">Missouri</a> who offered to drive from Kansas City into Kansas proper. A few of his friends flew him for his final state, after which they celebrated at a barbecue joint.</p><p>"That was a big to-do since they were able to come with me; it wasn't like landing in a random airport by myself for my 50th state," Forhane said.</p><h2 id="2c0f3447-94a1-4488-8821-1c886d9c8382"><strong>Favorite states</strong></h2><p>Forhane said his favorite state is tied between <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moved-texas-oregon-left-red-state-blue-politics-2024-2">Oregon</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retired-early-moved-to-rv-be-close-to-family-2024-8">Washington</a>, as both have cities so close to tranquil forests and mountains. He misses living in Seattle and spending time amid evergreen trees and lakes outside the city.</p><p>In Oregon, he said Portland is one of his favorite cities, located close to Mount Hood and the Pacific coastline. He enjoyed driving by Crater Lake National Park in the state's southwest, noting it's one of his favorite national parks.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/small-town-in-maine-hidden-gem-northeast-belfast-2024-7">Maine</a> is his third-favorite state, noting he adored the waterfront towns along the coastline and its many forests. He only visited during the summer and hasn't experienced the frigid Maine winters.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/home-prices-montana-retired-boomer-homeowners-losing-houses-insurance-taxes-2024-7">Montana</a>, which he ranked fourth, surprised him with its natural beauty, noting he was shocked by the serenity of Glacier National Park and the state's vastness.</p><div type="image" title="Patrick Forhane in Alabama" height="3022" width="3380" msid="112651881" hostid="261" sizebytes="1178858"></div><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-was-paid-to-move-portland-to-alabama-pros-cons-2022-9">Alabama</a>, a state many rank in their bottom five, rounded out his top five. He spent some time in Mobile and the Gulf Coast, including the beach town Dauphin Island, which he said were pleasantly surprising. He added that Birmingham was a historic and culturally diverse city.</p><p>"When it comes to food, nature, and cities, there's a lot more going on there than most people realize," Forhane said.</p><h2 id="4c098d3b-5355-44cf-8251-b568d18e47c7"><strong>Least favorite states</strong></h2><p>As someone who has spent most of his life in the Northern US, he prefers many Northern states to the South. That's why he ranked <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-from-florida-to-california-pros-cons-los-angeles-orlando-2023-11">Florida</a> as one of his least favorite states.</p><p>He said he's spent much of his life visiting friends and family in Florida, seeing "more of Florida than most people would ever want to." He said the heat and humidity, the traffic, and frequent storms and floods led him to put Florida at the bottom of his list.</p><p>He didn't love Louisiana, noting New Orleans was a historic city to see once but not his favorite given the large crowds.</p><p>He said he wants to revisit Arizona and Nevada to explore some of the more underrated parts of those states. However, he didn't enjoy Las Vegas, and he said he didn't find either state too memorable as he's "not a big desert person."</p><p>As a New Yorker, he added that New Jersey is "just not a place I go to for fun," noting he's never been too impressed with the state driving through.</p><p><em>Have you visited every state or national park? Reach out to this reporter at </em><a target="_blank" href="mailto:nsheidlower@businessinsider.com"><em><u>nsheidlower@businessinsider.com</u></em></a><em>.</em></p>

A Gen Xer who visited all 50 states shares which to skip — and why he was surprised Alabama made his top 5

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Insider asked four public-health experts what it would take for them to fully return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles.</li><li>Some are holding out for specific COVID-19 case rates or vaccination thresholds.</li><li>Others are waiting to hear about fewer cases among their extended social networks.</li></ul><p>It's the question many of us are, somehow, still confused about, more than a year and a half into the pandemic: How do we know when it will be safe to fully return to normal?</p><p>Insider asked four public-health experts for their takes - what they would need to see in order to return to a pre-pandemic lifestyle without worry. How will they decide it's time to resume activities like traveling internationally, throwing parties, or attending conferences?</p><p>Each said that probably won't happen until at least next year, and will likely depend on whether a new variant arises that could overtake Delta. But the metrics these experts are using to make those decisions vary significantly.</p><p>Some are holding out until the US hits a certain vaccination threshold - at least 80% of the population fully vaccinated. Others are waiting until hospitals aren't overwhelmed, or their local COVID-19 rate dips below 10 daily cases per 100,000 people.</p><p>But some experts just aren't comfortable relying solely on data anymore. Instead, they're focused on how often they hear about friends and family who've recently been exposed to the virus - an informal sign of how prevalent COVID-19 is in their community.</p><p>"We're moving away from a point where you can pinpoint a given number and say, 'We should feel safe,'" ​​Rachael Piltch-Loeb, a fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Insider. "It becomes much more your perception of risk to yourself, to your family."</p><p>Still, the experts offered several tipping points that would facilitate their return to normal.</p><h2>Chris Beyrer is waiting for higher vaccination rates</h2><div type="image" title="louisiana covid vaccine" height="2576" width="4007" msid="86409622" hostid="261"></div><p>Before the Delta variant became dominant, Chris Beyrer had hoped to resume his HIV research in Thailand or South Africa this fall. Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said he's now waiting to see higher vaccination rates in those countries before visiting.</p><p>"International travel to places where vaccine access is low, or uptake is low, is a ways off," Beyrer told Insider. "We will be very fortunate if we're able to do this by late 2022. I think probably mid-2023 is more realistic."</p><p>Beyrer estimated that countries will likely need to see vaccination rates above 80% - perhaps 85% or 90% - before Delta infections stop spreading easily. Getting to that number is possible in the US, he said, but it will require patience. (Just 55% of Americans are fully vaccinated right now.)</p><p>"I am hopeful that we will start to turn the corner both once we have more mandates in place and we get higher immunization coverage, and once we have approval for the under-12-year-olds," Beyrer said. "That's going to be a big change. Until then, we have to be cautious."</p><h2>Cindy Prins is looking for low daily cases in her community </h2><div type="image" title="covid-19 swab test" height="1712" width="3029" msid="86409627" hostid="261"></div><p>Dr. Anthony Fauci recently <a href="https://www.axios.com/fauci-no-control-covid-a2572210-dbdb-48b0-aa2e-92e8e9fcd69a.html?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&amp;stream=topp;stream=top">told Axios</a> that the US needs to see fewer than 10,000 daily <keyword id="8785701" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19-cases" source="Orion">COVID-19 cases</keyword> before the virus no longer poses a public-health threat. Currently, the US is seeing around 140,000 daily cases. But Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida, is looking at her local case rate, not a national number, to determine when she'll return to indoor restaurants and fitness classes.</p><p>"I'd like to see it maybe hit 10 cases per 100,000 population," Prins said. "The likelihood of you encountering someone who actively has COVID at that point becomes a lot lower, so it just makes me feel like the odds are in my favor."</p><p>Alachua County, where Prins is located, is currently reporting around 360 cases per 100,000 people.</p><p>Like Beyrer, Prins thinks a vaccination target of around 85% would help communities significantly lower transmission. But she cautioned that vaccination metrics "may not show the whole story," since many people have also acquired immunity through infection.</p><p>The promise of booster shots doesn't do much to sway her comfort level, she added.</p><p>"A third shot would be great, but I don't think a third shot is going to send me back to the activities right away that I consider to be risky," Prins said.</p><h2>​​Rachael Piltch-Loeb wants to be sure there's enough hospital capacity</h2><div type="image" title="louisiana covid hospital" height="3446" width="5085" msid="86409629" hostid="261"></div><p>Piltch-Loeb is still avoiding indoor concerts and sports stadiums where there's no vaccination requirement, or where public-health measures like masks and social distancing aren't enforced. To get back to those activities, she said, she needs to feel confident that there are ample hospital beds available where she lives in the Northeast.</p><p>That will happen naturally, she added, once more people in her region get vaccinated.</p><p>"I'm trying to move away from being hung up on a given case number and really focus on vaccination rates and healthcare capacity to respond to severe infection in my geographic area," Piltch-Loeb said.</p><p>She expects masks to become part of her "new normal" on planes and in healthcare facilities.</p><p>"There will be new normals for everyone," she said, "but I'm looking to the future with high hopes for 2022."</p><h2>Ellen Eaton is waiting until her kids can get vaccinated </h2><div type="image" title="face mask kid school covid 19" height="3142" width="4473" msid="86409632" hostid="261"></div><p>Data can, of course, can be flawed.</p><p>"In the deep South especially, a lot of the dashboards aren't being updated for reasons that are largely political and cultural," Ellen Eaton, an infectious-disease expert at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, told Insider, adding, "a lot of my colleagues and I are really not following our dashboards because we're just not convinced that they are being updated and the data quality is as robust as it was early in the pandemic."</p><p>Eaton isn't focused much on vaccination rates, either. The <keyword id="11893194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus" source="Orion">coronavirus</keyword> doesn't respect borders, she said, and vaccine uptake differs dramatically from county to county.</p><p>Instead, she's waiting until her young children can get vaccinated before she'll consider hosting indoor dinner parties with friends or allowing her kids to return to indoor Boy Scout meetings and church services. Then once they get the shots, Eaton said, she'll probably hold off on those activities until she hears about fewer COVID-19 cases in her community.</p><p>"When we're hearing about fewer of our friends contracting COVID at similar events, when we're hearing about fewer school children coming home or coming to school with a case of coronavirus, we'll start widening our bubble," she said.</p>

4 leading public-health experts describe what it would take for them to fully return to normal life

This guy created a Twitter bot that won him over a thousand 'retweet to win' prizes

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Time Out Group<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/time-out-acquires-yplan-2016-10">&#xa0;announced it was acquiring&#xa0;London-based events app YPlan for £1.6 million ($1.95 million) in stock earlier on Friday</a>.<p>The price was a snip considering big name investors had pumped £31 million ($37.7 million) into the startup since it was founded in 2012.</p><p>The YPlan app and website lets users search by event, area, or venue to find tickets for events like&#xa0;theater, concerts, and food festivals.</p><p>Speaking to Business Insider, Time Out Group CEO Julio Bruno said the acquisition of YPlan immediately accelerates what the company had already been doing in the commerce space, allowing the publisher to make more money from the events it promotes and reviews.&#xa0;</p><p>As far as the&#xa0;nature of YPlan's exit was concerned, Bruno said the startup's team should be validated that a company the size of Time Out took notice and&#xa0;they can now expand their idea globally.</p><p><em>This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.</em></p><p><strong>Lara O'Reilly:</strong> What can you do with YPlan that you couldn't do before?</p><p><strong>Julio Bruno:</strong> It's not that we couldn't do this ourselves, what YPlan does for us is&#xa0;accelerate&#xa0;what we had&#xa0;already been doing.</p><p>At our IPO [in June] we were talking about our uses of the money [we had raised].&#xa0;&#xa0;What&#xa0;YPlan does and their technology in the same sector - event planning, discovery, and booking - is perfect for what we are working on.</p><p>We are bringing in fantastic talent in that space and&#xa0;bringing in technology that will allow us to accelerate on our own, rather than start from&#xa0;scratch.</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>O'Reilly:&#xa0;</strong>What kind of technology, specifically?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> They have a very easy user interface that's very clean, very sharp, and very user friendly. &#xa0;By that I mean if you see an event you like, you tap once, and if you really want to buy it,&#xa0;you can book now - that is two clicks.</p><p>If you go to our existing commerce platform, primarily you will see that is a little bit more convoluted because&#xa0;we have third&#xa0;parties, white labels, different providers. That seamless approach YPlan has,&#xa0;they do it with much fewer events that Time Out. Time Out has thousands and thousands and thousands. But the&#xa0;simplicity of thought they have, the delivery of the product in a very nice user friendly way is&#xa0;important&#xa0;- you are&#xa0;showing me a lot of things, and when the time comes to choose a thing, either you cannot book it, or it becomes complicated.</p><p>The other thing they have is a very good data analytics&#xa0;and&#xa0;CRM (customer relationship management) system that we like. That is something we have been trying to develop, we have some but&#xa0;do not have all, and they have something that will help us with our existing data analytics.</p><p>Then&#xa0;the way their management, their leaders, and engineers think is what I&#xa0;was looking for in terms of our evolution.</p><p>They&#xa0;are looking at e-commerce as an end to itself so to speak. I know this is a great event, how am I going to maximize it? I know it's good, I want people to book fast and conversion is important.</p><p>Time Out has&#xa0;for so long been the harbinger for fantastic ideas and thoughts&#xa0;without&#xa0;thinking very much about how to book it. With them&#xa0;they think the other way around. They think how can I monetize? In their mind, monetization is completely aligned with the use case.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> If monetization was at the center, why didn't YPlan make more money? The company posted a pre-tax loss of £6.2 million last year.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> They are like any other consumer platform, consumer app, or on&#xa0;desktop. The difficulty they all have in general is trying to get the traffic, the audience, the eyeballs.</p><p>Normally - and I'm not just saying this about them, as I wasn't there before -&#xa0;normally I think a lot of companies in this space have to spend a lot of money on&#xa0;customer acquisition,&#xa0;PPC (pay-per-click), and they have to buy [search] terms. They spend a lot of money.</p><p>The tech is there, but they didn't have the whole that we have:&#xa0;137 million [users] in reach. That is a big difference between a company like that and&#xa0;Time Out.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>What&#xa0;Time Out has is the audience because we have been building that for&#xa0;48 years in&#xa0;London and 25 years in New York City. We have been building fantastic content, stories, reviews, critiques&#xa0;about so many things, and our content is so special that we get that audience. What we are doing is merging&#xa0;that audience with the possibility to buy.<p>In their case, they had the tech, spent&#xa0;a lot of money on research and algorithms, but if&#xa0;you do&#xa0;not have all the traffic you need, that takes time. That's probably why last year wasn't the best for them.</p><p>I see joining Time Out is perfect for them as a continuation of their strategy and what they want to do in the space, but with a bigger audience.&#xa0;</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> The last I heard, YPlan had 1.5 million users. How many users does it&#xa0;have now?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> As a public company, I'm not sure if that's relevant to what we were doing now, we are&#xa0;merging [YPlan's audience]&#xa0;with an audience that is so much bigger.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> But it'd be interesting to know how big that chasm was, between YPlan's audience and Time Out's ...</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> They have built an audience. It takes a long time to build and a lot of money to build an audience. We didn't buy them because of their audience. We are going to give that [combined] audience a combination of Time Out content and event with YPlan's tech. You have to think about this all together.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> How long were you in discussions to buy YPlan?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> I don't know if I can disclose&#xa0;that. It has been quite fast. We had to take our time for due diligence&#xa0;and the time needed to do these things ... I would say that it was not a lot and not too little</p><p>As a public company we have to go through a lot of things to make sure board of directors are happy. To be honest, I&#xa0;have to say the board was very, very happy with this idea of accelerating our strategy and&#xa0;with our commerce side of plan. I would say it took the usual time it takes with these [acquisitions].</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>O'Reilly:</strong> Many people have commented about the fact that investors put £31&#xa0;million into the company, yet it was sold for just £1.6 million in stock. Did you speak to the investors?</p><p><strong>Bruno: </strong>I&#xa0;cannot comment about those investors. For us, obviously the product was central to the deal. The board of directors and the company founder and CEO, those were the people we spoke to. We spoke to the actual representatives of the company authorized to do this deal.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> How do you think they feel about the deal?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> How would they feel? You should ask them. [YPlan]&#xa0;now has&#xa0;a home that will&#xa0;allow them to develop their strategy on much bigger, global scale. They were in London and [had an office] in Birmingham - with us now they are a global company. That's&#xa0;fantastic for YPlan.</p><p>For investors, I obviously don't know how they feel. It's good to have an exit, right? It's&#xa0;good to validate everything you have worked for - technology, people, the talent, the place, the home. We are so happy to have them on board, as they are talented people. We love them being with us and, from what we can see, they love being with us.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> An exit is good, but usually an exit is good when you exit for more money than was invested into the company ...&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:&#xa0;</strong>I don't know, I&#xa0;myself am an angel investor in companies and sometimes you make good, sometimes you&#xa0;make less good. You look at your whole portfolio, not just one investment.</p><p>There&#xa0;are so many companies out there that are great ideas that cannot get anywhere because they don't have momentum. YPlan had enough momentum for Time Out&#xa0;to be interested to put an offer in.</p><p>It's important because you have companies like Time Out, as a public company, being very careful about the types of investments we do. For&#xa0;them to be out there and for us to be interested, that says a lot of good about them. But&#xa0;we, like them,&#xa0;understand the challenges.</p><p><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>O'Reilly:</strong> Is everyone from YPlan moving to Time Out?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong>&#xa0;Everyone in the company is moving, including the two&#xa0;founders.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> Is the YPlan consumer-facing app staying, or is it being rebranded as a Time Out product?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> I'm&#xa0;not completely 100% sure yet, we will decide while we do in the transition. As we go along we will see the value of the different brands. I don't want to confuse our consumers, clearly, so we will have to have a very defined strategy.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> What kind of impact does YPlan bring to the bottom line?</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> That's a forward looking statement I cannot give you.&#xa0;</p><p>We have a plan and part of that plan was to use the&#xa0;proceeds of&#xa0;the IPO to&#xa0;develop products and tech platforms, but also to hire people and&#xa0;hire faster to start building all the things we want to build. We were going to build this in 2017/18, and now we can start to build in 2018.&#xa0;</p><p>The&#xa0;impact in terms of the company? You saw the announcement, all the numbers are there. But we are now bringing on board more people, faster than we could have. It would have been&#xa0;difficult to hire a couple of those engineers, that takes a lot of time. To&#xa0;bring them in one go, all that tech and commercial operations, that's fantastic for us and will have a material impact.</p><p>The&#xa0;impact is both economic and from the point of view&#xa0;of culture. It brings product and technology to the center of Time Out.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> If that's the strategy, then what else do you need? What other products can we expect you to build or acquisitions can we expect you to make?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong>&#xa0;In the last two weeks we had two Time Out Markets open - one in Shoreditch and one in Porto, to match the one in Lisbon.</p><p>That's the other side:&#xa0;the entertainment, and physical representation of Time Out.</p><p><div></div></p><p>Time Out is the&#xa0;only global brand&#xa0;you can read, eat, drink. We enjoy having those together,&#xa0;not only talking about what is best in the city, but being part of what's best in the city.</p><p>In the&#xa0;first six months of this&#xa0;year, 1.3 million people visited in&#xa0;Lisbon. Those are the areas we will continue to grow in: ecommerce, then rolling [the market] out to new cities - Miami, New York City, we are working on that.</p><p><strong>O'Reilly:</strong> What's it been like transitioning from being a private company to being a public company? What's good, what isn't? What's changed, what hasn't?&#xa0;</p><p><strong>Bruno:</strong> I was talking&#xa0;the other day with my team and said: "Have you noticed what we have done in less than a year? And we IPOd in the middle of all that."</p><p>To Time Out that has just been one more thing. I&#xa0;don't mean anything by that "one more thing" isn't very important. Going out there and doing a roadshow to a lot of investors and selling the company and the fantastic ideas we have that we are very passionate about has meant a lot to us and has placed even more&#xa0;urgency in what we have to do.</p><p>We&#xa0;have to reinvent ourselves to be the great brand we are and be today more than we were yesterday.</p><p>We&#xa0;are a global brand in the happiness business.&#xa0;What we sell is happiness.</p><p>When&#xa0;you think&#xa0;about Time Out,&#xa0;you're&#xa0;thinking&#xa0;about&#xa0;what to do after work with friends, or family - going to the&#xa0;market, for food, drink, to see an art gallery. Or&#xa0;just discovery in our app about what to do this weekend.</p><p>Everything&#xa0;we do is about happiness, that's who we are. We are peddling happiness,&#xa0;so we are happy.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lisa-brennan-jobs-steve-jobs-daughter-2016-10">The story of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter Steve Jobs claimed wasn't his</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RiZXk1eDosEkg3ZHQRbxeoPFcLvmNNoy" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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