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Wednesday June 30 2010

Letter from the editor - Edition 54

Im Bored

There was a time twenty years ago when you weren't able to fill your time by looking at the palm of your hand. There was a time where waiting for a bus meant just that, waiting. There was a time where waiting for a train meant just that, waiting. There was a time when Mum was late to pick you up from the footy and you had to wait, and do just that, wait . You didn't have a mobile telephone to amuse you, you didn't have iPad to entertain you and you couldn't make a call or talk to somebody on the other side of the world in 140 characters. You couldn't  Facebook a friend, Tweet a stranger or Stumble the unknown. But today you can. The problem with that? We have lost the art of  being bored. Twenty years ago when you were waiting for a train and you were bored, you sat there and pondered. Your brain actually got to drift off into a land of imagination where you dreamt about holidays, girls, dates, your job, the possibilities and all the things you would like to see happen in your world. Today, rather than dream and be bored we quickly reach for our back pocket or purse and fill our time with, in most cases, meaningless communication that is just spam to anyone who's happy to listen, watch or read. The next creative idea won't come from your iPhone nor from your iPad or Crackberry or any other mobile device. The next great idea will come in between your thoughts in the time you actually are bored and god forbid, you break your connectivity to the world and just think. Tomorrow's leaders are the thinkers not the doers. Your organisation will only benefit from your thinking, not the doing. Your company or organisation can benefit through technology by implementing efficiently the ideas that come out of your head but nothing will take the place of the worlds greatest computer, your brain. So boredom should be back on the agenda. There needs to be a time when you put down your iPad, iPhone or Crackberry and you just sit and think with a blank piece of paper. The unfortunate thing for the new generation of tweeters is that boredom is a bad thing. But the reality is that boredom is where the best ideas are born. So next time you are bored resist the temptation to pick up technology. Resist the temptation to ring someone, Tweet someone, Facebook them or Link them. Sit, dream, think, ponder and imagine, what if?

Travel

Twitter the Concierge

Fancy some room service in your hotel? Then just send down a message to the kitchen in 140 characters. Guests at the new El Masry Hotel wont have to leave their room or their twitter site if they are feeling hungry as they just tweet their requests to the kitchen directly. The Townhouse Hotel In Maastricht which opened late 2009 is trying to capitalise on the boom of social media by using Twitter as part of their customer service offering. We are going to see more and more service industries taking advantage of social media, the only question will be, who will use it well ,and who will get caught up in the hype and miss the bus?

Environment

Electricity for Hire

EuropeCar is teaming up with Nissan to offer electric vehicles for hire. Capitalising around the massive trend of sustainability and carbon emissions, low emission rental cars are being offered through EuropeCar with absolutely no emissions. Nissan plans a full range of models to be available through EuropeCar, all electric and all with no emissions for the environmentally aware driver who needs to get around. Nissan and EuropeCar are hoping that eventually you will be able to get them at all the usual places like airports, train stations and the usual EuropeCar locations sometime during 2010. Its a great example of product development where EuropeCar have separated themselves from every other hire car company by having not just low emission rates but NO emission rates.

Entertainment

Taking a Pee

When someone says "there is an app for that" chances are there is but this is just too much. Runpee.com is a web based service and soon to be mobile app that maps out loo breaks during your popular movies. Apparently you go into the app which carries an extensive list of movies currently playing movies in theatres and a time graph of the film will tell you when it is safe to dissapear for a wee. Complete with que lines to listen for and approximate amounts of time before something important or dramatic will happen, this is the safest way to wee without missing an important part of the movie. The iPhone app is currently awaiting approval from Apple (no kidding) which means that you will just have to 'hang on'!

Culture

Thats My Wedding

The Espresso has reported on the trend of customisation before, with everything from coffee to wine to boardshorts. Now an Irish company has taken it one step forward by customising the traditional floor covering that one has on the aisle as your walk towards your dream wedding. WeddingRunner.com will personalise the rug that the couple will walk down before making their vows. Couples begin buy selecting a design from a range on offer then specifying everything from names, initials and / or date which gets woven right into the rug itself. Naturally you can choose colours, backgrounds, texts, borders and even specify how long you want it, to suit your particular wedding chapel. Just another piece of stuff to store along with the wedding gown, that old piece of cake and some dried flowers. Something else to take up space in the attic.

Retail

Nature Bags 

The Espresso has spoken before on the power of selling a story. Its a story that creates authenticity and thats what customers and clients are craving more than anything today. The story. So when Naturebag set out to benefit the ancient Kumu culture on Laos's steep mountain sides it was a sure fire winner. Using a design that has been perfected over thousands of years, members of one of South East  Asia's poorest minorities make Naturebags using wild grown jungle vine. The result is a reusable and sustainable organic bag that is compact, lightweight and carries an amazing story. Prices start from $15US for a small bag. This is sure to take on as people lap up this great story.

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