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Fresh and frozen gourmet baby foods are something we've seen several companies begin to offer in Europe and the United States, as we noted in a story last year. Now a California company is taking the idea one step further with a tasting bar and lounge that lets babies try such foods before their parents buy. Pomme Bébé is an unusual restaurant in Newport Beach, that serves nothing but organic baby and toddler meals prepared fresh in its on-site kitchen. Pomme Bébé peels, steams and purees by hand the ingredients in its meals, which feature seasonal recipes developed by critically acclaimed, five-star chef Laurent Brazier. Fall flavours, for example, include Apple Cranberry Puree, Chicken Pot Pie Blend and Autumn Stew. With prices beginning at USD 3.25 for a four-ounce serving, foods are also available online or through Whole Foods markets nationwide. Prepared without high-heat processes—which can destroy vital nutrients, tastes and colours—Pomme Bébé's meals contain no preservatives, fillers, artificial flavours, chemicals, hormones or antibiotics. What's especially interesting is that discerning baby clientele can sample Pomme Bébé's offerings—for free—at its onsite Tasting Bar and luxurious, sit-down Bébé Lounge. The Tasting Bar resembles a sushi bar—featuring high chairs where the stools would be—with simple, clean lines to avoid distracting pint-sized gourmands. The Bébé Lounge, meanwhile, includes seating for grownups as well and has reportedly come to serve as a local hotspot for playdates and parties. What's better than a load of coupons or one-way advertising messages? Tryvertising, of course—targeted in this case at notoriously finicky pint-sized consumers. When in doubt, let them try it out! (Related: Social tryvertising for busy mothers.) Website: www.pommebebe.com
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Back in July 2006, we wrote about a Belgian company that offers its clients the opportunity to hold dinners in the sky—lofty events held on a platform suspended from a crane. Over the past two years, Events in the Sky has organised over 500 events in about 25 countries, and works with partners in over 15 markets to help expand the concept. Recently, the company added a new service to its line-up: Marriage in the Sky. Marriage in the Sky is hosted on a platform, where 20 guests are strapped into aircraft-like seats and suspended at a height of 50 meters. As befits an exclusive venue, Marriage in the Sky can be customised to every couple's wishes, including spectacular elements like bungee jumping off of the platform after vows have been exchanged. A second crane can be used to suspend another platform at the same height, making room for entertainment or more guests. The platform used for Marriage in the Sky differs from those used for the company's Dinner in the Sky events, and is actually a modification of a Meeting in the Sky platform, which seats up to 30 guests in theatre-style seating. The concept is undeniably rooted in the experience economy. Up, up and away...? ;-) Website: www.eventsinthesky.com
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Although single-serve wine has been on our radar for a while (including this brand for women), our ears pricked up when we heard about Volute. Available from selected stores or via its website, Volute's wine is available in three varieties: Red, White and Rosé, all made from grapes from the Bordeaux region. The key thing, however, is the packaging: 187 ml aluminium bottles. The California-based company highlights the bottles' portability, pitching Volute as the wine that can be drunk anywhere, including no-glass zones like concerts, camping grounds and beaches. And given the bottle's distinctive look, drinking from a Volute bottle might be more socially acceptable than drinking wine from a glass bottle, a can or—perish the thought—a juice box. Aluminium bottles are also claimed to be eco-friendlier than traditional glass bottles. Aluminium can be recycled almost infinitely and the bottles require less fuel to transport than their heavier glass counterparts. To combat worries that aluminium might destroy a premium wine, the company points out that the packaging not only has the same qualities as glass but improves on it with it UV-blocking properties. Volute's recognition of consumers' desire for convenient and eco-friendlier products seems spot-on. One to partner with in other regions? (Related: Wine by the trial-sized tube.) Website: www.volutewine.com Spotted by: Diana Kaspersky
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Since 1994, Lush has grown from a small bath products store into a multinational enterprise turning over GBP 150 million a year. However, the limited size of its stores means that some niche favourites are discontinued in favour of new and better-selling additions. Responding to customer demand, the store has just launched Retro Lush: an online and mail order-only service that gives ardent fans their fix of long lost products. Despite being made in small batches to match demand, prices are similar to Lush's current in-store range: from GBP 2.50 for a World Peace bath ball to GBP 45 for a bottle of Icon fragrance. Lush isn't the first company to bring back old products with a helping hand from the internet: Cadbury reintroduced its Wispa bar to the UK last year after encouragement from a Facebook group. However, Lush sets itself apart by reintroducing a wide selection of products successfully without the need for mass consumer demand. Currently, few companies offer the same kind of service, as they're either too large to be interested in producing small batches, or too small to provide goods at mass production prices. But as consumers become more and more accustomed to having products customized and personalized to match their personal preferences, we're sure to see more examples of brands finding a way to bring back discontinued products for eager customers. (Related: Out-of-print books, printed on demand.) Website: www.lush.co.uk Spotted by: Sarah McCartney
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As the holiday season approaches, parents around the globe are surely dreading the inevitable return of a phenomenon that shadows the giving of gifts of many shapes and sizes, but especially toys. Leaving in its wake a trail of victims with puncture wounds, bruises and lacerations—or simply in tears, Wrap Rage results from the virtually impenetrable packaging often used in shipping new products. Fortunately, this year Amazon aims to do something about it. Thanks to a new, multi-year global initiative announced yesterday, Amazon is working with manufacturers to eliminate the causes of Wrap Rage while also minimizing the impact of packaging on the environment. The effort is focusing first on two kinds of items: those enclosed in hard plastic cases known as "clamshells" and those secured with plastic-coated wire ties, commonly used in toy packaging. As a result, 19 best-selling products are now available through Amazon in the US packaged in smaller, easy-to-open and recyclable cardboard boxes that protect the products within just as well, the company says. New, eco-iconic packaging on the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship, for example, eliminates 36 inches of plastic-coated wire ties, 1,576.5 square inches of printed corrugated package inserts, 36.1 square inches of printed folding carton materials, 175.25 square inches of PVC blisters, 3.5 square inches of ABS molded styrene and two molded plastic fasteners. Along with Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and electronics manufacturer Transcend are among the companies Amazon worked with on this first batch of products, and many more will follow in the years to come, it says. The project will expand across Amazon's international sites beginning next year. In the meantime, Amazon has also put together a "Gallery of Wrap Rage" featuring videos and photos of the phenomenon, and customers are invited to upload their own. Eco-minded initiatives are all very well, but when they also eliminate a major source of customer frustration? Then they become a no-brainer. Manufacturers around the world: follow this example! Website: www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200285450
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Regular Springwise readers may recall Threadless, Derby and some of the other sites we've written about that let consumers design and sell their own T-shirts. Many of those operate as a competition—relying on the crowds to determine which shirts get produced and sold—but Yerzies is a brand-new contender that was essentially forced by its early users to adopt a different model. Launched into beta just two weeks ago, Yerzies is a design-your-own T-shirt site that allows anyone to create, purchase or sell their own customized T-shirts, hoodies and other apparel items. The Pennsylvania-based company gives users access to what it says is an unprecedented array of creative options including printing on dark garments, metallic foils, flocks, glitters, glow-in-the-dark materials and stitched processes. When they're finished designing, users can purchase as little as one piece or sell their creations (produced on demand) to the Yerzies community, keeping the profits for themselves. And that's where it gets interesting: whereas any designer could originally use Yerzies to sell their creations directly via their own web page, blog or page on Facebook and MySpace, getting listed in the online Yerzies store required being ranked highly enough by the Yerzies community. And that, it turned out, was a requirement early users didn't like. Cofounder Scott Killian explains: "The initial feedback we received from users was very positive, but one reoccurring criticism was the rule we had in place that required designs to be ranked before they would appear in our store. We did this because we wanted to empower our user community to collectively decide which designs were the strongest and deserved the attention. Although our intentions were good, this approach put too many barriers in place for users to list their designs. As a result, we've done away with ranking completely. All designs are listed for sale in our store the moment they're created (unless the design is private)." Yerzies aims to repurpose the ranking concept down the road, Killian added, but for now it's no longer part of the selling process. As members of Generation C(ontent) demand to join Generation C(ash) via rewards for their creations, the logistics of how it should all work is still being figured out. Yerzies' example is one to learn from. Website: www.yerzies.com
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Since we wrote about interactive restaurant uWink Bistro back in early 2007, the California company has expanded with new franchises throughout North America and new technological features and capabilities. Furthering the spread of its concept even more, uWink has now begun offering its technologies to other restaurants as well. At the prototype uWink restaurant in Woodland Hills, California, customers use tabletop touch-screen terminals with a proprietary user interface to self-order and self-pay for food, drink and digital media, including selections from a library of more than 70 single- and multiplayer games. Now, through a partnership with tech provider Volanté Systems, those same capabilities are available to other restaurants via the end-to-end uV Hospitality Solution. The software allows for the delivery of digital advertising and the monetization of customer game play via a unique micro-transaction game credit purchasing and redemption system that's tied directly into Volanté's integrated point-of-sale and back-office enterprise system, which features open-source, peer-to-peer technology along with credit/debit processing, loyalty programs and gift card management. Larger average checks and margins, labor savings, increased customer loyalty, increased transaction speed and accuracy, and reduced lines are all among the benefits the companies claim the system provides. When we wrote about uWink originally, we wondered if it would spark a trend, and this latest move suggests it has. One to bring to your neck of the woods...? (Related: At Inamo, fine dining with a touch of tech.) Website: www.uwink.com/technology
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Earlier this year, we covered WooMe, an initiative that attempted to move online dating away from written profiles and communication, instead offering instant speed dates conducted via webcam. As of September 2008, the San Francisco-based company has upped its game, by inviting the world to watch. Billing itself as ‘real reality TV’, anyone brave enough to share their flirting with the world can do so, leading to thousands of hours of unedited video clips being uploaded every week for the pleasure of WooMe TV viewers. Pricing is geared to the site's worldwide target market of 18–24 year-olds: online chat is free, with users paying USD1/GBP1/EUR1 to swap contact details if they both sense a match. Video clips are also free to watch, financed by ads that play while videos load and while daters' scores are calculated at the end of each clip. According to an AFP newswire, testing has shown that practically 100% of users watch the videos and ads to the very end. With other sites such as SideTaker and checkyourimage.com popping up recently, it seems social voyeurism is being taken to a whole new level. Which begs the question: which social activities previously kept private can now be turned into business opportunities? Website: www.woome.com/video Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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In May 2007 we covered a German venture—MyMuesli—that sells mixed-to-order muesli online. Over the last year and a half, MyMuesli has expanded to the UK and Switzerland. Recently, we spotted a similar startup on the other side of the Atlantic: launched in September 2008, [Me] & Goji lets US residents pick and mix their own cereal concoctions. Users go online to select which of the 40+ natural and organic ingredients will go into their muesli. Prices start at USD 4.90 plus delivery for 600g/21oz, with most mixes averaging at USD 10–13. Like MyMuesli, [Me] & Goji packages its products in cardboard cylinders, which are made from post-consumer waste and printed with vegetable ink. [Me] & Goji currently only ships within the US, but hopes to expand to Canada soon. So how could the concept evolve? With a broad audience that includes health conscience consumers looking for breakfasts that taste good and others who are simply bored with standard supermarket fare, there's a lot of scope. Perhaps MyMuesli and [Me] & Goji could inspire a new service that assesses what customers need at the start of the day and develops a breakfast to fill those requirements. Or gyms could provide co-branded mixes driven by their clients' goals and preferences. Whatever the next steps may be, the have-it-your-way trend seems here to stay. (Related: Mix & match magazine service — Healthy snacks delivered by mail.) Website: www.meandgoji.com Spotted by: Paul Mignot
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When consumers buy fair-trade products, it's typically because they are motivated more by ethical considerations than by price—which tends to be higher for such goods. Fair-trade exporter CraftNetwork, however, is focusing on long-term sustainability with an approach that aims to make fair-trade goods more competitive with other alternatives. CraftNetwork provides export-facilitation and enterprise-development services to Indonesian artisans with the goal of increasing sales, strengthening ethical trading practices, building organizational capacity, generating employment and improving the artisans' standard of living. In Etsy-like fashion, CraftNetwork offers an online marketplace for jewelry, paintings, sculpture, home decor and accessory items crafted by more than a thousand disadvantaged Indonesian artisans. Going beyond just a B2C marketplace, however, CraftNetwork also helps the artisans it represents compete with large-scale factory producers in global wholesale markets, according to an article in BusinessWeek. Specifically, by helping the artisans produce goods to common specifications, it enables them to offer volumes and uniformity that are competitive with those of factory-based counterparts, BW reported. A recent deal with Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, calls for CraftNetwork's artisans to produce 50,000 books woven out of banana leaves, employing an entire Indonesian village and bringing in USD 70,000 per month. CraftNetwork also offers its artisans business training and resources including a pool of money that they can reportedly borrow from to finance their operations while waiting for payments. CraftNetwork is supported by the Grassroots Business Initiative of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation group. Ethical consumers notwithstanding, true sustainability—particularly during tough economic times—still comes down to the fundamental ability to compete on basic considerations like quality and price. CraftNetwork's is a model to watch—and emulate. Website: www.craftnetwork.com
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We've written about workout gyms and even being spaces aimed at kids, but it wasn't until just recently that we heard of a sport being completely resized for child players. Sure enough, though, a new outfit in Colorado now offers miniaturized tennis just for kids. Founded by Dorm2Dorm cofounder Matt Nelsen, Drop Shots Tennis is a new tennis facility geared specifically to children ages 2 to 10 years old. Whereas typical tennis courts can be very large and intimidating from a kid's perspective, Drop Shots provides a miniaturized and safe indoor tennis facility comprising small courts on a carpeted surface equipped with smaller nets, rackets and balls. Using many of the programs developed by QuickStart Tennis, Drop Shots focuses each class on one or two specific tennis shots while also incorporating activities for coordination, agility and fun. Pricing is USD 120 for a series of eight weekly lessons, or USD 200 for eight weeks of two lessons per week. Birthday parties, private lessons and tennis supplies are also available. In this era of childhood obesity in the industrialized world, it's a safe bet that parents around the globe will embrace with open arms anything that enhances activity. So far, though, Drop Shots is the only one we've heard of providing anything like this. Who will bring kid-sized sports to the rest of the country and the world....? (Related: Gyms for kids use gaming to keep them hooked.) Website: www.dropshotstennis.com
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The impatient and hungry tech-heads of London have been given a new treat with the launch of Inamo, a pan-Asian restaurant that has canned the traditional printed menu in favour of an interactive ordering system. An illustrated menu is projected onto the diners' touch-sensitive table, which also lets customers personalize the décor of the booth by selecting sounds and animated, projected table 'cloths'. While waiting for their meal—the pan-Asian menu was created by head chef Anthony Sousa Tam, previously of Nobu, Ubon and Hakkasan—diners can use the touch-table to watch a live feed of their chefs at work, or to find information on what's happening in the neighbourhood. Should the evening be going well, courting couples can use the system to book a taxi home, or if the evening descends into kill-me-now silence, rescue is at hand in the form of the system's built-in games. The restaurant's inspiration came from the founders' frustrations at inattentive waiters when dining elsewhere. However, this doesn't mean Inamo is devoid of the human touch: food is brought to the table by staff members, who are also on hand to answer diners' questions. The restaurant's designers also wisely avoided a tech-inspired décor, instead creating a look that's fresh and attractive, with technology offered not as the main course, but as an integrated enhancement. With Adour's interactive wine bar, and uWink's entertainment kiosks at tables, food and beverage venues are bringing a digital dimension to their offer. For more on how the offline world—also known as the real world, meatspace or atom-arena—is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, check out trendwatching.com's briefing on OFF=ON. Website: www.inamo-restaurant.com Spotted by: Lieke Voermans
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Helping drivers think twice before putting the pedal to the metal, Fiat has developed a new system that gives customers the insight they need to drive in more a sustainable way. ecoDrive processes driving data collected via Blue&Me, an in-car communications device developed by Microsoft. Users plug a standard USB drive into their car's Blue&Me port to gather information on acceleration, deceleration, gear changes and speed throughout the drive. They then upload the data to their computer, where it's analysed by ecoDrive software to produce relevant tips for driving efficiency, like braking more gently into corners or maintaining a constant speed on straights. Drivers can also share their own tips and ecoDrive experiences using the ecoVille online community. Launched by Fiat in October 2008, ecoDrive is currently only available for the Fiat 500 and Grande Punto, but will work with any model featuring Blue&Me from 2009. Fiat claims the software can cut emissions and fuel consumption by up to 15%, meaning a lower carbon footprint and gas bill for drivers. An obvious improvement would be immediate feedback while a driver is behind the wheel, but we're sure that's in the works ;-) Fiat and Microsoft's ecoDrive collaboration mirrors the successful partnership between Apple and Nike that runners can use to track and soundtrack their runs, enabling them to review their performance when they're back at their computers. As eco-awareness continues to build (and once energy prices start climbing again), consumers will become increasingly interested in tracking their personal energy use. We're confident that many other embedded eco-metric devices will follow, so if you're in manufacturing—now's the time to start researching and developing. (Related: Visualising energy use.) Website: www.fiat.co.uk/ecodrive Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
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As belts tighten ever more in a continuously precarious economy, it's fairly certain more and more parents are turning to second-hand sources for children's clothes and other items. While thrift stores tend to be hit-or-miss and online offerings are often buried within the likes of Craigslist, a new classifieds site for moms promises to aggregate such listings from across the web, making it quicker and easier for parents to find high-quality and low-cost kids' goods. Now in beta, Hand-me-downs allows parents to buy, sell, give away or donate new and gently used children's products in a family friendly atmosphere. Not to be confused with Handmedowns.org—a UK-based contender that facilitates just give-aways—the Beverly Hills-based site aims to create a one-stop destination for busy moms by pulling together and organizing the best listings from around the web as well as offering listings posted by its own members. The ad-supported site currently serves the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. markets with listings including clothing, toys, furniture, childcare, and health and safety products. Donations are handled through local partner charities. Members of the site can also create and post profiles and participate in discussion forums. Of course, besides benefiting consumers' wallets during tight times, facilitating the recycling of second-hand goods also helps the environment by reducing the tons of products that would otherwise get sent to landfills. Expect to see this industry taking off! (Related: Baby clothes rental service — Retailers recycle customers' used clothes.) Website: www.handmedowns.com Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
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When we wrote about Meet a few weeks ago, one of its cofounders noted that the meetings industry has been in desperate need of some innovation. Continuing on that upward trend, office furniture manufacturer Steelcase is gearing up to launch a new meeting space in Chicago that will not only host meetings but also serve as a testing ground for future products. Situated within walking distance of Chicago's Magnificent Mile, Workspring is the brainchild of a team of work experience experts at Steelcase who imagined a network of extraordinary spaces designed to inspire and support creative collaboration, productive retreat and transformative exchange. Workspring is surrounded by the quiet natural beauty of an urban courtyard, with bright modern studios and a raft of collaborative tools. Five work studios are available with ergonomic seating, in-room storage, natural lighting and a ready supply of paper, pens, sticky notes and other supplies. Lighting can be adjusted to complement changing activities, and all studios are equipped with Springboards, or layered movable planes of tackable and writable surfaces that encourage teams to create, share and rearrange content. Common areas, meanwhile, include a cafe, forum and oasis space, with services including healthful food and beverages and a resource library stocked with inspirational books and objects, printouts and photocopies. Finally, and perhaps most interesting of all, Workspring will also serve as an ongoing “lab” for new products from Steelcase designed to enhance communication and collaboration among teams, the company says. Launching in mid-November, Workspring can be booked for morning, afternoon or evening sessions, with pricing of USD 140 per person per session. There's no doubt the time was ripe for the meetings industry to be reinvented, and what better agent to make that happen than a company that's already involved? Never mind killing two birds with one stone—this is reaping two profits with one venture. A concept to emulate whenever possible! Website: www.workspring.com
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