Cannabis in the Netherlands | impact on the hospitality industry
28-9-2016
Extensively in the news last week, the legal production of cannabis. Is the legalization of the production finally happening after years of tolerating? And does this mean that on the long term the use will be legal as well? What does this mean for the hospitality industry? In any case, the use of cannabis will be trendy for a while and new cannabis products will appear on the market. We looked at what restaurants and other producers in America have created around cannabis since it has been legalized for some time now in various states. Below a list with examples of “the impact of cannabis on the hospitality industry.”
Organic restaurant Amass shows the way in waste reduction
22-9-2016
Organic restaurant Amass in Copenhagen received the Gold Organic Certification by the Danish Ministry of the Environment. The gold guarantees that 90%-100% of all food and beverage served at this restaurant is certified organic. The Gold Organic Certification is part of the Danish Organic Action Plan 2020. Restaurant Amass is one of only two fine dining restaurants to achieve this designation in Denmark. They even teach farm-to-table to kids with their Amass Green Kids Program. Check out their Instagram account for great pictures of the food they serve, the products they use and their gardens.
TraffickCam
12-7-2016
An initiative from the United States: TraffickCam. This app enables you to help combat sex trafficking by uploading photos of the hotel rooms you stay in when you travel. TraffickCam asks travellers to take photos of their entire room, the bathroom, the bed and details such as carpeting and furniture. The Police Department can use the data to cross-reference against suspicious images taken by sex traffickers.
Skyline Chicago – cable car plans revealed in Chicago
12-5-2016
At the website of Designboom we spotted the initial plans for a network of cable cars connecting Chicago’s city centre. Will these Skyline cable cars replace the hop-on hop-off busses in Chicago in the future? It could become Chicago’s unique feature like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the London Eye.
Co-creation affects the guest journey
3-5-2016
Lennert Rietveld senior counsellor at van Spronsen & Partners hospitality consultancy gave an inspiration session last month about co-creation. In this blog an insight into this session; which shows that the focus during events is shifting to influencing the guest journey!
The inspiration session for 80 event organizers showed powerful examples of co-creation. The presentation focused on compelling examples from entrepreneurs working together to improve the visitor experience. Everything is evolving around the guest journey. A good example is the initiative of the Dutch amusement park the Efteling to develop an app in co-creation with a Belgian company. They offer their visitors a lot more experience around their visit of the Efteling through ‘mixed reality’ and smartphones. Brilliant for kids, for example at the route app a witch voice gives directions.
A couple of other examples from the inspiration session around co-creation:
UrbanFarmers in The Hague, vegetables and fish without fear of heights
5-4-2016
It will be the largest urban rooftop farm in Europe. The unique ‘farm’ is at 40 meters altitude in The Hague and will annually produce 50 tons of local, rooftop vegetables and 20 tons of fresh (urban) fish. Our colleague Bram Kosterink already got a tour of the impressive project.
De CowGum: kauwgom met vleessmaak
17-3-2016
Kauwgom kennen we sinds jaar en dag, in alle smaken en maten. De kauwgom die nu ontwikkeld is, is echter weer iets heel anders: de CowGum. Alles hieraan komt neer op vlees. De smaak, de geur en de kleur zorgen voor een vlees-achtige ervaring en met een reden.
Rotterdam ranked 4th place in the top 10 cities by Lonely Planet next year?
9-11-2015
With a lot of new initiatives in town, it wouldn’t surprise us! Like for example RiF010 will open in 2016. The ‘Steigersgracht’ (part of the river De Rotte) in Rotterdam will be separated from the rest of Rotte. The water will be purified and a wave installation will be placed in this part of the river. Several kinds of water sports will be put into practice in RiF010.
RiF010
At the beginning of the new, closed ‘Steigersgracht’ a ‘wave installation’ will be placed. Every 8 to 9 seconds, this installation will push a 1,5 meter high wave through the canal. The waves will make the RiF010, the ideal place for surfers in Rotterdam. Besides being the ideal place for surfers, the clear water makes RiF010 suitable for diving lessons, kayaking, stand up paddle surfing or bodyboarding as well.
The beach house
At the edge of the canal a wooden beach house will be placed. The beach house will offer a beautiful view on the surfers, paddle surfers and divers. Besides the view, it will also provide changing rooms and showers. The beach house will be located between the RiF010 and the actual river De Rotte. The location makes canoe trips on the Rotte through the centre of Rotterdam possible.
Construction and opening
The city initiative got most of the votes from the Rotterdam population last year. At this moment, the promoters of RiF010 are busy planning the entire project. It’s expected to open in 2016 and will be accessible to the public.
Ranking in the top 10 cities by Lonely Planet
We believe that initiatives such as RiF010 will certainly contribute to an even higher ranking in the recently published top 10 cities by Lonely Planet.
#ParkthatPhone in your Mobile Parking Lot
14-7-2015
A Mobile Parking Lot: a semi new non-tech invention to spice up your meeting room! At Mobileparkinglot.tumblr.com you can download different designs, all free of charge. Great initiative by Christiano Neves and Fernando Barbella.
It might be because of my grey hair but I’m always looking for either my wallet, keys or my phone! When it takes a long time to find any of these items, I always think that I have to create a spot to leave them. That’s just what Mobile Parking Lot did! They created a gimmick to freely spice up your meeting room. No more phone distractions, just ask your meeting partners in a humorous way to park their phone in your Mobile Parking Lot.
Your Mobile Parking Lot
Mobile Parking Lot gets rid of device distractions during the day and ensures that all eyes are on you during a meeting. Christiano Neves and Fernando Barbella created this non-tech device while they worked and lived in London. They believe that the success of meetings is determined by actively being involved in the meeting without being distracted by mobile phones. To overcome this distraction problem, they created the Mobile Parking Lot, where all mobile phones should be parked before a meeting. #ParkthatPhone at the door and get your mind focused. You can download them for free and start using them at the office, a meeting room or at home, like I will! ^Marjolein
Playground CS is a pop-up beach opposite to Amsterdam Central Station
10-7-2015
A pop-up beach for young families with children opens opposite to Amsterdam Central Station on 15 July. For six weeks, the former construction site of the North / South metro line will be a pleasant and safe place to play.
Playground CS
The pop-up beach is named ‘Playground CS’ and will be located at the Prins Hendrikkade. The beach will be over 1500 square meters and approximately 250m3 sand is shipped to the spot from the former World Cup beach volleyball court at the Dam square.
Initiative
Playground CS is an initiative of a group of entrepreneurs and is supported by the municipality of Amsterdam. The project is part of the ‘City in Balace’ program, which experiments to find a healthy balance between the growth of Amsterdam and the city life in clever ways. The project is conducted in collaboration with Tosti Creative and Amsterdam Verbindt.
Program
Creative and sporty activities will take place on the beach every day for six weeks starting from 15 July onwards. Children can join activities like jeu des boules, a sand castle contest, child yoga, painting courses or an outdoor movie night. Although the initiative is mainly focused on children, it should be a nice place for parents and local residents as well. Adults can participate in tai chi or yoga classes in the morning, or start their day with a coffee and a newspaper in the sun. Cold drinks and snacks are for sale in a shipping container on the premises. More information about the project and its programming will be available on the Playground CS website.
Co-founder Joost Aartsen (Tosti Creative): “We hope to see five hundred happy faces daily at this exceptional location. It’s great that the municipality supports this initiative and wants to realize the project with ambitious entrepreneurs. The goal of this project is to form an Amsterdam collective to get the city in motion together. Anyone with good ideas is welcome to contribute.”
General Washington's Secret Stash 
General Washington's Secret Stash 
General Washington's Secret Stash 
