Use the #selfie in your benefit

10-11-2014

  • Selfie1 icon made by Freepik, from www.flaticon.com Creative Commons BY 3.0Icon by Freepik via flaticon.com CC3

The luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel in Paris created a new example of the use of the #selfie that benefits both the company as the consumer.

Marjolein wrote about it in the beginning of September; the #Selfie as a trend. In that article she provides a few examples, recently she spotted a new one from the luxury Mandarin Oriental hotel in Paris. The hotel launched a ‘Selfie in Paris’ campaign in August 2014. Offering their guests a tour of Paris’ best selfie spots with a private car and driver.

The best #selfie time is yet to come

As from the end of November it will be booming with all the #Christmas decoration #selfies on the social media. In front of the Christmas Tree on famous spots, with the decorated windows at all the big warehouses et cetera. Make use of this #selfie trend by creating the perfect Selfie spot in your restaurant or hotel. As city you can organise your own best selfie spot tour to promote your most photogenic spots as well.

Pop-up coffee bar Black Box in Ghent

12-9-2014

  • Pop-up koffiebar Black Box in Gent
  • Pop-up koffiebar Black Box in Gent
  • Pop-up koffiebar Black Box in Gent
  • Pop-up koffiebar Black Box in Gent
  • Pop-up koffiebar Black Box in Gent

Pop-up coffee bar

A work-out followed by an artisanal cup of coffee. This is possible in the pop-up coffee shop Black Box in the Belgian city of Ghent. The specialty coffee bar is located in a garage box of CrossFit Gent, a gym focused on the new form of fitness, CrossFit. As from 4 September Barista Yf Feller serves freshly made coffees, for a month.

Bullet proof coffee

A special coffee on the menu is the ‘bullet proof coffee’. This is a creamy coffee made from butter from grass-fed cows, coconut oil and French coffee, what gives a boost, both physically and mentally.
For people who don’t like coffee, various activities are organized on location as well. For examples, a second-hand clothing market and an indoor picnic.

Pay-as-you-wish

A special aspect of Black Box is that there’s no pricelist available. Guests give a contribution and are allowed to choose what they think is fair to pay. Black Box is an example of a ‘pay as you wish’ concept which we may years ago in Vienna, Der Wiener Deewan. The system from ‘Pay as you wish’ is used for charity as well, like we spotted in 2007 at restaurant Trien in HerpenTrust is a more recent example that opened in Amsterdam last year.

Instock waste restaurant

1-8-2014

The pop-up waste restaurant Instock is open for a month now and gets positive reviews. The founders, who met at Albert Heijn, put food waste literally on the menu. The cooks in the pop-up restaurant prepare left-overs of the supermarket chain that would otherwise be thrown away. The ingredients depend on the daily harvest and is pciked up at the stores with an electric minibus. Instock is open every weekend for a three-course dinner on Friday and Saturday (17:00 to 23:00) and Sunday brunch (from 10:30 to 17:00).

 

(Un)avoidable food waste

All the food served is still meets the required quality standards. “You can differentiate between unavoidable and avoidable food waste. Wasting food that is actually no longer consumable is inevitable, but we avoid food waste while it is still suitable for consumption.”

Summer Play area on a roof garden

28-7-2014

The last couple of weeks, I noticed that the car park where I always park wasn’t as packed as usual. In Arnhem, they have a nice solution for car parks during the summer. They created a ‘Roof Garden’. A public place or a all-in-one location, where you can hang-out, drink something, eat a ‘roof’-meal, enjoy the garden and follow a bee workshop. You can even play ping pong, practice ‘roof’yoga, see a ‘roof’-movie and exercise at the underground gym. Furthermore, it is a showroom for creatives and cultural initiatives, such as a silent disco. The design is sustainable, it uses solar energy and for example the furniture is created from wooden pallets by volunteers.

Update: 3 August was the final day, luckily we still got the pictures.

The Beacon Food Forest

17-7-2014

  • opening Beacon Food Forest

We have mentioned the food oasis before, for the first time, a public food forest was created at seven overgrown acres ground in Beacon Hill, in the neighborhood of Seattle. A food forest is a vegetation of edible plants, fruiting shrubs and vines, planted as a self-sufficient forest. We think it is a nice initiative to involve the neighborhood by growing such a special natural food forest in Beacon Hill.

Ripe Near Me

7-7-2014

RipeNearMe is an online platform from Australia that helps users find fruit and vegetables in the neighborhood. Visitors of the platform keep track of the ripeness of the fruits and vegetables and buy or collect these when they are ripe. They could also contact the growers and give their vegetables a review. In the neighborhood of New York you can collect free Butternut squash at this moment because somebody has to many in his of her garden.

acting sustainable by having fun

7-7-2014

The Green Plugin is a modular system whit which festivals can be built sustainably. It uses sustainable sources as wind-, solar- and human power. The Green Plugin has several items such as a dance floor, that gathers the energy of the people who are dancing and lights itself. Or an interactive recycling installation, where visitors can take their cups and transform them into a 3d-printed item. The Green Plugin is a initiative from UMEF (United Music Events Foundation), the Perpetual Plastic Project and Energy Floors.

Dutch couple links entrepreneurship and education in Suriname

4-6-2014

Entrepreneurs Jessica Augustin and Stanley Wassenaar from Amsterdam hope to be able to open ‘their’ hotel doors: Hotel Con Corazón in Paramaribo. With the profits of the hotel they want to contribute to good education and a better future for children in Suriname. To make their dream reality, they started a crowdfunding campaign and hope to collect 10 percent of the initial capital of approximately 800,000 euros. People can contribute in different ways; give a donation, provide a loan or become a social shareholder. For information on how to contribute klik here.

Radisson Blu 24hr Running Marathon

6-5-2014

The Radisson Blu Hotel in Amsterdam organizes a 24-hours treadmill Running Marathon in the lobby from 9 May 17.00 o’clock. During the event employees, guests and hotel aqcuaintances collect money for the World Childhood Foundation. During the 24-hours there are supporting events like a sponsor drink and a Running Dinner. See the Facebook page for more information.

Donate oversized food portions

1-5-2014

It often happens that restaurant guests not eat their whole dish, because the dish was larger than they expected. The German Food Bank ‘Düsseldorf table’ and agency ‘Ogilvy & Mather Germany’ launched the campaign ‘All you Can Eat’. Participating restaurants can place a sticker on the menu next to the dishes that tend to be served larger than guests can estimate. Guests have the option to choose for a smaller portion at the same price. The saved money will be donated to the food bank.

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