Happy holidays
We wish you all the best for the holidays.
Best wishes from Laura Stoter, Marjolein van Spronsen and Armand Sol of the Van Spronsen & Partners Group.
We wish you all the best for the holidays.
Best wishes from Laura Stoter, Marjolein van Spronsen and Armand Sol of the Van Spronsen & Partners Group.
The runners cookbook describes the effect of different ingredients on your body. The intake of milk 30-45 minutes before going to bed will for example increases the production of serotonin because of the tryptophan and calcium it contains. Serotonin brings you in a relaxed and sleepy mood. If you have muscle cramps, a hand full of nuts can be relieving because it is problably caused by a magnesium shortage. Nuts contain a lot magnesium. Next to useful tips the book contains various dishes that sportsmen can use before or after a training or race. It’s only available in Dutch and written by Miriam van Reijen and Barbara Kerkhof.
A revolution in Christmas-cards. Write it in the stars with an iOS device via stars.akqa.com.
At the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles the largest pop-up book in the world introduced the premiere of ‘The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug’. For five days the book promoted New Zealand as holiday destination. See the book here.
Are you in a winter dip? With the Positivo cocktails of Happy Drinks, your body and soul will get a heartwarming energy boost en brings the summer back into your glass. 0% alcohol, 100% positive. The ‘Positivo’ cocktails is made with balsamic vinegar, strawberries and pepper and this combination makes every pessimist positive. The ‘Positivo Classico’ is more powerful and intense than the ‘Positivo’ and gives you a thrill. The recipes are only available in Dutch.
2014 will be another special ‘orange’ year. With the Winter Olympics, the World Cup and Kings day coming, brewery Heineken is seeking a Chief Orange Officer by February 1, 2014. The new Chief Orange Officer will bring the orange feeling at home and abroad and the first coaches the legion of supporters. With an orange car and an orange suite, the Chief Orange Officer will visit all the orange events and if the Netherlands are world champion in Brazil, the annual salary will be doubled.
The Polish artist Pawel Althamer will show his latest collection on the second, third and fourth floor of the ‘New Museum’ in New York from February 12 to April 13, 2014. Part of his collection is ‘The Neighbors’ where the artist involves the visitors to make an ambitious artwork. On the fourth floor of the museum, a white wall will be covered by paintings and drawings made by the visitors. Visitors can show their arts and will be part of the exhibition. At various times during the exhibition musicians will provide live music.
The Hanjie Wanda Square is a new shopping center in Wuhan, China. In 2011 a contest was held with various national and international architects. The design of UNStudio’s was chosen as winner. The building has luxury design and combines modern and traditional elements with simple materials. The focus of the design is on the visitor flows, from the three main entrances visitors are guided to two central spaces. The facade consists of 42,333 spheres with 3.1 million LED lights that can be combined to create a beautiful lighting effect.
It remains difficult to make a perfect cocktail, you often pour too much or too little of an ingredient in the cocktail. With the ‘Perfect Drink’ you can now easily make the perfect cocktail with the right amount. The digital kitchen scale is connected with an app and tells you what ingredient you need to add, considering the weight during the preparation and indicates when to stop adding an ingredient. You will get the perfect cocktail. The app has a large database of cocktail recipes but you can also add a recipe yourself.
With the new search engine ‘Accor Meeting Hotel Finder’ of Accor Hotels, MICE- and meeting planners can search easily for a suitable location for their conference or event. They can search for a location based on the geographical location, type of event, accommodation and hotel segment. When the meeting planner has selected a location they can directly request for an offer or book the location. The search engine has more than 1,000 locations and 10,000 rooms in 90 different countries of which 65% in Europe and 23% in Asia Pacific.
No mayonnaise, ketchup or curry with the fries but a chocolate dipping sauce?! Japanese fast food chain Lotteria will serve its fries with a Lotte Ghana chocolate dip called ‘Dipping Fries’ in the months January and February. The salt of the fries and the sweetness of the chocolate makes a unique combination. We have tried the fries with chocolate at the office and… A few colleagues thought it was pretty good but most prefer mayonnaise!
A driving tram through the city of The Hague and during the trip a high-quality four-course dinner while passing the highlights of the city. Around February 2014 this will be possible in tram restaurant Hoftramm. The driving tram will be transformed into a modern and elegant restaurant and has all amenities including a kitchen, bar and toilets. Tram restaurant Hoftrammm will be a route through the center of The Hague six days a week and the guests will get served a four-course dinner with a matching beverage package. To achieve the tram restaurant there is currently a crowdfunding campaign.
Network club INCH (international network connecting hotelschool graduates) has decorated a hotel suite at the Hotelschool The Hague campus Amsterdam in collaboration with Balsan DUO carpet. The design studio of Balsan DUO has designed the room together with architect Frank ter Horst. The hotel suite is themed unruliness, spontaneity and to act unconventional. Balsan has placed a striking carpet with 4 designs on the floor and they also decorated the wall and the window frame with the same carpet. There is a bed of 2m by 2m in the middle of the room, a maxibar and enough space to move freely.
Start 2014 without a hangover. The organizers of the ‘Chocolate Club’ celebrate New Year Eve with a conscious clubbing night. Drink alcohol-free super-drinks and elixirs with natural ingredients and watch the fireworks over Amsterdam from a hot tub or dance the night away in the ‘Amsterdam Dansmakers’–studios. Recently we mentioned the rise of superfoods, this is the first healthy clubbing concept that we came across. See the video of the previous edition in July.
Take an adventurous book, combine it with a shoestring travel guide and bake it with delicious recipes to a practical cookbook. That must have been the recipe for ‘Gastrovan – Met je neus in de boter'(proverb: hit the jackpot). This recipe was created by Sjaak Borsboom, Jeroen Simons and Olivier van der Ree after a summertour with their campervan through the Netherlands, France and Spain where they cooked for more than 200 people. The combination of funny stories, describtion of exclusive destinations and local recipes will be mouthwatering for every foodie.
Ever wondered why fast food restaurants get away with misleading advertisements? The website Media Dumb collected all advertisement photo’s and actual photo’s. Very amusing and hilarious!
Especially for Valentine’s day, The British supermarket chain Sainsbury’s launches a heart-shaped cucumber.
When entering the theater of Amsterdam, visitors receive a keychain with a RFID chip attached, which is connected to your Facebook-account. You can automatically update your profile by holding the keychain in front of the SowiSocial-desks.
To make a Norwegian village more attractive for tourists, an international contest was set up. The Swedish architect company Jägnefält Milton came up with the idea to use the existing railway for riding hotelrooms. The rooms do float as well and can be stacked.
A 9 month lasting crowdfunded and crowdsourced project in a restaurant in New York. Each month the restaurant will be runed by a different group of people. After 9 months the restaurant will be demolished.
Through the site ‘Digibiertje’, (potential) guests can order a code online to show that code in the pub. They then get their second beer for free. There must be a minimum number of participants for the action.
De Library of Heritage in Antwerp, Belgium, has published a handwritten cooking book from the 17th century online.
Designed for larger rooms, but this huge bird’s nest seems a great bed for kids.
Maze Cafe has found a nice solution for those who spill coffee sometimes. The dish guides spilled coffee through a simple maze.
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If you drive too fast, you will get caught by this speed camera and receive a fine. If you don’t drive too fast, the total sum of the fines will be raffled amongst those who do respect speed limits.
The Mega reader is an iPhone app that lets you read a text while using your camera to still see your surroundings. The text changes color automatically so it remains readable.
The wrapper of Macskanyelv Chocolate is a smart way to give an old product a new look. They used photos of random customers on the wrapper to increase customer-involvement.
Scootbob is driving you home in your own car. The driver uses a foldable scooter to get to the address, folds up the scooter and takes you home.
Marina Malyada designed chocolate skulls. It is a project for All saints Day, All Hallows Day, Day of the Dead and other “festive”events.
The Swedish grocer Middax delivers all the ingredients and recipes for a weekly menu at home. The meals are healthy and quickly prepared. A menu for a week costs 705 Swedish crowns (approximately € 100,=).
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Don’t feel like getting up to get another beer? The flying beercooler throws one right at you!
Three independent coffee shops in Lincoln, Nebraska have joined forces and created the disloyalty card. It works the same as every other loyalty card, only with this card you can go to the participating independent coffee shops. They want to compete with the big coffee chains and attract visitors to go back to the local coffee shops.
Icefondue brings a new dimension in fondue. For this Icefondue, liquid nitrogen is used.
Chin Chin’s is, as they are saying, the first nitro-ice cream parlor. The combination of long white coats, liquid nitrogen, theatrical presentation and a fun design make this ice cream parlor a real experience.
In Japan, people visit the cat Cafés to feed and nurture the cats. People pay 9 euros per hour to sit with the cats. Couples are the best target for these cafés. There are over 100 Neko cafés in Japan, whereof 50 in Tokyo!
The ultimate Valentine’s gift! The ‘Message on a bottle’ giftbox contains a bottle of Moët & Chandon rosé champagne, 2 flutes and a golden marker to write a personal message on the box.
Carrotmob is a group of activists that buy goods of a company to reward them for socially responsible change. Often the changes are of environmentally-friendly, such as energy-efficiency upgrades.
The Japanese company Oriental has developed the White Goat, a machine that directly recycles office paper into toiletpaper.
A great treehouse made of fruit and vegetable crates. Commisioned by the ‘Stedelijk Museum’ in Amsterdam for the ‘Mark’ -project.
The agave plant (from which tequila is made) has proven to be a great source of bio-fuel. The agave plant can grow in Africa, Australia and Mexico at low cost and is therefore a great possibility.