All posts in places

Company Off-Site: camping, fireplace, crackers & beers

Off-Sites are a tradition in many companies. This kind of two or three-days retreat generally aims at bringing people of an office together to do some brainstorming to discuss the new tactics & strategies to implement to boost the business, while giving co-workers a chance to get to know each others better.

Though most of the time off-sites don’t bring the expected results – in terms of idea generation which will actually be implemented to help the business grow… $$$ – they remain a good occasion to have a break during a hectic year and eventually to have fun. And when you’ll be planning your next off-site, forget all those “nice hotel, fancy resort,  and cast of nonthreatening facilitators” to try something really cool, unique and that will probably strengthen like never (or not, depending where you decide to settle “the camp”) the relations your co-workers have with one another.

The mad scientist who created this camp-changing device is named Becky Greenwood. She’s got this idea that will bring camping people (and co-workers!) closer together without sacrificing their privacy.

It works by connecting two “two man” tents with a helpful storage container for tools and crackers and beers (of which you’ll have plenty thanks to the $$$ you saved vs a fancy hotel) and such. Once camping is complete, the bag functions like a normal “extra” camping bag, creating a larger space to hold the tent than the bag that it comes with, making it twice as fast to pack up.

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And just make sure that you don’t forget to carry with you this magical transparent fireplace to add magic to the moment.

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The beauty of the Electrolux Fireplace is that it stands out as this opaque ceramic column that slowly turns translucent to transparent, as the flames flare up. Upon cooling down the column goes back to being the white shaft it was.

Designer: Camillo Vanacore

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I wand to know more on how to organize a successful, memorable and rewarding off-site: read Can This Off-Site Be Saved?

Those Google Street View Drivers Had No Idea What They Were In For [Humor]

One great thing about using Google Street View is that you don’t get any more bad surprises when it comes to discovering for instance your new neighbourhood or the real face of the town in which you’ll spend the next month of your summer holiday you booked on line. Quite helpful actually. Personally, I’ve used it a couple of time when searching for a new apartment and to avoid a big disappointment when discovering on-site what the building actually looked like.

But who is behind this great initiative? Do you mean that there REAL people driving Google’s cars to picture-map the streets??

Apparently, those two Google Street View drivers had no idea what they were in for…

the day we were replaced by better looking Holographic Virtual Assistants…

Well, according to the news it seems that we’re about to! PDM, an Australian Digital media company launched today the country’s first ever life-size ‘Holographic Virtual Assistant’ at Audi Centre Sydney, Rosebery which is designed “to facilitate enhanced communication and customer experience” as it is supposed to be smart enough to answer questions that customers may have. Let’s hope it won’t quickly turn into this :

For the record, Best Buy developed last year a similar concept and showcased it on some of its malls

Whatever happens, I can’t wait to see this technology made available to the consumer market so that I can have my own virtual me sitting at my desk when I’m telecommuting :)

1,000 forks when all u need is a spoon…

I’m sitting here in the airport lobby, awaiting for my bi-monthly flight which will take me to Vienna, and I just realized that there is approximately one electric plug per sqm here! Crazy when you know that one has to struggle hours in Vienna’s Intl Airport to find just one. Life’s so unfair when you’re running out of battery.

But Vienna has at least free wifi (4 free wifi access vs none in Paris)…We have the plugs, you got the wifi :P

Posted by ShoZu

Design, wifi and café latte…

cafe-moebel-viennaIf you’re planning to spend some days in Vienna and if you’re tired of reading your emails or working out your next powerpoint presentation from an impersonal hotel lobby, the cafe Moebel is just the perfect place for you: this cute little café is central, quiet, the food is good (they make a delicious café latte!), they have a free broadband Internet wifi access, waiters and waitress are nice and last but not least, its interior is 100% design! All the furniture, seats, tables, lamps, etc. come directly from the famous design shop Das Moebel located a few blocks from the café itself. The shop showcases design creations by WerK, franz maurer, moor&moor, moca, mm interier, ellips and more others!

So if you fall in love with anything here in particular, you can just satisfy your need for design and good taste a few hundred meters down the street…

Personally I could not afford one single piece of furniture which is displayed here in this living showroom; but I can at least spend the day sitting on one of those €800 seats and spoil this beautiful €1,500 table I’m working on…

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Get there: http://www.dasmoebel.at/kontakt