What’s In This Issue?
This Week’s Main Stories
Story 01"Grandmakers" Teach Crafts To Millennials Eager For Digital Detox
Story 02London's "Smart Street" Aims To Reinvent Retail Shopping Environment
Story 03Pop-Up Magazine Masters A New Live Storytelling Format
Story 04New Mortgage For Millennials Offers Free Avocado Toast (Seriously)
Story 05World's Top Sci-Fi Writers Share Predictions Of 20 Years Into The Future
Story 06Etihad Airlines Lets Passengers Bid To Sit Beside An Empty Seat"Grandmakers" Teach Crafts To Millennials Eager For Digital Detox
To combat the loneliness that often comes with aging and living alone, a UK based retirement home created a festival to allow senior citizens to connect with millennials by asking them to teach a "heritage skill." The resulting "Grandfest" (as the two month event is being called) aims to celebrate the abilities of older people and connect them with younger generations. It is exactly the kind of empowering idea for seniors that also solves a dire need for younger people ... to disengage with technology and reconnect with each other in real life.
London's "Smart Street" Aims To Reinvent Retail Shopping Environment
While the bold claims of changing retail from smart tile maker Pavegen may feel a bit overblown, this one small side street in London is taking an interesting approach to combining what is essentially an energy recycling idea (tiles which can convert the kinetic energy of footsteps into usable electricity) with new retail incentives like live coupons delivered to passersby via an app. Whether this is actually predicting a new kind of intrusive future for retail or something that could actually make shopping easier and more fun remains to be seen.
Pop-Up Magazine Masters A New Live Storytelling Format
This story is about an event series called Popup Magazine put on by longtime media exec Chas Edwards. The event is an attempt to take the mid-length storytelling format from magazines and do them as live talks followed by enriching audience conversations. Judging by its early success, it's a format that resonates among people hungry for new ways to engage and be part of something that doesn't hinge on addicting you to binge from one episode to the next.
New Mortgage For Millennials Offers Free Avocado Toast (Seriously)
Sure it is easy to poke fun at those quirky hipsters and their strange dietary choices but SoFi Mortgages is one brand taking a totally different approach. They are offering a new mortgage which comes with a month’s worth of avocado toast home delivered (with a choice of regular or gluten-free bread. Why avocado toast? The simple explanation from the brand actually makes a little sense: "Because with a SoFi mortgage, you don’t have to skip out on the avocado toast while saving up for a down payment."
World's Top Sci-Fi Writers Share Predictions Of 20 Years Into The Future
Reading Sci-Fi is the most beautiful way I know to imagine the consequences of the future instead of just hoping to see a picture of it. This interesting partnership between the XPRIZE and ANA Airlines asks 20 top writers to share their visions for the future and then opens up the dialogue to anyone to submit their own story of the future for a chance to win a cash prize and trip to Japan. It's a beautiful campaign and idea - and the stories they already have on www.seat14c.com are worth reading.
Etihad Airlines Lets Passengers Bid To Sit Beside An Empty Seat
Anyone who has ever boarded a long haul flight sitting in the economy cabin knows that moment of fleeting hope where you imagine reclining to a full bed position in several empty seats that just happened to be located right next to you. Now Etihad is helping some travelers try to make that dream closer to a reality by opening up bidding on empty "neighbor seats" to win that empty seat beside you to remain empty. Sure, it's another clever airline upsell idea, but unlike charging for drinks or to check a single bag ... this feels like a fair thing to charge more for.
