I have just started reading Tim Flannery’s book ‘The Weather Makers’. For those of you who haven’t read it, as the title would suggest, the book is all about the history and future impact of climate change. For those of you that have…you probably think I’m pretty late to the party. Well…better late than never. An admittedly new reading topic for me, my knowledge around climate change is limited. I understand it on a very basic level, but I hope to get further entrenched in this issue and make some changes of my own after reading ‘The Weather Makers’.

My interest to read it was sparked a couple of weeks ago when I attended an Innovation Forum held by IF Talks. Several speakers including Matt Perry from the green and ethical advertising agency ‘Republic of Everyone,’ Melinda Tually from ‘I ran the wrong way’ and Blair Palese CEO of 350.org amongst others made stimulating and often opposing debates around the future of our planet and our responsibility within it.
Ben Rennie, founder of Innovation Forum will be hosting another panel discussion in September. To find out more go to

http://www.theweathermakers.org/

http://iftalks.com/IF_TALKS/IF_TALKS.html

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Wake Up Sydney! event at the recently refurbished Townhall. Wake Up Sydney! are challenging Sydneysiders to make Sydney the ‘kindness capital’ of the world, through anonymous acts of kindness. Imagine sitting in a café over the weekend, sipping your morning coffee and listening to the (seemingly never ending) rain pouring down. You get up to leave and realise that someone’s paid for your coffee and left you a kindness card instead of a bill… pretty cool idea isn’t it!

So after news of earth quakes and oil spills, the evening became a refreshing celebration of kindness and our connection to the living earth. Seen through the eyes of indigenous storytellers and dancers, visionaries and artists; the power of experience was truly inspiring and galvanising. Come on Sydney, let the kindness flow!

Like it or not, the need for recognition and status is at the heart of every consumer trend. Status is the ultimate (hidden) motive, a subconscious but ever-present force. Trend Watching has identified 5 ways that consumers get their status fix:

1. Bigger, Better, Harder.
This refers to a consumer’s appetite for expensive, in-your-face brands and products.
2. Generosity
This kind of status comes from feeling part of a greater good through aid and contribution. The online world also makes these random acts of altruism far easier to showcase (so maybe the old line “there’s no such thing as a selfless act” really does ring true!)
3. Green Credentials and Consumption
This refers to a consumers’ interest in green credentials that eco-conscious owners can show off to their peers. Bold, iconic markers and designs often assist with exhibiting eco-credentials to the world.
4. In the know and skills
There is a growing segment of consumers who find pleasure in mastering new and sometimes unusual skills and acquiring knowledge. Status comes from finding an appreciative audience that’s impressed with what they know, and can create, instead of what they consume.
5. Connectivity
Another form of status comes from accumulating the largest possible number of fans, friends or followers. Retweets, the number of views for a photo on Flickr or a video on YouTube are also associated with one’s social status and that can be shared instantly and on a potentially large scale.

So – what does all of this mean? Well there are opportunities amongst this egotistical, status-seeking mentality that afflicts us all to some degree of another. It’s worthwhile finding out who and how your customers are trying to impress. If you’re customers are all on the eco bandwagon, maybe the old bigger, better harder approach isn’t going to cut it. From an experiential perspective, it’s all about status stories – now more than ever we need to create experiences that have talkability and are worth sharing with friends to build status.

Trend Watching

Here at PLAY, we all have some kind of artistic, design background, therefore are always interested in new and innovative ideas. Something that recently caught my eye was the winner of the young Brit Insurance Design Award at the Design Museum in London. The young designer Mr Choi, a 29-year-old recent graduate, was put out by the disparity between his new wafer thin mac book air and the large chunky plug. In response to this he designed a plug that folds flat and has achieved something that is not only pleasurable to the eye but also has a practical purpose – a winning concoction.

The design of the British plug has not changed since its invention over sixty years ago. This simple concept illustrates how something we take for granted and use everyday can be changed to suit societies changing needs. All it takes is a little time, thought and someone brave enough to challenge what has come before – something that PLAY is also very interested in.

For more check out designs of the year

Foursquare is a social networking application that permits you to state or ‘shout’ your location, but do not get involved if you value your sanity. Over the past few days I have deteriorated into a mad person running around ‘checking-in’ to as many venues as possible in an attempt to unlock new ‘badges’ and become the ‘mayor’ of any old place.

Sounds like shameless broadcasting, except that the developers have also integrated a point score component, permitting users to unlock certain badges based on their whereabouts, frequency of visits and usage of certain key words. I am now addicted to marking my territory and stating my location at any given opportunity.

Foursquare has the capacity to be a powerful marketing tool. Local businesses can be provided with data including check-ins, unique visitors, male-to-female ratio, social media-sharing, top visitors and check-in time breakdown. This gives business owners the opportunity to adapt their product-offerings accordingly. It is now not unheard of for local cafes to offer a free coffee to the ‘mayor’ (the person who has checked into the venue most) which also provides incentive for repeat custom.
Is Foursquare yet another tool for blatant self-promotion? Or a useful tool for businesses to gain consumer insights? I’d say it’s a little from column A and a little from column B. No matter how you look at it, there’s no doubt that it’s on the rise; a record 347,000 people checked-in at one location on the 14th March for an event in Austin, Texas and with users obsessively trying to earn and retain ‘mayor’ status, the check-ins will arguably continue.

Foursquare on Mashable

Love it or hate it, there is something to be said about cricket and the way the sport has evolved.
Traditionally cricket requires equal amounts of patience from the players and fans alike who dedicate hours, days and even weeks of their time to follow matches.

These days are by no means over; there are actually people who enjoy giving up hours on end to watch cricket. However, there is also a sizeable part of the population who, having not been brought up with the sport, are not about to start engaging in an activity, which has been affectionately compared to ‘watching the grass grow.’

Gen Y wants everything now…and preferably yesterday; this mindset and lifestyle does not mesh well with an intrinsically protracted sporting experience. Cricket’s solution to this audience shift has been 20/20 cricket. The point is that events, whether they are music, performance, sport or other, are not sustainable if the experiences they deliver to do not adapt and grow with their audiences.

Having been to my first live 20/20 Cricket match last week I felt as though this version of the sport was made for people with ADD, also affectionately known as children of the Y Generation. My attention was held with fireworks following every six and music between every bowl plus it was finished in 40 overs so it didn’t require too much commitment…or patience for that matter.

Like it or not, it is a clever and arguably necessary response to a clear shift in the way that new generations prefer their experiences – fast and with lots of energy.

On 7 December 2009, the leaders from 192 countries will come together in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change conference. The conference represents a unique opportunity for people and organisations from around the world to join together and send a message to our world leaders that we are ready for bold and uncompromising change. TckTckTck has been set up to mobilise and galvantise the world to form a united voice. To spearhead the campaign, TckTckTck has turned to an Australian legend… We believe everything we do can make a difference. Tcktcktck.org

Here at PLAY, we like to know what people are doing. Not in a stalkery kind of way (that would be weird), but in a “what amazing and new creative ideas are happening RIGHT NOW?” kind of way. Not only do we think it’s important to keep up with everything that’s going on in the world—we love it. And that brings us to Twitter. As they say on their website: “The result of using Twitter … is that you have a sense of what folks are up to…” Funny enough, the brand that is all about keeping up with people is now something to “keep up with” in itself. Twitter is being used to power some incredible virtual art projects, taking people’s tweets and interpreting them in all sorts of ways. Portwiture is one of them—the site takes your most used Twitter keywords and matches them to interesting photography from Flickr, creating a “serendipitous visual representation of your Twitter profile.” Does it have a use? Not really. Does that matter? Doesn’t seem to. What it does do is connect.

The boom in social media shows that people want to connect with each other more than ever, now your tweets can be randomly connected with ‘relevant’ images from complete strangers! The curiosity factor is super-high, and—more to the point—Portwiture facilitates the creation of inspiring art, as opposed to being just a quirky way to display data.

There are more fascinating Twitter-powered art projects out there, too. For a good review of six of the best, check out Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/09/26/twitter-art/ Or to take a look at your Twitter status in photos, go straight to http://portwiture.com/

Tree houses have always been cool, but when created sustainably by the world’s most inventive architects, designers and artists… the to-die-for factor increases exponentially! After all, it’s pretty hard to beat the tranquillity and sheer bliss of being up in a tree house, surrounded by nature. No amount of sustainability literature can motivate and empower people the way a real, designer tree house experience can… That’s the premise behind TreeLife, an eco exhibition presented by The Cool Hunter (online resource for all things cool).

TreeLife is an interactive exhibition of modern eco tree houses designed by the world’s top architects, designers and artists—and it’s coming sometime in 2010. It’s the world’s first major public exhibition of ‘green design’ tree houses and looks set to make all the boring old ‘sustainability’ messages look positively prehistoric.

We like it because if TreeLife lives up to its billing, it could open up the floodgates for a whole new wave of bright, fresh ideas about architecture, art, design, sustainability and just how we could create this world to be. This is the bit we like the most the promise of an experience that inspires new ideas and positive change! thecoolhunter.com.au/treelife

Have you ever experienced one of those magic moments in which, in the middle of chaos, somebody actually ‘sees’ you? It’s like an unspoken exchange in which you feel understood, received and acknowledged in one glorious micro-second—and it comes as a huge relief.

That’s how much we crave connection, and that’s exactly what designer and artist Keetra Dean Dixon has pulled off with her ‘Tiny Public Plaques’ installation. ‘Tiny Public Plaques’ are just that—small, engaging little messages that pop up in the most unusual places. Dixon’s intention with the installation is about “instilling wonder in the daily routine, encouraging an attentive community and bringing surprise and delight to those that find them” (Source: fromkeetra.com) She involves the viewer as an active participant and that has a huge impact. Here at PLAY, we love TPP because they are beautifully unexpected, uplifting, and totally experiential. With a few well-placed words and a good understanding of what’s going on for her viewers in that moment and environment, Dixon is able to reach right through the clutter to the very heart of people, and send them a message that feels good. We like that.