MoOM

Hey. Don't go check your Facebook between meetings- give yourself an internet based EUK to help keep your brain in gear. Check out Coudal Partners Museum Of Online Museums

There, you'll find links from their archives to online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of interests and obsessions: Start with a review of classic art and architecture, and graduate to the study of mundane (and sometimes bizarre) objects elevated to art by their numbers, juxtaposition, or passion of the collector.

Service. It Does a Body Good.

We at Play love to eat. I mean seriously, we schedule meetings in our kitchen, we throw parties just to eat chili, and we secretly look forward to Wednesday mornings just to eat some cheese and bread. So the fact that thousands of Virginians go hungry each day is simply something that doesn't sit well with us (nor do three bean burritos and a chimichanga).

So, to show our concern about hunger in Virginia, the Play team spent the morning of August 8 volunteerering at the Central Virginia Food Bank. Half of the team worked in the Community Kitchen-- cracking eggs, spooning applesauce, and packaging meals for Meals on Wheels distribution. And the other half helped by sorting, discarding, and distributing foods in their Distribution Warehouse. The Food Bank is a well-oiled machine, committed to their mission that "none shall go hungry." The Food Bank feeds the elderly, children, the unemployed, the "working poor", victims of disaster, and those in crisis through more than 500 partner agencies. These agencies consist of church pantries, senior centers, day care providers, emergency shelters, and more.

What did we learn? That hunger in Virginia is a reality, especially among the youth, and a weak economy and rising food prices are only mitigating the problem. The Food Bank relies on the support and donations of area citizens to curb this widespread issue, and is always looking for willing volunteers to help in both facilities. Want to learn more? Go to their website, www.cvfb.org and find out how you can get involved.

'Look up'

Hong Kong LAMS.

Check out this video of Andy and the Play team taking in the sights in Hong Kong. They were only there a few days but they did get a chance to step out of the conference room and explore the city. What a wonderful place to practice Confusion Tolerance and push the boundaries of their comfort zone...

"Buzz"worthy.

I hate to top Patty's "green" post with something a bit darker on her favorite holiday - but inspiration waits for no one (sorry, Patty). Nespresso - a coffee boutique owned and operated by Nestle - is redefining the "pod" coffee category by going upscale. Way upscale. With locations in a dozen countries (two in the US - both in New York), the Nespresso experience is a cross between Sephora, Bang & Olufsen, and Prada. The staff are dressed in black suits and latte colored ties. The machines are showcased like pieces of Tiffany jewelry on glass and metal shelves while the metallic, bullet-shaped coffee "capsules" are beautifully arranged against the wall in a color coded pallette that looks like a giant Pantone swatch sample. And of course, there are samples. Ebony gift boxes containing all 10 varieties serve a dual purpose as a 3d menu or as a present for your favorite beanhead (assuming they own the a Nespresso machine which can run from $500 - $1200).

Tim and I checked out the Buenos Aires location this morning while researching LAMS sites for our client. At the staff's insistence, we sat down to the minimalist bar under the black and white photo of a slightly caffeinated George Clooney (he is their international spokesmodel) and sampled the "Fuerza 6" strength coffee (with cookie). Delicious? Si. But the mood of the place was giving us an even bigger buzz. Java snobs may scoff at the idea of using pre-measured, pre packaged pods - but Nespresso is laying odds that delivering a high touch, luxury experience will be enough to change expectations and the buying behavior of coffee customers.

Ciao, ciao.

Hong Kong LAMS.

A little LAMS from Hong Kong last week. I’m trying to remember why I thought it wasn’t all that different . . .

A red letter day.

This week, Andy designed another evolution for the team-- a day to just be together and enjoy each other as teammates. (Patty, Barry and Andy... you were very much missed.)

We explored Richmond, guided by secret red missives. Laughs and looking at more stuff by all. So get comfortable and scroll through a few images of the day.

So what's it like to travel with Play?

Last week, I had the pleasure of a few days on the road-- literally driving up and down and all around 95-- with David, Andy, Byron and the dogs.

Wanted to share a few pictures so that you can experience the drive yourself. Enjoy.

Visual Sorbet

I'm loving this photo set of Indian street graphics over at MeanestIndian's flickr page.What a departure from the street art around our office....

LAMS break...

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands . HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany . In June of this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.

Take a look at HEMA's product page . You can't order anything and it's in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens. I love the sense of humor....

Let's hear it for the boy...

If you're in the Richmond area and have recently picked up this months R Home Magazine you may have recognized our very own production specialist: Byron Wampler and his amazingly designed house. Byron's spent the better part of his life surrounding himself with unique artwork and design pieces and his home has now become one of the team's (and greater Richmond's) favorite places to become inspired.

Unfortunately, RHome doesn't publish their articles online so you'll have to run out and pick up a copy for yourself. Or call us. We'll send you one.

View Finder and the windy city.

A regular stop for Play travels is Chicago. If you haven't been living under a rock for the last three years (or you haven't spoken to avid fans Sara and Barry), you've likely read or heard about Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City based on the history of Chicago.

On a recent trip, I started thinking about that book-- how the roots of cities or businesses can be told in a well-constructed and captivating story or can just be shared as mundane facts. When we think about the stories our businesses, are we providing the intriguing why behind the what? Are we giving human dimension and scope to our data and quarterly results? If you fast-forwarded 120 years into the future, would there still be a story worth telling?

Here are a few Chicago images to keep your mind going.

GOOGLE VISION - POINT AND AIM

From CoolHunter:

Get lost? Do you? Well, yet another bright young designer from the U.K is developing a system that will have tag and name exactly what your staring at. Google Vision is a conceptual product developed by Callum Peden, for the worlds favorite search engine. The product provides the user with a truly unique information hub by combining GPS, OLED technology and advanced image recognition in the form of a retractable screen device.

The Global Positioning System will see the end of wondering the streets asking for directions and the small roller ball will allow for easy navigation of the flexible screen. Brilliant for identifying landmarks whilst on holidays, Google vision acts as a personal; tour guide.

As well as this, advanced image recognition will mean Google Vision can target well known landmarks. Then using the increased coverage of wireless internet, provide the user with information on their surroundings wherever they may be.

Just imagine what this could do for some future self-guided EUK's. Personalized LAMSTAIH outings for individuals... Any way we could do this low tech? *though the high tech is oh, so cool.

Viewing the places we go.

Before making a home at 1801 East Cary Street in Richmond, I lived in Pasadena, CA. Stumbling upon some images from the streets I walked each day, it occurred to me-- I thought about different things there. Perhaps that's because I had a different job or was a different age, but I started to wonder how much environment plays a role.

Does the environment in which you live and work change who you are? what you think about? how you create? where you see your career going?

When can our businesses benefit from a change of scene? How do we seek inspiration in our own environments and use that inspiration to develop new ideas?

Here's a few glimpses from the land of sun, yoga and white stucco.

View Finder wandering...

Lots of traveling the last few months for the team from Play. Which means plenty of ground being covered-- England, Turkey, Spain, Mexico and much of the U.S. Whether New York, Illinois, Georgia, Colorado, Nevada, or Florida, we've covered a lot of miles.

With all these miles, I started thinking... When we travel, are we just getting from point A to point B or are we appreciating the miles in between? Do you walk or drive and completely miss seeing what's around you? How can the roads we travel inspire us? How do we make our frequent flier miles go further?

Here's a look at the roads I've traveled lately. What do you see?

Design inspiration: Illy Push Button Cafe

I just spotted this amazing and intriguing Illy Push Button Cafe over at thecoolhunter.com.

"With the push of a button, the house opens in 90 seconds like a flower and transforms from a compact container into a fully furnished and functional space with a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, living room and library. All materials used in the Biennale house were recyclable or recycled. As Andrea Illy, chairman and CEO of illycaffe, has been quoted as saying, illy was initially interested in Kalkin’s idea as an examination of “home as one continuous mouldable surface, a relief against which human activity would pop out.”

Holiday shoppers milling about the Time Warner Center in New York will have a fabulous chance to experience one of these soon. Between November 28 and December 29, 2007, they can rest, relax and sip a perfect cup of illy espresso in one of Kalkin’s creations, the temporary Push Button House cafe that the Trieste, Italy-based illycaffè will install there."

Check out more about this amazing space at thecoolhunter.com

View Finder: it's fall again.

The kids are heading back to school and the adults are heading back to deadlines. If tradition holds true, the daily grind of work, tasks, bills, decisions, commuting, and Outlook meeting requests will soon take over the fall. As we head into this season, who are we forgetting?


Survey says... the people. Our To Do lists don't usually have people on them. Family, lifelong friends, coworkers. Appreciating them, supporting them, heck, just calling them. I know I am as guilty as the next person.


At Play, we help our clients to inspire, empower, and celebrate their people. So here's my thought for Monday, and put it on your checklist next to paying the electric bill and buying groceries, "Celebrate the people in your life."

May sound silly, but it might just make the fall better.

View Finder's flower power.

I grew up around flowers. My parents are avid gardeners, and as a small child, I always had a role in the yearly planting of thousands of bulbs and flowering shrubs. And given the bustling nature of our neighborhood garden supply store, I'm fairly certain I'm not alone in this experience.

Flowers always represented a sense of beautiful accomplishment at my house. But aren't the flowers themselves really the ones accomplishing something? They are, despite the lackluster planting efforts of children and the black-thumbed efforts of adults (like me), growing and thriving in all corners of the world. But why is that?

After some Google searching and head scratching, I found my answer. In a fantastic elementary science lesson published online, the teacher wrote, "The job of a flower is to help its pollinator put pollen exactly in the right place at the right time to make a seed. When a plant’s flower succeeds at this, the plant gets to pass the secret for this success to the next generation... through evolution." Flowers thrive, because at their basic genetic levels, they are evolutionaries.

Evolution is something we value here at Play. So apply floral thought to business: In today's leading businesses, who are the evolutionaries? Who are the businesses and leaders that are thriving? How are they doing exactly the right thing at exactly the right time? What does it take to evolve?

View Finder looks for a different rhythm.

Lars Ulrich, Brad Wilk, Keith Moon, Chad Smith, Steven Adler, Travis Barker... rock band rhythm sections definitely get plenty of attention. And drums themselves have a place forever etched in human history: music, communication, ceremonies. The list goes on.

With something as iconic as a drum, how do you change your perspective? How can popular music's driving force have a new brand or reach a new audience? Cue Drum Corps International.
While not exactly Ozzfest, Drum Corps International's Championships have an annual audience of nearly 400,000 people, hundreds of participants ages 13-22, and bring in revenue streams for the the hosting city of at least $10 million a year.

So think about other iconic brands, products, services. How do you look at the same products and services differently? What niche audience are you missing? Where can you look for new revenue streams?

(These drums are the beloved property of Play's Sirdar Matt Erskine.)