Hold my spot

Disney uses a ‘queue reservation’ system called FastPass at many of its theme parks, for some of the most popular rides.

It works like this:

1. You check the wait time for the queue of the ride you want to go on.
2. If it’s over 20 minutes, put your park admission ticket into the FastPass machine and you will be issued a FastPass.
3. This new ticket has an hour-long timeframe on it – you can return anywhere during that hour to be fast-tracked on to that ride within just a few minutes.

So, say you arrived at a ride at 12:30pm and the wait time was 45 minutes. The board also tells you the FastPass time, which is likely to be 1:30-2:30pm. So you’d grab a FastPass and come back anytime between 1:30 and 2:30pm to join the FastPass (separate) queue and get on the ride within a few minutes. Once the queue is full for the day, no more FastPasses are issued.

You can’t get a FastPass for other rides that have the same hour-long window.

How one idea sparks another

A health official from Quebec was visiting Disneyworld last year and utilised the FastPass system. She knew the lines back home for the Swine Flu vaccine were 3-4hrs long so when she returned, she implemented a coupon system where customers arrive at the health clinic and receive a coupon which tells them to return.

Does this idea of the virtual queue spark any ideas for your current ?business challenges?

Leave a comment and let us know ::

A friend was embarking upon a trip to Disneyland recently with her 7 yr old son and had arranged to meet a friend there so she’d have someone to wait with him while she went on the non-kid-friendly rides.

It reminded me that I’d heard of a service years ago where (from memory it was) Disneyland was offering to connect single parents and their kids up, so the parents could take turns looking after each other’s children at each ride – so the parent got a chance to go alone. Sounded like a great idea at the time, but is probably fraught with danger when you think about it.?I mean, you really don’t know enough about that other single parent, do you? The service mustn’t have lasted long, because I have googled like hell for it and can’t find it anywhere.

A couple of platonic relationship type services caught my eye recently too:

CompanionTree is designed to help you find someone who shares the same interests as you – to add to your ‘companion tree’. So when you’re new to a town or you’ve taken up a new hobby, you can have someone to share some good clean fun with.

DogTree – an Australian site for dog owners to find each other for walking dates or dog sitting.

MeetJoe – a friend-meet site based in Chicago.

Taxi2 – a Virgin Atlantic initiative which?cleverly links people up at the airport (or event) by destination – so they can share a taxi and cut the cost (and the carbon emissions).

CabCorner is another cab sharing site.

and then there’s GlobeTrooper – where you can create a trip and find fellow travellers to join you.

It brings to mind one of my favourite sayings about social media, by the wonderful Chris Brogan :: “We now have the means to find each other”.

Which sites have you come across that partner like-minded friendly people up?

I recently returned from a week long trip to Shanghai to speak at a conference. I love being immersed in a whole new culture – the food, the money, the people, the landscapes… every tiny thing becomes a new life experience. New life experiences are the absolute best way to generate fresh ideas. So I present these interesting snippets to you as little fire-starters – use them to spark your own ideas. Imagine a business challenge you’re facing right now and let one of these observations spark an idea for you to solve that challenge.

Shanghai Maglev Train (Magnetic Levitation)

This train, which takes you from Pudong International Airport to the outskirts of Shanghai city clocked a top speed of 501 km/h shortly after it was launched. Our speed reached just over 300 km/h. The one way trip cost about $6 and covered 30km in about 8 minutes flat. There comes a point where you simply cannot keep looking out the window at the traffic because there is no way to lock your eyes onto anything.

Magnetic levitation is a form of transport that suspends, guides and propels vehicles – mostly trains. The train levitates above a steel rail while electromagnets, attached to the train, are oriented toward the rail from below.

The video at this site gives a real indication of what it’s like to be on the train :: http://vimeo.com/8962575

Population and Urban Growth

One of the first things that hits you is the sheer number of people out and about on the streets of the city. This is a city with a population of 21 Million – the entire population of Australia in a city approx 100 x 120 km.During the time I visited, it was Chinese summer holidays PLUS Shanghai is hosting the World Expo which does compact the issue slightly! World Expo is hosting over 500,000 visitors a day and most of these are domestic citizens – can you imagine?

The famous skyline of Shanghai, which truly comes alive at night – many of the highrise buildings turn into giant TV screens – was ENTIRELY built within the last 20 years. 20 years ago, that skyline was farming swampland.

This pic shows a full miniature scale model of the main part of Shanghai city, on display at the Cultural Centre.

Miniature model of Shanghai

Our tour guide, when trying to let us know how important it was that we stay close to her, said ‘Let’s be the sticky rice, ok?!”. She told another interesting fact – that, at the Public Gardens, there is a spot called Blind Date corner. This is where you can go to find a potential husband. But because the young adults are all so busy with work, the PARENTS will meet there with printed profiles of their children, and they’ll do all the groundwork on behalf of their kids.

Entertainment

We went for cocktails to MOCA – the Museum of Contemporary Art on one night and you can imagine the jaws dropping when the roving entertainment appeared!

body painting

It was quite a shock, because everything seems very conservative in China. Another notable thing from this evening were the tiles in the bathrooms – they were patterned with extreme profanity (you had to look closely – at a distance the words just looked like a flower pattern) and we were all left wondering whether something had been lost in translation!

On another night we visited Mint Bar – which has a ?17 metre long shark tank running across the top floor.

The hotel we stayed at (Hyatt on the Bund) had a rooftop bar with a spa/jacuzzi in the middle of the outdoor seating area!

My favourite building was one that many people thought was just horrible. And it does look pretty damn ordinary during the day, but you’d have to admit it’s something different! It’s called the Oriental Pearl Building and is a TV tower… those are my fingers down the bottom!

Oriental Pearl Tower

The heat and humidity were a real problem, and stopped us from visiting World Expo because the lines for every exhibit were between 2-3hrs long and there was no shade while waiting.

I’ll leave you with this ‘50 reasons’ list about Shanghai from a CNN blogger :: http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/none/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-shanghai-no-1-590704

I have spotted these on various outdoor sites around Melbourne. I am trying to track down the creative mind behind it – anyone know?

(update : thanks to CMH Yachts on email who told me the campaign was done by http://www.threedrunkmonkeys.com.au/)

On Free Ideas Day, you simply ask your question via Twitter in 140 characters, including this hashtag : #1Free and we’ll send you back an idea to solve it.

You could ask for marketing ideas, PR campaign ideas, staffing ideas, business names, sales ideas, product ideas – anything really!

Here are some examples of what we’ve solved in the past:

Challenge: How to create a ‘buzz’ around FB page so as to get more followers #1Free
Our Idea: Competition where people submit their fave journey in 1 para. One with most ‘likes’ wins a Journal
Status: Idea is currently running and generating new FB visitors – http://www.facebook.com/JourneyJottings

Challenge: How would you promote tax time, via email, to current clients and prospects in a fun and unique way? #1Free
Our Idea: Create a graphic of an on/off switch. Client clicks to OFF and message pops up ‘ Take the rest of the day OFF, we’ve got your tax return covered
Status: ‘That is a great idea Yvonne -thank you. And definitely ticks the unique and different boxes.’

Challenge: Need to increase attendance at an anti-stress playshop for mums. #1Free
Our Idea: Offer a free eBook for Dads ‘101 Things to Do with the Kids while mum takes a break’ for every booking.
Status: e-book is now almost completed.

You can see a whole list here. Follow the live tweetstream or a add a search column in Tweetdeck or your twitter app.

So – go for it.. go back to Twitter and send us your business challenge!

ps. pass it on – spread the word will you?

Ready Fire Aim (shawn wolfe)

Ideas While You Sleep (the overnight brainstorming service I invented) is living proof that the Ready, Fire, Aim philosophy can work. Think of it, DO IT, then plan it/make it right.

Doesn’t sound as though it makes sense, but it just describes the practice of getting started on something without spending a ton of time planning it out. With technology tools the way they are today, it’s possible to create something just a few minutes after you’ve thought of it… THEN fix it live. Dynamically.

With Ideas While You Sleep, I wanted to create an under $1000 way to get ideas to my clients. Quickly and without having to be there in person. Using my favourite brainstorming technique of Random Word Association I used the word pillow and quickly had the idea : I’d do the brainstorming FOR the clients. Overnight, while they sleep – Ideas While You Sleep. I had it up and running within 5 hours. 7 months later we have clients in 12 different countries and Ideas Agents (who do the brainstorming) in 8 countries.

With this Ready, Fire, Aim philosophy in mind, I am always trying to generate ways to increase awareness about Ideas While You Sleep. I know there are an endless array of business challenges out there and I wondered whether we could create an idea for every one of them.

I jumped onto Twitter and here’s what I tweeted: FREE IDEAS day :: Tweet your business challenge in 140 characters including #1free and I’ll GIFT you an idea. Try me.

By the end of the day, the hashtag had generated 123 tweets and 28 Twitter users had been given a free idea to solve their challenge.

Here are all the challenges and ideas, in case you can use them to spark an idea for your own business challenge.. or add an idea to the existing ones! And the comments went like this:

@kateodonnell_:Enjoing the #1free stream – thanks for making my Fri a little more interesting @IdeasCulture

@FletcherTax:@IdeasCulture That is a great idea Yvonne -thank you. And definitely ticks the unique and different boxes. #1free

@tmconsultancy:@IdeasCulture Kudos not only for yr great idea of #1free but the 1 u “gifted” me – wouldn’t have thought of that & it’s a brill. idea. Thx!

@scardjo:#1free thanks for the great idea @ideasculture

What do you think of the whole idea? Should I do it again next week?

ps. If you want a bit of Ready, Fire, Aim in your life, grab my mate Paul McCarthy’s CD set.. it comes with an online learning library too.

Have you seen the OfficePOD? It is described as a portable ‘working environment’ – imagine picking up a funky office pod and plunking it down in your back garden..

It reminds me of the pop-up retail stores that appear around major cities occasionally- they are usually set up in a shipping container. From the outside they have that urban grunge, but on the inside they are a total delight to behold. Have you been to one?

Reading Springwise this week, I discovered the MuvBox – a portable, fold-out restaurant made from a shipping container!

Plus Containers-to-Clinics – shipping containers turned into portable health clinics being used in ‘underserved’ areas of the world. Gold.

I was also reminded of Beat Box Kitchen – a delicious burger van that sets up in an inner city suburb of Melbourne every Friday night and appears at festivals and concerts too.

What’s popped up around you lately?

Don’t buy more stuff!

About a year ago I met Steve Sammartino, the founder of Rentoid.com. The way I describe his idea to others is to quote him when he said to me: “we don’t need to buy more stuff. We’ve all got enough stuff. Let’s share each other’s stuff”. The idea of the site is to look around your house for stuff you are not using, but which you do not wish to throw out or sell. You list it on the site for rent.

Brilliant! One of those ideas you wish you’d thought of yourself, yes? Created 3 years ago, there are now more than $50 million worth of items for rent from barrier mesh to private jets.

Now, I know Steve personally we met through mutual twitter friends and he is a down to earth, tell-it-straight, sweet and super clever individual. I know you’ll love getting into his world. Fo’ shizzle.

Steve also writes the most-read startup blog in the world with over 70,000 readers a month.

You can also follow rentoid on Twitter.

Vehicle Share

While I was driving 2 weeks ago, my car just stopped. Yep, the engine cut out. I coasted to the side of the road and reached for my non-existent phone. I’d left it at home. Walked home (30mins), called the RACV who said they would give me 20 mins notice when the guy was on the way. They called 10 minutes later to say he was 2 mins from the car. I ran back (15mins). He put oil in the car and started it. Clunk, crunch: ‘oh, that’s not good. Not good at all’ he says. ‘We better call a tow truck.. it will be about an hour.’ I visited a nearby friend to beg for a cuppa and just as I sat down, a call from the towing company: ‘we are at your car, where are you?’ Ran back. Waved goodbye to the car, walked home.

Around this time, I tweeted: “stress levels rising. Broken car. Racv could not fix, awaiting tow truck”. About 2 minutes later, my 68 year old mother-in-law tweeted: “Do you need to borrow a car?”. Many other helpful suggestions arrived, with lots of people recommending I check out FlexiCar and GoGet CarShare. I never knew such services existed!

How they work:

You sign up as a member of the service and you receive a swipe-card. Then you go online to find out where there are cars available. Basically, the last person who used the car leaves it at one of the specified locations (dotted around the city), and you can choose to book that car which you access via your swipe card. The keys are in the car. When you’ve finished you just drive it back to one of the shared car parking spaces!

Then there’s SmartDrivers you’ve probably seen them those cute little smart cars wrapped with advertising? You can rent those for $66 a weekend. So cheap, because you’re driving around a little mobile billboard.

Have you seen other ’sharing’ services like these?

(ps. car update: I did borrow the in-laws car for 2 weeks, then my lovely friend Justine went overseas for 4 weeks and I now have a luxurious new car to drive.. thank you world!)

Chupa Chups by Sarah Graham :: http://www.sarahgraham.info/

Who doesn’t love a classic lollipop? In Australia, we have a thing for Chupa Chups .. so much so that many Aussies think Chupa Chups are Australian! In fact, they were created by a Spanish man in 1958 and are now owned by a Dutch-Italian company. He originally called it ‘GOL’ referring to the mouth as a football net and the lollipop as a football (goal). It wasn’t catchy enough so he enlisted an advertising agency who came up with Chups. Did you know the iconic Chupa Chup logo was designed by Salvador Dali? Some of the slogans used over the years are :

“It’s round and long-lasting”

“Stop smoking, start sucking”

and in Australia in the 70’s: “What a sweet half hour”

and now : “Life Less Serious”

The chupa chup was inspired as a way to keep kids’ fingers from getting sticky when eating sweets.

The same thinking has borne some great new ‘pop’ style ideas lately, like:

Cake pops by Bakerella ::

and

Sushi Poppers :: http://www.sushipopper.com/

What else could we put on a stick?

Today at 9:30am, I had one of those ideas that appears in your head like a lightning bolt. You know the ones, they usually go like this : “Why don’t I…..”

“Why don’t I ask my network of followers to submit their current business challenge or client brief and I’ll pick one at 10am and run a live global brainstorm to generate ideas for it?”

I created a blog post to outline the ‘rules’ to ensure everyone would use the hashtag #ideahr.

At 10am I sent the first tweet:

Live Twitter brainstorm starting soon :: get your challenge or brief in now :: http://bit.ly/atDPJG #ideahr

at 10:30, another tweet:

In 30 minutes I’ll choose a challenge that has been submitted and the world will give ideas to solve it! http://bit.ly/atDPJG #ideahr

I updated my status to reflect the same message on Facebook and LinkedIn too.

At 10:50:

Less than 10 mins for you to submit for your free brainstorm worth $495 :: http://bit.ly/atDPJG #ideahr

At 11am, Anne Maybus (@AnneMaybus) won!

Many months ago, when recruiting for Ideas Agents for Ideas While You Sleep, I met Anne Maybus – Cleverstreak via Twitter. Anne became one of my best Ideas Agents and we’ve shared many 140 conversations since then. She runs a B 2 B consultancy helping other small businesses with their social media needs. One of the services she offers is ghost writing. She’ll write business articles, blog posts, ebooks and newsletters on your behalf.

Then I tweeted for ideas to solve her challenge:

What are low cost some ways that a blog/article/business ghost writer can generate more clients? #ideahr

Here are some of the ideas generated over the following hour:

• SallyFoleyLewis:Pull together ROI for potl clients so they can see bottom line benefit#ideahr
• Brainzooming:Sponsor a tweetup for potl and current clients to showcase your work & testimonials.#ideahr
• Brainzooming:Send potls water bottles labeled “Won’t you be relieved when your writing pressures disappear? Call me to make it happen!”
• livefasttrainer:try and brainstorm just like this with your potential customers then show them what your made of with the ideas that came up#ideahr
• KarinaSilva:The best approach: present to the clients ideas to repurpose the content for different medium making the most of $#ideahr
• IdeasCulture:Get a journo or media outlet interested in a specific article topic. You write it on behalf of 3-4 experts.#ideahr
• SallyFoleyLewis:If ppl don’t want to part w/ $, offer specialised barter (what do you want? = who u target)#ideahr
• IdeasCulture:Have a ‘frequent buyers’ service. Every 5th article you write for a client is free#ideahr
• IdeasCulture:Choose a prospect. Then just WRITE a blog post for them and send it to show you understand how to match their style#ideahr

Across the whole 2hrs, we received over 20 RTs, so the network of people who heard about it was pretty huge!

Anne’s comment at the end :: “Thank you very much. Will collect them all and work through them. Very happy. Found new people to follow, too.” She has promised to keep us in the loop with her progress.

Check the tweetstream for everything that happened.

What do you think?

Tomorrow, I’ll open for submissions at 7am and start the brainstorm at 8am.