The world’s most sophisticated flash mob? (24 years on… still going strong! But have you been and is it in your city yet?)

What’s it all about?

At the last minute, the location is given to thousands of friends and acquaintances who have been patiently waiting to learn the “Dîner en Blanc’s” secret place. Thousand of people, dressed all in white, and conducting themselves with the greatest decorum, elegance, and etiquette, all meet for a mass “chic picnic” in a public space.

Over the course of an evening, the diners enhance the function and value of their city’s public space by participating in the unexpected.
Beyond the spectacle and refined elegance of the dinner itself, guests are brought together from diverse backgrounds by a love of beauty and good taste.
Le Dîner en Blanc recalls the elegance and glamour of court society, and diners engage one another knowing they are taking part in a truly magical event.
There are no disruptions: no car traffic, no pedestrian traffic, except for the occasional amazed and astonished looks from passersby at the scene unfolding before them. And we, as they, wonder whether it’s all not a dream…

Born 24 years ago in Paris with just a handful of friends by Francois Pasquier, the Paris Dîner en Blanc now assembles nearly 15,000 people each year.

Find out more here.

Get involved and get the latest “D-E-B” news here.

I just got back from Dublin where I was speaking at the World Food Technology & Innovation Forum and wanted to share this inspiring new packaging idea with you. As I finished my presentation I was approached by a familiar face – Helen Cooper – another ex-Boots The Chemist marketer who showed me her exciting entrepreneurial idea for on-the-go packaging…

Inspired by IKEA and a bendy straw. Yes that’s what it took to come up with this moment of genius that you’ll going to start seeing a lot more of in the years ahead.

The “Hopper Pot” as it’s called is ‘pocket sized and perfect’. When you are on the move and space is at a premium, trying to fit a pot of portable food into your bag is at best awkward and at worst dangerous!

Enter the Hopper Pot(TM) – the new way to “flat pack” your food. Both squash proof and space efficient it’s small when you need to take it with you and expands to size when you want to use it to eat your food from. It’s perfect for putting into rucksacks or commuter bags.

And it’s already been winning awards: Gold at the Lunch 2012 exhibition in London as well as being shortlisted at the UK Packaging Awards 2012.

Find out more here: http://www.grasshopper-foods.com/hopper-pot/

For more information you can contact the Grasshopper Team at: http://www.grasshopper-foods.com/contact-us/

Think you know how to use it?

You may be surprised to find how many ‘secret’ features your iPad has ‘hidden’ just out of sight.

While you might think it’s meeting your needs, with a little expert tuition you’ll be amazed how much more this amazing bit of kit can do for you. Whether you are connecting with the kids, browsing books on the fly, or taking care of business from the plane, the iPad is your indispensable tool. But like any tool, it’s useless if you don’t know how to operate it properly. The advanced wi-fi connectivity has been especially important saving me money accessing information on the go.

Check out these 19 training videos. They give you a step by step guide. It’s incredible how much more you’ll be using your iPad for in 7 days from now.

If you want to learn how to use your iPad better, get $20 off price of this video training by clicking ‘x’ to close the page and selecting “Stay on page.”

You can thank me later! I thought I knew about most of these features but the truth was I’d just heard about them or was using the basics. Enjoy!

I just received an update from a friend (Thanks Maya!) who’d spotted me in a tweet from SWA the leading business media publication in Indonesia.

Following my talk in Jakarta on 11 October for my good friends at the Dwi Sapta Integrated Marketing Agency, I did an interview with Denoan Rinaldi from SWA magazine.

If you speak Bahasa Indonesian you can read the full article here. If you can’t, my main points are:

1) How Indonesia is fast becoming the benchmark for many other emerging markets.

2) Burgeoning Middle Classes are developing an ever increasing appetite for healthier and more functional benefit led products [..]

Follow Lou & David as they bike the 3000 miles from London to Banjul

Yesterday I tried contacting a friend of mine who had started working at Design Bridge London on the same day as I did. When the reply came back, Lou was in Madrid, excitedly telling me that she was riding from London to the Gambia on motor bikes with her boyfriend David.

Well as you’ll read in their post Mañana mañana, the drama has already begun!

The route follows:

- London
- Portsmouth
- Santander
- Madrid
- Algeciras
- Tanger Med.
- Imilchil
- Laayoune
- Dakhla [..]