Enhancing the Oculus Rift experience.

The Oculus company recently got acquired by Facebook, after it was one of the first giant Kickstarter crowdfunding successes. It a genius piece of hardware which opens the world to a whole new reality as a platform. But its main product, the Oculus Rift, is just to trick your eyes. What it lacks is an environment experience for the body. Therefor I hereby invent the Oculus moving mat, a round rubber mat in the form of a disk that works like a tank track but in a 360 degrees kinda way. This moving floor area anticipates your movement in space to enable you to physically participate in a dreamworld, sports game or action drama. At first, it comes with a suit filled with sensors that calculates your distance from the walls so the moving mat knows where you’re heading (or where you should be heading) at what speed, but over time you can equip your dedicated room with camera’s so the suit becomes obsolete.

I can imagine people reserving part of their homes for their escaping ventures in Oculus realities.

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Future of Food gastronomy trips: Meet the topchefs of the future.

“Nowhere in the world do they have more Michelin stars per square kilometer than in Belgium.”

A service site that has reserved tables in upcoming restaurants with top chefs (to be) and facilitates organised travel trips for super gastronomy experiences. Foreigners & foodies will be astonished by the power of food and drinks that upcoming chefs with their unbridled creativity and cooking techniques serve. This can be ordered by our e-commerce service site; It provides you with a detailled program, hospitality, transport, hotels, restaurant reservations,… We will also make sure you have a lot of suggestions for small walks, exhibitions visits, shopping, … for the time you’re not eating 😉

So you can leave your credit card at home. All is paid upfront so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Just enjoy the best food with the best chefs-to-be in the restaurants that form the future of the eating experience.

Just a grab out my new favourite restaurants for the future:

• Graanmarkt 13, Antwerpen
• L’Esco, Wetteren
• Vrijmoed, Gent
• J.E.F., Gent
• Eten bij Lieven, Brugge
• L’Air du temps, Namen
• …

Freestyle Experience Travelling: Where you are going…

The goal is simple. You have none. You just reserve a decent amount of time and off you go. You stick your thumb up and start hitchhiking. Whenever someone stops and ask you the famous question: “Where to?”, your answer is as simple as: “Where you are going, if you don’t mind.”

If they don’t mind, you jump right in and start explaining the concept. You are freestyle experience travelling and you need to stay with the same person for 8, 24 or 48 hours. Within the hour, you need to agree on the timespan you’ll be together. All the consequences of being with a person, shadowing him/her and to experience what this (wo)man experiences are is what’s freestyle experience travelling is all about. You’ll laugh, perhaps you’ll cry, you’ll learn, you’ll have a great time. Once the agreed timeframe has passed, you need to say goodbye and, wherever you may be, continue your travel.

This idea is based on my ‘Looking for Margot’ (I don’t know) experience & Valentijn‘s We Work We Play principles. It could be something for Dave Gorman to do. It could be for any adventurous traveler interested in human sciences. Let ne know if you try this out! 🙂

What if the Railways were run as a public/private club? #oipd

I have to admit I’m a real fan of traveling by train to work and back. I’m a forenzer who enjoys those 45 minutes to prepare some work, enjoy the Metro newspaper, catch up on my social media streams, watch people and make up stories around them or simply write this blogpost. Two days ago I took a new 1 year subscription and I was wondering why it did cost me so much. The service is quite often ok but not tremendous. Every now and than, I prefer going by car and not by train because of tight scheduled meetings in several cities. And I take holidays… I also believe i get my tickets inspected only around 30% of my rides.

What if the railways were run as a public/private club?

For the public part of service, everybody could come and get a transport ticket (not a guaranteed seat!) and take the train immediately to the destination of their choice.  The private part however is the subscription formula in which people pay a membership fee for using the services the railways offer (wifi, workspace, waiting rooms indoor, daily coffee …) In return the members of the Railways can reserve a guaranteed seat of the train of their likes and get the invoice of at the end of the month.

Although there are a lot of points to consider in this railway experience innovation, technology and infrastructure are the two main areas to invest in.

For instance; You can work with small screens in the seats or ceilings pointing out a seat is taken by mr(s) x or not at all. A small sensor in the seat notices whether a seat is taken and can be billed. The build-in mechanisme triggers a message to the member asking whether he has missed his train and would like to reserve a seat on the next one. Being a Railways member guarantees you your favorite spot at the bar while you can drink as much or as little as you like in benefitting from the extra services.

I would believe this is the vision Belgian Public Railways (@nmbs) and its new boss, Jo Cornu should aim for.
And I believe @kodel could help them with that!

Music Circus; a full blown kids music festival experience. #oipd

A travelling music festival slash theme park dedicated to music for small children up to 15 years old. The idea is to give them a first taste of the festival experience, without too noisy music, or too adultery stuff going on. The idea is that they can experience live music, festival food, dance halls, rock music, … and even camping.