Author: coolerinsights

Customised Curated Memories

July 5, 2012 Blog no comments


Ethan’s birth was one of my life’s biggest moments

In a consumer world awash with an endless stream of innovative products and services, there appear to be one thing that’s missing. And that is to tap onto a customer’s deep and intimate memories.

Now wait a minute. Isn’t that the same as what peddlers of nostalgia goods are already doing?


SHINE Festival Shimmers and Sparkles

July 1, 2012 Blog no comments

SHINE Youth Festival 2012
An unlikely crew of super heroes

With the tagline “Fire Up Your Passion”, this year’s SHINE Youth Festival comprises a month-long extravaganza of activities geared towards getting youths to do their part for society. To contribute, they can pledge to SHINE at the festival itself, do it online, or find ways to “take action and lead ground-up initiatives that would benefit the community” (quoting from Lynette Lee, SHINE Youth Festival Steering Committee member).

Held at Ngee Ann City’s Civic Plaza yesterday, the SHINE festival boasted a series of youth-led social movements such as the ever popular Cosmo Youth Parade, Community Service Marathon’s “Walk for a Cause” featuring an 800 m long cloth dragon, Urban Sports Challenge and the Dell-Intel Youth Concert.


Gardens by the Bay Blossoms

June 28, 2012 Blog no comments

Gardens by the Bay Launch

A pristinely curated garden sprawled over 101 hectares in area, Gardens by the Bay is 36% larger than the Singapore Botanic Gardens and populated by more than 750,000 plants in total. Opened last night by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the project costed more than $1 billion and boasts of 7 key attractions including the Dragonfly and Kingfisher Lakes, World of Plants, Heritage Gardens and the Bay East Garden.

Gardens by the Bay Launch


The Science of Great Teams

June 26, 2012 Blog no comments


Courtesy of Blaze Institute

Why do some teams produce outstanding results while others lag behind given similar resources?

The secret, according to “The New Science of Building Great Teams” in Harvard Business Review, is that successful teams have higher energy, are more engaged, and spend more time exploring outside the group. These patterns of communication and interaction are strongly correlated with performance metrics such as the average handling time in a bank’s call centre.


Hacking Work: A Smart Solution to Stupid Processes

June 24, 2012 Business and Management 1 comment

hacking-work-book-review

Courtesy of Technotraps

Beleaguered employees can now leverage on a “cheat code” to streamline work and increase their productivity – without getting into trouble.

With the subtitle “Breaking Stupid Rules For Smart Results”, Hacking Work by Bill Jensen and Josh Klein encourages workers of all stripes to utilise “benevolent” hacking to get their jobs done more effectively and efficiently.


Project Intan – Helping Ill Kids through Culture

June 23, 2012 Blog no comments

Project Intan is an initiative by The Intan (a boutique Peranakan home museum) which won the Museum Roundtable awards in 2011) with the goal of helping raise funds for charitable causes. Brainchild of Alvin Mark Yapp, owner of The Intan, Project Intan seeks to help worthwhile charities through direct donations and pledges.

This year, The Intan is working with the ARC Children’s Centre to help create a flu-free environment and increase its educational and development programmes for the kids. Started in 2011, Arc is a daycare charity for young patients with serious illnesses such as cancer. These kids receive intensive medical treatment and are unable to return to school or socialize in a normal setting as they are still
prone to infection.