Farewell Being Unchained

Farewell Being Unchained.

Hello Feeling the Fear and Dictionary of Specific Generalities.

We've been running this blog for about a year. And now that Unchained is up and running with a life force all of its own we've decided to wind it down.

If you're still interested in news about Unchained Dave and I will share all the ups, downs, ins and outs on our own blogs Feeling the Fear and Dictionary of Specific Generalities.

Thank you all for following and subscribing, it's been a great year.

I've seen the future baby

Yesterday was conference and lecture central.

The great Greengaged came to a close yesterday afternoon and from there we wasted no time at all in skedaddling from the Design Council to the RSA where we spent the evening listening to a lecture about the future, given by Richard Watson, author of Future Files The 5 trends that will shape the next 50 years.

I'm not a big futurology fan. It's only fair that I say that up front. There is something incredibly passive about the predictions of futurists which I find unsettling. They don't use their findings to tell us about what our objectives should be for a nicer world and what routes we should take to achieve them. This bugs me. It also bugs me that the only use trendspotting has is for businesses that want to profit from identified patterns. To my mind, it could be argued the whole premise of futurology is flawed because it is based on an economic and political paradigm that is (as we live and breathe) deeming itself redundant.

Now, having said all that, it's always great to hear ideas and theories - and I'm a big fan of some decent diagram action. I also absolutely adore the way future-folk contract two words into one. I remember with fondness such phrases as glocal and and the like. All good brain fodder.

Moving on, let's talk about last night. There was a lot to take in - but don't worry, I'm not going to share it all here. Instead, I thought I'd share some soundbites. And here they are:

• People are increasingly experiencing time and sleep starvation. The future will cater for this with hotels/hospitals that allow guests/patients to sleep and recover from their strenuous lives.
• Japan is the home of robots. They already have robots looking after the elderly, because there are too few young people to do the job.
• Retirement will retire. According to Richard's extinction timeline retirement will be extinct by around 2018. As you can see in the pic above, blogging will be extinct by about 2022, so I'd best write my face off while I can eh?
• The future will see flexible working patterns within a 14 hour work window
• Women have introduced empathy into the workplace
• Business development patterns have changed from: create>research>send to market to: create>send to market> hone or kill
• If you make something of high quality people will buy it
• Forecasters forecast a greater appetite for forecasting
• There is a natural human desire for connectedness
• The future is more honest, because when you lie it's no secret
• Communities are redefined and are no longer about geography but about interest
• Voluntourism is going to get huge. As the name suggests, this is where people go on holiday by volunteering for a worthwhile cause or trying something new.
• Travel will increasingly polarize - economy class will get shoddier and business class will get awesome(r).
• GenY is not the audience with the most opportunity, the aged are. GenY= no time or money whereas retired folk have lots of time and money.
• China challenges democracy as contingent for capitalism
• Religion will flourish because it offers certainty

What do you think? Is it a case of "No shit Sherlock"? Or "Wish I'd thought of that"?

I've love to know your thoughts, so please share.

Greengaged at The Design Council

Picture stolen from Dan Lockton - thanks Dan.


On Tuesday I was delighted to be invited to speak at The Design Council as part of Greengaged. Joining me in our session were More Associates' Luke Nicholson, IDEO London’s Andrea Koerselman and Fiona Bennie from Forum for the Future

Greengaged is the sustainability hub of the London Design Festival, organised by fellow London United members Sophie Thomas and Juhi Shareef.

We were invited to talk about Behaviour Change and thought it would be nice to share the contents of my presentation with you all.

The title of my presentation was "Behaviour change is easy and I can prove it". My evidence was a film clip that my friend Sam posted to Facebook a couple of weeks ago. It's really fun, but makes a great point.



I wanted to share the three principles of behaviour change that we use every day with Unchained:

Behaviour change requires behaviour - social proof is the easiest and fastest way to get ideas and behaviour to spread. The behaviour of the people around us is far more convincing than advertising will ever be. Do you think the dude in the video would have changed his position if there was a poster inviting him to do so? Yeah, me neither.

Behaviour and motivation are two different things and one of them is easier to change - if you understand, respect and work with other people's motivations it'll be easier to change their behaviours. Getting people to do as you want is much easier than getting them to think what you want. Even if you're right.

Desire is all very good and well, but it's not enough - how many people do you know that want to be famous? Or thin? Are they? Well, same goes for other kinds of behaviour change. If you want the change you have to make it easy for them.

If you'd like to know more about the speech or the lovely people that spoke in the session with me then get in touch.

Mini-guide to Northcote Rd

Our third mini-guide has gone live on Londonist and this time we went to Battersea's Northcote Rd.

I spent an entire day there last week, talking to shopkeepers and meeting the characters of the neighbourhood.

I had a great time and as always, met some very interesting people.

Sadly though, everywhere I went I kept overhearing conversations about shops closing down. Apparently the charms of Northcote Rd have made it a victim of its own success, attracting big money from chains, which in turn make the landlords put the rent up. It's a story we've heard many times before at Unchained.

Hopefully our mini-guide will encourage more people to enjoy the road and the amazing selection of Unchained beauties it has to offer.

Happy shopping people.

La Cave à Fromage

The before and after of my delicious cheese selection last night.

Last night Unchained enjoyed a delicious cheese tasting with a bunch of Qypers at La Cave à Fromage in South Ken. The shop has a really interesting approach to selling cheese - no counters or cashpoints, it's all clean, modern, personal and very chic. With literally thousands of cheese to choose from, the owner was delighted to inform us that we could try a different cheese every night for the next 75 years without running out of options.

We likey.

You can find out more about La Cave on Qype and of course on Unchained too.

Big, big thanks to Qype and La Cave à Fromage for a brilliant night.

Qype's first birthday

Our team, The Sake Six, anti-clockwise from Dave's foot we have AnnieMole, LJRich, James, Me and Pedro.

We were very pleased to be sharing the fun at Qype's first birthday bash at Offside last week Thursday.

Qype celebrated with a pub quiz. As you can see, I brought the teeth.

Big thanks to the guys at Qype for yet another smiffy evening.

And a big thanks to AnnieMole who organised our team and got us all fired up. Though we didn't win, we did name the last British Prime Minister without a wife. And (my personal favourite) which underground station is an apostle's erection.

(That's Margaret Thatcher and St John's Wood in case you're wondering.)

Happy Birthday Qype, may the force be with you.

Cupcake action - we love Chris

In amongst all the craziness of last week came the sweetest, most awesome(est) email ever.

The subject line was: Free cupcakes. My flat. Friday morning.

Ahhh. Yes please!

The lovely cupcake people at Faircake sent Chris a whole bunch of their delish samples for him to err, sample. And we were invited to feel the love. Boy did we.

You can read Chris' write-up here. Or visit faircake.co.uk to do some sampling of your own - I had the lemon cupcake with a big blob of curd in the centre. Needless to say it comes highly recommended.

Hurdle, Challenge or Dead-end?

I've had a bit of a crazy week. Unreasonable deadlines, too much work (all created and delegated by me I might add).

Anyhoo. I arrived early at work yesterday, eager to crack on and get stuff done.

I wasn't in for long when Cyndi arrived and (I don't think she'd mind me saying) she looked like sh*t.

For those of you who don't know, Unchained works with Cyndi who runs Worn Again, Anti-Apathy and The Nag (yes, all three). To say she's busy or productive would be the understatement of the century.

Cyndi looked like sh*t because she'd been burning her lifetime supply of midnight oil. Her incredible label Word Again must be seen. Cyndi upcycles stuff that would usually be thrown away into beautiful arm candy, shoes and other stuff. It's a pretty awesome story. Cyndi had this idea five years ago. She stuck with it, worked like a demon and now has a great business. And she just landed the deal of a lifetime.

Yesterday morning, she'd worked through the night to fix someone else's mistake. Arrived first thing in the morning to continue fixing it. She totally inspired me. Many other weaker, mere mortals would have surrendered, given up, or passed the buck. But Cyndi has cojonas, big time. And that's what makes her an amazing businesswoman.

I should also add that this wasn't the only obstacle Cyndi faced this week. This week was full of things that could have felt thankless, exhausting or like personal insult. The way Cyndi chose to see it, there were a couple of glitches in an awesome plan and she wants everything to be absolutely perfect - and that's means never taking the easy, lazy or defeated route.

And watching her work, work, work it was obvious that it was one of many times she had to truly work to turn her dead-end into a little hiccup.

She makes it look easy. But easy it ain't. Here's to you Cyndi - an example to entrepreneurs everywhere.

The orange envelopes have left the building

Forty special orange envelopes left Unchained HQ today.

And they're headed for forty very special shops.

So if you know a totally smiffy, highly impressive shop tell them to be on the lookout -they might be one of them.

If they get one, they're very lucky indeed.

More news on the dazzling power of the orange envelope soon.
Watch this space.

Guardian Commercial Partnership - signed and sealed

Last week was an exciting one for Unchained. We've been chatting to the lovely people at the Guardian newspaper for a few weeks now and we're pleased to say that last week we signed a contract to become one of their Commercial Partners.

Wahay!

The Guardian Commercial Partners Network is a service that joins up the publishers of independent websites with the readers and advertisers of Guardian Unlimited.

The new version of the Unchained site will have ad space on some of the pages. The way this ad space is sold is hugely important to us. We don't want a Starbucks ad on our site (and in all honesty, we doubt they want to be there). So as part of the partnership, the Guardian sales team take care of ad sales for us. Together, we can make sure that only the right people and brands find their way onto our site.

There are other great collaborative things too, like being included on their website (with over 22 million impressions a month that means a lot of exposure for our lovely shops) and other bits and bobs that are really exciting, which we'll share with you as they happen. So watch this space.

Naturally, we wouldn't climb into bed with just any old newspaper. The Guardian's dedication to sustainability and ethical living make them the perfect fit for us and our users.

A big thanks to Carrina and Guy for helping make it all happen and for being pretty good company in the Guardian canteen to boot.

Hugel live twitter wine tasting London

Last night I was delighted to be part of a Live Twitter Wine Tasting.

Here's the scoop. A group of people gathered round to taste amazing Hugel & Fils white wines from the Alsace region. As we ate and drank we tweeted our taste sensations, sharing them with an American group who were doing the same thing - albeit later, because of the time difference.

When the fabulous Annie Mole first told me about the evening I was utterly intrigued. Not just because it involved two of my favourite things in the universe (i.e. food and wine), but because it was a social evening not just arranged through social media (inviting friends to an event on Facebook is so last year) but this was actually arranged around social media, where social media was going to play an active part in the real life activity.

It did feel as if there was a paralell event taking place around the table. @anniemole poked fun at @jamescridland and his love/hate relationship with his "steaming pile of fail" iPhone... We read a tweet from our wonderful host Robert McIntosh about what course was next. That kind of thing.


Interestingly, the innate social-media-ness of it all compeltely re-wrote the rule-book on etiquette. Anyone peering in on the scene would be forgiven for confusing us with a bunch of socially inept barbarians. Our phones were out and very well used, laptops were on, wine was criticised (though mostly praised) and pictures were taken non-stop - now I know how Britney feels.

Anyway, enough of the sociology, here is last night's menu, with my accompanying tweets. The hungry and thirsty should look away now:

1. Hugel Tradition Gentil (aka Les Fleurs d'Alsace) 2006
Match: Scallops pan fried with white wine, ginger, garlic and chilli

I said: dry, full, smooooooth and dry, but I can certainly drink it.

2. Hugel Tradition Pinot Blanc 2006
Match: Red Onion or Asparagus Tarts with baby leaf salad

I said: Hmmm. I've never liked white wine. And I still don't. Ahem. I have always loved asparagus tart though. Yum, yum.

3. Hugel Tradition Gewürztraminer 2006
Match: Fois Gras Mi Cuit with toast and fig chutney

I said: enjoyed with a hefty slice of fois gras. Smelled of marshmallow. Made the flavours ignite like fireworks - New Year's Eve in my mouth.

4. Hugel Riesling Jubilee 2004
Match: Pork Medallions with Mustard Mash, Apples and Cider Reduction

I said: I drank it, yet it felt like the inside of my mouth never moistened from it. Icky.

5. Hugel Gewürztraminer Vendage Tardive 2001
Match: Coconut Maccaroons

I said: looks and smelled like honey.

But I highly, highly recommend you completely ignore my incompetent appraisals and read the expert's blog instead.

Lovely to share a meal with such interesting bods:

Annie Mole, Sandrine, Jeremy, Kai, Niamh, James. Big thanks to Andrew & Robert for a brilliant evening.

Here are Kai's thumbnails from his Flickr stream of the night:

Unchained goes west

This month's Unchained Mini-Guide is for the beautiful Devonshire Road in Chiswick. And it's just gone live on Londonist.

We needed to do some proper research for the article, so we went along to Chiswick on Sunday to check it all out and talk to the shopkeepers. It's such a beautiful and friendly little street with a great variety of top notch shops. But there's no point in me talking about it any more here when you can just go to Londonist and read the post.

If you've got any suggestions for next month's mini-guide, drop us a line. We've done east and west now - so north, south or central would be good.

Everything(ish) you've every wanted to know about... Dave

Unchained has existed for over a year now. Of course, a year ago it wasn't an actual thing yet. Back in those days it was just an idea between three people eager to make it happen.

A lot has happened between then and now. And today we reached one of my most favouritest milestones ever. For the first time I wasn't the only one of those three people putting in a solid, formal day of work at Unchained. That's right sweet, sentimental reader, Dave was sitting right across from me - deeming the many phone calls and emails we share on a regular day redundant.

For those of you wondering how Dave feels on his first day at his new job, here's a little interview with him at our headquarters here in Rich Mix:

Does this feel like a new job?

Not at all. A year of doing Unchained in evenings, weekends and holidays has seen to that. It feels like an exciting release though. I'm just so happy to be able to put in proper working hours and concentrate on meatier tasks. It's always interesting starting in a new office, though, and trying to fit in with the other people who's space you're invading.

This morning was your first Monday morning meeting with the rest of the Unchained team. Do you have any requests for next time? Some pastries perhaps?

Absolutely. We need to find some independent delis or bakers in the area. I just wish there was some site that could make it easier for us to find them.

Can people expect to see a difference in Unchained now that you're here?

There definitely will be a big difference. But not really because of my presence. It's just that there are so many exciting things happening like a web refresh, big PR campaign, launches in other cities and - oh, hold on, am I allowed to talk about any of this? Sorry. It's just the excitement of my first day at work.

Do you have any questions for Dave? Send them over.

Welcome Dave

Today is almost as exciting as Monday is going to be.

You see today is Dave's last day at Poke. And that means that Monday, is his first official day working with Unchained.

Dave has been fitting his contributions to Unchained around his full time job as Creative Director, but in a few hours that's all going to change. You can read all about it in his farewell post.

Welcome Dave, it's about time.

Happy days!

Unchained down under? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

We were never too sure about Oz.

As a destination, it's awesome (obviously) but we didn't think it was right for Unchained. We just thought that perhaps mall culture would deem Unchained redundant before it even began.

Recent news about Starbucks however has led me to think otherwise.

If you know Australia well I'd love to know what you think. Unchained Sydney? Is it a goer?

Our first mini-guide goes live

Ahh, yes. Today our first Unchained mini-guide on Londonist hit the interweb. And people everywhere were talking about it. Well, a few people anyway.

We love Londonist.

Read our little piece here.

Remembering Dave Gorman

Reading this headline in the Guardian today reminded me of Dave Gorman's America Unchained.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend a viewing, it's a really powerful (and funny) piece of work - bravo him. Anyway, the basic thrust of it is that Dave tries to travel from one American coast to the other without going into a chain. That means no Holiday Inn, no Burger King and no big brand fuel. Needless to say, he struggles like hell to only refuel on Unchained stuff - often finding himself running on fumes.

Todays news makes me think that Unchained fuel is going to become increasingly difficult to find in the UK too as the Guardian reported that "three of Britain's biggest chains announced they would cut fuel prices, with Asda saying it would shave 3p a litre off the cost of unleaded and diesel and Morrisons cutting 4p".

My first instinct when I saw this headline - and it is just instinct, not the truth necessarily - is that the supermarkets will treat the fuel as a loss leader and end up making a fortune out of pre-packed sandwiches.

I have a few theories about loss leaders:

1. They shouldn't be legal
2. Until they're illegal I'd like to have a swarm of people who go in, buy the loss leaders only and then leave.

What do you think? When you fill up do you think about where your fuel is coming from? Or is price your main concern? Love to hear your thoughts.

Shout out for Paul

With the weekend upon us and a great week behind us, we'd like to end by asking you (for the love of great chocolate) to vote for Paul A Young in the UKTV Food Heroes competition.

Anyone who's ever done the salty caramels in his boutique chocolate shop know he deserves every accolade in the world. Yum yum.

Go vote.

Celebrating the credit crunch

For those of you who think the title of this post is a typo, you're wrong.

I really do think that it's possible to celebrate the credit crunch.

Call me crazy, but I reckon that when bad stuff happens, opportunities are created.

Environmental problems are a great example of this. The bad news is tempered by a world of opportunities for those who are creative and ballsy enough to innovate and make the most of a changing world. Think of the dude who invents a new engine powered by good, clean fuel.

Surely it's all about thinking laterally and having a good attitude.

So today I'd like to celebrate two things that have shone and sparled in amongst the news of doom and gloom. These two things have really made the most of the poor economy:

1. Electric scooters. According to The Huffington Post, these beauties are having a glorious time because of rising oil costs.

2. Luxury foodstuffs (I love the word foodstuffs, it just sounds so made up). Apparently people are indulging themselves when it comes to buying provisions for their own homes because going out's way too expensive.

And I'm looking for more. Please share the things you come across that have innovated and inspired in the wake of seemingly bad news.

Londonist.com is my homepage

We are seriously excited to be working with the lovely people at Londonist.com.

Today an Unchained interview went live. And starting next month, we'll be creating content just for Londonist. Our regular contribution will introduce readers to shops, shopowners, Unchained areas and other delicious bits and bobs - so watch this space for updates.

Also, it has to be said, Londonist is a great resource for everyone in this city - even on days when we're not in it.

So big love to them and a big hello to their readers. You can read the full story here.