Every day at 3 p.m. there will be a So You Think You Can Dance competition. And at 5 p.m. is a Fastest Feet Competition, to see who can generate the most energy by moving their feet. On Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. local b-girls and b-boys will spark one-on-one break-dance battles on the energy-generating floor. Throughout the Games, Club Energy will be measuring which country is able to generate the most power by dancing in the BC Power Smart Dance Challenge.

The Toyota TVC below features an animated showcase of the technology.

Your World Today reported on SDC’s invention in early 2008. The world’s first sustainable dance floor was installed at Club ‘WATT’ in Rotterdam – Holland. Through successful collaboration with the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, WATT sports the world’s first ‘Piezo-electricity’ dance floor. The dance floor harvests energy from the vibrations created by dancing clubbers and uses it to power the club’s own LED lighting.

The dance floor is not the only sustainable aspect of Club WATT. Dutch architect Henk Döll is the visionary behind the club’s design, and has creatively integrated the latest innovations in sustainability to reduce the use of energy and water and decrease waste production. He is a founding partner of project SDC (Sustainable Dance Club) along with ENVIU. The project aims to ‘green dance clubs worldwide’.

The blogosphere is taking note of this video by Samsung which was released to… (well, if you know the object of the video then your attention to the commercialism will spoil the entertainment value of the video and slow its viral reach).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URLRdcnU6Hk

The video does well in keeping our attention for the full 2 minutes, unlike the London Olympics Logo Video which closes at 4 minutes and is a highly criticized brand campaign (click here for the London Olympics blog post).

This approach has worked well for Samsung in the past. A previous viral video created for Samsung by the London agency ‘The Viral Factory‘ received close to 3 million views online. Mobile Business Magazine noted:

‘Its Flicky’ used a user generated process and ethos to create a piece of viral marketing communication that literally is User Genertaed Content (UGC), rather than simply trying to mimic the look or fool the audience. It features a young lad who uses his X830 phone to flick along (rather than sing along) to the words of RunDMC’s famous track, It’s Tricky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYOJXUeKfHs

The Viral Factory also produced the ‘Millimeters Matter‘ video for Samsung.

That was the tag line of a number of video ads created by Miami ad agency ‘La Comunidad’ for online music channel CYLOOP. The ‘Bling’ spot was among the TBS ‘Funniest Commercials of the Year’ for 2007.

These two CYLOOP death clips poke fun at Hip Hop fashion and lifestyle, and their deadly consequences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GULpo3pliQ8

Do you think these ads would have been accepted by Canadian consumers? Click on the images to see the full ad.

“This is Elliot. He still lives with his mother. This is …The only thing that stops Elliot from putting a bullet through his middle-aged balding head is coming to work everyday where he can be more productive in his ergonomically designed office chair and feel like a real player.”

Two more are below.

Seen on AdBlogArabia and Vincent Raffray.

The Parisien artist handcrafts his shoes under the label Ndeur. The line ranges from soaring pumps to old-school high-tops and are fashioned using a canvas of vintage leather footwear, on which he doodles street-art-inspired scenes with oil-based paints.

The effect is fresh – a stylistic palate cleanser after the bland taste of your same-old, overpriced, black pumps.

And it seems we’re not alone in this opinion. In the short time since his introduction into streetwear boutique The Rage (13 Kensignton Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada) Missaien has been raved about in several publications and included in Vans Shoe show in Toronto.

To add to the mystique of owning your own wearable piece of shoe-art, all of Missiaen’s works are one-of-a-kind. On The Rage’s Etsy site, you enter your feet measurements and style requests for hand-tailored effect. They’re also reasonably priced – from $120 – $180 – so the savvy shoe-ophiles among us will have no trouble chalking this one up to a necessary cultural investment.

(By L.Harper via thecoolhunter.net)

For those who haven’t seen this viral yet, here is his first audition, where the odds were stacked against him: Overweight, no confidence, and tough choice of talent to showcase (Opera?). But, watch the video and see what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

You can visit Paul Potts website at www.paulpottsuk.com.

This particular video and its viral reach made for half the marketing that Paul needed when Simon eventualy signed him up for an album deal.

• Fashions and fashion design are trademarks of Italy. Therefore, in the business world, good clothes are a signature of success.

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• Men should wear fashionable, high quality suits.

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• Shirts may be colored or pin-striped, and they should be paired with an Italian designer tie.

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• Women dress in quiet, expensive elegance.

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• Slacks are generally not worn by either sex.

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• Quality accessories such as shoes and leather goods will make a good impression with the Italians.

More information about business etiquette in Italy, and appropriate wear for business around the world, can be found at Cyborlink.com.

Fear not, entrepreneurs, Richard Starrett and Neil Macka, have come to the rescue with their Hot Iron vending machine. With 500 units already placed in clubs/gyms throughout the U.K , the Beautiful Vending company provide coin operated hair straightening hot irons, for the quick and convenient use of club patrons who’s hair has suddenly gone ‘poof’.

Using professional grad GHD tongs, the irons run for 2 minutes per use and cost $2.00. The idea is perfect for countries where the weather can be unpredictable and affect recently straightened hair.

(By Lisa Evans on TheCoolHunter.net) 

Do you think this product will fly in Canada?

If you type “Halifax Fashion Wear” in Google today, you will see IssmatBlog as the fourth hit down. However, two of the preceeding websites relate to the town of Halifax in England, and the first hit is a directory search website. IssmatBlog tops all fashion store websites and fashion wear articles in Halifax. The Duggers website comes in two spots after IssmatBlog.

Ok, I will confess that the blog could carry more Fashion articles related to Halifax directly. Unfortunately, IssmatBlog is topping Google only due to low competition and not so much the number of visitors or articles that it carries. This speaks volumes to the online-marketing state of the fashion-wear industry in Halifax. “Halifax Fashion Wear” is a key search term for anyone involved in the fashion business in Halifax, retail or other.

Sorry, Duggers! I like your clothes, but you should get your agency to do a little more Search Engine Optimization (SEO)!

1. From Dutch By Design: the Invisible Self-Shelf by designer Nicole Van Schouwenburg.

“The Selfshelf is a shelf with the appearance of a book. Invisibly attached to the wall with the included bracket, it can support a maximum weight of 4 kg. The effect is amazing, your stack of books seems to be mysteriously floating in the air. On the front of the cover features the text ‘Ceci nest pas un livre’ (translation ‘this is not a book’).”

Click on pictures to enlarge.

2. From GNR8 (Generate): the Table Top Fireplace by designer Carl Mertens.

“A beautiful miniature fireplace, this oil burning lamp is both contemporary (stainless steel logs) and natural (slate base). Besides creating a beautiful focal point for your table, this lamp radiates warmth as well as light. “

Seen on Trend Hunter.