Office for the iPad, finally

Microsoft has announced Microsoft Office for iPad, targeting the more than 170 million iPads shipped to date. 

Nadella discusses the intersection of cloud and mobile in the US.

“Microsoft is focused on delivering the cloud for everyone, on every device. It’s a unique approach that centres on people — enabling the devices you love, work with the services you love, and in a way that works for IT and developers,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft.
 

Office 365 subscribers can now add an iPad as one of their chosen devices included in their subscription benefits, and begin creating and editing documents with Word for iPad, PowerPoint for iPad and Excel for iPad in 29 languages. Office for iPad apps retain the Office look and feel but are built from the ground up for the iPad.

Office for iPad brings full file fidelity across Office on PC, Mac, tablet and phone, and along with cloud storage from OneDrive or OneDrive for Business so files are up to date, wherever needed, on whatever device as required. The apps are available as free downloads from the App Store and will work with iOS 7 or later, but only for reading, viewing and presenting documents, spreadsheets and presentations. To get the full editing and creation experience, an Office 365 subscription is required. More detail the announcements can be found in the Office blog.

In addition to Office for iPad, Microsoft also offers other iPad-optimised productivity applications, including OneNote, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics AX, Bing, Lync, Outlook Web Access, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Yammer and Skype.

Industry observers have noted that the push for iPad share may be a little late as iPad users have had ample time to make use of productivity software from other companies, including Apple itself. The familiarity of Office may still be a draw, however. The number of downloads for Office for iPad will be a good indication of interest.

*Images from Microsoft. 

Criteo offers three tips for sales conversions

Criteo, a digital performance display advertising player has some tips gleaned from working with travel industry partners that could help companies to turn contacts into paying customers. The tips are applicable to all industries: 

Tip #1: Acquire new users at the right time of the year
 
Travel apps are downloaded more in the summer (roughly June to September), so there’s a window of opportunity, before peak season, to reach a higher percentage of active users*.

Promote your download in sync with your customers’ planning and purchasing cycle to get the best return on new acquisitions, Criteo advises.  

Tip #2: Don’t just promote downloads: change the message based on user activity

Companies should offer alternative messages to reach different types of existing users. Companies can promote their product or service to active users or re-engage lapsed users, all during seasonal window of opportunity, Criteo suggests.

Tip #3: Reactivate your most valuable users while they are most receptive
 
Analytics can help to re-engage customers, says Criteo. By tracking registrations, sales, and sales value, companies can calculate average revenue per daily active user, their lifetime value, and ROI, then target them with relevant ads. 

*Active users = users who have opened the app at least 3 times

The Wanda Reign Wuhan is officially open

Wanda Hotels & Resorts has officially launched the Wanda Reign Wuhan as of 29 March. Wanda Reign is Wanda Hotels & Resorts' premier luxury hotel brand, and offers a host of private services for its guests.

Source: Wanda Reign website

The "Imperial Welcome" programme offers the use of a Bentley for example, while the "Reign Butler" combines Chinese hospitality with British butler traditions to provide bespoke personal assistant services throughout a guest's stay, including support for schedule management, nutritional advice, and shopping guidance. 

Located in Wuhan's East Lake Scenic Area near shopping and tourist landmarks, the Wanda Reign Wuhan is 30 minutes away by car from Wuhan Tianhe airport and 15 minutes from the Wuhan high-speed railway station.
The Wanda Reign Wuhan features marble and crystal interiors and has 413 rooms and suites. An embossed mural, the focal point in the hotel lobby, draws inspiration from the scenery of Wuhan East Lake, China's biggest urban lake. The 10m high and 60m long wall space is sculpted with white marble, Chinese jade and finished with gold threading. 

The "Bed of Reign" is handcrafted using pure New Zealand wool and US Talalay* latex by experts, while the "Dream Catcher" series is all about comfort. All the rooms and suites feature interactive TV, electronic cats' eyes, smart lighting systems, and automatic toilets. The hotel's presidential suite is embellished with embroidery with gold foil on silk, artistic cloisonne ornaments, and copper artwork. 

The book of Liki* (禮記), a Chinese classic, can be found in every guest room. The book records the oriental charters and regulations as well as rites and morality of ancient Confucian culture. The Wanda Reign is also the first hotel to use Hermes toiletries, which adds further prestige to the whole experience. 

The Wanda Reign Wuhan houses three restaurants featuring different cuisines. An international buffet and a la carte menu is offered at Cafe Reign; Huaiyang cuisine combined with the essence of Cantonese and local dishes is served at the River Drunk Huaiyang Restaurant; and contemporary fusion Japanese and French cuisine is available at He Restaurant. 

The 1,500 sq m pillar-less grand ballroom and seven function rooms are equipped with simultaneous interpretation systems, video conference systems and digital video conference systems. On the top floor of the hotel, Club Reign provides  members with a gathering place to relax. 

Wanda Hotels & Resorts is expanding aggressively. On its calendar are grand openings for the Wanda Realm Guangzhou in May, Wanda Realm Chifeng (Inner Mongolia) in June, Wanda Realm Jinghua and Wanda Realm Jining in July, Wanda Realm Changzhou in August, and the Wanda Vista Lanzhou in October.

"To be a leading global luxury hotel management group in China is our vision. Till the end of 2013, Wanda Hotels & Resorts has built and managed 54 five-star hotels, and expects to expand this number to 100 hotels by 2015. New Wanda Reign hotels will soon open in Shanghai, Chengdu and other international cities. 

"We believe that the three different hotel brands of Wanda Hotels & Resorts will satisfy the needs of different guests and all of them will enjoy consistent hospitality from our heart. As the premier luxury brand hotel in China, the Wanda Reign Wuhan will elevate the hospitality of Wuhan to a higher level," Ilja Poepper, Vice President Sales & Marketing of Wanda Hotels & Resorts said.

*Liki or Liji, also called the Book of Rites, is one of five Chinese classic texts that was used for Confucian education. Confucius lived from 551 to 479 BC.

*Talalay is a manufacturing process for the latex used in mattresses that is said to create a relatively more consistent and supple latex that continues to be bounce back to its original shape after years of use.

Emirates' amazing video of football mega stars makes marketing gold

Emirates, the airline, has created a global campaign leveraging football on the back of the World Cup in Brazil this June. "Watch the moment when two football legends meet in the Emirates A380 Onboard Lounge," invites an eDM sent to its customers.

The campaign features a video of football stars Pelé and Cristiano Ronaldo, Emirates' new Global Ambassadors within an Emirates A380 plane, and asks email recipients to share and comment on social media with the #AllTimeGreats hashtag.

Businesses thinking of working with celebrities could borrow from the Emirates campaign. The campaign recipe is one which is likely to go viral. Emirates has managed to have two mega sports celebrities on its turf, playing out a story that weaves past and present realities, potential and luxury, opportunities found and lost, all at the same time. It'll be interesting to see what the #AllTimeGreats discussion is like.

Yokohama Convention & Visitors Bureau welcomes Muslim travellers

Source: Yokohama Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Yokohama Convention & Visitors Bureau (YCVB) has announced that its new Muslim Tourist Information microsite within the English version of the official Yokohama Visitors' Guide website is getting noticed by Muslims in Southeast Asia. 

The Muslim Tourist Information website was set up in December 2013 to introduce places such as tourist facilities, restaurants, halal shops and mosques based on recommendations by Muslims living in Yokohama. In a questionnaire concerning this website conducted on Muslims in Southeast Asia, more than 90% said they find the information on restaurants, mosques, and suggested itineraries to be useful. 

YCVB has focused on attracting tourists from Southeast Asia from 2013, setting up booths at tourism fairs in countries like Thailand and Malaysia as well as receiving media organisation representatives from Southeast Asian countries to show them around Yokohama. 

As part of its efforts to welcoming Muslim tourists, YCVB has been working on ways to help Muslims feel more comfortable during their stay in Yokohama, including organising training for tourism-related businesses on how to receive Muslim travellers and distributing brochures for Muslim travellers at tourist information centres.

Yokohama is Japan's second biggest city after Tokyo, located near the capital with a population of 3.7 million. The city has  an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as it works to increase its tourism infrastructure for visitors.

United expands trans-Pacific routes with Taipei, Tokyo connections with in-seat power

United Airlines is expanding its trans-Pacific network with the connection of its San Francisco hub with Taipei, Taiwan, beginning March 29, and launching a second daily flight between Houston and Tokyo on March 30. Services to China and Australia are in the pipeline.
  

"With the most extensive route network, the broadest alliances and hubs in the largest US cities, United offers travelers more choices to more of the world than any other US airline," said Jim Compton, United's Vice Chairman and Chief Revenue Officer. 

"The new Taipei and Tokyo services strengthen our commitment to the Pacific, where United is already the leading US carrier, and to the San Francisco and Houston hubs."

With the addition of Taipei, the airline will offer nonstop flights between San Francisco and eight cities in the Asia-Pacific region. United will operate the Taipei and Tokyo services with Boeing 777-200 aircraft. The aircraft flying San Francisco-Taipei will offer 269 seats – eight in United Global First, 40 in United BusinessFirst and 221 in United Economy, including 113 extra-legroom United Economy Plus seats. The aircraft flying Houston-Tokyo will offer 267 seats – 50 in United BusinessFirst and 217 in United Economy, including 72 United Economy Plus seats. 
 
United is the only US airline to offer flat-bed seats in its premium cabins on every long-haul, international flight from the continental United States. The airline also offers more extra-legroom economy seating than any US airline. The United Global First and United BusinessFirst classes offer seats that recline into fully flat beds, personal on-demand entertainment, in-seat power and USB ports. Customers in United Economy also enjoy in-seat power and personal, on-demand entertainment at every seat.

These Taipei and Tokyo additions come as United plans to introduce three-times-weekly Boeing 787 service June 9 between San Francisco and Chengdu, China, pending government approval. This nonstop service would be the first by a US airline from the United States to mainland China, beyond Beijing and Shanghai. 

The company also plans to offer, subject to government approval, nonstop Boeing 787 service between Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, six times weekly beginning October 26.

San Francisco-Taipei Service

Flight 871 will depart San Francisco daily at 1.50 pm and arrive in Taipei at 6.30 pm the next day. Flight 872 will depart Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport daily at 11.10 am and arrive at San Francisco International Airport at 7.30 am the same day (all local times).

United is the largest carrier at San Francisco International Airport, offering nearly 300 daily flights to more than 90 destinations worldwide, more than any other airline from the Bay Area. From its San Francisco hub, United also offers more nonstop trans-Pacific service to and from the United States than any other airline, with nonstop flights to Taipei, Beijing, Hong Kong, Osaka, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Sydney. 
 

Houston-Tokyo Service

Beginning Sunday, March 30, Flight 1 will depart Bush Intercontinental at 9 am and arrive at Tokyo's Narita International Airport at 12.35 pm the next day. The return flight 2 will depart Tokyo at 6.55 pm and arrive in Houston at 4.55 pm the same day (all local times).

The second Tokyo flight complements United's existing daily Houston-Tokyo service, which began in 1999. The Tokyo flights offer convenient round-trip connections at Narita to the airline's flights to Guam, Seoul and Singapore, as well as to flights operated by United's joint-venture partner ANA to 19 destinations in Asia, including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Taipei.

This additional flight to Japan's capital is timed to provide travellers with a new option for travellers shuttling between Japan and Central and South America. From Houston, United and United Express offer nearly 560 daily flights to 176 destinations around the world, including top business and leisure travel markets in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

SilverNeedle Hospitality introduces Healthy MICE Programme

SilverNeedle Hospitality is launching a health-focused MICE programme, ‘Healthy Minds, Healthy Thinking’, to meet the growing demand from conference organisers for healthier catering and team-building activities.

Watermelon salad

In a survey* of 85 industry event organisers, almost all, 93%, that said having healthier options on menus was an important consideration when it came to booking venues for their corporate functions and conferences.  

 

“‘Our Healthy Minds, Healthy Thinking’ programme originated from a real need in the MICE arena,” said Iqbal Jumabhoy, Managing Director and Group CEO of SilverNeedle Hospitality. “With our innovative take on healthy menus and activities, our programme will ensure delegates reap the full benefits of attending the events at our hotels.”

 

The ‘Healthy Minds, Healthy Thinking’ programme focuses on three key areas:  healthy eating, healthy thinking and healthy exercise. As SilverNeedle Hospitality’s research indicates 90% of respondents get restless and lose focus during meetings, the super-charged programme will come with a handy guide packed with tips and tricks on how organisers can mix things up to help delegates stay focused.

 

Healthy bites

With nutrition strongly linked to concentration, superfood-infused menus with a focus on a brain-healthy diet have been formulated. These menus feature the popular ‘wonder-foods’  such as avocados, blueberries and kale and utilise  healthier cooking techniques such as barbequing, grilling and poaching with less trans-fats, less salt and more cold-pressed oils. 

Menu items such as Vietnamese rice paper rolls and fresh fruit platters, health bars and smoothies are also part of the programme. A fruit and vegetable juice bar will also be available on request.

 

The ‘Healthy Minds, Healthy Thinking’ programme encourages creative power breaks, simple exercises and mind games to help keep energy and concentration levels high. The growing trend towards active sport/games during conferences was endorsed by over 45% of respondents, who confirmed they have incorporated these into recent events; the most popular being team-building activities.

SilverNeedle Hospitality is committed to making sure every minute counts and has thought outside the box to provide a programme of activities for MICE participants. For longer conferences, tailored team-building experiences are available, including Survivor or Amazing Race-style competitions, cooking classes, and creative activities, including swimming with wild dolphins.

SilverNeedle Hospitality will roll out the programme initially across their Australian branded properties of Chifley, Grand Chifley, Country Comfort, Australis and selected Sundowner hotels, followed closely by the three SilverNeedle Collection hotels in Thailand and Laos.

 

Click here for more information on the new programme.

*All images from SilverNeedle Hospitality

*Key Research Outcomes of SilverNeedle Hospitality’s MICE Survey

Food and Beverage

· 93% of conference organisers cited healthy catering options as important to their staff and clients with 80% noticing an increase in requests for healthy catering.

· Fresh fruit and salad, at 37% is the most requested healthy catering option. It is closely followed by gluten-free, 35%.

· Food and beverage, at 13%, ranked fourth as a factor in decision making when selecting a venue. The top three included location, at 29%; facilities, 26%; and capacity, accounting for 15%.

· 52% of conference organisers showed a preference for set menu packages whilst 33% preferred tailored menus.

Activities & Team Building

· Nearly 75% of conference organisers have requested team-building activities for at least one event. Of the activities requested, active sports/games are by far the most popular, accounting for 45%.

Focus in meetings

· Nearly 90% of delegates get restless in meetings and conferences but only 72% practice strategies to help them refocus.

· Strategies which delegates felt helped improve concentration the most were taking a break, 37%, and team building which accounted for 21%. Healthy food and exercise were considered the second most effective strategy, when combined, accounting for 33%.

· Nearly 80% of conference organisers believe their staff and clients would be interested in tips and strategies to help them stay focused and engaged in meetings.

Other Research Outcomes – MICE Survey

· 56% of conferences/events take place in capital cities and 29% in regional areas.

· For 50% of conference organisers the most important criterion, when choosing to proceed with a venue, is that their requirements are understood and there is a good level of communication.

· 96% of delegates have separate accommodation and function requirements, with 59% of these delegates contacting the hotel directly for accommodation rates. 

The art and science of talent acquisition

New approaches to attracting talent are getting some companies the best candidates possible.

The human resources department must consider hiring from a business standpoint, says Mei-lynn Chan, Head, Organizational Development, Group Human Capital, Maybank. "Transform HR activities into real numbers. You have to quantify them in a business sense," she said during talent management solutions provider PageUp People's launch of Talented Southeast Asia, a publication focused on talent management in Southeast Asia. 

Traditionally, a hiring budget could prevent HR from hiring certain people. The new outlook means that HR would be able to hire a person with the right skillset "as long as the business can carry that cost until the hire begins to pay back on the investment," she said. "It is thinking from business standpoint than from a HR standpoint."

Ramon Segismundo, SVP and Head, Human Resources & Corporate Services, Meralco, the largest electrical distributor in the Philippines, said that talent acquisition is a two-way process with HR as a marketer. "It is important to project the CEO or President as a poster boy," he noted. 

What makes the candidate 'cross the line' should be a unique differentiator, he added. Meralco has found a powerful differentiator in corporate social responsibility (CSR), for example. "The first thing we tell candidates is that we're not offering you a job, we're offering you a higher sense of purpose," he said. "When employees are going home because of a typhoon, Meralco people are going to work (on disaster preparedness)."

Men and women react to office temperatures differently: Andrews Sykes

A survey in the UK has found that less than a quarter of office workers find the temperature in their office comfortable, with more than a third suggesting they take at least 10 minutes out of work each day due to temperature alone. 

One Poll surveyed 2,000 people on behalf of heating and ventilation specialists Andrews Sykes in a bid to discover how much the temperature affected workplace efficiency and output. The results suggest that around 2% of office hours are wasted due to the temperature alone*.

• Only 24% agreed that their office was an ideal temperature for working throughout the year.
• Women wasted an average of 33% more time (around 9 minutes, compared to 6.5) than men trying to acclimatise themselves to inadequate office conditions.
•  70% of women have needed to bring in additional clothing to the office to keep warm, and 50% resorted to excessive cups of tea, while fewer men; 44% and 28% respectively, needed warm clothing or a hot drink.
• Surprisingly, nearly 10% of women have resorted to bringing in a hot water bottle to work.

The ramifications of this are larger than may be expected: 29% of people surveyed estimate they spend between 10 and 30 minutes each workday not working due to an uncomfortable office temperature.  A surprising 6% believe they spend more than half an hour each day not working well for this reason.
This means that an office of 100 people will have at least 8 hours wasted each day, due to the temperature alone. The full figure could be more like 18 hours - the equivalent of more than 2% of staff members never turning up to work.

Helen Pedder, Head of HR for ClearSky HR, said there are various steps that an employer can take to prevent a dip in productivity and performance. "Relaxing dress code requirements where appropriate and providing heating and/or cooling devices are effective methods that help to regulate thermal comfort," she said.

Some further findings:

• 27% of women have complained to management about the temperature, compared with 17% of men
• 48% of women have complained to a colleague about the temperature, compared with 31% of men

*Assuming a 228-day working year.

New top level domain for brands with global expansion in mind

A new top level domain (TLD), '.global', has been launched at ICANN 49. The TLD will allow growing organisations with an eye on expanding beyond their home bases to create a level playing field in competing against more established brands in Europe and North America which dominate in the well-recognised '.com' TLD space.

Source: .GLOBAL website

 

The new TLD is likely to be on many corporate wishlists. While the '.asia' TLD is already in use, it has a regional feel, while '.net' does not have the same ring. “The launch of .GLOBAL today is an exciting opportunity for Asian businesses to finally get the perfect international business domain name that has been unavailable to them with .com,” said Rolf Larsen, CEO at .GLOBAL. 

“Companies in Asia had previously found themselves at a disadvantage as their rivals in Europe and America acquired the best domain names early, forcing them to pay extortionate prices on the second hand domain market.  .GLOBAL is here to re-open naming opportunities for Asian businesses who want to become global and spur innovation across the internet.”

According to the company, the .global domain is a borderless strategy which offers presents businesses with an unrivalled opportunity to establish a global online identity, which in turn can re-define or enhance their business model.  

Domain registrars worldwide will offer the choice of .global domains. Trademark holders can register their names for .global on July 9, 2014 while .global names will be open for public registration on September 12, 2014. Premium names for a select group of high-value generics and business terms will be priced separately and released via an auction system provider.

Click here for more information on new TLDs.

Roam with a China Mobile number on VoIP with the Jego app

China Mobile International (CMI) has announced the Singapore launch of Jego, a free VoIP mobile application that connects people in the island city with people in Hong Kong and mainland China.

Source: CMI

Jego is available on iOS and Android platforms for users outside of China, and is the only mobile application to offer the renting and binding of China Mobile numbers in the world, making it ideal for those who wish to be connected with people in Hong Kong and China for business.

Chinese residents in Singapore who already have a China Mobile number can now retain their number and bind it with Jego to enjoy free roaming incoming calls. Singaporeans who wish to stay connected to people in Hong Kong and China on the other hand can now rent a China Mobile number to receive unlimited free calls, and use Jego to make high quality, international calls at a low cost, anywhere in the world. 

At a binding fee of US$0.99/month (for existing China Mobile subscribers) or a rental fee of US$2.99/month for a Hong Kong number or US$4.99/month for a China number (for non-China Mobile subscribers), business partners in Hong Kong and China can be connected from their landlines or mobiles to those in Singapore, or anywhere in the world via Jego, paying just local charges*. In addition to making voice calls, Jego users can also send text messages, share pictures, and make video calls within the application, at no extra charge.

The future will see Jego in use in other countries, too. “Allowing users to rent and bind Chinese numbers anywhere in the world is just the beginning,” said Dr. John Jiang, CTO, China Mobile International. “China Mobile International is building a Jego Alliance of mobile and fixed line operators around the world to allow Jego users to rent or bind multiple numbers from different countries. This means that expensive IDD and roaming services become a thing of the past, realising China Mobile International’s vision of ‘Communications without Borders’.”

China Mobile International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Mobile, has a well-established global network which allows it to provide high quality call services, and pass on greater cost savings and an enhanced user experience to consumers compared with other application players.

*In a promotional offer, new Jego subscribers will receive 88 minutes free to call China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan (landline), US and UK (landline) from now till 30^th June.

Telling gender from Facebook posts

Researchers have found that it is possible to predict gender and age purely from Facebook status messages. A September 2013 study published in research journal Plos One says that there are clear differences in the way males and females use language in social media. Age and location can also affect the choice of words, researchers said in the report, titled Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach.

Singapore bank DBS' lucky red packets

Females are more likely to describe emotions with words like "love", "wonderful", "excited", and use "I" while males are more likely to swear, talk about electronic games and sports, said researchers H. Andrew Schwartz, Johannes Eichstaedt, Margaret Kern, Lukasz Dziurzynski, Stephanie Ramones, Megha Agrawal, Achal Shah, Michael Kosinski,  David Stillwell, Martin Seligman, and Lyle Ungar, all from the University of Pennsylvania except Kosinski, who is from the University of Cambridge. 
 
Word clouds created by researchers show that feminine status messages are about being excited about tomorrow, how cute puppies and babies are, feelings about the other half, or concerning family members. The masculine ones are about battles, football, Xbox, and the government. 

Areas to be explored further include investigating whether emotionally stable individuals indeed spend time writing about enjoyable social activities that may foster greater emotional stability, such as ‘sports’, ‘vacation’, ‘beach’, team’, or if introverts are actually interested in Japanese media as indicated by the research, ‘anime’, ‘manga’, ‘japanese’, and Japanese style emoticons: ˆ_ˆ predominating. 

The researchers used approximately 19 million Facebook status updates written by 136,000 participants that had been shared as part of  voluntary permission given through the My Personality application. The actual users studied had to use English as a primary language, have written at least 1,000 words in their status updates, and under 65 years old. This resulted in 74,941 volunteers, and 309 million words across 15.4 million status updates studied. 
  
The full study can be viewed here.

Free six-week MOOC on the Internet offered by Hasso Plattner Institute

A free six-week online course on the foundations of the Internet will be offered in English by Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) on its international learning platform at  http://www.openhpi.de. 

Institute Director Professor Christoph Meinel will be discussing the technical foundations of the "network of networks" starting March 31. The massive open online course (MOOC) entitled "Introduction to Internetworking with TCP/IP" is open to everyone, with free registration here. 
  
"Anyone who uses the Internet daily to order goods, read the news, or send e-mails should have the opportunity to understand the necessary technologies that make all of this possible," said Meinel. 

The course will cover the foundation of digital data transfer, the working principles of local networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs), the TCP/IP reference model and Internet protocols (IP), as well as applications such as e-mail and audio/video communication. 

A video preview of Meinel's course can viewed here.

In preparation for the course, HPI increased the student capacity of the underlying software, and enhanced the display of content for mobile devices. A new community forum supports collaborative learning.

Crowdfunding takes off for some businesses

Crowdfunding has been highly successful for some entrepreneurs, with websites like Kickstarter leading the pack. The basic project puts together a concept, some pictures of the work in progress, and asks for backers to fund the product. The entrepreneur can be anywhere in the world, and the backers can come from anywhere in the world as well.

Funding is typically requested through an escalating tier of pledges, with larger backing eligible for a product with more features. The whole process can be gamified with stretch goals, with growing backing for the project 'unlocking' a new reward for everyone at selected milestones. 

While anyone can try crowdfunding, the Internet recognises those who have clearly put a lot of effort into their proposals. The more intriguing the story, the slicker the packaging and the more sophisticated the pledging plans, the more likely it is to be successful. It also helps to have something tangible which can be mailed to the backers; crowdfunding for a service is less likely to be successful, especially one that is tied to geographic location like a mobile food truck.

Most projects on Kickstarter are US-based but there are some from the Asia Pacific. Zelos Helmsman, a watch that can be made of bronze or stainless steel, is the most successful active Singapore-related project on Kickstarter at the moment, with Yahoo Singapore reporting that the project was fully funded within two days of its launch on Kickstarter. The Helmsman is over 200% subscribed at the time of writing.

CDN$1 gets name recognition on the website, and CDN$420 a Helmsman watch. "We wanted to create the Helmsman to be a modern sports watch, functional yet sleek enough to take with to the office. Its automatic movement powers the watch by your kinetic energy so no batteries will ever be needed... Each variant of the Helmsman will be limited to only 50 pieces and will be individually numbered," states Zelos Watches on the Kickstarter project page. 

Pawda, a GPS-based tracking system that works with iOS and Android mobile phones, is a project from Sydney, Australia. According to maker Ross Lambert on the Kickstarter project page, Pawda is a small lightweight GPS tracking device which fastens securely to a pet's collar. Once the pet leaves a virtual perimeter or 'safe zone', the Pawda user receives an alert on the Pawda smartphone app. A map shows exactly where the pet is. The device can track the pet using the same network as your mobile phone, in real time, in the same way that Google Maps adjusts your location as you move.

While the device is marketed for pets, it could just as well be fastened to a toddler's backpack, or to a suitcase full of money; it's up to the imagination. 

A pledge of A$45 gets a Pawda t-shirt, and A$99 the device itself. View the associated video here.

*All images from the Kickstarter website.

*All percentages correct at the time of writing.