INVADE wants to matchmake landlords and retailers in Singapore

INVADE, Singapore’s first real-time retail space booking system, has gone live. The platform allows online matching and booking of retail space requirements in real-time. More than 35,000 retail businesses, startups and entrepreneurs are already INVADE members.

INVADE is the brainchild of two Singaporeans – Koh Cheng Guan and Kent Teo, who have worked with major landlords, marketed pop-up and retail spaces as well as organised flea market events in the past. The two discovered that entrepreneurs spend a lot of time looking for appropriate retail spaces, while landlords want to fill underutilised space, driving the need for a match-making service.

INVADE aims to bridge the gap by simplifying the process of publicising an available space and of paying for it. Spaces can range from shelves and tables to booth space at a flea market to traditional shop spaces. Entrepreneurs go through a four-step process: browse, compare, pay, start to start selling products, while landlords have the three-step process of list, consider tenants, receive payment. 

Transactions can be completed within minutes, the company said. The founders also found that there are far fewer locally-made products and brands in Singapore compared to home-grown equivalents in other countries, and believe that INVADE will help local brands get more exposure.

INVADE’s Co-Founder and Strategic Marketing Manager Koh Cheng Guan said, “INVADE provides an efficient, secure and transparent way for businesses to search and list spaces. It also allows our local entrepreneurs and home-grown products an opportunity to compete with top retail brands in prominent spaces.”

“Retailers are able to book spaces based on their business model and needs, all under one site,” added Kent Teo, INVADE’s Co-Founder and Business Development Manager. 

Interested?

List space. A 10% booking fee applies

Organise an event, rent or buy space. A description of the business and visuals of the merchandise to be sold may be required.

Bazaar Desa buffet at Novotel KL City Centre celebrates street food

Feast on the Bazaar Desa buffet spread at Novotel KL City Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia this Ramadhan. The Square restaurant at Novotel KL City Centre will host the Bazaar Desa dinner buffet from 20 June to 15 July. Three different menus will rotate.

From top: grilled squid, the noodle corner, local fruit, a variety of beverages, including khatirah, peach, bandung coconut, sugarcane, and sweetcorn; and marinated chicken perchik on shawarma.

Crafted by Executive Chef Huzaidy and team, Bazaar Desa encapsulates the local street food culture found during Ramadhan all around the country. Fondly known as 'param’, short for pasar Ramadhan or food bazaar, Bazaar Desa will feature favourites such as banana with cheese, mee rebus tulang, kacang pool and condiments, as well as the signature oven-roasted lamb, chicken/beef satay, three selections of laksa and khatirah juice. The dessert corner will offer two types of sweet porridge, assorted local cakes and cookies, ice cendol, lai chee kang, puddings, ice-cream and dates.

Main dishes include steamed butter fish in Sze Chuan mala sauce, lemongrass chicken, and lo han chai (a Chinese vegetarian dish). Tomato rice, lontong goreng, fish asam pedas, and roti canai represent Malay cuisine while murtabak, idly, ediyappam, marinated chicken perchik on shawarma are offerings from Indian cuisine.

The Bazaar Desa dinner buffet is priced at RM95 nett per adult, and RM45 nett for children aged 8-12. An early bird voucher, available until 19 June 2015, discounts the buffet to RM80 nett per adult and RM40 nett. Accor Plus members enjoy a further 10% discount.

Interested?

For more information and reservations, please call +60 3 2147 0888 extension 7668 or email H6324-FB3@accor.com.

*Images from Novotel KL City Centre

Old Delhi Bazaar walking tour wins Tripadvisor Award Of Excellence

Source: Old Delhi Bazaar walking tour website.

The Old Delhi Bazaar walking tour has won a Tripadvisor Award of Excellence for the third consecutive year. The activity is ranked no. 1 for New Delhi in 2015 by Tripadvisor, and comes with a five star rating.

The personalised tour experience combines food, heritage and culture with walking and cycle rickshaw and is designed to give the visitor a taste of the real Delhi.

Both full- and half-day Old Delhi tours are conducted daily and include a traditional meal in a haveli, a mansion in the old city in which a single family has been living for generations.

Roxy Charity Car Wash, Roxy Charity Bazaar to be held at Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy

Get some colleagues together and express support for the needy through the Roxy Charity Car Wash on 15 May 2015, which is in its 8th year at the Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy. 

The 7th Roxy Charity Car Wash was a resounding success. In May 2014, the management and staff at Roxy-Pacific & Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel ran a charity car wash at the hotel's driveway. Together with Tan Chuan Jin, Minister of Manpower and Member of Parliament for Marine Parade GRC, and the Marine Parade Citizens' Consultative Committee, S$113,000 was raised through this activity with the support from business associates and members of the public. 

Together with sponsors, the car wash aims to raise funds for the recently-launched Roxy Foundation that will be distributed to NGOs, voluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) and schools.

The car wash will be held on 15 May from 10 am to 6 pm, with the goal of raising S$100,000 for the Roxy Foundation, which was set up in February 2015 by Roxy-Pacific Holdings, a property and hospitality group and owner of the Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy. Roxy-Pacific Holdings will contribute S$60,000 for the event. 

Lim Biow Chuan, MP for Mountbatten single member constitutency (SMC), is to be the Guest of Honour and will wash the car of the person with the highest donation, together with the Directors of Roxy Pacific Holdings and General Managers of Accor Singapore Hotels. Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore is managed by Accor.

Needy families, sponsors and VIPS will also be invited to the Children Are Our Hope For the Future 2015 dinner on 28 May 2015 that will also be hosted at the Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy, with Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong as guest of honour.

Up to 100 children from low income families living around the community will each receive S$300 from the money raised in the form of vouchers. Fifteen students from Nanyang Polytechnic will receive tuition fee grants of S$1,000 each that will go towards their tertiary education tuition fees.

“It is great to engage with the community and giving back by raising funds for the underprivileged through the annual charity drive here at Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy,” said Klaus Gottschalk, General Manager of Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy.

The car wash is mainly organised by Roxy Pacific Holdings, Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy and the Marine Parade Citizens Consultative Committee and supported by Accor Asia Pacific and five of its Singapore hotels - Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen, Ibis Singapore on Novena, Sofitel So Singapore and The Singapore Resort and Spa Sentosa. 

The car wash is followed by the Roxy Charity Bazaar on 16 May. Approximately 20 vendors will donate new and pre-loved items to be sold at the Roxy Charity Bazaar, which will be open at the Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy from 10 am to 6 pm. A full 100% of the sales will go directly to the Roxy Foundation. 

The organisers of the Bazaar hope to create awareness and encourage philanthropy by donating and selling items and also through the arts. Visitors will be able to buy one-of-a-kind art pieces and pottery owned by local potters, refurbished clothes, bags and accessories, jewellery as well as household items.

Local potter Mark Lee said, “It is heart-warming to see people come forward to support this Bazaar by donating items that are very dear to them.”

Please call +65 6344 8000 to ask about the Bazaar, or email H3610-SL15@accor.com. Admission is free.

Accor brands include luxury-upscale Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery and Grand Mercure, The Sebel; midscale Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure and Adagio; and economy ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget, adagio access and hotelF1.