Friday 10 December 2010

Global Innovation Game won by RBD supporter nominating Midomo!

GiG was the official game of Global Entrepreneurship Week and- to our surprise and pleasure- shortly after GEW we received an email informing us that a winner of GiG had nominated Midomo as an idea!

The Global Innovation Game (GiG) challenges an international community of players to create, buy, and sell solutions to problems facing the world. It creates an effective stock market of ideas, where proposed solutions are traded and find value in the ‘ideas market.’

We are so happy that Hilary Singer, who writes for Startup Cafe was impressed enough by Midomo to have nominated it as a solution to a global problem. That Midomo gained enough value on the ideas market to become a winning idea has genuinely given us a real boost- (there may even have been some high-fiveing.)

The mission of Global Mind Games, who created GiG, is to use social games to spark debate and encourage real world change. What GiG has done for Midomo is a brilliant example of an online game creating interest in a real product that can create a difference in real people’s lives.

We’d just like to extend Hilary, and all those who supported Midomo in the virtual market, our sincerest thanks! It’s always been vital to our development that people take an active role in learning and speaking about Midomo and we’re ever grateful for new interest.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

A Weekend at Ethical Just Got Fabulous!

Last weekend saw the Midomo Bracelet team mixing ethics and fashion on Portobello Road

When we first heard about the Ethical Just Got Fabulous Christmas fair, we knew we’d stumbled on something special. The organisers, Naomi, Leona and Kate, are dedicated to ‘supporting the good work of those who strive to be both fashionable and ethical in their production,’ which struck a chord with us given the underlying message behind our Midomo Bracelet campaign: ‘you don’t have to change your life to change someone elses’.

‘Ethical Just Got Fabulous’ presented the perfect platform for us to promote a bracelet that on the one hand is a beautiful, exclusive, designer piece, and on the other provides a family in Africa with safe, clean drinking water for a year.

We arrived at the 20th Century Theatre, just off Portobello Road, to find a handsome old room decorated with upcycled chandeliers. There were so many inspiring companies including Josyflo for belts and accessories, Juzi and Delight Rubellery for jewellery, and Paperself for the most amazing cut-paper eyelashes! Moreover, each company shared the conviction that an ethical product should not have to compromise itself on style.

Over the weekend, Amanda and I ran a raffle, where shoppers could buy tickets for the chance to win a Midomo Bracelet. Demand was high, but there could only be one winner, and yesterday we announced that this lucky person was ….. ..Gwen Rahardja!

We wish Gwen all the best with wearing her bracelet and do hope she shows off its ethical fabulousness to everyone she knows!! At the same time, we would like to thank everyone who bought a ticket, together your support and interest has funded the production and shipping of a Midomo water purifier to an African community, where it will provide potentially life-saving benefit.

We came away from Ethical Just Got Fabulous with an optimistic view of how not just fashion, but the consumer market in general, is changing. There is a demand for products that deliver on style, function and ethics, and this surely means that supply must follow suit.