The best part of our arrangement is our idea to including Beanstockd Game clues in the green column of their magazine. It will be a tangible real-world connection for the players of the Beanstockd Game (they can go to the local newsstand, flip to the green column of this magazine, and hence be immersed in the game environment even outside their computers and mobile devices. It will also be a fantastic way to drive more users to the Beanstockd game when it is publicly launched.

We had a fantastic meeting with 2 of their representatives, and we are hoping to begin content sharing before the end of the year. Very exciting!

So just to stray for a moment from the topic of the Game, I wanted to forward on an update from our fabulous fashion editor, Sarah Jacobson, on Fashion Week 2009:

"Fashion week was drama filled but oh so fabulous. in the months leading up to september, i spent time contacting designers and PR folk and asking for invites to the shows. once invites were secured, i compiled a calendar of our events and began setting up interviews and such. during fashion week, i interviewed scarf designer taiana geifer, whose felted wool pieces are to die for. i visited geifer in her showroom, took some pictures, and had a quick chat. i also recruited a new friend of mine, caroline tobias, to take photos at the shows with me. caroline was a great partner in crime and was really good at getting those quick shots. all of the photos in the slideshow are hers; those paparazzi style ones of the celebs are a direct result of her needling her way into the crowd to get up close and personal with the stars. we also had the pleasure of going backstage to see the preparation of the tibi show. john and adam taylor (a videographer) came along for this and got to take in the show. adam took footage of me interviewing the hairdresser backstage, who told us he was weaving scraps of fabric taken from this season's collection into the models' messy buns (so green!). we also got footage of a short chat with a model, then of other going ons backstage as well as the show itself. additionally, i set up an interview with getty images photog frazer harrison. for this, we enlisted kipany's jetain mahendra, who was AWESOME and super professional and got great footage of me chatting with frazer about red carpet no nos and surviving life in the pit (where the photographers fight for spots to get runway photos). jetain also put together a kickass video of the interview juxtaposed with runway footage from the max azria show. he rocks, and i would totally work with him again.
2) I've also been in contact with tristan gribbons, 1/2 of SUST, a sustainable clothing line that's currently promoting their wares via the sustainability across america tour. i've been emailing with tristan, who i came across online, and she's goign to be filling out (i hope!) some interview questions i emailed her.
3) I also came across another great sustainable line just today, called everlasting hope. i've emailed them to see if we could visit their showroom (they're based in brooklyn) and chat with the designers.
4) I'm also really gunning for us to get to portland fashion week. it's this october, and starts on the 7th, so clearly we won't make it this year. but its completely sustainable fashion and sustainable sponsors - everything is green! it's where leanne marshall first showed (from project runway), and seems like an AWESOME event. i'm really hoping to get out there next year."

In August, we finally surpassed the 100,000 weekly hit mark (specifically 110,566 visits) and on Friday, August 14th we threw a long overdue regional Beanstockd get-together, with staffer from NYC, MA, PA, and DC coming in to join the festivities.

We have since leveraged this momentum and are experiencing over 114% quarterly growth, which is extremely exciting. We also have had a few of our staffers move to NYC over the summer so we used the occasion to welcome them to Beanstockd HQ. Cheers!

Prior to our arrival, the 20 students in the class had already done their preliminary research on us. They were very engaged, asking insightful questions throughout the class, and after our presentation proceeded with a 45-minute Q&A session.

In December, at the end of the semester, we will go back for the most exciting part of this course: the final presentations! Each team of 5 will present to us their step-by-step strategy for reaching our stated objectives, and we will begin the process of integrating and implementing their great ideas into our project.

A big shoutout to our summer strategists who will be helping us with The Beanstockd Game full time! We are excited to see what comes out of the summer, and will be resuming discussions with our alternate reality gaming friends in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, The Beanstockd Game beta testing continues, with a few experimental features thrown in for fun. More updates soon...

At the end of the year, the students will present to Beanstockd their recommendations for a course of action in both marketing and revenue generation for the Beanstockd Game and Beanstockd at large.

We are flattered and excited about this opportunity! We fully expect to actually implement many of the ideas and strategies presented by the bright, creative, and talented students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this fall.

In light of this, and with incredibly valuable advice from our Board of Directors (special thanks to Robert Kraft of Fox Music!) we have decided to push back our preparations for a Beanstockd environmental film for the time being. It will still be on the agenda, but we're pushing back production for at least for 4-6 months to enable us to focus our efforts on our core projects.

We're very pleased with this decision, as it allows us to really ramp up our current projects, and will enable us to do a much better job on the video when we do pick this project, a GREAT addition to our portfolio of offerings to our readership, up again in the future.

Mode updates to come...

This Spring, we signed our new video host Chet Cannon, from MTV's Real World Brooklyn!

Chet and several members of The Beanstockd Team (minus myself and Sandra, sadly...) trekked out to Los Angeles for 2 major events.

First, the Global Green USA Annual Millennium Awards took place, and we were there to cover the action.

Beanstockd Classes Up the Global Green Millennium Awards

Second, we covered the Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards and asked the attendees how they go green in their lives.

Chet Cannon Works the Green Carpet at the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards

This was a crazy weekend for Beanstockd. Not only did we have a full crew in LA, but for the first time we had TWO full video crews in LA filming simultaneously! Was quite an accomplishment for us - and the footage turned out great!

More updates to come...

February was an eventful month for Beanstockd!

Global Green USA Annual Pre-Oscar Event in LA

Beanstockd attended Global Green USA's annual "green carpet" event in Los Angeles. Maria Menounos wore a milk fiber dress with recycled glass layered necklaces. Heather Graham noted the enormous magnitude of what will happen to our planet unless we all start acting fast. Rosie Perez was having a hard time walking in her super cute runway shoes from all the pain. Dominic Monaghan was there as well as always participating in a number of other green movements. Gavin Rossdale has solar panels installed onto his house. He and Gwen Stefani teach their young kids about recycling and reusing. Gavin Rossdale began the show by playing many of his most popular tunes acoustic, as well as a duet with Sheryl Crow who similarly performed some of her greenest songs. The event was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris.

Beanstockd at New York Fashion Week

Beanstockd joined the ranks of the fashionabe elite at the Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week in February. Among others, Beanstockd attended Adam, Miss Sixty, Mackage, Diane Von Furstenberg, Nanette Lepore, and the list goes on. Of note, they attended the star-studded Rebecca Taylor show which had gorgeous fabrics in bright colors and muted pastels down the runway. After the show, they interviewed What Not To Wear's Stacy London, who told us to watch out for John Patrick Organic green fashion. Beanstockd sat front row at Ports 1961, across from Anna Wintour, whose subtle yet clear Indian clothing inspirations made it a Beanstockd favorite. To close out fashion week, Tadashi Shoji sent an array of beautiful dresses and separates down the runway.

The Beanstockd Game.

We have begun discussions with game design firms for the next edition of The Beanstockd Game in anticipation of a future collaboration. More graphics, additional features, and mobile capability are all things in store for the next version of the Beanstockd Game. One of the firms we are speaking with is 4th wall studios with Elan Lee whom we've cited in previous posts (Here).

Other Updates.

Also in the works are the First Annual Beanstockd Awards. We will be recommending companies in a number of verticals such as media, nightlife, food and drink, technology, and events. We finalized our list of nominees and are submitting them to our panelists (prominent leaders in each industry) for evaluation. We are also making final decisions on our Beanstockd Video Host this week and are moving along with putting together the team for our feature-length environmental film, to be shot later this summer.

That's all for updates! Thanks for staying in the know!

This month, we were able to send several of our writers to the Presidential Inauguration, and even got a special invitation to attend the Green Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC. Our writeup of the event can be found here: Beanstockd Goes to Washington: The Green Inaugural Ball

After the inauguration, a few of our team members flew out to Park City, UT to cover the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Our review of the films we saw and the entire festival (which was very green this year!) can be found here: Beanstockd Does The Sundance Film Festival

Finally, later this summer we are making preparations to shoot our own environmental 'docudrama' which, similar to the Beanstockd Game, will aim to connect with a mainstream audience yet empower individuals in their ability to effect environmental change in their daily lives.

That's just a taste of what we've got up our sleeves in 2009!
So keep reading Beanstockd.com.
And PBS Idea Lab. :)

Due to the academic calendar and feedback from current users, we will be holding two, 2-week long game cycles at the school for the test. Those two cycles will be broken up by the students' Spring Break, during which we will survey players on how well they are able to keep up with their new habits without being in the game environment (the school).

We're excited to take the game to the next level! We have also begun discussions with several game design firms on possible collaborations for the next edition of The Beanstockd Game -- with more immersive graphics, additional features, and mobile capability-- all of which will be heavily informed by the tests to date.

Will keep you posted!

After a 5-day, head-to-head battle between Team Apley and Team Wigglesworth (we arbitrarily split into two teams), only one winner could remain. Congrats to Team Wigg! They will be handsomely rewarded at the Beanstockd Holiday party later this month.

In the meantime, we are surveying the players to get detailed information on what worked, what didn't, how the game affected them, any strategy they employed, what was fun, and what could be more fun.

Preliminary comments have included:

1. The desire for a recent activity summary on the dashboard

2. The ability to chat/converse with the OTHER teams ("I really really want to let them know how superior my actions are")

3. And the desire for an archive tab of all past actions/winners/prizes, etc.

Stay tuned for more results!

This past August, after winning the MTV-Knight Foundation Young Creators Award, appearing in Entrepreneur Magazine, and participating in the summer-long DreamIT Ventures incubator program, Beanstockd relocated to New York City. Since the move to the Big Apple, we brought on 5 new staff members including three interns, a PR Director and an SEO Website Marketing director. These are some of the most hard-working staffers we've ever had, and it's been great having so much fresh energy on the project. We've also recruited a wonderful new NYC-based writer who will be heading up our music event coverage and artist interviews.

This October marked our first return to Harvard, where Beanstockd was born, for the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business Conference where Sandra and I were invited to speak on behalf of Beanstockd. It was a wonderful experience meeting aspiring young entrepreneurs and speaking with them about the process of building our organization. As an added perk, while we were there we met Bobbi Brown! Look for an upcoming feature on green initiatives at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics.

This month, as you may have read, Beanstockd was named one of 35 finalists for the 2009 WeMedia Game Changers awards. Other finalists include Twitter, Digg, NPR, BlogHer and The Huffington Post, and we are flattered to be in such great company. They included a nice little write-up on us as well. Please vote while you're there - it takes under 5 seconds, and one award will be decided by community choice!

Finally, as we reflect on the past few months, we must say thanks again to all our mentors, advisors, and supporters that have helped make Beanstockd so successful over the past (almost) year and a half. In particular, everyone at DreamIt Ventures, our mentor from The Musser Group, our two amazing lawyers at Ballard Spahr, Paul Bottino at Harvard TECH, everyone at the Harvard Green Initiative, and of course, The Knight Foundation, just to name a few.

And with that, the Beanstockd Team wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

We wrote up a handful of multiple-choice questions to learn how The Game can benefit companies and individuals in the corporate realm. We're asking if you could help us out by answering these questions from the perspective of your Place of Employment (it only takes 3-4 minutes total!). The 'questions' page will also give you a preview of the game.

Click here to participate!

We appreciate your help and are very excited to receive your responses. Email me if you have any questions or comments at all (angela at beanstockd dot com).

Sincerely,
Angela

This week, I wanted to give some insight into our plans for a mobile application and how this feature fits into the game. The mobile app will actually be an integral aspect of the project from a conceptual standpoint. The overall goal of the Beanstockd Project is to drive tangible behavioral change among users. The game currently provides an incentive structure for taking environmental actions, but our limitation is that we can only rewards these actions retroactively. The mobile application, however, has the potential to actual change the course of a person's day through interaction with the game. Beanstockd Mobile will allow users to weigh different options before the action is taken, essentially incentivizing a user proactively for the more environmentally friendly action.

For example, let's say a user is headed to a restaurant and can either take the subway or the bus to get there. For the same reasons we started this project, there exists an information gap to the public about environmental consumption-- for instance, most people don't really know whether it is more environmentally friendly to take the subway versus the bus, and the answer may be circumstantial (depending on traveling distance, weather conditions, traffic, etc).

The mobile application will allow the user can insert 2 (or more) options and the Beanstockd game will calculate the points that each choice earns at the current time, allowing the user can take the more environmentally-friendly action and earn points for it on the spot. In addition to rewarding choices proactively (by allowing the user to advance more quickly in the game), the mobile application will be an interactive way for users to learn how different actions compare environmentally and create new habits using the Beanstockd game.