Madeira Consorcio

72 Madeira Consorcio Meeting 18.8.2015

U. reported that the Madeira Consorcio actually has a true fan from France. He is following our Blog since some time, and asked for a meeting when he comes over after August 28, to discuss some projects he has in mind. U. will meet with him; depending on the meeting time, we can see who else can participate.

U. mentioned an article (SPIEGEL; not available in English) that Social Media are taking over state functions: in a small city in Spain, citizens can tweet pothole photos and info about broken street lights to the City Hall, who fix it the problem and tweet proof of the repair within 24 hours. This way, Social Media systems create a parallel state.

D. told us about another parallel state which worked very well: the Canadian province of Quebec had a Theocracy for hundreds of years, where the Church provided all social services, and Sunday church service attendance was at 90% – it was important to see and be seen.. After the province became part of the rest of Canada, the number dropped to 20%.

Another result of the proliferation of Smartphone services will be that UBER and other services will send driverless cars on the roads, and citizens will stop buying cars, as they can easily have a car at hand within a short time, without the cost of acquisition, taxes and insurance. An upside of this is that roads will be uncongested and parking will cease to be a problem. The downside is that taxi drivers and similar profession will be out of work.

Last time, the group decided to do a hands-on project and help E.’s establish his dream of Arte Sanna bread. In our discussion, we deducted that the project has the following points to be taken care of:

1. The project and the product need a good name, to help get a grip on it. We made a brainstorming on this and next time the, pros and cons have to be discussed

The proposals should be weighed based on the questions:

• What is the target group?
• English / International or Portuguese?
• Can we have a “hybrid” name, understood by all?
• E. already has potential customers in Switzerland and other countries

2 We need a good text/ slogan/ resumé about the special quality to justify a higher price (Madeira grains, clean water /air /soil, locally made, no CO2 waste for transport, ancestral, unspoiled not manipulated, clean, rustic, etc.. D. and U.  will work on E.’s base text to extract this.

3 We need to choose a crowdfunding site from

http://www.crowdfunding.com/

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-19638-1_13

http://crowdsunite.com/category/platforms/?sort_type=alexa-amazon&filter=172

and study their conditions – how they will be paid, and what E. can give as thank you/prize to the subscribers.

4 We spoke about the size of E.’s bread, in comparison to Bruno’s goods. Smaller packages with 1/10 of content can command a higher price; a big loaf of 1 kg for 10€ has the same value but is more difficult to sell to cost conscious customers. E.`s bread cannot be produced in muffin size – the chemical process behind it won’t work – but it can be sliced and packaged in smaller portions.

5 We need good photos and a snappy video of max. 3-5 minutes with a good music track for the site. Ri. can do this. E. has found two good videos as examples.

Aberdeen: The Bread Maker Charity http://youtu.be/LuxRlOeWjmc,

Very Nice: Australia: Barossa Sour Dough https://vimeo.com/70760988

Other videos about the subject:

The Grain Divide Documentary http://thegraindivide.com/ with trailer at https://vimeo.com/104358546

and Dan Barber with a video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdj76Og9HE&feature=youtu.be

6 We need a good location (purchase, parking, walk-in potential, visibility) in FNC for the Bakery with shop (no coffee served). If somebody can think of such a place, please investigate and tell the group!

There is a new bakery at Largo de Camoes in Lisbon which is doing very well – Location, location, location…

7 We need to fix the amount of money we’ll try to get through crowdfunding, we should probably ask for more than E. has planned for.

8 Export: the transport options need to be explored for later, it would have to be air freight, for freshness, or frozen.

9 Packaging /Presentation: better than Bruno’s, like “Segurelha” cookies, Logo, labels, closing clip, etc.

10 A good online sales shop

Other stuff:

E. sent us a link about composting of human bodies:

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/urban-death-project-aims-turn-dead-bodies-compost-article-1.2184294

The Madeira Tourism Minister Eduardo Jesus actually had a good idea: He will export some Toboggans to Lisbon to have tourists slide down from Chiado to the Baixa, good advertising for Madeira!