MINI’s Vision Is Not so… Mini!

To have a vision means to look towards the future and picture it in a way that others cannot imagine. The future is always unwritten, but that doesn’t mean that it will stop some people from trying to imagine it, to capture it in the grasp of their imagination and to try to make it a better place for all of us. Martin Luther King had a vision, for instance. His words are legendary: “I have a dream!”. Unfortunately, he didn’t live enough to witness his dreams and visions coming true. Leaders of the world ought to have a vision as well; especially in these times of uncertainty we live in since the dawn of the economic crisis. Do they really have? Well, that is certainly a matter of debate!

Having a Vision involves being optimistic & creative.

Having a vision also involves being optimistic and creative, opposite to envisioning dystopias and disaster. The easiest thing to “predict” for the future is potential ecological disasters or other terrible things about the world we live in. And unfortunately, many people are often tempted by apocalyptic prophecies and gloomy images of an uncertain future. Just take a look on how many movies about the end of the world have been made in the last years! Too many for my taste, might I add!

The hard thing is to envision a future that will make our lives better, as it would also involve much more input of energy and good will into building it and making it happen. And just like some great historical figures managed to envision positive changes, whether these changes happened or not, there are also some others that struggle hard to make our lives better in a more modest, still important, way. Take the designers of the MINI for example; their MINI Vision that was recently presented to the world brings an image of an enjoyable and playful future to us.

Personalization is the key. The MINI Vision will offer the Driving Experience Control which will turn your MINI into a personal object of desire. The driver will have the chance to change the colors and the atmosphere of the car by simply pressing a button! Don’t tell me that you don’t remember that there was a time when we dreamt of these to happen! Pressing a button and turning everything the way you like it… Well, apparently this time has finally come and today you can simply make it happen!

The MINI Vision

If you can’t wait till MINI introduces its vision of the future of cars, there is always a MINI Cooper for sale now that will satisfy your needs and desires as you will keep an eye open towards the very near future. The future is almost here and now: a car’s interior to change at a press of a button! In the MINI Vision in particular, colors can be changed immediately depending on your mood and only. A special feature would be the “MINI Disco” floor, by the use of which you will be able to change the colors, light and forms around you. What is more, you will have the option to “play” with the car’s central display: you can choose between the classic analogue style and a futuristic 3D look. However, something tells me that most of us would have gone for the latter option, after all! Is there anyone actually that isn’t looking forward towards a 3D future? Just think of the movies; there is no going back from the revolution of the 3D, right!?

The presentation of the MINI Vision was in the form of a virtual 3D hologramme, enhancing in this way the expectations of a MINI that incorporates 3D technology. The MINI vision is certainly stands for a new identity for the car: a more and more personalized car, as a prolongation of your own self. Individuality matters not only on the way we decorate our houses and choose to dress ourselves. It matters on anything we wish to own and more or less anything we feel attached to or connected with. Till now it was quite easy to choose the color of our car; these days will be over soon, as the new generation of cars such as the MINI Vision might take us, at last, to a reality where our own cars will be that place with a disco floor and a kaleidoscope of colors, in the shades or our own dreams.

In other words, prepare yourself for the drive of your life! Each mile will bring you joy!

The MINI Life Ball Series

Life Ball, Vienna

What is it that matters most of all things in our lives? This is actually a question with as many answers as courageous people daring to take it as a challenge.  That because what makes the difference in our lives is doing things, is making things happen, acting for a good cause or in a positive direction. We spend our lives doing – or at least trying to do – what’s best for us and for all those persons who matter the most in our lives , such as family, friends etc. This is only natural and fair enough, one might argue.  However, it is precisely when we do something about and act in the direction of helping other peer humans – people we have never met personally and whose names we do not know, but who find themselves in deep trouble – that we, humans can be proud of our actions. This is the reason why charity matters; charity is about empathy and about making a point about the fact that we are not alone in this world.

Vienna’s Life Ball AIDS charity

The Life Ball is the biggest annual charity event in Europe in support of people with HIV or AIDS and it is also one of the world’s biggest charity events in general. It takes place in Vienna since 1993 and it is organized by the nonprofit organization AIDS LIFE, which was founded a year earlier. It is a big event that attracts much attention also due to the fact that many celebrities usually attend this charity event. Personalities such as Liza Minnelli, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Sharon Stone, and Heidi Klum among others have been attending this event over the years.  This year, notable people like the former President of the U.S. Bill Clinton, Sir Elton John, the Hollywood actors Hilary Swank and Melanie Griffith, Fergie and Barbara Eden among others showed up at the Life Ball.

Naomi Campbell, Life Ball Vienna

Linda Evangelista – Life Ball

Elton John, Life Ball Vienna

The event opens each time with a big concert and includes a variety of fashion shows and fancy events that aim to also raise funds (aside from awareness) for an issue of public importance such as the fight against HIV and AIDS. It might be true that we have managed to decrease sufficiently the victims of this horrible disease in the West, even without discovering the cure for AIDS, but elsewhere, such as in Africa, AIDS continues to be a huge threat. The number of HIV deaths in the developing world is totally disheartening. I personally hope that things will only get better in the near future…

One of Life Ball’s most prestigious shows is the fashion show, which is organized each year by a different acclaimed fashion designer. This year, it was Roberto Cavalli’s turn to present to the world his talent and part of his responsibilities was to recreate a MINI, as it happens each year. MINI has long been an official sponsor of the Life Ball charity event and this year it presented a unique MINI Paceman as Cavalli himself envisioned it! The result was… a piece of gold! Cavalli decorated the MINI with gold elements inside and out in what came to be a shining and extravagant MINI Paceman… your MINI Paceman might not end up being decorated with gold but still, it is quite hard to resist to its charms and qualities…

Life Ball 2013, MINI Paceman

Roberto und Eva Cavalli

There are thirteen special edition MINI models that have been created so far and this contributed with more than half a million Euros for funding the fight against the terrible disease.  As a matter of fact, Roberto Cavalli’s golden version of the MINI Paceman broke all records: it was auctioned for 150.000 Euros, which will, of course, be donated to support the fight against AIDS. During the previous years, designers such as Donatella Versace, Gianfranco Ferre, Testino, Franca Sozzani, the creative team of DSQUARED and Agent Provocateur (among others) have tried their best in presenting a unique and highly imaginative MINI car.

Mini designed by Katy Perry

My personal favorite is still the 2009 MINI Cabrio created by The Blonds, one of Hollywood’s fashion favorites. The design was inspired by Kate Perry herself, according to the creative team. I guess that any fashionista that respects herself/himself , but also the rather bitter issues concerning the world around us, would have been proud of such a MINI.  I wonder what next year’s edition will bring!

Weird Themed Hotels around the World

You might find them either high on the creative vibe or just slightly weird. However, these are just a few memorable hotel rooms that you might find yourself lodged in when going all around the world. Enjoy!

Theoretically speaking, when you decide to travel and you search for accommodation, you are basically searching for a room which will cover your basic needs: a bed, a television set, a mini-bar, air-conditioning, a private bathroom, some free Wi-Fi and maybe a small balcony with a view towards something that it is not too depressing – and I mention this as once, when traveling to Transylvania, I got a room with a view precisely towards a cemetery! I am not sure if the view was part of a themed room intention, but anyway … The aforementioned are usually the essentials. When traveling for business and not for leisure, it might come only natural not to care about the color of the sheets or what kind of paintings are hanging on the wall.  Ok… sometimes the view is vital, as I explained before. And if you visit Venice, you simply need and want to admire the floating city of such a noble and long-standing history. Or, if you find yourself in a tiny Greek island, you might feel the urge to stare at the Aegean Sea every afternoon for hours!

However, how many of us can tell a story about them staying in a… chocolate room or in a room that is filled in with… mathematical equations!? Well, I personally don’t know anyone who stayed in such an extravagant hotel room but, nevertheless, there are many options for those who wish to stay in a place that they will remember for long… Here are a few thematic hotel rooms around the world that I hope will manage to dazzle you, not to mention to tempt you!

Godiva Chocolate Room

I mentioned chocolate earlier, didn’t I? Well, in New York – that marvelous city that never sleeps and where anything can take place – chocolate is in its right proper place, as there is the Godiva Chocolate Suite awaiting. Chocolate walls and paintings await for those lucky ones who will have a great chance to see their choco-dreams come true. Chocolate walls forever! Mind your … bites in order for the next visitors to find something left there as well!

Ice Hotel

Most people like it hot, but what about those who might crave for something freezing cold? Obviously, they are heading to the Swedish town of Jukkasjarvi, where an ice hotel a

waits the ones eager for unusual, frozen experiences.

MIT@Hotel

The knowledge seekers, geeks and nerds will definitely feel comfortable at the Hotel@MIT. This is a technology themed hotel with walls that reveal the secrets of science and bedspreads that are simply full of mathematical equations. Recommended for aspiring PhD students! They won’t waste any minute on useless bookings and they will gain a whole lot of knowledge in their travels!

MINI Cooper Hotel

If you decide to travel by car instead of catching a plane, then I have an ideal stop for you. In Helsinki, the capital of Finland, you can spend the night in a hotel inspired by the European youth’s favorite car: MINI. The room is filled with MINI merchandise in a way that it might as well inspire you to search for a MINI Cooper for sale now instead of later … in case you didn’t drive to Helsinki with your MINI that is!

The Beatles Hotel

For music and pop culture lovers there is nothing that beats the Hard Day’s Night Hotel in Liverpool, which pays tribute to no other than The Beatles! I have to warn you that you might find yourself facing a tough dilemma after you’ll walk in the hotel’s lobby: would you choose the Lennon Suite or the McCartney one? I personally love both!

Mirror-cube Tree Hotel

Do you love nature? I bet you do. Then how about spending a night in a “sanctuary among the trees”? It is called the “Mirrorcube” and it is a transparent cube “planted” among trees deep inside in Scandinavian forests. Ecological and fancy, this is an option for design lovers and fans of alternative eco solutions as well.