Five ideas from IdeaSpies were presented by M&A lawyers in Mark Stanbridge?s team at the Ashurst December 2017 End of Year Boardroom Lunch. They were all winners at previous lunches during the year. The winning idea receiving the most votes from directors was C10H14N205+Co2 presented by Lee-Anne Yeo- biodegradeable plastic made from sugar and carbon dioxide. www.ideaspies.com/post/biodegradeable-plastic-voted-top-idea-at-ashurst-boardroom-lunch/

UmbraCity allows you to borrow and return umbrellas using fully automated kiosks. The idea came from the University of British Columbia and Vancouver is the first city to adopt the service. http://umbracity.com/

?Fake it til you make it- the formula for faking it and looking good to investors? according to Jager McConnell, the CEO of CrunchBase, at StartCon 2017.

Major American cigarette manufacturers are now publishing anti-smoking ads to correct the misleading statements they made over many years about the effects of smoking, a move that complies with a court order filed in 2006. The ads explain that smoking kills and cigarettes are intentionally designed to get people addicted. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/big-tobaccos-anti-smoking-ads-begin-after-decade-of-delay/2017/11/21/8841d418-ce82-11e7-a87b-47f14b73162a_story.html

Augmented reality start-up, HoloMe, has created a holographic version of the catwalk show which can appear anywhere, including in the street. A hologram is a photographic recording of a light field, rather than of an image formed by a lens, and it?s used to display a fully three-dimensional image of the holographed subject against any background. Models wearing fashion from the new British brand RIXO were captured in augmented reality using HoloMe?s software solution, which automatically processes visual inputs for the creation of high quality, life-like holograms which you can see on your smartphone, providing you with a front row seat to your own personal fashion show, on demand. http://holome.co.uk/

Created by start-up Green City Solutions, CityTrees are covered in moss and lichens which have a massive surface area that can absorb particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone. The trees? inventors estimate that a single structure has the environmental benefits of 275 urban trees, but taking up 99% less space and at just 5% of the cost. So far, CityTrees have been rolled out in several cities in countries including Norway, France, Germany, Belgium, Macedonia and Hong Kong. The cost for each tree can be mitigated by the potential for advertising on them. https://greencitysolutions.de/en/