Many moons ago, when we were at our old offices Mina Jung came into our office about opening up her dream business, selling healthy Korean food as a lunch alternative. She planned on calling the business Next Sunday Kimbab because as a child she always looked forward to the Next Sunday. It took a while and the idea was refined, but Next Sunday Kimbab is now open and providing healthy Korean food delivered to your office for lunch or meetings.
A Next Sunday Kimbab retail location is still in the long term plans, but BOB staff were quite happy with the samples Mina brought over today. So consider Kimbab for your next meeting or staff lunch, you can learn more about Next Sunday Kimbab from their Facebook Page or their blog.
Some colleagues of BOB’s over at UGM recommended we pay a visit to the Velvet Matador at 508 Powell Street. It is a little off the beaten track, but not too far from Railtown or the residential areas of Strathcona. The Velvet Matador is a small cafe run by Hannah Walker. They serve specialty teas and coffees as well as sandwiches and other goodies. BOB staff was pretty pleased with the various drinks we’ve ordered there, so if you’re in Railtown or Eastvan, perhaps you should swing by.
They plan to have live music on some nights, their website is under construction, but they’re already in Google.
BOB was happy to be invited to the official lighting ceremony of the new Chinatown Neon sign which hangs off the city owned parkade at the corner of Keefer and Columbia. Present were the mayor, the three Chinese city councilors (George Chow, Kerry Jang, and Raymond Louie), numerous Chinatown business leaders (Jordan Eng, Albert Fok, etc.), and various friends of Chinatown. Also present was every media outlet in town, so many that all the mics had trouble all fitting on the podium.
Several BOB staffers attended and I snapped a few pictures which I uploaded to Flickr, they’ve already been ‘borrowed‘ and appear elsewhere online.
Coverage Elsewhere
Based in Vancouver B.C., Building Opportunities with Business (BOB) is a non-profit organization that is championing an inclusive revitalization process for the inner-city that values existing businesses and residents. BOB is a connector, a resource and a facilitator working to: strengthen the inner-city’s community capacity; identify and build on untapped business opportunities; improve employment opportunities and retention; and increase investment in Vancouver’s inner-city.
On the main floor of 163 East Pender in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown, we have a large room which is available for rent for meetings and events, it is also available as coworking space Monday to Friday from 9 until late. In addition to desks, chairs, tables, couches, we installed several lockable lighted display cabinets. This floor is retail grade, on Pender right across the street from Vancity. As a service to local residents and businesses, we are displaying wares, art, product, crafts, business cards, and marketing material free in these display cases. As you can see their are several empty shelves. Each shelf is over one cubic foot and can hold about 5kg of stuff.
We need your stuff to display. You can display whatever you want, for as long as you want, any sales or leads you may generate you are free to pursue to the fullness of your ability. BOB charges zero dollars for this and many other services. Space is available first come, first served, write coworking@bobics.org or contact a staff member.
Bill Drayton from Ashoka contributed this great article about social investing, in the Harvard Business Review. The whole thing is worth a read, but here is an excerpt:
“For visionary CEOs in the for-profit finance sector, a giant business opportunity is emerging: connecting entrepreneurs and their organizations with the resources they need to create lasting social change.
Since the late 1980s, the citizen sector has taken off and experienced rapid growth in terms of productivity and impact. The financial industry has not kept up with this rapid change and, as a result, the change makers of the citizen sector lack the financing options they need to make their projects successful and scalable. Without new sources of private capital, the citizen sector has to continue to rely on funding by governments and foundations. That’s far from ideal.”
For the whole article go here.
