Back in early 2020, TrendWatching launched ‘Covid Innovations’ to inspire entrepreneurs and marketers to serve their customers better in dire covid times.
With Covid thankfully no longer impacting daily life, we’re fully focused again on all innovations that make the world a little bit better - check out Daily, our free publication to stay on top of the latest trends, insights and innovations.
Angie Washburn, a respiratory therapist and entrepreneur, founded Project Process and created a portable bedside sink, enabling patients to wash their hands using soap and water without leaving their hospital or medical beds. Hancock Regional Hospital in Greenfield, Indiana, is serving as a testing site for the bedside sink technology.
Read MoreAs masks covering half of our facial expressions are challenging for the deaf community and can be dehumanizing, the EPFL partnered with Swiss Materials Lab EMPA to create a transparent, bio-based, and degradable surgical mask. Their new startup, called HMCARE, secured $1 million in seed funding, and the masks will be brought to market in early 2021.
Read MoreAs OBOS is concerned that Norway will keep its vibrant sports and cultural life even after the COVID crisis, the initiative will be giving NOK 40 million to 'get the cheer back', by buying what became nothing: the tickets that were never sold, the fleas that are still in stock, the cakes that were never baked, the football tricks that were never learned, the notes that were never played.
Read MoreGo Evo (Government Evolved) launched the Personal Protective App (PPA), an employee screening solution designed to enable self-assessments for COVID symptoms. This app supports employees in determining whether they should return to work and provides them with instant visibility into the health and safety of their workforce.
Read MoreSelfridges will open its four stories mid-June, offering live entertainers and DJs for queueing customers, along with personal-shopping appointments for fashion and beauty held via video calls to respect social-distancing rules. Clothing tried on in fitting rooms will be quarantined for 72 hours and items such as accessories will be cleaned with sanitising spray or steamed before being returned to the shop.
Read MoreCuhu has worked with qualified therapists to develop the app called Orpheus, that has been specially designed to rapidly and effectively help the mental health of its users, targeting unwanted negative emotions like stress, grief, guilt, and can also help with compulsions.
Read MoreTheir solution is to put information about COVID on the labels of common consumer goods like cola and rice. By printing DIY mask instructions and hygiene recommendations on the packaging of these products, these designers have found a way to get information to the most vulnerable.
Read MoreThe exhibition on Vincent Van Gogh was supposed to be a walk-in exhibition, but will be hosted as a temporary drive-in experience for visitors to respect COVID regulations; with the original walk-in exhibit postponed until July. In the five-story Toronto Star building in Younge Street, visitors will be able to drive into the warehouse, switch off their engines and get swept up in the Dutch painter's masterpieces.
Read MoreVouchers for Uber Eats lets businesses customize their meal plans for remote employees and customers. Through a dashboard, company admin can set rules around when their workers can order meals and how much they can spend. But vouchers also enables to provide meals for attendees of large-scale virtual events, treating potential clients to lunch at virtual sales meetings.
Read MoreTrendWatching and Business of Purpose recently collaborated with 200 Marketing & Sales students of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS/HvA) on a student project to spot and innovative solutions to COVID-19 from all over the world, as well as to develop new ideas to combat the crisis.
Read MoreAnythink Libraries in Adams County started to phone its 65-and-over citizens (about 8,000 people) to update them on library services and see how they were getting along. Other Colorado libraries also imagined 'park and pickup' services to avoid contamination or 'Quarantine Quiz Show' for friendly online competition, and added a program to help address mental health during the pandemic called Headspace.
Read MoreMUTABOR offers to employees now working from home a brand-adequate design of the home office workplace with a modern modular workstation, giving the possibility to move with a nice background during workshops and presentations, and a modular construction kit enabling flexible scaling.
Read MoreMadeGood Foods has donated nearly $250,000 in food and funds to food banks and non-profits during COVID. The company has now launched the MadeGood Moments campaign in May to spread positivity and encourage parents, families and anyone that is currently staying at home with easy recipes and stay at home activities, and the chance to win $500 every day.
Read MorePedidosYa's drones flew over the streets of Santa Cruz, La Paz and Cochabamba with surprises for random Bolivian mothers. The idea was to celebrate Mother's Day in a different way to give them a special message whilst encouraging them to stay at home to respect COVID restrictions.
Read MoreThe mask can be opened mechanically by hand remotely or automatically when the fork is coming to the mask. The company said it plans to start manufacturing the mask within months and had already submitted a patent.
Read MoreThe novelty promises to be effective against enveloped viruses such as COVID by using silver (antimicrobial) particles to attract the virus with an opposite charge causing it to bind to the sulphur groups present on the surface surrounding the virus. This reaction blocks the virus' binding in host cells, preventing the micro-organism from releasing its genetic material inside.
Read MoreThe American University in the Emirates (AUE) at the Dubai Academic City will be using the drive-in cinema concept to welcome all the students at the campus car-park and organise pre-assigned slots, two metres from each other’s car. Students will be able to access an FM radio channel to follow the ceremony, and, once a graduate’s name is called out, a drone will carry the certificate and delivery it to the student’s car.
Read MoreThe iconic Park Street's restaurant Mocambo's interior will appear to be different due to a 5 feet glass partition separating tables. In addition, 50% of tables will remain vacant at all times to keep up with the norms. Other interesting measures include: options to place an order on phone from the table, virtual instruction cards to inform guests about the new guidelines, a marked waiting area for those queuing up at the entrance door, quicker delivery of food.
Read MoreThe plant in the country's port city of Dar es Salaam has traded paper for plastic bottles and started making anti-COVID face shields that are being bought by hospitals and health centres nationwide. Orders are flooding: in recent weeks they have made 6,000 units that go for about $2 a piece.
Read MoreThe creator of 100% vegetarian, fresh handmade cosmetics and soaps, LUSH, created ‘30-Second Soap’, a self-timing soap designed to dissolve away after 30 seconds of vigorous use, precisely how long you need to clean your hands safely. A simple to use, one-wash soap that tells you easily how long you should wash your hands.
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