Compendium

Robert “Bertie“ Eden is a committed pioneer and THE reference for organic and biodynamic winemaking. He is a forward-thinking icon leading to inspire widespread environmental change. His winery, Chateau Maris, “is one of the top five most environmentally friendly vineyards in the world”. A fantastic biodynamic wine Capstone.

Guy Ritchie, the British director known for his stylized gangster films such Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Yet one could argue his true passion lies in his Wild Kitchen Capstone. Part of his Cashmere Caveman Co, it is an innovative take on outdoor entertaining, primeval cooking, with luxurious features and modern comforts for fire, food and friends.

The Coronation Food Project is inspired by King Charles III which seeks to tackle food waste and food insecurity across all four nations of the United Kingdom. The project hopes to establish an enduring legacy in His Majesty's name by encouraging others to take part in the fund's vision and mission and to help it grow. The Project aims to rescue surplus food and redistribute it to those who need it most, whilst supporting local farmers and reducing carbon emissions

Writing for the prestigious luxury lifestyle magazine Club Oenologique, Simon Pavitt outlines how tech entrepreneurs are bringing a Silicon Valley mindset to the world of fine wine. We consider the disruptive impact of tech on wine lovers and explain the benefits for those willing to embrace the digital evolution. Often seen as old-fashioned, fragmented and complex, it’s an industry that has been slow (even overtly resistant) to adopt mainstream technologies, let alone cutting-edge ones

Andrew Winch is a world-renowned yacht designer who has created iconic vessels from small sailboats to over 100-meter superyachts. After a long and productive conversation with Andrew, we summarize his path to Capstone thinking and share some of the insights we gained from our discussion, as well as drawing from his past interviews.

Jane asked me to write about a new tool using cutting-edge technology called ChatGPT and its potential impact on wine, I was happy to help. …This is one of the first times that an AI tool of this type has become available to the mainstream, certainly one that is so easy to use and inevitably its adoption will be fast.

We can no longer look only at financial returns in isolation. Investment decisions can be enhanced by effectively using non-financial information about an organisation’s operating practices around material ESG factors. With every business owner being accountable over ESG issues, the cost of ignoring it heightens the risk for all

Climate change is our defining fight. Pledges to strive for ‘net zero’ by governments, institutions and businesses are one thing. Taking immediate action is another. If 10 GtCO2 needs to be removed annually from the atmosphere by 2050, a clear transition is required to meet an energy system that is net zero. But this isn’t about slowly working out what to do in 20 years’ time. The level of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) this decade will determine whether the temperature rise can be limited to 1.5°C. This report looks at who is taking action now, and how.

Engineering is about the relentless pursuit of performance gains. There are, on average, over 1,000 staff behind the scenes per team, all hyper-focused on every aspect of racing to ensure that the drivers receive the best possible race machinery each race weekend. F1 is hypercompetitive, which is a useful tool for technological progress and innovation. Teams push the boundaries of performance to achieve even milliseconds in race performance gains. It’s a goal that can often be applied as much to mainstream life as to racing.

Every now and then we get hit by a wave of very clever people all saying something similar, often driven by progress in technology coupled with an increase in clarity on what that technology could make possible…

 Media is a dance—the interplay between content, culture, conversations and Commerce. At the end of the day, you can have good content, culture and conversations, but if you can’t commercialise it, it’s hard to have a sustainable media business. The stable overall growth pattern of the media market masks an underlying shift and volatility. Our article summarises a white paper we wrote for the London Technology Club with full access to the report.

Robert “Bertie“ Eden is a committed pioneer and THE reference for organic and biodynamic winemaking. He is a forward-thinking icon leading to inspire widespread environmental change. His winery, Chateau Maris, “is one of the top five most environmentally friendly vineyards in the world”. A fantastic biodynamic wine Capstone.

Fashion is one of the largest industries in the global economy, estimated at $2.5 trillion. With rapid advances in technology and changing customer demands, the industry will see huge amounts of innovation in the coming years. Capstone projects of the future could range from digital clothing and lab-grown leather to use of AI and stores of the future.

Yalda Alaoui is the founder of Eat Burn Sleep, an online educational health platform focused on teaching people how to achieve optimal health by living an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. After two near-death experiences, Yalda found meaning and fulfillment from her Capstone: becoming a gut health and inflammation expert to assist others to adopt easy, enjoyable, and sustainable practices around their wellness.

This is an extract from the Future Technology in Fine Wine Report, Wingman Founder Simon Pavitt wrote for the London Technology Club. Published in October 2021, the report provided a meta-style analysis of the potential impact technology could have on the fine wine industry. This, in our humble opinion, is a typical day not too far away for a fine wine lover.

A year before his fiftieth birthday, Neal committed to building a tech platform in the service of others. He had always built and sold companies that creatively organised information into systems for shareholder returns. It had left Neal burnt out and struggling to feel joy. Embarking on his own healing journey, he realised no one had organised the world’s wisdom. It was to be Neal’s Capstone project: FindCenter

Writing the report for the 4th ‘Future Technology Series’ for the London Technology Club we looked at one of the most applicable capstone projects for all: Preventative Health.Each year, millions of people die from preventable illnesses. A well-known early 2000s study showed that about half of all deaths in the US were due to preventable behaviours and exposures. That level of avoidable premature deaths has only increased.

We spoke with Alex Tait (Al), the father part of the ‘father-daughter duo’ that own and run The Orange Bakery in the classically small British market town of Watlington, Oxfordshire. Since opening just under two years ago, the bakery has been a huge success with the local community, foodies and pop stars alike

Michael Baum is a serial technology entrepreneur and venture capital investor. In September 2014 Michael and his family switched gears to a new project, purchasing the prestigious Burgundian winery Château de Pommard. What began as a passion has turned into a Capstone, a mission to change the way wine is sold and enjoyed, applying Silicon Valley thinking and experience to a very traditional industry, ruffling a few French feathers in the process…

In a 2019 report we wrote and published for the London Technology Club: Future Technology in Wine, we featured Mike T Barrow, the pioneering winemaker who, in 2003, gave up his thriving career in IT in the US to move to Mendoza, Argentina and start a boutique organic winery named Costaflores. Fast forward to 2021 and Mike has established the most progressive and forward-thinking winemaking lab in the world.

He has been described as flamboyant, visionary, driven, exceptional, genius, volatile and probably not surprisingly, arrogant. Napa Valley winemaker Jayson Woodbridge affords every detail money can buy to make the best wine possible. It is a quest for perfection. Often against common wisdom and making less than fiscal sense, it is however, brutally simple. He does whatever is necessary to make the best possible wine for each vintage. Hundred Acre Winery is his Capstone.

The UK and especially London, is the ‘fintech’ capital of the world with the highest concentration of financial and professional service firms alongside being Europe’s foremost technology hub. There is a real shift in the world of finance from banks with technology advantages to technology companies with banking licence, means the UK really can’t underestimate the strategic importance and potential around technology and finance combined

Nutrition is something we should all want to understand and be guided by in our lives, because it’s crucial to well-being. Alongside sleep and physical activity, nutrition is a foundation for health – for ourselves and our families.

A new space race for global dominance and market access is taking shape amongst governments but the space economy is being fuelled by billionaire’s Capstone projects. We explore why the Space Economy Matters and why the sector needs private individuals to fund their adventures.

Many do not realise just how the space sector plays such an indispensable role in the global economy. The highest grossing economic sectors – agriculture, mining, transportation, information technology, finance, and insurance – all rely heavily on space systems. That reliance is about to increase with AI and the fourth industrial revolution, which will be fuelled by big data captured and transmitted via satellite constellations.

Biomimetics are considered the pathway between biology and engineering. Biomimicry literally means imitation of the living. “We’ve come back full circle to realise the power and importance of nature. The question we like to ask in our thinking is ‘what would nature do? We need to keep an open mind that nature, as an engineer, was here first” says Lars-Uno Larsson, Founder of Swedish Biomimetics 3000

The London Technology Club Future Technology in Property report. This could be a typical day in the future for a property developer: It’s funny to think that not so long ago, real estate was considered an illiquid asset.

A recurring theme came through whilst curating the report: the third sector and non-profits run the risk of being left behind, especially by digital technology. Whilst technology is transforming other industries, the sector that would harness it for the most good needs it the most.

Sports teams have traditionally been a family-owned business. 109 billionaires own the top 140 global sports brands. But 2019 was the year that PE houses and investment groups made it clear sport is firmly on their radars for alternative investment.