San Francisco is a city that many startups call home, but that has also started to model itself after these startups in an attempt to innovate in a “lean” manner by “creating as much value as possible, with little or no capital cost.”

In October 2012, Mayor Ed Lee annouced that Motionloft was the first private sector company to partner with San Francisco in the city’s Open Data Initiative. This article touches on different ways that San Francisco is innovating and collaborating with its residents and businesses.

Over 30,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors will gather together in Las Vegas for RECon, a global convention for the shopping center industry in a couple of weeks. This blog post highlights the importance of making business decisions based on real data, rather than taking a gamble with some of the biggest deals of the year. Motionloft data allows retail tenants to make better informed business decisions and alleviates the guesswork.

“I’m in a very competitive field, where knowledge is power.”

-Ross Portugeis.

A commercial real estate broker and Senior Vice President at Colliers International, Portugeis touches on the fundamental value of Motionloft data in this interview. From tracking trends over time, to easy access of real time data, he highlights the usefulness of real world analytics. 

Portugeis mentions the relative newness of this innovative technology to an established and competitive industry and gives his main reason for becoming involved with Motionloft, “I want to distinguish myself from my competition. I think Motionloft gives me that competitive edge.”

When I read about another I Made It! event on Bakery Square’s blog, I marked it in my calendar - though I wouldn’t be able to attend, I knew the data that Motionloft was gathering would tell a compelling story. After having talked with Bakery Square’s property managers last winter, I know how driven they are to make community focused events successful. Saturday’s BkSq Family Fun in the Square was no exception and is another great example of how collaboration between property managers and their tenants can benefit both parties, as well as the community.

The title track to The Band Perry’s sophomore album, Pioneer has a less edgy sound than most other songs on the album. (The band appears to be leaning more towards country-rock than folk music these days.) Harkening back to the lighter, almost whimsical sound of their first album, The Band Perry asks the question “Where are we going?” - a question may come to mind any time you turn on the news. Pioneer is somehow light and melodic, as well as profound, eventually layering in snare drums to create a Revolutionary War-esque sound (a motif the lyrics reflect). As with many patriotic country songs, Pioneer culminates in an unyielding bridge, but it is unique within that subgenre for not mentioning God or the USA (though they do specifically mention bullets, which almost took away from the imagery of the rest of the lyrics).

My favorite line: Let your heart not be troubled.

When Walk San Francisco was organizing the nation’s first city-wide Walk to Work Day, they contacted us at Motionloft to explore the possibility of collecting data on the event. We happily agreed, but did not know if the data would reflect a successful event or just another typical Friday morning  commute (obviously, we were cheering Walk SF on). Fortunately, Walk to Work Day had a great turnout and a few days later, Motionloft released a few stats from the data we gathered during the event. It will be very interesting to compare this year’s first Walk to Work Day with future events!