Last Friday and Saturday, the fortunate from all over Hong Kong and the world accended on the Hong Kong Convention Centre to participate in Hong Kong's first ever #RISEconf. There were startups, drones & tech celebrities. There were bad sandwiches. Incredible speakers. And an abundance of energy I thought only existed in small children.
Here are just some of the foodie start ups and apps that got our attention.
SamTheLocal
Get in contact with a local - and have them be your tour guide for a very reasonable rate. Capitalising on the sharing economy, you can find a local or be a local. You may select from a range of different activities and prices. It has the potential to change how we travel, and interact with people when we travel. Not to mention better the local economy in different and meaningful ways.
Straight to the best local favourite eateries we will go!! A little over excited, we may be.
www.samthelocal.com
FeedMe Guru
Hong Kong home grown, FeedMe Guru wants to be your trusted source of restaurant reviews about town. Amalgamating reviews from all over, partnering with local bloggers and with a secret algorithm for weeding out suspect reviews we are thinking OpenRice, but with a better colour scheme.
Coming to the App Store soon, one to keep an eye on.
www.feedmeguru.com
FoodCloud
In India, when you want to order delivery but also want some good home cooking you go to FoodCloud. If you are handy in the kitchen and want to make some extra cash, you also go to FoodCloud. The best home chefs can collect recommendations, and build their reputations much like a blogger - and then who knows what fame may bring.
FoodCloud presents impressive growth stats. It will be interesting to follow especially in terms of regulating the sale of food, and legal aspects to that as well.
www.foodcloud.in
Bon Appetit
Available on Google Play and the App Store, this French app allows you to reduce human contact in a restaurant to an absolute minimum. You can reserve your table, order your selection from the menu and ask for the bill from your phone, whilst collecting loyalty points from your participating restaurants.
The app reviews reveal it is early days - you will still need to speak to real people for a while yet.
www.bonappetit.com.co
Binge
Taking this concept one step further is binge. If your restaurant is binge-enabled, you are able to see your bill adding up on your smart phone real time (handy in a number of situations) and then pay hands free and wallet free using your binge account.
The web site looks slick and the app is polished but it's success will depend on whether enough restaurants participate to give us a reason to use it. It is only in India at the moment.
www.letsbinge.com
Qraved
The #1 Food & Drink App in Indonesia, Qraved is a restaurant discovery and reservations app that aims to incorporate discounts and loyalty points into your dining experience. It looks like there is a substantial database of restaurants. App reviews are good and this bodes well for continued use - check it out when next visiting Indonesia.
www.qraved.com
Foodie
Of course if you are called Foodie there is no way we can walk past your stall without taking a look. This Foodie is from Sri Lanka, and aims to collate all your dining and delivery choices on one organised website. Whilst not really showcasing any new ideas, it looks an impressive undertaking.
The crab in Colombo is apparently so good - I'll be visiting this site again when I finally make it over there.
www.foodie.global
Seeties
Whilst not strictly food related, Seeties aims to be you local recommendation (for sightseeing, staycation, sport and of course eating) wherever you may be. Crowd sourcing suggestions and collating them is not new, but if it reaches the tipping point of popularity then this may be an extremely convenient place to get your next hot tip.
www.seeties.me
If you have used any of these apps, or can recommend some more please do so in the comments! We love hearing about new tech and ideas nearly as much as food.
