BC Business
Sens.ai
Take a brain vacation as corporate travel gears back up. Plus, new ways to empower your business
Not every trip is about packing a bag: discover these two executive-health voyages of discovery without leaving B.C.
Whistler-based wearable neurotechnology company Sens.ai is making the neurofeedback training used by top athletes and executives more accessible. Its headset (around US$1,000) stimulates alpha, gamma, theta and SMR brainwaves.
Sens.ai claims that by using neurofeedback training for 20 minutes, three times a week, over eight weeks, users can expect enhanced calm, sleep, creativity and concentration. A study showed 19-percent faster thinking speed, 16-percent better accuracy in timed tasks requiring classification, decision making and physical response, and 12-percent faster physical reaction time.
The company raised half a million U.S. dollars from early adopters through an Indiegogo campaign last year, and with a production run in progress, “we will go into a more traditional direct-to-consumer sales process” in Q2 of 2022, says CMO Kevin Corkum.
Visiting the new Vancouver location of Field Trip Health could be a transformational journey. “We provide ketamine-assisted therapies to people who need them to help improve their mental health and well-being,” says executive chair Ronan Levy. “Our clients tend to be corporate executives who recognize that their mental health and well-being are essential for not only their happiness, but also their performance.”
A pioneer in evidence-based, medically supervised, psychedelic-assisted therapy, Canadian company Field Trip opened its first clinic in Toronto and now has nine North American locations, plus one in Amsterdam, and dozens more planned by 2024. The Vancouver outlet is its first to include alternative therapy spaces where local healers can also offer services.
Guests at Nightingale restaurant in Vancouver last winter didn’t just get a meal: they got schooled. Toronto-based etiquette expert Susy Fossati, trained at the top U.K. institution English Manner, runs adult etiquette workshops in B.C. that are ideal for global businesspeople, whether you’re interacting with colleagues virtually or in person. “It’s about building confidence, grace and being your most likable self, at all times,” Fossati says.
As international business travel ramps back up, insight into local protocol “can be a very powerful tool,” she notes. “We always want to respect the rules of etiquette in the country we are visiting.”
Two years into virtual meeting culture, “it’s still so surprising to see the considerable amounts of faux pas happening during Zoom business meetings,” Fossati says, recommending business-casual office attire head to toe (ditch the sweatpants-and-COVID-shirt combo), muting noisy backgrounds and avoiding eating and drinking on camera (and camera-on is the polite default setting: “You are your living brand, at all times,” she says).
Through her company, Avignon Etiquette, Fossati also customizes private sessions, and has given groups of women and small businesses adult-specific etiquette training, as well as children’s instruction.
Vancouver company ElectraMeccanica is finally poised to make major inroads in U.S. markets like California, Arizona and Oregon with its Solo, a three-wheeled, single-passenger electric vehicle (expected to sell for less than US$20,000). Licensed like a motorcycle but built with auto-level safety features, it could be a corporate-fleet, car-share or delivery (the upcoming Solo Cargo model has a customizable freight hatch) game changer.