If the main streets provide the express lanes of a city, laneways are almost the accidental spaces between the buildings, providing access, short cuts and relief from the bustle.

Retail is becoming become less about the product itself and more about how we feel about the brand and the role it has in our lives.

For all the benefits that technology brings to retail, customers still value human interaction.

Yuval Noah Harare in his book Homo Deus postulates a future where human consciousness can be digitally mapped and uploaded, thus superseding the need for a physical body. Artificial and human intelligence, he says, will become interchangeable.

It’s no longer the dark, deafening, fragrant, moose headed frat party that a big section of America’s youth knew and loved but eventually grew out of.