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Setting The Example
Robb Report spoke to Example’s Andy El-Bayeh and Rebecca Gibbs about their new co-working space Example House.
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When ex-Merivale employees Andy El-Bayeh and Rebecca Gibbs both found themselves freelancing in 2017, they looked to each other for advice – with Andy the resident marketing expert and Rebecca a PR guru they often found themselves needing advice with clients. They decided to set up their own communications agency and almost three years later, they’ve expanded their office space and now launched their own co-working space, Example House.
What made you both take the initial leap into creating your own agency?
Rebecca: Andy had already left Merivale and I was looking at freelance opportunities for myself. We both loved working together so much and we both started looking at ways we could work together and collaborate on certain projects.
Andy: There was a lot of collaboration and we both needed to lean on each other and being PR and Marketing we needed to feed off each other to tell a whole brand story. The crazy idea of starting our own agency popped up and it just felt right to do it.
What do you think Example’s point of difference is?
Rebecca: Andy and I both recognised that getting the right people on board was going to be key to our success – it sounds obvious, but we’ve been blessed with the most incredible people.
Andy: Our point of difference is that we all really know the industry and a majority of us have worked client-side not only from marketing but operational perspective and we understand how product is the shape of what works, and that good marketing is based around having a great product first.
Now to your own product, Example House, do you feel this putting your money where your mouth is?
Rebecca: Collaboration and the idea of bringing together likeminded people with various expertise is what founded example in the first place. We wanted to create something that had true longevity, something that was bigger than us.
Andy: That’s the philosophy around how we built it. We want the space to be a place where our clients can really start to think differently about their business, and we want to be able to pull from their experiences as well so that they can also help our team grow.
How do you think a collaborative mixed-use work environment, like Example House impacts company culture?
Rebecca: This is an ambitious space, but I think the team look at the effort that both Andy and I have put into it and can hopefully appreciate how much we are re-investing our resources into them and into the business. You know we’ve set up all these spaces so that you can use it as you want, like if people want to use the bar they can, that’s what it’s there for.
Andy: We work with a bunch of content developers, architects, chef consultants, basically anyone involved with hospitality. We wanted them to have a space to come and collaborate and work out their own business – it’s easy in an agency to get insular in your thinking and utilise this space to set up more forums and more events and experiences.
And finally – how do you get in involved?
Andy: We have a website in which people can apply and if we think that they will get a lot of value out of us and we can get a lot of value out of them not necessarily on a business sense but more in a sense of people that can challenge us. Our difference that this is very intimate, and we want people that are going to interact with us – but also give them their own space.
Rebecca: Send us lots of Rosè! But really we’re looking for people within our industries of travel, hospitality and entertainment and like Andy says it has to be mutually beneficial.
https://weareexample.com.au/examplehouse/
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First Drive: The Porsche 911 S/T Is a Feral Beast That Handles the Road Like an Olympic Bobsledder
The commemorative model borrows underpinnings from the GT3 RS and includes a 518 hp engine.
The soul of any sports car comes down to the alchemy of its tuning—how the engine, suspension, and chassis blend into a chorus of sensations. The secret sauce of the new Porsche 911 S/T, developed as a tribute to the 60th anniversary of the brand’s flagship model, is more potent than most; in fact, it makes a serious case for being the most driver-focused 911 of all time.
Sharing the S/T designation with the homologation special from the 1960s, the (mostly) innocuously styled commemorative model borrows underpinnings from the more visually extroverted GT3 RS. Yet what the S/T, starting at $290,000, lacks in fender cutouts and massive spoilers it makes up for in directness: a flat-six power plant that revs to 9,000 rpm, a motorsport-derived double-wishbone suspension, and a manual gearbox. It’s a delightfully feral combination.
Whereas the automatic-transmission GT3 RS is ruthlessly configured for maximum downforce and minimum lap times, the S/T is dialed in for the road—particularly the Southern Italian ones on which we’re testing the car, which happen to be the very same used by product manager Uwe Braun, Andreas Preuninger, head of Porsche’s GT line, and racing legend Walter Röhrl to finalize its calibration. The car reacts to throttle pressure with eerie deftness, spinning its 518 hp engine with thrilling immediacy, thanks to shorter gear ratios.
The steering response is similarly transparent, as direct as an unfiltered Marlboro, and the body follows with the agility of an Olympic bobsledder. Some of that purity of feeling is the result of addition through subtraction: Power-sapping elements including a hydraulic clutch and rear-axle steering were ditched, which also enabled the battery to be downsized for even more weight savings. The final result, with its carbon-fiber body panels, thinner glass, magnesium wheels, and reduced sound deadening, is the lightest 992-series variant on record, with roughly the same mass as the esteemed 911 R from 2016.
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Images by Rossen Gargolov
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Gentlemanly Restraint
Art and science collide in the the newly released BR03A watch collection by Bell & Ross.
In keeping with the brand’s design salute to aviation and military equipment, the pared-back face of the Bell & Ross BR03 Automatic takes its cue from the instrumentation in cockpits. It’s unabashedly minimal and confidently masculine style is set to make it a future classic.
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Passengers are encouraged to dress in black-tie or cocktail attire, before they head to the bar and dining carriages to enjoy their night, where they are promised ‘unapologetic extravagance’,.
Negronis, martinis, spritzes and sours will all be on offer as the sunlight fades.
So-hot-right-now French chef Jean Imbert is also in the kitchen rattling the pans for guests.
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From Electric Surfboards to Biodegradable Golf Balls: 8 Eco-Conscious Yacht Toys for Green and Clean Fun
Just add water and forget the eco-guilt.
Without toys, yachts would be kind of sedentary. There’s nothing wrong with an alfresco meal, sunsets on the flybridge and daily massages. But toys add zest to life on board, while creating a deeper connection with the water. These days, there are a growing number of options for eco-friendly gadgets and equipment that deliver a greener way to play. These eight toys range from do-it-yourself-propulsion (waterborne fitness bikes) to electric foiling boards, from kayaks made of 100 percent recycled plastics to non-toxic, biodegradable golf balls with fish food inside. Your on-water adrenaline rushes don’t always have to be about noise and gas fumes. They can be fun, silent, and eco-conscious.
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The Fanatic Ray Eco SUP Paddleboard
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The 50 Best Cocktail Bars in the World, According to a New Ranking
The World’s 50 Best organisation gave the Spanish bar Sips top honours during an awards ceremony in Singapore.
If you’re looking for the best bar in the world, you better head to Barcelona.
Sips, from the industry luminaries Simone Caporale and Marc Álvarez, was named the No. 1 bar on the planet in the latest World’s 50 Best Bars ranking. The organisation held its annual awards ceremony on Tuesday in Singapore, the first time it hosted the gathering in Asia. Sips, which only opened two years ago, moved up to the top spot from No. 3 last year.
“Sips was destined for greatness even before it rocketed into the list at No. 37 just a few short months after opening in 2021,” William Drew, the director of content for 50 Best, said in a statement.
“The bar seamlessly translates contemporary innovation and technical precision into a playful cocktail programme, accompanied by the warmest hospitality, making it a worthy winner of The World’s Best Bar 2023 title.”
Coming in second was North America’s best bar: New York City’s Double Chicken Please. The top five was rounded out by Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy, Barcelona’s Paradiso (last year’s No. 1), and London’s Connaught Bar. The highest new entry was Seoul’s Zest at No. 18, while the highest climber was Oslo’s Himkok, which moved up to No. 10 from No. 43 last year.
Barcelona may be home to two of the top five bars, but London has cemented its status as the cocktail capital of the world: The English city had five bars make the list, more than any other town represented. Along with Connaught Bar in the top five, Tayēr + Elementary came in at No. 8, and Satan’s Whiskers (No. 28), A Bar With Shapes for a Name (No. 35), and Scarfes Bar (No. 41) all made the grade too.
The United States similarly had a good showing this year. New York City, in particular, is home to a number of the best bars: Overstory (No. 17) and Katana Kitten (No. 27) joined Double Chicken Please on the list.
Elsewhere, Miami’s Café La Trova hit No. 24 and New Orleans’s Jewel of the South snuck in at No. 49, bringing the Big Easy back to the ranking for the first time since 2014.
To celebrate their accomplishments, all of this year’s winners deserve a drink—made by somebody else at least just this once.
Check out the full list of the 50 best bars in the world below.
1. Sips, Barcelona
2. Double Chicken Please, New York
3. Handshake Speakeasy, Mexico City
4. Paradiso, Barcelona
5. Connaught Bar, London
6. Little Red Door, Paris
7. Licorería Limantour, Mexico City
8. Tayēr + Elementary, London
9. Alquímico, Cartagena
10. Himkok, Oslo
11. Tres Monos, Buenos Aires
12. Line, Athens
13. BKK Social Club, Bangkok
14. Jigger & Pony, Singapore
15. Maybe Sammy, Sydney
16. Salmon Guru, Madrid
17. Overstory, New York
18. Zest, Seoul
19. Mahaniyom Cocktail Bar, Bangkok
20. Coa, Hong Kong
21. Drink Kong, Rome
22. Hanky Panky, Mexico City
23. Caretaker’s Cottage, Melbourne
24. Café La Trova, Miami
25. Baba au Rum, Athens
26. CoChinChina, Buenos Aires
27. Katana Kitten, New York
28. Satan’s Whiskers, London
29. Wax On, Berlin
30. Florería Atlántico, Buenos Aires
31. Röda Huset, Stockholm
32. Sago House, Singapore
33. Freni e Frizioni, Rome
34. Argo, Hong Kong
35. A Bar With Shapes for a Name, London
36. The SG Club, Tokyo
37. Bar Benfiddich, Tokyo
38. The Cambridge Public House, Paris
39. Panda & Sons, Edinburgh
40. Mimi Kakushi, Dubai
41. Scarfes Bar, London
42. 1930, Milan
43. Carnaval, Lima
44. L’Antiquario, Naples
45. Baltra Bar, Mexico City
46. Locale Firenze, Florence
47. The Clumsies, Athens
48. Atlas, Singapore
49. Jewel of the South, New Orleans
50. Galaxy Bar, Dubai
