Check out the highlights from Rookie of the New Year! These unique opportunities for to discover something new in 2013 can be found on Uniiverse! 

Video includes: Suspension yoga, 3D Printing Workshop, Silkscreening Workshop, and a Demo of Molecular Gastronomy! What a hoot! 

CaffeineTO Week starts tonight and offers a fresh brew of unique caffeine infused events with some of Toronto’s finest baristas, chocolatiers, and tea experts. Check out the events listed below and buy your tickets here!

Monday, January 28, 2013, 7-9PM

Chocolate and Coffee Sommelier Tasting

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 7-8PM

African Coffee Showcase with LIT Espresso Bar

Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 6:30-9:30PM

Coffee Cupping with Fahrenheit Coffee

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 6-8PM

Tea Blending Workshop at the Tea Emporium

Friday, February 1, 2013, 7:30-9PM

Tea Cocktails with Dan of Herbal Infusions

June 17th: Father’s day. What are you going to get good ole Dad this year? Another tie? Sure, it’s the thought that counts, but let’s be honest, you can do better than that! 

Through the various activities and classes posted on Uniiverse, mixed with some careful planning, you can organize a perfect day just for Dad.

Outdoor Outing:

Start the adventure off right by booking an outdoor activity. The early summer weather should be ripe for volleyball games and yoga classes, or if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, look into Jaime’s listing. He’s keen to get his sailboat out on the water, but needs a skipper! Picture you, Dad, (and maybe mom too?) out on the lake, soaking up the sun and learning about boating. Instead of a tie, maybe give Dad a captains hat! 

Sip Spirits:

The fun doesn’t have to stop there. After recovering from your adventure on the high seas, maybe head on over to a wine tasting class. Swirl, spit and laugh as you learn how to taste and talk about wine. If Dad is already a wine expert, he’ll get to show off his skills, and if not, he’ll learn how to. Wine’s not your thing? There’s always Ben’s Mojito Making Class, a more exotic option that will pay off at Dad’s next outdoor barbeque.

Feast on Homemade Food 

Speaking of food, wining might make Dad happy, but dining is the true way to anyone’s heart. Take a cooking class where you can learn how to make Dad’s favorite dish. Robert and Lisa offer pasta making, Mariana offers European style cooking classes and Zeynep teaches Turkish cuisine. With such diverse listings, you’ll be sure to find something that will blow Dad away, if not by the food, then by the pure effort you put into giving him the perfect day.

Get your Golf on

Dad knew his kid was talented, but not this talented. Since you picked up some golf lessons from Uniiverse, you now stand a chance against Dad’s unforgiving swing. Show him who’s boss out on the green! (or let him win.. it’s his day after all.)

Happy Father’s Day to all the great Dad’s in the Uniiverse! 

How many of your Facebook friends do you truly know in real-life? How many of them do you see on a regular basis?  

Uniiverse can spark real-life interactions between you and someone new, but we also want to help you stay closer to your friends and family.  Your personal network is extremely important, and we’re happy to announce a new Uniiverse feature that allows you to share brilliantly with the people who matter most.  Introducing (drumroll please…) listing invisibility cloaks! (just kidding…sort of) You can now create private and semi-private listings on Uniiverse.

Here’s how it works.  When you create a listing, you can now select exactly who can see and book it.  You can choose for it to be:

• available to the general public 
• available to just your Facebook friends
• available to select people (unlisted and password protected listings)

Uniiverse is even more powerful now that you can share with specific people.  Sometimes less is more.

We’re excited to see (and not see) what ideas you come-up with using this powerful tool:

• Invite friends to a party or get-together. Split the cost of drinks, food or entertainment. They can pay you directly through the site!
• Invite friends to a fun weekend away. Going on a ski trip? Split the cost of accommodation and transportation. Ride-share! 
• Create a private service that only your friends or loved ones can book. Remember giving mom coupons when you were a kid?  Go high tech this year and offer her access to a yearlong Mother’s Day helper! 
• Share an item or space with only your friends (you might not share certain things with the whole world, but you’d share it with friends, maybe for a cheaper price, or even for free!)

Now, to drop some science: the average Facebook user has 245 friends – but that’s more than what’s known as the “Dunbar Number”.  Research from the University of Oxford suggests that there’s a natural limit to the number of relationships humans can process: about 150 people.  With Uniiverse, you can now build mini sharing economies with the people who matter to you.  Or, share with the world and bring new people into your circles!

We’re very excited to make this option available.  You can share what you want, with whom you want, when you want!  Keep the Uniiverse close, and your network even closer.

As April comes to a close, we should all think back about what we’ve done to improve the environment – why? Because April is Earth Month! Did you know? If not, no need to fret because Earth day is TODAY, and we want to celebrate and let you know some simple things you can do to make a difference and get a little greener.

Here are 5 ways you can use Uniiverse to go green:

1. Planning to drive anywhere? You can organize a carpool on Uniiverse! Let’s reduce the amount of cars on the road.

2. Share, don’t toss – borrow, don’t shop! If you have belongings lying around the house that you rarely use, lend your items to someone else via Uniiverse. Avoid buying something if you’re only going to use it once. Instead, see if anyone is offering to share items with you on Uniiverse.

3. Have a green thumb? Find some like-minded people to share your garden with on Uniiverse. Grow some local produce. Plant a tree.

4. Want to get around the city but don’t have a bike? See if anyone in your area if offering to lend theirs out on Uniiverse. Have a fixie, road or mountain bike you rarely use? Let someone else borrow your bike.

5. Have something to teach people about lifestyles that will improve their well-being? Have some green tips and tricks? Offer a class or workshop!

Watch out world! We’re proud to announce the growth of Uniiverse in the past two months. People in over 300 cities and 47 countries around the globe have joined the sharing economy and created unique listings on Uniiverse. 

If you have created a listing on Uniiverse, then one of these green pins represents the positive impact you are having in your city. We’re excited to watch this expand!

Embracing Uniiverse and the sharing economy will continue to and increasingly have a positive economic, social, and environmental impact. 

Our goal is to have all of the land on this map hidden by green sharing pins! Have you started sharing yet? Join the movement to make the world a better place and create your first Uniiverse listing today: uniiverse.com/offering

For inspiration, here are some great listings from around the world:

• Learn basic Japanese from Susan or check out the food trucks with Luke in San Francisco 
• Share your books or run by the sea with Hayley in Melbourne, Australia 
• Rent this Earls Court flat from Anne-Claire during the Olympics in London
• Borrow a violin from Craig or join a Groove Yoga class with Tamara in Toronto