South Delhi’s recently opened [V] Spot, a café-cum-bar, not only offers delectable food and drinks, but also makes interesting use of various technology tools like the iPad— which it offers to its customers to view the menu and place orders. Besides, there are various other gaming and video-recording devices to engage and entertain them.

Cafés have always been the favourite hotspot for the young due to their ambiance and vibrant culture. But now, the icing on the cake is when these cafés are equipped with the latest gizmos, which invariably help to make these hangouts even more appealing to the fun loving and tech-savvy generation.
Leaving no stone unturned in its bid to woo the young, Channel [V] has come up with a technology-equipped café-cum-bar named [V] Spot, in the capital. Located at the district centre in Saket, the café, which opened around three months back, offers a set of rich technology tools to entertain customers and let them express their talents. “We have always been at the forefront in introducing unique formats and discovering fresh avenues for youth engagement. Employing nearly 50 people, the café is a Channel [V] initiative that has been structured to make it easy for the youth to connect with it. Each element in the café has been inspired by the various themes associated with Channel [V],” says Prem Kamath, head, Channel [V]. He adds, “Our aim is to make [V]Spot a cult hangout destination across the country.”

Technology unlimited
Technology has become invaluable in almost everybody’s life, especially the young. “These youngsters understand gadgets very well—whether it’s a phone, a tablet or a camera, they are very familiar with it all! Thus, equipping our café with such gadgets gives us an edge over other restaurants. In fact, we go a step further,” says Kamath, elaborating, “As we are completely youth-oriented, the café is a perfect opportunity for us to bring our values to the forefront by deploying new technology tools and the latest gadgets. Having a video booth, motion sensor gaming zone, etc, are ideas that are highly relevant. We intend to use them across all our café bars in the future.”

Interesting technology tools to attract customers
The cafe ensures the smooth functioning of its operations by using technology like CCTV cameras and point-of-sales solutions to keep a check on employee efficiency, thereby improving productivity. Apart from that, there are a host of interesting gizmos to lure customers. “There are many well-furnished restaurants where you eat, drink, chat and leave, but we offer much more than that. We have various interesting zones and technology based solutions in our café like the iPad menu, a gaming zone, the video booth, et al, to make our cafe more interactive and engaging for our customers,” says Kamath.
So youngsters can choose and place their orders from a quirky iPad menu. Though there are already restaurants in Mumbai and Bangalore that offer such a facility to their customers, [V] Spot has gone a step ahead. Kamath quips, “Our iPad menu has an interactive feature called Simpu (a character on Channel [V[)! If you are confused about what to order, you can just click on Simpu. This would give you a random menu including options for starters, the main course, desserts and drinks.”
Kamath then moves on to a unique feature the café offers. He says, “ We believe that gaming can actually entertain people, which is why we have provided various games for visitors in our café. People can play  ‘[V]ictionary’, a technology friendly version of Pictionary (a wordguessing game). In Pictionary, you, as one team member get a word, which you have to represent pictorially, while the rest of your team tries to guess the word you are trying to draw within a certain time limit. But that is the conventional way to play the game. The twist in [V]ictionary is that the players can draw pictures on a big touch screen. In this way, it involves a larger audience.” He further states, “The gaming zone in our café has a touch screen TV connected to an Xbox (a gaming console) that lets people play motion sensor games and voice-recognition games, among several others.”
The high tech features at the cafe don’t end here. There’s also a video booth, which has an iPad mounted on a stand. It lets people create videos which they can share on Facebook. Moreover, if the videos match television guidelines, they could go on air within a short span of time. The café has a big video wall too, where these video clips can be viewed. Visitors can even show off other hidden talents and interests when themes such as ‘Open Mike’ are run.

ROI
The cafe has had huge crowds since the day it was opened. But Kamath asserts that it would be too early to comment on the returns in monetary terms. “We owe a lot to the technology tools implemented in our café. Undoubtedly, these tools have helped us in pushing up sales. Designed to accommodate 120 people at a time, the café got an average of 8000 footfalls a month, in the first two months,” he shares.

Future plans
The company looks forward to opening 30 more [V] Spot café-cum-bars by 2013 in both Tier 1 and 2 cities across India. “Our next opening will be in Chandigarh, followed by other cities. By December, we plan to open five cafés in different locations like Gurgaon, Calcutta, etc. Technology-wise, we are planning to come up with e-tables in our café, and will also upgrade the existing games and include new technology solutions,” concludes Kamath.
Innovation in technology is a never ending process. The team firmly believes in this as it plans to implement more technology solutions and install the latest gadgets to make its café the coolest youth hangout. We wish the team all the best in its endeavours!