Imagine a Future with Ten
We have specially commissioned a Short Story to bring alive our business and vision.
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Based on a future imagined by Ten Lifestyle Group, the Short Story, written by award-winning actor and writer, Ben Moor, was designed to help explain Ten to members, investors and anyone interested in how technology and expertise can help create a better future for individuals and their families. We’ve done this in a way that tells you more than numbers ever could.
Ten Lifestyle Group, founded in 1998, is a leading, technology‐enabled lifestyle and travel platform, providing trusted concierge services to its members. The Group is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: TENG). Ten assists its members to discover, organise and book travel, dining and live entertainment. Through Ten’s service proposition, members can achieve superior access, experiences and outcomes, more cost‐effectively and conveniently than they could have achieved on their own. Ten provides a high‐touch travel and lifestyle concierge service, underpinned by its proprietary technology‐enabled platform.
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throughout the story. Enjoy!**
A Chain by Ben Moor
A SHORT STORY COMMISSIONED BY TEN LIFESTYLE GROUP
Lives change.
With every decision and every journey, our only constant is that nothing stays constant. In a week or so, four people will find themselves by a hotel pool in London, but right now they are dotted around the planet like picnics in a summer park. These are just a few of the many thousands of members Ten may be helping daily.
Greta and Akihiko are in Hong Kong. Moustafa is in Munich and Lara is flying there.
Greta’s start-up is partly funded by the venture capital firm that Lara co-founded. Lara’s London office is located in a block designed by Moustafa. Moustafa has read about Lara’s sustainable forestry investment projects, and now insists on sourcing all the wood used in his buildings from her. Lara’s daughter is a follower of Akihiko’s extraordinary social media feeds, especially the one concerning his global romcom in development.
They are all Ten members, with changing needs, small and large, and they’re each part of a chain.
Tonight there is a football match in Munich, an important one (aren’t they all?) and Moustafa’s team is a goal away from the final.
With every decision and every journey, our only constant is that nothing stays constant. In a week or so, four people will find themselves by a hotel pool in London, but right now they are dotted around the planet like picnics in a summer park. These are just a few of the many thousands of members Ten may be helping daily.
Greta and Akihiko are in Hong Kong. Moustafa is in Munich and Lara is flying there.
Greta’s start-up is partly funded by the venture capital firm that Lara co-founded. Lara’s London office is located in a block designed by Moustafa. Moustafa has read about Lara’s sustainable forestry investment projects, and now insists on sourcing all the wood used in his buildings from her. Lara’s daughter is a follower of Akihiko’s extraordinary social media feeds, especially the one concerning his global romcom in development.
They are all Ten members, with changing needs, small and large, and they’re each part of a chain.
Tonight there is a football match in Munich, an important one (aren’t they all?) and Moustafa’s team is a goal away from the final.
Moustafa is sitting next to another Ten member,
a Norwegian quantum cryptographer, supporting the other team. But that’s OK – that’s pretty much the only thing they disagree on. A Ten Lifestyle Manager based in London, has seen that as seat neighbours, they’ll get along.
As the game flows, they compare notes on experiences and trips, and swap tips for the cities they’re each next to visit. A bakery in Venice for a gallery in Glasgow. They laugh together. Moustafa has a big laugh, the size of his generous heart. The winning goal scores, a slice of the crowd rises, and by the time he is back in his seat, Ten have confirmed Moustafa’s ticket for the final, as well as airline and hotel options based on his travel profile, if he wants them.
And he does, he really does.
Many are watching the closing moments of the match that Moustafa’s at, including, half a world away in a Hong Kong hotel, Aki. He and Greta are both Ten members and Greta is trying to sleep as she has a full day tomorrow, while Aki has to make a trip. At check-in last night, Ten’s relationship with the hotel meant they were offered a room upgrade, a spa treatment or a workout session with a personal trainer, and they’d agreed to hit the gym.
But it seems the gym has hit Greta back and she’s exhausted.
A message from Ten pops up on Aki’s device to tell him he has the option of being booked on a pre-dawn flight. It’s with a different airline, one keen to get Aki’s preference, so they’re offering an upgrade, and use of their super comfortable VIP lounge to help entice him.
This is good; this is what he likes Ten for – the way they solve things he didn’t know needed solving. He accepts, packs fast and he kisses Greta, telling her they’ll see each other in London at the end of the week.
a Norwegian quantum cryptographer, supporting the other team. But that’s OK – that’s pretty much the only thing they disagree on. A Ten Lifestyle Manager based in London, has seen that as seat neighbours, they’ll get along.
As the game flows, they compare notes on experiences and trips, and swap tips for the cities they’re each next to visit. A bakery in Venice for a gallery in Glasgow. They laugh together. Moustafa has a big laugh, the size of his generous heart. The winning goal scores, a slice of the crowd rises, and by the time he is back in his seat, Ten have confirmed Moustafa’s ticket for the final, as well as airline and hotel options based on his travel profile, if he wants them.
And he does, he really does.
Many are watching the closing moments of the match that Moustafa’s at, including, half a world away in a Hong Kong hotel, Aki. He and Greta are both Ten members and Greta is trying to sleep as she has a full day tomorrow, while Aki has to make a trip. At check-in last night, Ten’s relationship with the hotel meant they were offered a room upgrade, a spa treatment or a workout session with a personal trainer, and they’d agreed to hit the gym.
But it seems the gym has hit Greta back and she’s exhausted.
A message from Ten pops up on Aki’s device to tell him he has the option of being booked on a pre-dawn flight. It’s with a different airline, one keen to get Aki’s preference, so they’re offering an upgrade, and use of their super comfortable VIP lounge to help entice him.
This is good; this is what he likes Ten for – the way they solve things he didn’t know needed solving. He accepts, packs fast and he kisses Greta, telling her they’ll see each other in London at the end of the week.
I’ll miss you, Greta says to the closing door Aki’s going through. She sleeps well and wakes early, half-forgetting Aki’s absence. Her day in Hong Kong is a busy one and a rainy one. She has a full itinerary of sit-downs and break-outs, of check-withs and quick-meets, finely scheduled by Ten, but in the hurry there’s also assurance; she trusts that that tonight she’ll make her New York plane. It’s the umbrella she never remembers, but is always on hand.
And so the exchanges go. The flow of events and feedback makes each of their worlds better; the complex becomes simple when information and experience are shared.
Moustafa has a favourite room at The Whitby in Midtown Manhattan; the information Greta has chosen to share with Ten about what she looks for in a hotel means that her New York Lifestyle Manager will confirm it’s hers for the same price when she touches down.
These are just a few of the thousands of members Ten is helping around the world every night and day, but each is an individual. The magic is in the way Ten can identify what each requires so the perfect solutions can be tailored. It’s light touch bespokery of the highest quality.
For example, Lara’s London flat is being re-worked and she’s been place-hopping. A Ten Lifestyle Manager has drained the stress out of the design and build process and has organised an interiors expert to line up some options to suit Lara’s needs; there will be something to look over later in the week. This feels exciting and calming at the same time and is in the back of Lara’s mind, while in the front of her mind is her sequence of meetings around Germany. As she lands at the airport, Moustafa is about to take off.
Lara likes Bavaria. She borrows a Tesla for three days; her Ten membership and her relevant data points being all the guarantee the dealership requires.
She can make the journeys she needs to in her own style. She is swift and quiet, she is new and thoughtful. She is outside Munich now, heading deep into the Black Forest, here to check on her passion, sustainable forestry.
Lara stands at the edge of the field and looks out over the forest, breathing in its silence, so refreshing after the meeting rooms and lounges. She sees oceans in everything. She dives in.
And so the exchanges go. The flow of events and feedback makes each of their worlds better; the complex becomes simple when information and experience are shared.
Moustafa has a favourite room at The Whitby in Midtown Manhattan; the information Greta has chosen to share with Ten about what she looks for in a hotel means that her New York Lifestyle Manager will confirm it’s hers for the same price when she touches down.
These are just a few of the thousands of members Ten is helping around the world every night and day, but each is an individual. The magic is in the way Ten can identify what each requires so the perfect solutions can be tailored. It’s light touch bespokery of the highest quality.
For example, Lara’s London flat is being re-worked and she’s been place-hopping. A Ten Lifestyle Manager has drained the stress out of the design and build process and has organised an interiors expert to line up some options to suit Lara’s needs; there will be something to look over later in the week. This feels exciting and calming at the same time and is in the back of Lara’s mind, while in the front of her mind is her sequence of meetings around Germany. As she lands at the airport, Moustafa is about to take off.
Lara likes Bavaria. She borrows a Tesla for three days; her Ten membership and her relevant data points being all the guarantee the dealership requires.
She can make the journeys she needs to in her own style. She is swift and quiet, she is new and thoughtful. She is outside Munich now, heading deep into the Black Forest, here to check on her passion, sustainable forestry.
Lara stands at the edge of the field and looks out over the forest, breathing in its silence, so refreshing after the meeting rooms and lounges. She sees oceans in everything. She dives in.
Moustafa heads to Venice, for the Architecture Biennale. He lands around dusk, and as the water taxi shoots him like an arrow over the sea to his hotel, he recalls that recommendation from Munich. He’ll look for the bakery tomorrow.
But for some reason on this occasion, Moustafa can’t get to sleep in the rented palazzo. A phone call, and Ten’s expert on the city has a late-night idea.
Moustafa is taken to an island further into the lagoon where the local astronomy society waits for a meteorite shower to begin overhead. Another data platform might monetise such a moment; back in the 2010s there were a few that would have tried . They would have taken Moustafa on a ride where their cut was maximised. But Ten’s subscription model goes with the grain of trust. It’s predicated on what its member actually wants or needs, rather than what makes the company immediate profit. All it needs is to know Moustafa, and unlike with those other companies, Moustafa is in control of how well it knows him. Tonight, this agreement creates something deeply agreeable.
But for some reason on this occasion, Moustafa can’t get to sleep in the rented palazzo. A phone call, and Ten’s expert on the city has a late-night idea.
Moustafa is taken to an island further into the lagoon where the local astronomy society waits for a meteorite shower to begin overhead. Another data platform might monetise such a moment; back in the 2010s there were a few that would have tried . They would have taken Moustafa on a ride where their cut was maximised. But Ten’s subscription model goes with the grain of trust. It’s predicated on what its member actually wants or needs, rather than what makes the company immediate profit. All it needs is to know Moustafa, and unlike with those other companies, Moustafa is in control of how well it knows him. Tonight, this agreement creates something deeply agreeable.
He is given a cup of hot chocolate and shown how to focus a telescope just there as a line dashes through the dark for a second. There again. Another one. And two more. His great laughter distracts the others from the sky, as if this is a more remarkable thing. Moustafa’s breath is a cloud of delight, and he thinks that sometimes trying to get to sleep is the worst way to spend a night.
The following day he fulfils all his commitments at the Biennale, passing on his admiration to the impressives and offering encouragement to the improvers. He is happy to have come and seen this work and shared the time with colleagues, but the suggestion to watch the shooting stars is what has made this trip. He thanks the Ten Lifestyle Manager for finding the astronomy meeting as he packs for Turin. After that it’s Brussels. Then London.
Greta now has work to do in New York. She misses Aki, but this time apart is good. Maybe they had been doing too much travelling together recently, maybe taking each other for granted. Maybe they need to remember that particular space they fill for each other.
The following day he fulfils all his commitments at the Biennale, passing on his admiration to the impressives and offering encouragement to the improvers. He is happy to have come and seen this work and shared the time with colleagues, but the suggestion to watch the shooting stars is what has made this trip. He thanks the Ten Lifestyle Manager for finding the astronomy meeting as he packs for Turin. After that it’s Brussels. Then London.
Greta now has work to do in New York. She misses Aki, but this time apart is good. Maybe they had been doing too much travelling together recently, maybe taking each other for granted. Maybe they need to remember that particular space they fill for each other.
Greta has been using Ten’s digital platform to track down a store in NoHo. She has admired the brave and experimental work of the outsider jeweller for months, and she is lucky that through Ten she has been able to order a bespoke chain for Aki . Others may not understand the brilliance of what this person does with metal and stones and heat and wood, but to her the chain she now holds in her hands is a masterpiece. The wood is sourced from one of Lara’s forests; the stones from Moustafa’s family’s town. She wants to share her joy and so on the plane to London she feeds it back to Ten herself, not by posting a review on a wide and shallow website; the deep waves her particular joy creates will lead others who have her style to find the shop, sailing their own currents.
When shared with those who share her eye for the extraordinary, her opinion is a communal resource. Ten values her, and, as it knows other members may like what she likes, others will follow her wake.
This is how the chain makes another link.
Lara takes her time amongst the tall trees and the quiet people there; but she can’t stay forever. She drives the semi-autonomous EV back to the city for dinner. Lara always enjoys the restaurants Ten recommends for her. She eats early in the evening, finishes fairly quickly and enjoys a good wine with her meal. These are things she is fine with sharing with establishments as it means they always find a good table for her and a guest. Is it playing the game to share certain traits of her dining personality that make her seem a more useful customer? Of course, but is it really a game if you don’t feel like you’re playing it?
Aki has met with a cinematographer and a composer and he now has a free evening in London. He’s an experimenter in food and likes to seek out the next thing. A new place recommended on the Ten Digital Platform has caught his eye, so he uses it to book himself in for the evening; transport too. The car drops him off in a part of the city he has never been to before. Against a pale sky a broom is stuck in the bare branches of a tree – it’s a perfectly weird thing to see and Aki takes a beautiful shot which, after unlocating himself, he instantly shares with the world. Lara’s daughter will be one of tens of thousands who like this picture in the days to come.
When shared with those who share her eye for the extraordinary, her opinion is a communal resource. Ten values her, and, as it knows other members may like what she likes, others will follow her wake.
This is how the chain makes another link.
Lara takes her time amongst the tall trees and the quiet people there; but she can’t stay forever. She drives the semi-autonomous EV back to the city for dinner. Lara always enjoys the restaurants Ten recommends for her. She eats early in the evening, finishes fairly quickly and enjoys a good wine with her meal. These are things she is fine with sharing with establishments as it means they always find a good table for her and a guest. Is it playing the game to share certain traits of her dining personality that make her seem a more useful customer? Of course, but is it really a game if you don’t feel like you’re playing it?
Aki has met with a cinematographer and a composer and he now has a free evening in London. He’s an experimenter in food and likes to seek out the next thing. A new place recommended on the Ten Digital Platform has caught his eye, so he uses it to book himself in for the evening; transport too. The car drops him off in a part of the city he has never been to before. Against a pale sky a broom is stuck in the bare branches of a tree – it’s a perfectly weird thing to see and Aki takes a beautiful shot which, after unlocating himself, he instantly shares with the world. Lara’s daughter will be one of tens of thousands who like this picture in the days to come.
It’s not much from the outside. Aki enters the restaurant and is greeted by the chef-owner. He recognises her. He’d dined with Greta at her chef’s table in London two years ago and it was sensational.
Now he gets why he’s here. This, he trusts, will be excellent too.
You found us, the chef calls, coming out of the kitchen.
You’re not easy to find. I had help. Aki holds up his device.
Ah. Those guys. They get us .
Ten is so far ahead of the curve, the curve isn’t even a curve yet, it’s only a dot that itself almost isn’t even there. But soon it will be a curve and it will lead others here too; those who want to be on the leading edge of the new, others who simply trust its arch .
There’s no menu to order from, there’s no best place to sit; there is one long table and food is brought out when it’s ready. The food has almost too many flavours. The room is busy but casually under-decorated and Aki wonders if this is a deliberate design decision or something as yet unfixed, but feels it might be rude to bring it up.
It could do with a sweep.
Because Aki is so positive, Ten will send others along to find this place in the weeks to come; the broom in the tree will have blown down by then but the photo will remain online.
As Lara finishes her meal, a text comes through from her Ten Lifestyle Manager: the interior designer has uploaded a series of digital mood boards for her to review. She uploads them to the datawall in her room. Her daughter back in London has had some good input but there’s one colour she is still unsure of. When everything does get confirmed, Ten will begin to organise the tradespeople to begin the project, and that will be a weight off her mind.
After Munich she travels to Frankfurt by train, using her tablet to watch her daughter’s video project on Aki’s work, the Hong Kong cityscapes, the broom in the London tree.
Now he gets why he’s here. This, he trusts, will be excellent too.
You found us, the chef calls, coming out of the kitchen.
You’re not easy to find. I had help. Aki holds up his device.
Ah. Those guys. They get us .
Ten is so far ahead of the curve, the curve isn’t even a curve yet, it’s only a dot that itself almost isn’t even there. But soon it will be a curve and it will lead others here too; those who want to be on the leading edge of the new, others who simply trust its arch .
There’s no menu to order from, there’s no best place to sit; there is one long table and food is brought out when it’s ready. The food has almost too many flavours. The room is busy but casually under-decorated and Aki wonders if this is a deliberate design decision or something as yet unfixed, but feels it might be rude to bring it up.
It could do with a sweep.
Because Aki is so positive, Ten will send others along to find this place in the weeks to come; the broom in the tree will have blown down by then but the photo will remain online.
As Lara finishes her meal, a text comes through from her Ten Lifestyle Manager: the interior designer has uploaded a series of digital mood boards for her to review. She uploads them to the datawall in her room. Her daughter back in London has had some good input but there’s one colour she is still unsure of. When everything does get confirmed, Ten will begin to organise the tradespeople to begin the project, and that will be a weight off her mind.
After Munich she travels to Frankfurt by train, using her tablet to watch her daughter’s video project on Aki’s work, the Hong Kong cityscapes, the broom in the London tree.
Lara arrives back at City airport and, instead of going home, Ten finds her space in a hotel for her to meet with the interior designer and her daughter afterwards.
At their favourite place in London, Greta and Aki reconnect. Aki loves the chain, but it’s seeing her that he loves more. They head upstairs for an early evening swim.
Moustafa wants somewhere to meet the Norwegian quantum cryptographer again, they’re both in London now, and Ten knows just the place. From the balcony beside the rooftop pool, he laughs as he spots one of his buildings through the forest of skyscrapers. It’s the one where Lara’s office is.
And so now, this evening, the four of them haven’t quite all met. They pause in and around the water at the hotel where they’ve found themselves but not yet each other. There is a rose pink glow to the day’s end, the evening is warm with anticipation.
Lara’s eye is caught by Aki’s new chain, and there’s a colour in the wood that’s exactly right for her flat. Aki hears Moustafa’s laugh and notices his programme from the football match among the papers on his table.
There is a splash, a smile, a song, a sigh and a salute.
Greta swims on smooth and effortless, while Aki edits his photos into a moodstream.
Lara looks down at her phone, checking how far her daughter is.
Moustafa nods up at a plane as it slips towards the sunset, to its destination, to tomorrow.
At their favourite place in London, Greta and Aki reconnect. Aki loves the chain, but it’s seeing her that he loves more. They head upstairs for an early evening swim.
Moustafa wants somewhere to meet the Norwegian quantum cryptographer again, they’re both in London now, and Ten knows just the place. From the balcony beside the rooftop pool, he laughs as he spots one of his buildings through the forest of skyscrapers. It’s the one where Lara’s office is.
And so now, this evening, the four of them haven’t quite all met. They pause in and around the water at the hotel where they’ve found themselves but not yet each other. There is a rose pink glow to the day’s end, the evening is warm with anticipation.
Lara’s eye is caught by Aki’s new chain, and there’s a colour in the wood that’s exactly right for her flat. Aki hears Moustafa’s laugh and notices his programme from the football match among the papers on his table.
There is a splash, a smile, a song, a sigh and a salute.
Greta swims on smooth and effortless, while Aki edits his photos into a moodstream.
Lara looks down at her phone, checking how far her daughter is.
Moustafa nods up at a plane as it slips towards the sunset, to its destination, to tomorrow.
Their devices ping one by one.
A message from Ten.
They look around to find each other.
Eyes contact eyes.
Lives change.
A message from Ten.
They look around to find each other.
Eyes contact eyes.
Lives change.
About Ben Moor
Ben Moor is an award-winning writer and actor, best known for his roles in Miss You Already, Casanova and The Three Musketeers. His ‘stand-up theatre’ pieces place universal themes in bizarre and funny landscapes; his writing having been compared to authors as diverse as Lewis Carroll and Thomas Pynchon. He adapted three of his stage pieces into short stories, and these were published as More Trees to Climb by Portobello Books in 2009. He has written non-fiction for Wired, The Guardian and The Idler.
As an actor, he has appeared in the films Casanova, Miss You Already and A Monster Calls. TV appearances include Knowing Me, Knowing You, Taboo, A Very English Scandal, and The IT Crowd. Among numerous radio credits, he wrote and acted in Elastic Planet for BBC Radio 4, and three series of the popular sci-fi comedy Undone for BBC Radio 4Extra.
As an actor, he has appeared in the films Casanova, Miss You Already and A Monster Calls. TV appearances include Knowing Me, Knowing You, Taboo, A Very English Scandal, and The IT Crowd. Among numerous radio credits, he wrote and acted in Elastic Planet for BBC Radio 4, and three series of the popular sci-fi comedy Undone for BBC Radio 4Extra.
