While headlines in 2008 focused on failing markets, foreclosures and fear of worse to come, our network of 8,000+ Springspotters had no trouble finding bright new business ideas as they continued to pop up around the globe. Here are our favourites across 10 industries:*

• Food & beverage
• Media & publishing
• Lifestyle & leisure
• Retail
• Fashion & beauty

• Life hacks
• Eco & sustainability
• Marketing & advertising
• Telecom & mobile
• Travel & tourism

All of these ideas offer plenty of opportunities in 2009, whether it's by partnering with one of the featured businesses, bringing their concept to your part of the world, or being inspired to add similar offerings to your own brand, product or service.

Although it won't be an easy year for most entrepreneurs, we strongly believe that—along with hard work, talented leadership and inspired execution—innovation is key to surviving the current economic slump. We look forward to bringing you heaps more smart new business ideas over the next 12 months! (If you sign up for our newsletter, we'll send you weekly updates to make sure you don't miss anything—subscribe for free here.)

* Your industry not listed? Check out our idea database for recent spottings in other categories, including transportation, financial services and homes & housing.

1. Graze — Healthy snacks, delivered by mail in serving sizes
2. Geschmackslabor — Taste lab restaurant lets customers add flavour to their meals
3. Honibe — Honey without the mess
4. Catch a Piece of Maine — Adopt a Maine lobster trap
5. Bin Ends — Wine tastings via Twitter
6. Tcho — Next-gen chocolate makers
7. Pink Flamingo Pizza — Balloon-enabled pizza picnic delivery
8. WineSide — Wine by the trial-sized tube
9. Morsels — Bakery focuses on bite-size treats
10. Sonntagmorgen — A customized cup of joe

Bonus | And three more that we just had to squeeze in:

• Kids Konserve — Reusable lunch kit for kids
• Volute — Single-serve wine flaunts its portability (and eco credentials)
• Eatbite — Mapping restaurants by photos of their dishes
  

1. MagCloud — Magazine publishing for everyone & every niche
2. Faber & Faber — Out-of-print books, printed on demand
3. Flat World Knowledge — Open source approach to textbook publishing
4. Blurb — Marketplace for book makers
5. Kidmondo & BabyChapters — From online baby blogs to printed baby books
6. HarperCollins — Publisher hopes crowds will spot next bestseller
7. Relay & WWF — All-you-can-read digital magazines
8. Random House — Selling books by the chapter
9. Kluster — Crowdsourcing platform
   
10. Offbeat Guides, Tripwolf, HSBC & Dorling Kindersley — Personalized travel guides

1. vibrantBrains — Brain gyms for baby boomers
2. Tikitag — Connecting online & off with RFID for the masses
3. Hello Health — Platform for healthcare 2.0
4. checkyourimage.com — Your very own focus group: personal image appraisals
5. SavvyAuntie — Parenting site aimed at non-parents
6. Drop Shots Tennis — Miniature tennis for pint-sized players
7. After Work Parties, Granny Boots — Weeknight clubbing for the 9—5 crowd
8. Sarah's Smash Shack — Paying to break stuff at the smash shack
9. SNIF Tag — RFID collar tag helps dog owners meet new friends
10. Maggie & Rose, Cupcake — Members' clubs for moms

1. Filippa K — Swedish fashion brand launches its own secondhand store
2. Gerbola Vin — Wine selling & storytelling
3. Fashionology LA — Retailer helps tweens make their own clothes
4. Chocri — Custom-made chocolate bars
5. HOJO — Health and wellness shop focuses on seniors
6. Foodzie — An Etsy for artisanal food
7. Lush — Lush brings back discontinued products on demand
8. Naked Wines — Online farmers' market for small wine producers
9. BLANKbottle — Winery lets customers set prices
10. Myfab — Furniture shopping with the crowds

1. Yakkay — Stylish helmets for urban cyclists
2. Transitional Sizes — Clothing rental for size-changing dieters
3. Catwalk Genius — Adopt-a-designer program for crowdfunded fashion
4. Sneakart — Customizing sneakers with removable stickers
5. Stitsh — Click to buy: fashion blog is a street version of shopping mags
6. Keds & Zazzle — Design your own Keds & sell them on Zazzle
7. Tomboy Trades — Steel-toes and tool belts for women
8. colorOn & Eye Majic — Press-on eye shadow kits
9. Diesel & Roskilde — Limited-edition festival jeans
10. Dondup — Bringing a dye back from the dead: luxury jeans tinted a long dormant blue

1. ModerNash — Niche delivery biz brings IKEA to Nashville
2. Ticket to Mind — Gift-giving simplified through a prepaid plan
3. Babyplays — Toy rental service
4. Insinger de Beaufort — Private banking by shoebox
5. Wigadoo — Event planning site helps friends split the costs
6. Laundry Locker — Laundry service by the locker
7. TrackMyShipments — Helping consumers track shipped packages
8. Rypple — Professional feedback, instant and peer-to-peer
9. WeightNags — Nagging service for dieters
10. Figuring Out — Career sampling service

1. Ecovative — Instead of Styrofoam, fungus and rice hulls
2. Wattson, HomeJoule, Ambient, AlertMe — Visualising energy use
3. La Petite Reine — Cargo bikes for greener business deliveries in congested cities
4. Green Homes Concierge — Green concierge reduces home's carbon footprint
5. Qurrent — Neighbourhood approach to renewable energy
6. RoofRay — Using Google maps to determine a home's solar potential
7. Fiat, Microsoft and Honda — Feedback for greener driving
8. Carrotmob — Crowd clout meets eco persuasion
9. My Farm, Your Backyard Farmer — Homegrown veggies without the sweat
10. Free Green — Free plans for eco homes

1. Tennent's Mutual — Prefunded, crowdmanaged music festival
2. Matter — New spin on direct mail: a box of matter
3. SOOPZ — Food blogger turned intermediary & purveyor
4. Mindstorm's iBar — Interactive touch bar combines drinks, ads & games
5. IKEA — A nap hotel in a Stockholm mall
6. Steelcase's Workspring — Meeting space doubles as product testing ground
7. Northland Professional — Billboards give away free love
8. Pomme Bébé — Tasting bar for babies serves up tryvertising for tykes
9. PlaceVine — Site connects advertisers with content producers
10. Ecocabs — Pedal-powered taxis deliver free love

1. Fonolo — Online service cuts through phone menus
2. OpenMoko — Community designs phone, inside and out
3. RovAir — Short-term mobile internet for travellers
4. Ushahidi — Citizen journalism, from text message to map
5. SMS Consumatori — Pricey zucchini? Italian government sends food prices by SMS
6. Carbon Diem — Using phones to track carbon footprint
7. CitySense — Nightlife mapping tool uses GPS to reveal hotspots
8. Peek — $100 device is just for email
9. Modu — Modular mobile phone can slip into new roles
10. Bellendoejezo — Cell phone workshops by teenage teachers

1. TripKick — SeatGuru for hotel rooms
2. Offbeat Guides, Tripwolf, HSBC and Dorling Kindersley — Personalized travel guides
3. CheckMeIn — Schedule online check-ins ahead of time
4. Lisboa Sensorial — Blind guides take sighted people on sensorial walking tours
5. Abilmo — Foldable hotel rooms pop up as needed
6. adNav — Ad-supported GPS navigation
7. SeeYourHotel — Hotel search tool that's all about location
8. Net-A-Porter & Soho House — Emergency wardrobe service for hotel guests
9. Single Spot Camping — Peer-to-peer camping: renting out the backyard
10. Miss Refund — Helping travellers reclaim taxes on flights not taken