On Tuesday 3rd August, we set a World Record - a foursquare event. What’s foursquare? Go to www.foursquare.com and see.  This blog is about the motivation, inspiration and dedication that made it happen, in spite of our hurdles.

How do I do it? Did I just wake up one day and say “let’s set a world record?” Sort of. I said it then I did it. From inception to execution it took 14 days. And fear only ever set in on Tuesday 3rd of August at about 12.30am. Along with the cyclone winds, electrical blackouts, cancelled trains & buses.

This was an experiment, an idea to see if social media could actually create real business for small business. Money business. Countable (new word) money business.

An experiment with rules, structure and a goal. They were simple:

• get more people to check in to a cafe for an organised event than anywhere else in the world
• spend NO MONEY to promote it.
• only use social media and the social media community to promote it
• sell tickets
• support a charity
• make money.

It started with me reading an article on line about foursquare in the US and how powerful it was, how fast it was growing and its place in social media. It then progressed to actually voicing the idea to others, my usual conversation - “wouldn’t it be great to set a world record!, we could unlock a Swarm Badge, we could get people here to VIVO and show the world what we can do as well, what small business can do!” I want you to imagine my exuberance, hear the excitement in my voice, the pitch and speed increasing with each word. Details were still irrelevant. How hard could it be? After 25 years in business you would really think, really really think and assume I would have thought about it a little bit more. Ah, the ignorance of youth. Social Media Youth I mean. Not my youth. That’s gone already

We moved fast. Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were ramped up a couple of notches. We were determined to give it our all - all to Social Media that is. Remember there was to be NO DOLLAR SPEND for advertising or promotions. And we didn’t.

The idea was a ticket price entry, charge for a breakfast and donate a portion to charity. What could be more inviting than caffeine, bacon & eggs AND helping others less fortunate? About 3 days out from the event, we noticed a lot of attention and response to the event. I started to get really excited. I could smell victory, I could taste the bacon! Twitter was going mad, people were not annoyed that I was charging a ticket price, they were motivated to be part of it! It was also suddenly beginning to dawn on me that we had no way of actually knowing who was going to come. We had a response, but I had not thought of locking them in with a pre purchase. (I have now fixed that with another IDEA!!)

On the eve of our event, we had no idea on numbers, only hopestimates (another new word). So I went home hoping they would come. I woke up at about 12.30am Tuesday, the day of our World Record, to the howling raging winds. The hammering of the rain and the freezing brass monkey weather. I was devastated. DEVASTATED and DOOMED. Was it too late to cancel? But why worry about cancelling, no one was going to come. Why would they? I didn’t even know these people. Sure we were twitter buddies, Facebook friends, LinkedIn Connections etc, but we didn’t actually know each other. I wonder if we could stop the press release? Would anyone notice if I didn’t go?

They came. All of them. All my “friends”. These people who owed me nothing, who didn’t know me, came and supported the event, the world record event. People who connected on line and now were connecting in the real world, discussing new business and future connections. This wasn’t just an event for VIVO CAFE and me, it was a demonstration of how the boundaries of business are not physical, this virtual arena could turn into reality because of a venue. A venue is what it takes to bring the virtual world into the physical world of connecting business for profit. Don’t know what I was worried about.

Have a look at some of our pics from Our World Record Swarm Event.

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