During the next several days, attendees of this year’s Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders event in San Diego may see many of their fellow attendees playing FourSquare on their smart phones. Hopefully, this little article can offer a few pointers to those of you who may wish to play along.
FourSquare is a location based application that you will need to download to your mobile device. Points are earned when you “check-in” that you are at a venue. Whoever checks in the most at a venue (only one check-in per day counts) becomes the Mayor of that venue. The mayor is only awarded after someone has checked in at a venue for a second time.
Some venues, such as restaurants and bars, offer specials to whoever becomes the Mayor. Plus, there are bragging rights when you are the mayor. In addition, you can connect with friends to keep track of where they are located and offer tips about what to try or not to try at a particular venue. My favorite part of Foursquare is that badges that can be earned by checking in at different categories.
When you check-in at a venue, you can share comments about your check-in on Twitter and Facebook. This is a very nice thing to do if attending an event and you wish to create some buzz about what is going on.
I had my introduction to FourSquare at the Convening Leaders in Dallas in 2010. Jeff Hurt arranged a dinner for Mike McAllen, MikeMcCurry and myself who had only met on Twitter via the #EventProfs community. After dinner, we returned to the hotel lobby for a few beverages. Everywhere we went, Jeff was checking in on FourSquare and letting folks on Twitter follow our adventures. People started coming by to say hello, have a drink or two. Someone jokingly commented that we were holding court and nicknamed us the Godfathers of #Eventprofs.
So where should you check-in during Convening Leaders? For starters, there are the following PCMA specific locations available:
- PCMA Convening Leaders
- PCMA Learning Lounge
- PCMA Party with a Purpose
- PCMA Student Union
- PCMA Fun Run
- PCMA General Sessions
- PCMA Luncheons
- PCMA Hospitality Helping Hands
Check-in at your hotel, the San Diego Convention Center, any venues, restaurants or shops that you visit during your stay. So let’s see what badges we can earn while you are at Convening Leaders!
After your very first check-in, you earn the NEWBIE badge. After your 10th, 25th and 50th different check-ins, you earn the ADVENTURER, EXPLORER and SUPERSTAR badges respectively.
If we can get 50 or more folks to check in at one venue at the same time, we can earn the SWARM badge. It would be awesome if we could do this at the Learning Lounge or General Sessions!
Check in 3 times at the same place in one week and earn the LOCAL badge!
Find your friends on FourSquare and connect with them. If you check-in to a venue where 3 of your friends of the opposite sex are currently checked in, you get yourself the PLAYER PLEASE badge.
Are you planning to attend Party with a Purpose? Before checking into the PCMA specific venue for the party, check-in to the USS Midway to earn the I’M ON A BOAT badge.
If you get carried away and check in 10+ times on FourSquare in a 12 hour period, you earn the OVERSHARE badge.
Hang out 4 nights in a row and earn the BENDER badge! Check-in 4 or more times in a single night (it’s easier than it sounds!) and earn the CRUNKED badge. Check-in after 3:00 am on a Sunday thru Thursday and earn the SCHOOL NIGHT badge. For help earning these three badges, hang out with ****** and ****** during Convening Leaders (names edited to protect the innocent…).
These are just a small sampling of the over 100 different badges that can be earned on FourSquare. Join in the fun during Convening Leaders and I hope to see you there!
