by Debbi | Jun 10, 2010 | Cool Stuff
The Sandbar is a great place to work. I'm not talking about work as in our employees (although it's pretty great for that, too), but rather for those folks who need a place outside their office to work (insert air quotes).
We've got free wi-fi (although it's not always the fastest), lots of seating, a great patio and of course- beverages.
A number of people who shall remain nameless take advantage of these things to get some of their work done.
(Picture courtesy of our friend Amerika)
by Debbi | May 21, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Jukebox, Social Media
Back in April, I saw a tweet from a customer who had been in the bar the night before and visited our fake beach. I thanked her for coming in, and she responded with this:
Whoah, what? I couldn't let that fun fact go by without an investigation. A short conversation (on Twitter, naturally) and a link to another blog later, I had a story. Turns out, Sally's dad supposedly lived in the apartment after Mr. Buffett, and then she took up residence in apartment #223 in 1998.
The short version:
Our favorite beach music maker attended Auburn University for one year in 1964. He lived in the Plainsman Apartments, pledged a fraternity, and learned how to play the guitar so he could win the ladies' attention. Lucky for us, he decided music was more important than school. And the rest is history.
The long version is available here. It's actually quite an interesting story from a blog dedicated to all things Auburn. The author researched the rumors surrounding Buffett's attendance at Auburn, and with the help of a biography called "Jimmy Buffett: The Man from Margaritaville Revealed" by Steve Eng, he had his answers.
Pretty cool that we have a resident among us who lived in Jimmy Buffett's college apartment!
by Debbi | May 3, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Jukebox, Social Media
We have something fun to announce: you can earn free jukebox credits at The Sandbar (in Lawrence only, for now).
If you use Twitter, you're probably familiar with location-based social networking tools like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Whrrl. The big buzz about these types of networks is the growing ability for merchants to offer freebies and rewards to customers who "check in" with one of these services. Kansas liquor laws don't allow us to give away or discount alcohol, but we can offer merchandise.
You don't have to be a Twitter user to use these apps. Check out their websites for more information about how to use them.
So what are we offering?
The first service we're offering rewards on is Whrrl (because right now it's my favorite). Check in to the Sandbar between 5-9 p.m., any day of the week, and you can earn 5 free jukebox credits. You have to show the offer to the bartender, and he/she will load your credits on to the jukebox.
Here are some screenshots of what you'll see in the Whrrl iPhone app and what you need to do:
1. First, check in on your app. You can see below that I'm "checked in" at The Sandbar. Click on the section circled below in the first picture.
2. A page comes up that shows details about the Sandbar- who else has checked in, and tabs for more information. Click on the Recs/Offers tab (circled in picture 2).
3. Once you've navigated to the Recs/Offers tab, you'll see our Special Offers! You can also see what users have marked the offer as "to do" or "did it." Click on the offer- if we had multiple offers available they would all show up here, but right now we only have one to choose.
4. A new page opens with the offer and a "Redeem Now" button.
Click on the Redeem Offer Now button, and the next page that comes up is what you need to show the bartender.
This page tells you how many times you've checked in to the location, and what your status is in the "society." It also instructs you to show this page to redeem your offer.
I've requested to set up a reward on Foursquare, too, but I haven't heard back from the company about it. However, at least one customer has seen it, so it's out there. Every third check-in on Foursquare earns you five free jukebox credits. I don't have a screenshot from Foursquare yet because I haven't seen the offer.
Please be patient with our staff, and please only redeem one offer per day, per check-in service! These promotions are very new and different for us, and it may take some time for all of our staff to really understand how this works. It's a learning process for all of us!
by Debbi | May 2, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Events, Social Media, Web/Tech
Nerd alert: this post won't make sense to many of you. But it's an interesting account of the activities at the Sandbar last Thursday night when the Free State Social community tweetup took place.
Foursquare is a location-based social networking site. Users "check in" when they go places, and their friends can see where they are. The game aspect is one appeal of Foursquare- check in's accumulate points, which in turn allow the user to earn different badges. One of these badges is the elusive "Swarm Badge," which can only be earned if 50 or more people are checked into the same place at the same time. It's like a Foursquare flash mob.
Our neighbors in Kansas City have organized several events to try to earn the Swarm Badge, and each time they've fallen short by just a few people. Lots of people thought the Swarm Badge would be earned at the Free State Social conference last week- since many of the attendees use Foursquare and 300 people were at the conference- but it didn't happen.
I never thought we'd earn the Swarm Badge at Thursday night's community tweetup- after all, if we didn't get it at the conference where all the attendees were in the same place at the same time, it didn't seem possible to unlock it at the tweetup, where participants were spread all over downtown Lawrence in a million different places.
However, people kept coming to the Sandbar on Thursday night, and our friend Jacinta sent the first tweet about swarming the Sandbar. More tweets and retweets followed, and more people kept coming to the bar and checking in. Suddenly we had 16 people checked in, then 33, then 45. The Swarm Badge seemed like a real possibility. Even people who don't normally use Foursquare checked in to help with the cause, and at 9:50 p.m. the 50th person checked in and unlocked the Swarm Badge for everyone:
A funny irony- our legal capacity is 49, and 50 people are needed to unlock the badge. There may have been more than 49 people in the bar, but the patio was busier than it's ever been too.
I think we're the first place to unlock the Swarm Badge in Kansas, from what I've heard. This might seem trivial, and perhaps it is. But it was a fun activity on Thursday- it encouraged people to network with new people and gave them something to talk about, and it helped add to the sense of community that was already created by Free State Social.
And, of course, it was great for business on Thursday. I saw several tweets from people who only came to the Sandbar so they could check in and try to get the Swarm Badge- I don't know if they bought anything or not, but at least they were exposed to our crazy little world for a little bit of time. Maybe they'll be back sometime.
If you were there, leave a comment and let us know what you thought. If you want to write a guest post about your experience at the Sandbar, we're up for that too.
by Debbi | Apr 20, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Downtown, Events
What a great night!
Last night was the Adult Swim Block Party in downtown Lawrence, and we were impressed with the crowd that came out on a Monday night! One of the members of the Adult Swim crew told us that their staff estimated attendance of around 4,000. That's amazing, way to go Lawrence!
All day long, downtown Lawrencians watched as giant inflatable characters took over the block of 8th Street between Massachusetts & New Hampshire. The party started around 6 pm with games and prizes and live music to follow.
(Picture below posted on Twitter by Jeff, otherwise known as @webology, friend of the Sandbar)
We were pleased to provide hospitality for The Whigs before their set. They hung out upstairs for awhile, and our fake beach served as their dressing room. They even took a picture of it and posted it on their Twitter account.
A steady stream of customers came through the bar and partied on the patio- it wasn't nearly as crowded as a St. Patrick's Day or our anniversary party last summer, but it was a fantastic crowd for a usually slow Monday night.
I was lame and didn't take any pictures last night, but here's one I found on Twitter that was posted by @johnkary, taken from the patio of the Sandbar:
The music was over at 10 p.m., the stage was dismantled, and the street cleaned up. These people are professionals- we laughed about how the teardown compared to ours last year after our anniversary party. (Ours took forever. We dawdled and talked and laughed.)
We would love to see this become an annual event. In fact, it would be awesome if downtown Lawrence had a block party every month…
Were you there last night? What was your favorite moment? Email us your pictures or add them to our Facebook fan page!
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Adult Swim on Twitter
Adult Swim on Facebook
The Whigs on Twitter
The Whigs on Facebook
by Debbi | Apr 18, 2010 | Cool Stuff, Downtown, Events, On the Patio
We love a good block party, especially when we don't have to do the work.
Tomorrow night (Monday, April 19), Adult Swim presents a free block party at 8th and New Hampshire. The block in front of the Sandbar will be closed most of the day for setup, and the party starts at 6 p.m. It includes carnival games, prizes, free t-shirts, and other surprises.
The event is geared towards the college-age crowd, but it's free and open to anyone.
And there's music! Live performances by Motion Potion and The Whigs are sure to entertain the crowd.
No alcohol is allowed in the street, but there are several bars on the block with patios, including us. We aren't extending our patio area to be any larger, but there's plenty of room for a few folks on our patio, and we'll definitely have the windows open.
The event is open to all ages, but you must be 21 to enter the Sandbar.
RSVP on the event's Facebook page, and we'll see you tomorrow night!
(Previous post about this event can be found here.)
