Last Thursday the Sandbar participated in the Free State Social community tweetup. We were packed that night with social media types from not only Lawrence, but all over Kansas and even from a few other states.
Every night at 10 p.m. (and other times at the bartender's discretion or the paying public's request) we run our Indoor Hurricane extravaganza. It's a cheesy live show full of mermaids, wind, rain, lightning, music, and dancing on the bar. Thursday night was no exception, and several hurricanes blew through the bar that night.
Three of the keynote speakers at Free State Social agreed (were coerced?) to jump on the bar and pretend to be mermaids: Sarah Evans, Chris Brogan, and Shawna Coronado. Thanks to the handy Christmas present Dave got last year (a Kodak zi8) I was able to record the festivities.
This isn't the only video of the night, and it's definitely not the best- there's more to come. I'm working on putting together a type of "digital scrapbook" with pictures, videos, and comments from the Sandbar tweetup. It will be posted here when it's finished.
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.
That quote from doorguy/bartender Tyler's Twitter account sums up last night pretty well. He's pretty new to Twitter, and I think the size of the Free State Social tweetup crowd surprised him just a little.
We've had a busy week. And it's not over. Here's a quick run-down, with more to follow very soon.
Free State Social Tweetup
Yesterday was the inaugural Free State Social, a social media conference held in Lawrence and put on by the World Company. It drew folks from all over Kansas and some from out of state who wanted to hear nationally known speakers like Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Sarah Evans, and Shawna Coronado.
The evening event was a community tweetup open to all, and The Sandbar was one of the six participating locations offering specials. It was a hot spot all night.
Heather's Wedding
Friday bartender Heather is getting married tomorrow! Her rehearsal dinner is tonight along with an after-party at our neighbor, the Barrel House. Tomorrow's the big day, and we're excited for her!
Pictures and stories to follow next week, as whenever the Sandbar crew is involved, there are shenanigans to share.
Hearts of Gold Ball
This biennial (is that the right word? every two years?) fundraiser for the Lawrence Memorial Hospital is Lawrence's premier black-tie event. The Sandbar has catered the liquor for every ball since its inception. As luck would have it, the ball is scheduled for….tomorrow night.
Our staff will be busy working at the Sandbar, Hearts of Gold, or participating in Heather's wedding.
After a long design and development process, the new Sandbar website is finally live!
Lawrence managing partner & bartender Dave came up with most of the design, and regular customer Frank worked his magic to make it into a website.
The background image on the home page isn't a stock photo- it's an actual picture from our own photo library, taken in Mexico at former staffer Maynard's wedding.
And, we've incorporated better links to all of our social networking sites to make it easier for you to find us online.
Another important thing to note- each of our locations now has their own page! You can find the menus for both Sandbar Ottawa and the Sandbar Sub Shop on their pages.
It's a work in progress, so more stuff is coming- like an online store and other fun stuff- but for now, check out our website and let us know what you think!
Our staff certainly sees and hears some interesting stuff. This story is from bartender Danny.
Friday night I was bartending with Dave. It was a really fun night with
a good mix of ages, and people were loading up the jukebox with really
good dancing music all night long(rare). The two girls who had been our
mermaids for the 10:00 hurricane had decided to do an encore
performance and were back on the bar dancing. Both of these girls were
at the bar with their mothers, who were also enjoying themselves
immensely.
The blonde one turned around to order a drink while she
was on the bar, though I typically wait until they are off the bar until I
serve them. After asking for a vodka+water, she
said, "You're really cute. Hey Mom! Can I date the bartender?!?!" Hands
down one of the funniest things I have ever heard while bartending.
A
few minutes later, she took a flying leap off of the bar into the arms
of a rather large man. My impression is that the man had perhaps
mentioned that he COULD catch her IF she were to fall, however I
believe she interpreted it as "Hey! Jump off the bar and I'll catch
you!" Luckily, disaster was narrowly averted, as he was able to catch
her without anybody suffering serious injury. Dave saw the whole thing
and then made the proclamation that she was no longer allowed back on
the bar. She tried to plead her case with me, but I very thankfully
pulled the "Boss says so" card and she went on her happy drunken way.
Danny posted a brief version of this on his Facebook page. The comments after this post were even funnier. Jenny wanted to know when the date takes place. Frank joked that the girl really fell for Danny. Heather chimed in with her own quote-of-the-night: "you're so pretty it makes me want to get a job."
And Ashley, who was a Sandbar regular a number of years ago and ended up married to Bob, a former Sandbar employee, gave some good advice:
Be careful what you say. Bob always said he'd never date one of those drunk girls on the bar. Us drunk girls can be very sneaky.
They've been together ten years now and have a baby boy.
No word on what the barfly's mom said about the date- but as we know, moms know best. Way back in the 90's, I only met Dave because I remembered how much my mom loved him as a KU basketball player. I introduced myself and asked for a picture, for my mom. Dave likes to claim he was mom-approved before she ever met him.
I never came close to nose-diving off the bar, though.
