street canvasing

Today I hit the streets for the first time in a long time to try and get out the vote for the Ideablob contest. Seems most of the work I've been doing has been web design, accounting, and other computer related tasks, so I was looking forward to being out in the real world again. 

The idea was to take the bus around town, talk to people, and ask for their vote. I made some paper-strip fliers and xeroxed them this afternoon, took a trip to Burbank to get our gear from the office, and got back to the bus to meet Marcin, Arlene, and Levi, who joined me for the trek.

Together the 4 of us set out to the Silverlake area where we canvased the street for an hour or two, handing out fliers and talking to folks we met about the Collaboration Foundation and the Ideablob contest. People were generally really positive and a lot of folks said they would vote. A few even signed up to be producers :)

Our first stop was a cafe called Intelegentsia that serves really good coffee. There I ran into a couple of our producers that I hadn't seen in years. We passed out fliers by the bus and went into a few stores where the bored cashiers were happy to go online and vote right away. After exhausting the corner, we went over to Orange 20 and the Bicycle Kitchen on Heliotrope. This is a really nice block with 2 great restaurants and a lot of cyclists hangin out. We passed out more fliers and ate some food. I met a girl that had gotten a speeding ticket while riding her bike. That was pretty unbelievable.

The sunsetting as we made our way back down Sunset Blvd. We stopped at a little Echo Park community performance gallery called the Echo Curio where a bunch of folks were hangin out. Folks liked the bus, and it sparked some conversations. We handed out more fliers and headed home, pretty tired.

Back home I started entering names of new signups. I thought about going for a climb, but soon fell asleep while typing. Woke up an hour later and went with Levi to a party at Little Radio. I handed out some more fliers during the night, and a few more folks said they would vote.  

Meanwhile, we are currently in 2nd place with 162 votes. The top idea currently has 264! This is disappointing after a long day, but I'll be back at it tomorrow. I'll be going to a coffee shop to try a few new ideas. Will be hitting the streets this weekend as well. iJustine and Brookers may be joining on Monday when they get back in town.We had talked about a bus ride when last we met.

We got 6 more days to get votes. If you have yet to vote, please do so here:

http://ideablob.com/ideas/1247-The-Collaboration-Foundation-C 

and please share with friends.

Thanks!

n