We unlocked the SWARM Badge (50 people) on Foursquare!

For the first time in Africa!

Yayyy!! Wooohooo!

But unfortunately we didn't get to the Super SWARM Badge (250 people). That we'll unlock at the next SWARM Party.

Thank you to all who got behind the one matchstick SWARM Party, especially our sponsors:

• SAB - Castle Lager
• Jolandie Rust
• Glow Bangles
• Distro Tech
• Poken
• Rabin Harduth of Comic Revolution
• Stan of the Bluesroom

Must get some sleep now, after all that celebrating and listening to the awesome bands!

Telana Simpson, also known as the 'Matchstick Girl, has been trading a single matchstick up in value with the ultimate goal of reaching office space, which she wants to offer to start-up entrepreneurs to help them get their businesses off the ground.

She is hosting South Africa's first SWARM Party where she has organised four of South Africa's up and coming bands to play at the Bluesroom in Village Walk. The bands are Broken People, Mantis Moon, Finding Noah and Book of Thieves.

Event: one matchstick SWARM Party
Date: 20 November 2010
Venue: Bluesroom, Village Walk, Johannesburg
Time: 19:00

A SWARM Party is an event that involves the exciting social networking, location based game Foursquare.com, which is new to South Africa but growing rapidly.

Foursquare is a free online game with a phone application where you create an account and connect with your friends. When physically at a venue, you check-in to the virtual venue and can see if any of your friends are there, or where they are at that time. You can leave tips and recommendations about the venue and see nearby venues and specials they are offering. The person who checks-in virtually the most in a two month period to a certain venue becomes the "Mayor" of that venue.

The more things you do on Foursquare, the more points and badges you earn which are displayed on your profile. The points are also displayed on the leaderboard so you can see if you are beating your friends or who is in the lead.

Businesses can make use of foursquare to engage with their increasingly mobile customers by offering discounts and prizes to their loyal customers when they check-in virtually at their venue. They can also track how their venue and specials are performing with the free analytics.

This one matchstick SWARM Party is an opportunity for South Africans to play Foursquare and unlock the hard-to-get Super Swarm Badge. It is an offline event where at least 250 people will be getting together to take part in an online Foursquare flashmob at the designated time. They will be part of the Crowd Swarm, and all 250 people who check-in on Foursquare at the venue, within the same hour, will get points and be awarded the coveted "Super Swarm Badge" on their profile.

Simpson is going for a record of this SWARM Party attempting to be the first to unlock the Super Swarm Badge on the African continent, while at the same time helping her finish her tenth trade and get one step closer to making her 'one matchstick office' dream a reality.

What is one matchstick about?
Simpson traded a matchstick for a pen, which she traded for a toy frog, and the toy frog for two books. The books she traded for two cases of First Sighting wine, and has continued trading up in value. She is currently on her tenth trade which involves trading 375 designer T-shirts from Springleap T-shirts. She believes she will get to her office after three or four more trades.

Tickets: VIP tickets for R183 include a Springleap T-shirt, two Castle Lagers and entry to the SWARM Party. General admission is R40.

RSVP, tickets and enquiries: Telana Simpson on 083 730 2979 or onematchstick@gmail.com or http://www.onematchstick.co.za/

Jolandie and I got up to some mischief on the weekend. Serious mischief ;)

And our mischief making has got some international attention.

YES- I am that serious about this SWARM party and setting the record of being the first to unlock the Foursquare Super SWARM Badge on the African continent. And trade all my Springleap T-shirts in the process.

So if you ever doubted that we would pull this off, I hope this mischief making dissolves those doubts. ;)

My fellow Mischief Makers were Mongezi and Jolandie. Jolandie Rust graffiti'd about her upcoming "Stuck on a Bike" event to raise the funds she needs to become the first woman to circumnavigate the African Continent on a bicylcle and solo.

Yip. Solo- no support vehicles.

And yip. On a bike- pedal power!

Her event is starting on the 5th November at the Tyger Valley Shopping Centre in Cape Town, where she will be literally on a bike for 48 hours to raise awareness and funds for three different causes. You can support her by popping by during the 48 hours (and especially between midnight and 4:00 in the morning- she will realllllly appreciate the company ;) and making a donation of R100. You'll get 2 CD’s by the awesome SA musician and motivational speaker - Verity Price.

And even if you are not in Cape Town, you can support Jolandi by still making a donation. Check out the info on her blog or the facebook event 'Stuck on a Bike'!

So... se-reee-oooss-lyyyyy!

Jolandie and I are THAT serious about reaching our dreams and goals, that we would not only sit on a bike for 48 hours, but would also spend our Sunday graffiti'ing about our events.

So who's serious enough to support us and join in the fun? Give me a call 0837302979 or email.

Last week I went to check in on ::Harbourlight:: at their band practice with my friend and brilliant motivational talker Alon Joseph. Alon was the driver and camera man (and you can see him sneak in on one scene in the below movie). I was the very tired but super excited (I get quite tongue tied at one point in the interview) fan jumping around to their melodic rock tunes!

::Harbourlight:: is one of the exciting up and coming three bands playing at the SWARM Party on the 16th October! They formed at the beginning of 2006 and this team of five hardworking musicians (Shaun, Craig, Chris, Josh and Ashley) share a simple yet burning desire to share their message of hope and faith through their music in their own city Johannesburg, country South Africa and beyond!

Their debut album Come Home was released in July of 2008 and I have my own copy. It's worth a listen to the 13 original and self produced songs.

They are about to release their second album entitled Mystery Story in the very near future. If we're lucky, they might play a few of their new tunes for us on at the SWARM party

So check out the little video we made to give you a taste of the entertainment lined up for the SWARM Party- featuring ::Harbourlight::!!

And then rush and book your VIP Tickets with me- you'll get a springleap T-shirt, 2 Castle Lagers and entrance to help us unlock the Super Swarm Badge on foursquare- which if we succeed, will be the first time it is unlocked on the African Continent!

[this was updated 13 Oct with date and venue changes]

The 'matchstick girl attempts South Africa's first ever SWARM Party on 20 November 2010 – a social networking game and social responsibility project rolled into one exciting live event.

Telana Simpson, also known as the 'matchstick girl, has been trading a single matchstick up in value with the ultimate goal of reaching office space, which she wants to offer to start-up entrepreneurs to help them get their businesses off the ground.

She traded a matchstick for a pen, and then swapped the pen for a toy frog, and the toy for two books. The books she traded for two cases of First Sighting wine, and has continued trading up in value. She is currently on her tenth trade which involves trading 375 designer T-shirts from the Cape Town based start-up company Springleap, with 375 people. She believes she will get to her offices in three or four more trades once she has finished her tenth trade.

Telana is holding South Africa's first SWARM Party where she has organised three of South Africa's up and coming bands to play at the Bluesroom, Village Walk . The rock/pop bands are Broken People, Mantis Moon and Book of Thieves. VIP tickets for R183 include one of her Springleap T-shirts and two Castle Lagers sponsored by SAB, plus entry to the SWARM Party.

A SWARM Party is an event that involves the exciting social networking, location based game Foursquare.com, which is new to South Africa but growing very rapidly in popularity.

Foursquare is a free online game with a phone application where you create an account and connect with your friends. When at a venue, you check-in to that venue and can see if any of your friends are there as well, or where they are at that time. You can leave tips and recommendations about the venue and see nearby venues and any specials they are offering. The person who checks-in the most in a two month period to a certain venue becomes the "Mayor" of that venue.

The more things you do on Foursquare, the more points and badges you can earn which are displayed on your profile. The points are also displayed on the Leaderboard so you can see if you are beating your friends or who is in the lead.

A SWARM Party is an offline event where at least 250 people get together to take part in an online Foursquare flashmob at a designated time. They get together to be part of the Crowd Swarm, and all 250 people have to check-in on Foursquare at the venue, within the same hour, to get points and get awarded the coveted "Super Swarm Badge" on their profile.

This one matchstick SWARM Party on 20 November is an opportunity for South African players of Foursquare to unlock the hard-to-get Super Swarm Badge. Telana is going for a record of this SWARM Party being the first in South Africa to unlock the Super Swarm Badge on the African continent, while at the same time helping her finish her tenth trade and get one step closer to making her 'one matchstick office' dream a reality.

Players who want to attend the SWARM Party need to get their VIP tickets from Telana on 083 730 2979 or onematchstick@gmail.com

This is my next BIG step that I've been planning for months! I hope you can come join in the fun?



Join us for South Africa's biggest Swarm Party! It's a foursquare flashmob!

Featuring the bands:

• Broken People
• Book of Thieves
• Harbourlight

Date: Saturday 16 October 2010
Time: doors open 19:00pm, event starts 20:00pm
Venue: Tanz Café Fourways, The Buzz Shopping Centre, Witkoppen Road

R183 on VIP Guestlist, pre-booked (includes trading with me for a Springleap T-shirt (excl delivery), 2 Castle Lagers and free entrance) book with Telana onematchstick@gmail.com or call 083 730 2979

Additional Information:

A Swarm Party involves an online flashmob on foursquare.com (the location-based networking site) that unlocks the coveted and hard to get Super Swarm Badge. The party is a way of 250 or more users checking-in to the party location to collect their virtual badge and points.

The Springleap T-shirts are part of the onematchstick.co.za project, and are couriered to VIP's for an additional R36

Entertainment for the night is a pop-rock extravaganza, featuring:

- Broken People (melodic alternative)
- Book of Thieves (contemporary)
- Harbourlight (melodic rock)

RSVP – Book your VIP ticket with Telana on onematchstick@gmail.com or 083 730 2979

Will you be there?

Join the Facebook event here
Join the meetup.com event here