For the past 6 months, Kevin and I talked about the idea of pulling off a Flashmob at NACA or APCA. Up to this point, it was just talking, but we changed that at a recent NACA West conference.
It started with finding the technology. The company we found allows a person to text “swiftkick” to a number and by doing so they enroll in the flashmob group. It costs us very little and costs the user nothing (unless they have to pay for text messages).
We can then login into our account and see how many people are “in” and with the click of one button send a mass text message to the entire group all at once.
That’s the technology side. Now on to the human side.
Kevin did a DFT ed session and at the end, he talked about flashmobs as another way to connect people together on a dance floor and college campus. The students LOVED the idea and everyone pulled out their cell phones and texted “swiftkick.”
We started with 25 people “in”. We needed more, so we sent out our first mass text saying we needed 90 and told each person to tell 2 other people. Within 15 minutes we were up to 60! Kevin and I were really excited, but we still didn’t know what the flashmob was going to be.
After a long discussion, we decided and texted the group: (on a side note, we are only allowed 160 characters for the text)
“NACA Flashmob! @ dinner sum 1 will stand and yell 1,2,3. On 3 Stand on your chair and sing “ur my sunshine” when finished, yell “Free Hugs!” and give 15 ppl hugs and sit down.”
Going into dinner Kevin and I was nervous and excited. What if the trigger guy is too quiet? What if no one does it? What if we get kicked out of NACA?
Finally, the time came and the trigger guy stood proud on his chair and yelled “1,2,3!” …. There was a pause…
Then 70 other students and advisors stood on their chairs and sang “You Are My Sunshine.”
Afterward, the room’s atmosphere changed. I could feel the energy rise as schools did cheers and people smiled. It was a success. We were successful at creating new habits for this group. New habits that having fun was ok and “dancing” was ok.
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