Tonight starting at 4:30pm the doors of House of Switzerland Canada will be opened to the public over at Bridges on Granville Island. The restaurant remains open throughout the games, serving up delicious Swiss creations but tonight, it’s all about the party.
I’m sitting in the back corner doing some blogging alongside over $200 in Swiss merchandise. I have a grand prize Lindt gift basket, some Zimtstern belts, Zimtstern hats, aprons, and a Lindt cookbook up for grabs. Come on by, spot me, tweet about this event, and I’ll do a draw around 6:00pm for the prizes.
As a bit of disclosure, I am here independently as accredited media for House of Switzerland. I asked if I could come live blog from their event and they enthusiastically said, “YES!” and offered up the prizing to boot.
Update: For the next month, the coffee supplier at Bridges is the Swiss company, Nespresso.
Update: French reporter and Twitter personality @GastonReport stopped by to say hello then I stepped outside to watch the opening ceremonies.
Update: Thank you to everyone that came by, which I believe was about 20-30 people just for the Tweetup at various times. Congratulations to Bev Davies who won the $150 chocolate gift basket and thanks to KLParrot, ArianeC, Photodreamz, VancouverLens, Raul, and more who stopped by. Bridges will be open daily and you can find a list of special House of Switzerland events on their website.
There’s lots more in store and if you do make it by, let me know how you enjoyed the experience (once you come down off the Lindt chocolate high). I’ll be back on Valentine’s Day for another one of their signature events.
The figure skating stars of the Calgary 88 Olympics will be reunited on the ice at Robson Square. The event is open to the public, media, and young skaters from the Coquitlam Skating Club will be there too. Robson Square is hosting a series of free events during the Games including free public skating, concerts, and the free Olympic Zipline overhead launching February 12th.
Many people have been wondering what the official Twitter hashtag for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games will be. To give a bit of background I’ll explain the purpose of a hashtag.
Every word on Twitter that is published from a public account is searchable on Twitter (see: search.twitter.com or Twitter Search in Plain English). When someone puts a pound sign or hashtag in front of a word that is a signal that it’s a topic or trend to follow. The most helpful usage is when you’re attending an event. Everyone at the event can say updates such as “I’m here at ABC Conference, it’s fun! #ABCconf.” Now anyone wishing to follow that conference can just search #ABCconf on Twitter and see all updates from attendees. Using the hashtag also makes the topic a link on Twitter so when it shows up on your Twitter profile, you can click #ABCconf and see all results under that topic.
Since you only have 140 characters in which to post your update on Twitter, the shortest tag is usually the best. I’ll be using #Van2010 throughout the Games and I’ve heard a few others will as well. I’m assuming that #Olympics or simply #Vancouver will be trending on Twitter (meaning they’ll be the most-spoken terms throughout all of Twitter globally) during the month of February.
If you’re ever wondering why a word or phrase is a “trending topic” on Twitter, you can check out WhatTheTrend.com.
In Whistler, they have notified media that they can use #Whistler30 for news and updates. This means you can monitor #Whistler30 (using a Twitter search) to see all news coming out of the region. They have also publicized #WhistlerW5 for any media wanting to know any “Who, What, When, Where, Why” information about Whistler.
In Vancouver, social media reporters, indie journalists, bloggers, photographers and podcasters can tag their information with #TNMH which is the True North Media House. This is an independent collaboration of content producers who want to get their information out to a broad audience.
To specifically mark tweets as being Olympic-related, I’m going with #Van2010 for now, although more suggestions are welcome.
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You can follow all of my updates on Twitter @Miss604 and I’ve also created a list of Vancouver 2010 people on Twitter which you can follow here.
VJs Sarah Taylor, Tim Deegan, Jesse Giddings, and Liz Trinnear will host segments of MOD LIVE @ THE BASE every day. “We are so excited to be hitting Whistler in true MOD style!†said MuchMusic VJ Jesse Giddings. “As a B.C. native, I’m very proud to bring the Olympic Games spirit to our youth audience in this completely new, non-traditional way. For once in my life, February is going to be my favourite month of the year. Bring on the cold!â€
MOD LIVE @ THE BASE Afternoon Show
2:00pm PT – 3:00pm (1 hour)
A live hour that includes highlights of the Games, music videos, and interviews with celebs, artists, and athletes.
MOD LIVE @ THE BASE Evening Show
7:00pm PT – 8:00pm (1 hour)
The evening broadcast picks up where the afternoon show left off with more interviews, more music videos, and stories from the Games that day.
Much Music will also be the exclusive broadcaster of the Vancouver 2010 Victory Ceremony concert series in Vancouver and Whistler. Every night at 8:00pm they will air live concerts that will include: Nelly Furtado (Feb 14), Barenaked Ladies (Feb 16), Paul Brandt (Feb 17), Hedley (Feb 18), Theory Of A Deadman (Feb 19), Stereophonics (Feb 20), Trooper and Loverboy (Feb 21), Billy Talent (Feb 23), INXS (Feb 24), Great Big Sea (Feb 26) and more.
I’ll be heading up to TEDxWhistler February 18th and will also stop in to see the VJs at MOD LIVE. If you’re in the village, stop on by to check out some of the free live entertainment.
The Torch Relay will make its way to the Lynn Valley Centre on day 104, February 10th with music and entertainment at 11:00am and the torch ceremony from 1:00pm – 3:00pm.
From February 12th until the 28th their daily activities roster is rather full and they’ll have a big screen so you can watch Olympic coverage from the Lynn Valley Centre plaza from 10:00am.
Special theme days at ValleyFest include Local Heroes, Youth night, Paralympics profile, First Nations, Seniors, and Mount Seymour showcase.
The Discovery Zone will have workshops with the likes of “Molly the Mountaineer”, a North Shore Museum and Archives display, Build a Bug lantern activity, as well as arts & library activities.
The Games Zone will have “Kurling” hosted by Curling BC and the North Shore Winter Club, Biathlon demos, speedskating and ski jumping demos, hockey shots, and Wii sports.
Concerts include performances by Dustin Bentall, Ready Steady Go, The Black Bear Band, Bobs & Lolo and more.
It looks like they have a nice, FREE, local celebration planned for the community and if you’d like to join them your best bet to get over there is by bus. You can take the 228 or 229 from Lonsdale / Seabus, 255 from West Vancouver or 210 from Burrard.
You can find more information, show times and maps on the ValleyFest website.
