Natiiv

From Viva NashVegas to Running on HeART

Tagged art , fundraiser , givinggallery , roadtrip

Taking lessons from Viva NashVegas back on the road... in an art car.

In late April, Ford Motors loaned me a Lincolm MKS for a week and my friend Amy Guth and I took it on a social media road trip called Viva NashVegas. We drove the car through Indiana to Nashville, stopping in Terre Haute, Bloomington, Louiseville and Fort Knox along the way. Coming home we took the Illinois route where we saw Superman, Lincoln and ate the best chocolates in Tuscola.

The social media part of Viva NashVegas was the non-stop twittering, photos to Flickr, checking in on Bright Kite, two BlogTalkRadio shows from the car and an hour of Ustream video live from The Perch. We had a tweet-up in Nashville at the Hotel Preston and were joined by more people when we got downtown.

We learned a lot about using social media to document a road trip and what you can do with a web cam, cell phone, wifi and a producer back home.

Fast forward to late May. I attended a program at ARTworks in Uptown and learned about a road trip coming up called Running on HeART. A trio is driving a car from Chicago to Laguna Beach, stopping in 13 cities along the way and turning the plain car into an art car. The trip is to raise awareness and funds for open art studios in our community.

I mentioned Viva NashVegas and then agreed to take on the project as a pro-bono client. I worked with Jake and Sarah, two of the drivers, last week to review how they could use social media on the trip to meet people, organize and document. I also introduced them to Andy Hannon-a talented social media producer who will be their person on the ground. Andy helped produce our BlogTalkRadio shows and stepped in to run the last few hours of SleepOver 2.0 this winter.

While the team is on the road, they will be using BlogTalkRadio, Ustream, Flickr, Twitter and a new blog to keep in touch with friends and find new people to hang out with. If you are in one of the 13 cities they plan on hitting, please give them a follow and come out to support the trip.

When was the last time you got to paint a car?