Odyssey International: Masthead
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Cruze-ing into the Twitter-verse

November 4th, 2010

CruzeHuman.jpg

It is not my nature to hit upon a couple of people waiting at a bus stop and talk them into letting me film them playing a couple of rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Just duke it out in the bus shelter with my navigator while I film the spectacle and fling the drama into cyberspace, the world of Twitter and tweets to be specific.

West Coast-based journalist Alexandra Straub-Belfiglio and I have been cruising the streets of Vancouver in search of our prey for a precious 40 minutes, either being scooped a bus or having another one on our tail. Finally, close to the sprawling UBC campus, we spot two university looking types waiting at a stop without a bus in sight.

Alexandra springs out of the car and lets loose with a persuasive sales pitch. Our heavily decaled red Chevrolet Cruze is an ‘in your face’ icebreaker. We have the tools.

“This is an all new Chevy Cruze and we are on the Chevrolet City Challenge which is taking place in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto this week.” Keen Alexandra is convincing and soon she is deep into the game, hands flying, folks laughing while I capture the competition on my smart phone.

Within seconds the deed is done, we’ve bid farewell and through a systematic maneuvering of the icons on the screen of her iPhone, Alexandra enters into the world of Twitter. She ‘tweets’ the video of the bus stop sideshow to our online followers, wannabees and competitors. We score big time.

“What’s next, Alexandra?” I ask, trying to recall the pecking order of the rock, scissors and paper.

“Aside from the beauty shot of the car and another 8 tweets we need to find 5 people to spell C-R-U-Z-E with their limbs,” Alexandra’s grin breaks into laughter. “Let’s try Granville Island, there are always tourists there who might be game for it.”

Alexandra and I have been competing on the last day of the first annual Chevrolet City Challenge that pits urbanites from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver in a three-hour urban relay rally.

Teams Style, Safety and Global had new members competing every day in each city from October 12-22. Armed only with a new 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, their Smartphone, Twitter (#CruzeCity) and access to the ChevroletCityChallenge.ca website, competitors had to rely on their strengths, experiences, social networks and their creativity to complete challenges to help maximize the teams’ points.

The website was the hub of the event to track team scores, updates and their location within the city. Meanwhile registered online supporters connected with their teams on the ground to help complete the challenges and boost their team’s score while increasing their own number of ballots in the draw to win a Chevrolet Cruze.

I’d been involved with the program since its inception. Over the summer my wife and business partner, Lisa Calvi, and I had scouted out locations and activities in Canada’s three largest cities. We had helped the folks at Chevrolet create the basis of the game and at night during the event, when the Cruzes were hunkered down, we worked on keeping the daily challenges compelling and different.

But when Alexandra Straub-Belfiglio announced she didn’t have a partner, I volunteered. Although I had worked on developing the program, I really didn’t have a clue how the world of Twitter worked and I thought a ‘tweet’ was a sound my sister’s canaries made. Convincing tourists to spell C-R-U-Z-E with their arms and legs? Sure, all in a day’s work!

The afternoon before I took to the streets on behalf of Team Style, citing my incestuous relation with the Challenge, I disqualified myself from the chance to win the cool new Cruze and told Lisa she was on her own developing the teams’ challenges for the next day. Then I took my iPhone, that appeared smart enough to play the game, and sat in a park in downtown Vancouver. A couple of frustrating hours later, with the help of many lifelines, the mental fog cleared, and I cracked into the world of Twitter.

I could tweet a message, knew what a ‘hashtag’ was and had become proficient at uploading photos I took on my iPhone. Figuring out what handle I should use was a bit of a brain cramp but I finally settled on @DrivenMind99. Even got a couple of quick ‘followers’ and have since grown my flock to 13.

The rest of the three-hour challenge went by in the blink of an eye. We found a gaggle of Asian tourists who were delighted to spell C-R-U-Z-E with their arms and legs. I drove the snappy 1.4 L turbocharged Cruze and strategized while Alexandra made herself a little carsick staring at the screen of her iPhone.

In the end we won the Vancouver event that day although it was not enough to elevate Team Style to the overall winner. But that’s all right, because I got to see plenty of the quirks of Vancouver and met some fine folks along the way.

And hey, I’ve mastered the world of Twitter and even though @DrivenMind99 only has 13 followers, I can ‘tweet’ a mean ‘tweet’, and even re-tweet, with the best of them.

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