4SQ Day 2012

It's 4SQ DAY! What is it exactly? This internationally recognized celebratory day was started by Nate Bonilla-Wardford of Tampa, FL who came up with the idea of "checking in" to Foursquare on 4/16 (4 squared equals 16). This idea caught on first by the locals of Tampa then became a viral hit all over the world with Foursquare officially claming April 16th as 4Sq Day on March 26th, 2010.

Posters made for 2012 4Sq Day L.A.
(Photo by Gurl in LA)

I found out about 4Sq Day via Twitter, for no particular reason, I stumbled on to the 4SqDay website and noticed that the event was locally organized by its own community of volunteers. So I reached out to the person listed on their website for the L.A. event and decided to partner with him to organize the event. Unfortunately, this guy bailed on me and left me to put the event together...by myself. Needless to say, I was in way over my head with this since marketing for the L.A. event had already begun. The good news is, the L.A. 4Sq Day turned out to be a success with help from Howaboutwe.com who signed up as a sponsor for the event along with LA Inc. who helped promote the event and connected us with businesses throughout L.A. to offer check in specials on 4sq Day.

Vanessa's 4Sq Day cupcakes and cake pops (Photo by Gurl in LA)

This year, I was fortunate enough to partner with another social media consultant, Vanessa Bedard, whom I met at last year's event and was famous for her 4sq Day cupcakes. Together, we secured a location in downtown L.A. called Casey's Irish Pub.  Since 4Sq Day fell on a Monday this year, we figured that it would be more convenient especially for those working in the downtown area.  As organization continued, we were able to pick up a few more sponsors; Ghost Post provided prizes for a scavenger hunt, Sonar app gave away T shirts, Jenga provided giant Jenga blocks for the event as well as for giveaways, Snap Fiesta set up their photo booth and provided free photos for attendees to take home and of course there were the famous 4sq Day Cupcakes and cake pops that Vanessa made. Overall, we had an incredible turn out with numerous specials, prizes and lots of fun.

Photos provided by Snap Fiesta

After having organized two 4Sq Day events for L.A., I feel that my skills and connections are definitely worth something in this social media world. So would I sign up for 2013? You bet!