PickupPal Blog

Well I am really excited to announce our partnership with John Mayer and Reverb - working together to provide Ridesharing services to get to all of his concerts this summer.

If you are going to any of the shows you have to check out our custom page for this summers tour - http://concerts.pickuppal.com/JohnMayer. Also as part of an incentive to use PickupPal we just got word that there will be special “John Mayer” prize packs given to those that use PickupPal to get to the show - so there really is no reason not to use PickupPal to get to the show.

As a quick side note - I find it really inspirational to be associated with leaders like John Mayer, The Dave Matthews Band and all of our other partners in the music industry. There are a lot of things that an artist can do and say and get involved with and when they take the time to commit to something like a partnership with us I really find it humbling. It is this kind of leadership and trailblazing that paves the path to making a difference. Our joint vision is one that sees music fans getting together and making a significant difference in reducing CO2 emissions and working together to double up and cut down. It is more than words - it is a commitment and one that I find very inspiring.

Cheers - Eric
P.S. If you are going to Monday’s show in Toronto come by our booth at the Eco-Village and say hi! (Tell em Eric sent ya!)

One of the great things about being in the eco sector, is the depth and variety of other like-minded companies and individuals that you encounter. Surely the most interesting we have talked to recently are the folks behind GreenNexxus a website dedicated to creating a community in which people can share, knowledge, ideas and projects in the green space.

We think the synergies are so close with what we are wanting to accomplish at PickupPal, that we’ve decided to form an alliance, and through that, create awareness for each other’s offering. On the surface, what GreenNexxus wants to do sounds similar to what others may be doing in green community building:

“GreenNexxus provides the ability for people, organizations and businesses to share, publish and contribute green knowledge for the purposes of reducing our collective environmental impact.”

However, when you dig deeper, you get some perspective on the depth of knowledge within the organization….GreenNexxus provides the website and tools for all of the Al Gore Inconvenient Truth presenters globally (>2,000 people) to collaborate, sharing knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in giving the presentation and raising awareness for the dire situation the environment is in. In fact, one of the founders, Peter Corbyn, worked with Al Gore to train just over 250 Canadians to give the presentation.

Reach out to them – once there you can sign up and gain info about eco-projects, or start one. You can even donate to non-profit green organizations at their site and get discounts on green products.

If anyone gets it, and knows how to build/support a community in the eco space, it’s GreenNexxus, and we’re thrilled to be working with them.

Brent – EVP Business Development, PickupPal

Ohhhh boy what a crazy couple days it has been. Starting things off with the Dave Matthews Band in Toronto on Wednesday! Special thanks to Josh from Reverb for the awesome tickets and the backstage passes and VIP treatment (having dinner with the band and crew - saweeet!). What Seats! What a show! What a night!

Then it was off to Calgary for the Virgin Festival and our booth in the eco-village - two days - thousands of fans! All part of the Rock-n-Roll Rideshare program in conjunction with our partnership to get fans to the festival. A ton of awesome interaction with hundreds of new members entering the “Win a Gibson Guitar” contest!

I got dash but special thanks to all of our partners and all of their support - what an amazing time and great meeting with everyone!

Cheers - Eric
P.S. Also I was able to meet Gord Downie - lead singer of the Tragically Hip - I have been a fan since January of 1990 - (yeah I am old!)

I must apologize for the brief intermission on posting to the blog - it is not because I don’t want to - more we are super busy and finding the time has been a challenge.

So we are off to hit the road - Tomorrow the Dave Matthews Band at the Molson Amphitheater in Toronto and then the Virgin Music Festival in Calgary over the weekend. Super excited about seeing DMB live and looking to meet up with our partners, Reverb at the show. Reverb has a crew that travels with the tour and helps take care of all sorts of greening events. We have been working with Reverb and the Dave Matthews Band by providing Ridesharing to all of the DMB concert dates. In any event - looking forward to that.

Then it is off to Calgary where we have a booth at the Eco-Village they will have setup there. O.K. some PickupPal honesty here - coming up with a booth idea that does not suck is a hard thing to do. We went through a ton of ideas and we scrapped them all and came down to a basic concept - the question I asked myself - what kinda mood am I in when I am at a multi-day festival - the answer is indulgence! So in that vain we came up with this concept - come by our booth - get your picture taken striking your best Rockstar pose in front of a massive backdrop of a couple thousand fans - then when you get home come by our website and enter your picture into our Rock-n-Roll Rideshare contest where you can win a Gibson Flying V. We are going to let all the members of PickupPal vote on who has the be Rockstar pose and the one with the most votes wins a Gibson Flying V.

The idea is that all of you PickupPal members are Rockstars - you are taking part and making a difference by doubling up and cutting down - it comes down to individual actions that make the biggest impact. Not to leave anyone out, those that are not up for posing but join in on the voting are automatically entered to win merchandise from our clothing sponsor Killthe8.com. It was awesome to get sponsored by Gibson and instead of an Ipod or something techie we went with what ever Rock and Roll maniac wants in their collection - a sweet Flying V - an Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, Randy Rhodes iconic symbol of flat out grind. So that is what we are doing in Calgary - if you are reading this and are going to be at the show come by our booth - we are between the beer tent and the food and we are facing the main stage.

One note - when STP are on stage on Saturday don’t bother coming by because the booth will be empty! Then on Sunday when the Tragically Hip take center stage - again I doubt you will see me at the booth.

NOTE: I am a huge Hip fan and I am heading out west with my bride and she is equally a huge Hip fan - so If I don’t lose here to STP definitely will have to drag her away from the Hip. Actually our first official date was seeing the Tragically Hip at Federation Hall in 1990 after I won tickets to the show on their “Up to Here” tour - so yeah I am a fan that goes way back!

Cheers - Eric
P.S. The Rock-n-Roll Rideshare “Gibson Grand Prize” is open to all PickupPal members - however I will post more details when the contest officially launches in the coming weeks.

We are proud to announce that Van’s Warped Tour has chosen to team up with PickupPal to get punk fans to all of their 46 festival dates. This is a huge honour for me personally because I was and still am a fan of punk music.

It started with Patti Smith and a bit of Iggy Pop then moved onto the Clash, Sex Pistols, Dead Kennedy’s and to round out to Black Flag, but that is old punk - some would say “Classic Punk”. I do have to qualify and say I was not as hard core as others because I could not really commit - I think it had to do with the fact that I had friends who were really committed and I just could not go as hard as they did. Out of all my “Punk Loving” friends from High School one still lives the Punk lifestyle, Shane Smith, (Vice Magazine and TV Go to 2:15 in the clip it is pretty funny).

In any event with such acts as: Norma Jean, All American Rejects, and Matisyahu - and tons of indie punk bands this years lineup is definitely awesome! For more info you can check it out on Van’s World Tour website.

Cheers - Eric

PickupPal and the Clean Air Foundation are very excited about the government of Canada’s recent commitment to make a difference in getting old cars off the road and recycled properly. Vehicles built before 1995 produce about 19 times more air pollutants than 2004 and newer modeled cars. In fact, one-third of the vehicles driven by Canadians are responsible for two-thirds of the smog created. Canadian Federal Environment Minister John Baird said today the government will give the Toronto-based Clean Air Foundation $92 million over four years to run a national vehicle “scrappage” program - (Details Here). As a Clean Air Foundation partner we want to send out our congratulation’s to the Car Heaven Program team for all of their hard work and we look forward to being part of the solution that helps to reduce harmful air pollutants.

PickupPal was on hand at the press conference this afternoon and we took some pictures - behind the scenes.

Notes: Federal Environment Minister - Hon. John Baird announcing the Canadian governments support of the Car Heaven project and the commitment of 92 million over four years to expand the program.



Notes: Photo Ops in front of the Car Crusher!



Notes: Ian Morton (Founder & Chief Executive Officer - Summerhill Group) and myself.

Notes: O.K. we are on the move people!

Notes: Talking to the guys at Sonshine Auto Parts - “Hey man where do you get those sweet hats with the flames on them?”



Notes: Adam Elliott, Myself, Suesan Danesh from PickupPal. [Notice how I was able to score a sweet hat! - yeah man flames and all!]

If you live in Canada in the GTA or in the Guelph, Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo area, you can participate in the Keep Cool program.

Keep cool, a program of the Clean Air Foundation, is a market transformation campaign that encourages individuals to permanently retire and recycle their old, inefficient room air conditioners and to adopt cleaner more efficient cooling alternatives.

You can even use PickupPal to deliver your old air con or dehumidifier to your nearest partner store.

GTA Residents should use this page, whereas folks in the Tech Triangle Kitchener/ Waterloo area should use this page.

Well in the immortal words of Otis Redding and covered ohh so well by the Black Crowes:

“Baby here I am
I’m the man on the scene
I can give you what you want
But you gotta come home with me”

[NOTE: It was on this tour when I first saw the Black Crowes - Awesome band live! I cannot wait to see them in July at Bluesfest]

The Ottawa Bluesfest has team up with PickupPal providing fans an excellent way to double up and cut down - all part of our Rock n Roll Rideshare initiative. As a loyal fan of the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest year after year this is quite the pleasure to team up with such a prestigious festival. If you are going to Bluesfest sign up to PickupPal from the Ottawa Bluesfest Site and bring someone with you or find a ride to the various shows.

This years line up is massive - here is a sampling:
James Taylor; Steely Dan; The Tragically Hip; Feist; Wyclef Jean; The Black Crowes; Fergie; Widespread Panic; Brian Wilson; Great Big Sea; Boz Scaggs; Three Days Grace; Primus; Zappa Plays Zappa; Taj Mahal; Donna Summer; Matthew Good and His Band; Don McLean; Keb’ Mo’; Theory of a Dead Man; Blind Boys of Alabama; Joan Armatrading; Jakob Dylan; Dr. John; Canned Heat; Corb Lund, Metric; The Wailers; Johnny Winter; Bettye LaVette; Sam Roberts Band; Martha Wainwright; Jose Gonzalez; The Hammerheads; Sonny Landreth; Back Door Slam; Brothers Chaffey; Theory of a Dead Man; Billy Joe Green, Mumbo Jumbo Voodoo Combo; Tokyo Police Club; Three Days Grace

And special note - our very own Brothers Chaffey are performing on Friday, July 11 at 6:00 pm on the Rogers Stage - you have to check them out! (If you have watched the PickupPal Video - you may have noticed a wicked little ditty - custom written for us by the Brothers Chaffey).

Well it has been really hard to keep this under my hat for so long but I can now announce that we have formally partnered with Reverb and The Dave Matthews Band.

From the Dave Matthews Band Website:

“DMB and Reverb are further expanding the greening efforts for the summer tour with a special partnership they have created with PickupPal. The Eco-Rideshare program is the first of its kind in the music tour industry and will help drivers and riders carpool to shows, thus helping concertgoers reduce their carbon footprint. PickupPal has generously agreed to waive their driver commission for DMB fans traveling to shows this summer. To learn more about the program, register with PickupPal (free) and enter shows that you may be driving to or need a ride to, please click here. DMB concertgoers who participate will also be eligible to win some cool prizes provided by Dave Matthews Band.” (Source).

We have been working closely with Reverb for several months now and we are so excited about this partnership. The Dave Matthews Band have been true pioneers in the field of raising awareness and walking the eco-walk by going the extra mile to make their tours as eco-friendly as possible. We look forward to participating at the various eco-villages that travel with the tour and I hope to see some of you there.

Cheers - Eric

It is really awesome the way in which festival and concert organizers have come on board with our PickupPal Eco-Rideshare program. Getting fans to festivals by using PickupPal is one of the best ways they can reduce their carbon footprint. Two new ones that launched today come from the UK and they are our first major festivals in the UK. NASS 2008 (www.nassfest.com) and Rip Curl Boardmasters 2008 (www.ripcurlboardmasters.com) - Skateboarding, BMX, Inline Skating, Motocross, Surfing, Hard driving bands - lots and lots of energy. Just listening to the intro music on their websites makes it very hard not to let the mind wander.

In other concert news, we are deep in planning mode right now - there are a few tours we will be on the road with and we will be at both the Calgary and Toronto Virgin Festival Canada 2008 by Virgin Mobile. We call it the “Rock n Roll Rideshare” and we have come up with some cool ideas to get people to come by our booth at the EcoVillage. I can’t get into details right now - however we will be giving away some amazing prizes for those that join in.

Also stayed tuned - this week we are launching our biggest partner tour and I cannot wait to spread the good word!

Cheers - Eric