PickupPal Blog

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

Triathlon season is upon us in North America! Some of you may be brand new to the sport, and some may be crafty veterans, who’ve trained diligently all through the off season. I don’t fit into either category unfortunately…while I’ve done several, I have yet to get into the groove of extended preparation…for me, it’s usually defined in days, not months!

The first race in the Trisport Subaru series season is coming up on Victoria Day weekend in less than 2 weeks, and the intense training regimen that I started *yesterday* is in full swing - YIKES! My chicken legs will be buckling about 15 minutes in to the race. A personal race favorite is the Orillia course, where we’ve even had our kids (both < 7 years old at the time) enter in the Kids of Steel competition, so Triathlon can be a great family outing as well.

The Trisport Subaru series is the original Triathlon series in Ontario, well-organized and very professionally run, with 9 events throughout the region. This year, the same organizers have also launched a 70.3 race in Muskoka (In 2005, WTC instituted the Ironman 70.3 race series. This shorter course, previously known as a half ironman, consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run).

I’m thrilled to say that we’ve teamed up together with the folks at Trisport! They are very interested in providing additional value to their racers. So…if you are interested in ridesharing to any of these Tri’s, while making new friends and reducing your emissions, log in here and sign up:
events.pickuppal.com/races/Trisport
events.pickuppal.com/muskoka-ironman

Soon we’ll post a listing of Eco-Rideshare Partners (ERP as we like to call the program) such as Trisport on our website, so that it will be very easy for our PickupPal community to find concerts, festivals and sports events in their area to rideshare to and from.

See you on the course…I’ll be the one with the legs that resemble those you usually see hanging out of a nest!

Brent - PickupPal Business Development

The ink is barely dry on the deal however we are very excited about our new ERP partner The San Francisco Marathon.

Since 1977 the San Fransisco Marathon has attracted top athletes from around the world to the Bay Area. Last year the Marathon was sold out - 15,000 runners - this year I predict will be the same. As part of their commitment to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce congestion the San Francisco Marathon has chosen to use PickupPal through our Eco-Rideshare Program (ERP) to help Runners and Spectators alike to get to the race. For those not familiar with our ERP program it is FREE for any organization big or small – we will setup a custom site for you and give you access to real time reporting as well.

Note: Did you catch the emphasis on FREE - and no asterisks beside it - we are serious it is FREE - O.K. I will stop with that