The Foursquare Day 2010 badge

And then… we did it. The Swarm Badge was unlocked for the first time in five thousand years of Chinese history on Foursquare Day 2010 in Beijing.

A group of Illuminant’s clients and friends (new and old) trekked down to FUBAR speakeasy, where the Foursquare Day celebrations continued.

Illuminant’s Art Director Joel Danielson (@lhiver) took on Mayoral duties for the Beijing Swarm end.

Lucky Charlie Flint (@charlieflint) won himself one of three prize options in the Illuminant Partners Foursquare Day draw:

1. Logo design
2. Business card design
3. Outdoor photoshoot – 5 final images with basic retouch

So what do you say Beijing? Now that most of us have gotten our Swarm badge, Super Swarm in 2011?

Illuminant Partners was enormously proud to have facilitated the world’s first “social media holiday” in the capital of the world’s most populous nation. Many thanks to our friends and colleagues for supporting this fun initiative!

Foursquare Day 2010 Beijing swarm party - monitoring the check-ins

Foursquare Day 2010 Beijing swarm party - checking in with Foursquare Day founder Nate Bonilla-Warford

Foursquare Day 2010 Beijing swarm party prize winner Charlie Flint

Foursquare Day 2010 Beijing swarm party - Jim Boyce (BeijingBoyce) after finding out he didn't get his Swarm badge!

Foursquare Day logo

Beijing was one of the first of major cities to lead and implement the recent idea to globally celebrate“Foursquare Day” on April 16th, and our team at Illuminant is super excited to champion the event in China’s capital. Our chief executive, Simon Cousins, has been a key driver on the global Foursquare Day organizing team from our new office in Tampa, Florida (a satellite of our New York City practice).

The Beijing Illuminant team has been responsible for organizing and promoting the Beijing day’s activities, and we’re getting help from local bloggers, Twitter users,and businesses.

Foursquare, for those who don’t know, is a location-based, geo-social networking website and mobile application available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm devices (with more platforms currently under development). The app is rapidly gaining popularity in a city where we are continuously and voraciously on the hunt for hip new restaurants, shops, nightlife, and drinking establishments. Users rack up points on a weekly leaderboard as they “check-in” to venues, categorising, tagging, and tacking helpful tips on them along the way. Special “badges” are unlocked for certain milestones or achievements, such as numbers of “check-ins” on a weeknight,or “checking-in” to specifically tagged venues such as gyms, aiports, and ferry terminals. By frequenting their favourite haunts, users in the local community often generate friendly competition among venue clientele by attempting to earn and hold down the title of “Mayor”. It’s rather amusing (if not discouraging) to be “ousted” by a more active user when they steal the title!

Foursquare.com describes the application as “a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. We aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways.”

So, you might ask, why April 16?

Well, to put it plainly, April is the fourth month, and 42=16 = 4/16 

The idea for Foursquare Day was dreamed up in Tampa, Florida, by optometrist and social-media maven Nate Bonilla-Warford. He posted the idea on Foursquare’s feedback site, GetSatisfaction.com, and within weeks, dozens of cities around the world had jumped on board to get involved in the grass-roots planning.

One of the most exciting challenges on this day is to unlock the “Swarm” badge, which is achieved when more than 50 users are “checked-in” to the same venue at (or around) the same time, and for the third time in history, Foursquare Inc.  have decided to open the “Super Swarm” badge especially for Foursquare Day. This may be unlocked and awarded at any venue that draws 250+ “check-ins” over a 3-hour period on Foursquare Day. We are all feeling the excitement about Foursquare users meeting up aftercrossing paths (and stealing Mayorships from each other) all around town, from Wudaokou and  Zhongguancun to Sanlitun and the CBD.

We’re set to gather at The Village in Sanlitun and begin our round of “Swarm check-ins”at the Apple Store at 8.30pm, with drink specials available at Blue Frog (also in The Village), Purple Haze’s new Bistro location (at Dongsiliutiao), andat Fubar after 9pm for the wrap-up party. Additional specials may pop up through the week.

Like many other cities and venues participating in Foursquare Day, (#4sqday on Twitter), Fubar has issued a friendly “challenge” to the infamous The VIPER Room club on LA’s Sunset Strip, to see who will reach the highest number of “check-ins”, and we’re hoping to blow the roof off Beijing with the Super Swarm badge (can we pull it off?)

This is a fantastic opportunity for small/medium businesses to engage the rapidly expanding social-media savvy clientele with free advertising and exposure by creating and promoting special offers. Geo-social media is increasingly on the top of the trend, andbusiness owners would be wiseto jump on board and check out atFoursquare.com/businesses.

Follow @4sqdayBeijing on Twitter and visit http://4sqday.com for more information.  And talk to Illuminant Partners for a world class social media campaign for your business!