A friend of mine here in Lansing, Mr. Justin “Bugsy” Sailor has a goal in 2010: to have a beer with Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records and other such things. Bugsy started this goal as an experiment in social media:
On January 1st I launched www.beerwithbranson.com along with a Facebook Page and using the #BeerWithBranson hash tag on Twitter. In part, it is a social media experiment to see if I can pick someone in the world and meet them. Most people know about the “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” however, in a world of social media it’s been said that we’re separated by only 3 or 4 degrees. Perhaps I can rewrite the “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon” to the “Three degrees of Richard Branson”. – from his Kickstarter Pledge Page
Now, if there is anyone I know that could pull this off, it would be Bugsy. He never fails to amaze me with all of the things he does. It has been fun to watch how his experiment has progressed over these past few months. We even had him on LansingNext to talk about it last week.
And most recently, the experiment has taken a very interesting turn:
On Wednesday, April 21st, Richard Branson will be speaking to students at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. (more info). A friend of mine offered to get a ticket for me and it’s time to take a road trip from East Lansing, Michigan to Georgetown, about 577 miles.
My goal on this trip is to at least meet Richard Branson and ask if we can schedule a day sometime in 2010 when we can have a beer together. I plan to network, be sneaky, and I’ll be wearing a “BEER WITH BRANSON” t-shirt, because I have already been on his radar.
To help fund his trip to Georgetown, Bugsy is asking for pledges on Kickstarter. For those unfamiliar, it is a way of raising funds for projects online. You talk about your project and list the amount you need and the time limit. Folks pledge money, but you don’t get a dime of if unless your total fund goal is reached. I believe Amazon set this up.
Long story short, I pledged some cash to help Bugsy with his goal. I hope he makes it!
