Create a social cross roads at a swap meet booth.

        A market place in history
                A cross roads

 I was reading about Socrates and Plato,
In their time. In that age, there was market places that people met to trade their wares, teach students, dancers practiced, theater troops practiced their lines, story tellers yarned, artists sculpting and painting, the buying and selling of food, debates about philosophies and the promoting of businesses. Each group attracting their own crowd.

The overall idea of a place like that that comes to life every day  sounds like a utopian moment in the history of community.      


 Much like the markets of old swap meets are a great place to rent a space and promote ideas into your community. Create a social cross roads at a rented space.
I am going to try such an idea at my local swap meet/flee market and blog about it,
As I plan and test the idea.

The general idea;
My intention is to create a cross roads booth. a booth for testing community interest in community activity ideas. 

Some of the ideas I am going to promote;

- Developing a local cottage industry with hot peppers ( the north valley hot pepper festival )

-Managing a micro stage at a flee market.

- using flash crowds to plant crops and install  organic farms.

- Green shoots independent filmmakers group.

At my booth three large white boards
That will list the above ideas. On the table (my local swap meet provides tables), in the back of my booth, I will have four  note books. One notebook for each community project idea. people interested in participating in a idea and would like updates, write their name, phone number and email address.


First idea; rough sketch

- Developing a local cottage industry with hot peppers, the north valley hot pepper festival.

Participating restaurants, in the North valley hot pepper festival, would make a hot pepper  dish
and  be listed on a hot pepper  tour of restaurants.

A tour guide booklet would be available at participating restaurants.

The tour would last for a month

As a customer tours restaurants, each restaurant stamps the customers booklet for trying the restaurants’ hot pepper dish.

Each customer on the tour that tries twenty hot pepper dishes, gets a free North valley hot pepper festival tour T shirt.

Customers vote on their favorite Hot pepper dish.

The restaurant with the winning hot pepper dish would be awarded the hot pepper trophy.

      
Locals interested in growing hot peppers could
Have them available for the restaurants to buy at farmers markets and at the swap meet farmers market. 
The growers could contact  The north valley hot pepper festival organizers for other possible outlets for peppers.

With enough pepper growers, a pepper market could be established.

A hot sauce and  salsa  competition  could be incorporated in to a tour of bars during the month long festival. Again a trophy could be awarded to the winning sauce and bar.


2nd Idea;

Managing a micro stage at a flee market.

First I would set up a cross roads booth and advertise on one of the white boards for performing artists.(starving artists )

Comedians
Quires  
Singers
Painters
Jamboree groups
Skits
Micro plays
Puppet shows for children
Barkers

Managing a micro stage is basically scheduling the variety of acts and helping setup and transition between acts. Over time and with some imagination the stage setup will develop. First make shade.



The 3rd and 4th idea listed above will be conversation starter ideas.


I will give you the reader a up date on how the cross roads booth goes, I should be able to get
A booth in the next week or three and test the idea.

Thanks again for your readership.
Share what you like.

Seth

PS. Next time you are eating a chicken, thank the chicken.