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We're in the midst of setting up stops in every market for the tour and have some exciting companies, brands and people to meet.

During each visit we'll share some Plaid love and learn about what these brands are doing that's spectacular in their industries. All broadcast live on PlaidNation.com!

Here's what's been scheduled so far:

Monday, July 20 : Detroit, MI
Morning - Ford Motors
Afternoon - CurveDetroit

Tuesday, July 21 : Milwaukee, WI
To be announced

Wednesday, July 22 : Chicago, IL
Morning - Threadless
Afternoon - 37 Signals??

Thursday, July 23 : Indianapolis, IN
Morning - BlueFuego
Afternoon - To be announced

Friday, July 24 : St. Louis, MO
To be announced

Monday, July 27 : Kansas City, MO
Morning - John & Tugg from American Copywriter
Late morning - Sprint
Afternoon - Dept Zero?

Tuesday, July 28 : Branson, MO
Who's in Branson that we could profile??

Wednesday, July 29 : Memphis, TN
Morning - FedEx
Afternoon - Elvis?

Thursday, July 30 : Jackson, MS
Who's in Jackson that we could profile?

Friday, July 31 : New Orleans, LA
To be announced
Plaid Nation Wrap Party

Want to arrange a stop in your market? Know of a brand or person that deserves some Plaid love? Give us a shout!

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 9:15 AM 1 Comments

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If you live in one of those fancy pants places on the east or left coasts, you may want to consider a trip to the middle of the country this summer. Plaid's about to light it on fire.

Here's the official PlaidNation tour schedule for this year's tour! Some awesome markets where we'll be looking for spectacular brands, agencies and people.

Monday, July 20: Detroit
Tuesday, July 21: Milwaukee
Wednesday, July 22: Chicago
Thursday, July 23: Indianapolis
Friday, July 24: St. Louis
Saturday, July 25: Kansas City (tour crew fun time)
Sunday, July 26: Kansas City (tour crew fun time)

Monday, July 27: Kansas City
Tuesday, July 28: Branson
Wednesday, July 29: Memphis
Thursday, July 30: Jackson
Friday, July 31: New Orleans
Saturday, August 1: New Orleans (tour crew fun time)

If we're coming to your town and you'd like to schedule a tour stop at your place, give me a shout: darryl (at) thinkplaid (dot) com.

Just two months, eight days until launch!!

Labels: lifeontheroad, tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 7:57 PM 0 Comments

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This year's Plaid tour will be bigger and better than ever before. Starting with the Plaid ride. Thanks to the Ford Motor Company, we'll be riding in a sweet Ford Flex from Detroit to New Orleans!

Ford Motors has agreed to become the official vehicle sponsor for the PlaidNation tour. That means comfy seating. Ford Sync technology. Built in GPS. And countless other luxuries that the Plaid crew don't typically deserve.

While in Austin attending the SXSW Conference, Ford's own Scott Monty took Dave and Darryl on a nice test drive, while previewing some of the car's awesome features. We're already dreaming up super hot vehicle graphics, and thinking this will be the most Awesome Plaid ride, ever.

Labels: detroit, ford, tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 6:50 PM 0 Comments

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We've finalized our 2009 PlaidNation tour route, and it's cutting right through the middle of America!

We'll kick things off in Detroit on Monday, July 20 and won't stop until we hit New Orleans on July 31. Along the way we'll be stopping in Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Branson, Memphis, and Jackson.

Expect to meet even more interesting people, brands and firms this year - as well as some new Plaid surprises. Want Plaid to stop by your place? Give us a shout!

Labels: lifeontheroad, tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 6:26 PM 3 Comments

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While en route to Las Vegas, we stopped at the Mojave desert for a really fun photo shoot. Timed it perfectly for awesome sun, sand and van. We needed some b-roll footage of the van, so Ryan offered to see how fast the van would go on an old empty road. Answer: pretty fast.

See the full set of shots here.

Labels: las vegas, lifeontheroad, photos, tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 8:17 PM 0 Comments

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One of the things about the tour is staying at places you might not normally stay if budget wasn’t an issue. Places you probably wouldn’t take your family on vacation, but for a business trip by yourself, they’re fine. Take the motels we’ve used so far: Travelodge, Econo Lodge, Super 8 and Motel 6. So far, Motel 6 has been the most consistent. Sure it’s not the Hyatt or W, but we’ve found they pretty much are about the same: clean, inexpensive and dependable. The others? Not so much.

Could it be that people don’t expect much in this category at that price? Possibly. Thing is, traveling the way we have been, we don’t need a lot of frills. But what we do need - wireless, decent size room and minimal freakage outside at 2:00 am, they’ve delivered for the most part. However, Travelodge and Super 8 have varied greatly. Having also used Super 8 exclusively on the first tour, the same held true over the three weeks we stayed there as well: From merely okay rooms to downright nasty.

It’s a small thing, but consistency at all levels and across multiple channels makes all the difference.

Labels: lifeontheroad, super 8, tour route, travel lodge

posted by mtlb at 7:05 PM 0 Comments

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The tour is creating a new axiom for us: When it comes to directions, never trust a local, unless it’s one you know, because Google maps has bailed us out more than the ‘locals’ have. It’s rare that we have time to wonder around and discover new places. Usually, there’s just no time for it, and that means calling up Google quickly as we drive around lost. (We nixed the idea of a Garmin since we’re already on laptops anyway doing a bunch of stuff, besides, typing is easier that way rather than reaching for something on the dash.) For the most part, Google’s been 99.376584% accurate, especially when you’re bouncing down the streets of San Francisco or Vancouver on the fly and need to find gas, a diner or laundromat. It can be your worst enemy too when one way streets magically appear that weren’t on the map.

But compared to the hotel motel concierge front desk woman? It’s waaaaaaaay better. Like when the nearest (insert thing you need) is supposed to be “Up the diagonal street” and is actually in the opposite direction—two blocks over. And the one she first said turns out to be a dry cleaners. Google? Had it like that. (*snaps hand in, um, snapping gesture*)

Better than Google though are still the locals you know, like friends of the Plaid crew, many of who live in the area, and who told us all the places to go. More importantly? They told us the places not to go. Especially, the truly ‘sketchy’ places. The definition of which someone you don’t know in a Yahoo! forum exaggerated and which actually turns out to be fine.

Labels: tour route, van

posted by mtlb at 10:43 PM 0 Comments

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Somewhere in between San Francisco and Los Angeles is a place called San Luis Obispo. Everyone knows someone in the major markets, but what are we to do when the Plaid van drives through San Luis Obispo? More importantly, how will we ever learn to pronounce San Luis Obispo in front of the locals?

Lucky for us, there's iiiDesign and SLOCAMA. Missy at iiiDesign hooked us up. Gave us the low down on San Luis Obispo. Taught us that we can call the place "SLO." And introduced us to the SLOCAMA group.

San Luis Obispo Creative and Marketing Alliance (now you see why they call it SLOCAMA) set up a special meet and greet for Plaid. We'll get to hang with the cool people in town. Trade marketing and brand ideas. Share stories. Learn where the cool people eat good food.

Look for us in SLO on Tuesday, July 29!

Labels: tour route, tweetups

posted by darryl ohrt at 2:35 PM 1 Comments

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Oh, we'll definitely pull the van over here. Maybe share a coffee with Mr. Troll. Take some photos of people pointing to the inside of his nose. Or whatever people do when they hang with giant trolls underneath bridges.

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 12:38 PM 0 Comments

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A friend in Los Angeles says that Peets is the bomb. So Peets it is for our Los Angeles TweetUp, too!

Come hang with us at the Peets on 1154 Westwood Blvd, Los Angeles, on Wednesday, July 30. 8:30am. First five people to sign up on the dashboard get free PlaidNation tour t-shirts!

We've concluded that regardless of location, anywhere in Los Angeles is inconvenient for about 75% of the population. So we'll either deal with that, or trust that people in LA love their cars enough to drive from wherever they may be. Or they'll arrive on roller blades. To see a Plaid van.

I've got my eye on that sweet looking yellowish drink with yummy stuff on top. Looks really good right now, doesn't it? See you at the TweetUp!

Labels: swag, tour route, tweetups

posted by darryl ohrt at 4:10 PM 0 Comments

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We're told the locals really dig a place called Peets - so we're officially scheduling the San Fran TweetUp on July 25 at Peets on Market Street.

Come, bring a friend, share a coffee. Get Plaid swag. The first five to register get FREE Plaid tour shirts! (see "Tweetups", on the dashboard)

Come to hang with other internet geeks, marketing geeks and Plaid peeps.

Friday, July 25, 8:30AM
Peets Coffee & Tea, 2257 Market St

See you there!

Labels: swag, tour route, tweetups

posted by darryl ohrt at 9:43 AM 0 Comments

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It's official. We're doing another Plaid road tour! Last year had us traversing down the east coast into the deep south. This year, we're headed WEST.

The Plaid tour kicks off on July 21, in VANCOUVER. We head south, and make stops in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and ends in LAS VEGAS. Vancouver to Vegas, with California in-between.

Here's the tentative schedule:

Monday, July 21: Vancouver
Tuesday, July 22: Seattle
Wednesday, July 23: Portland
Thursday, July 24: driving day
Friday, July 25: San Francisco

Monday, July 28: San Francisco
Tuesday, July 29: driving day
Wednesday, July 30: Los Angeles
Thursday, July 31: San Diego
Friday, July 31: Las Vegas

All along the way, we'll be visiting brands and other agencies, and sharing our love of the latest social media tools. (If you're on the route, and want us to stop by, let us know!)

We need sponsors! We'd love a hotel sponsor, and/or cash sponsors to help cover at least some of the ridiculous expenses. (You have no idea how much it takes to feed a Plaid van with fuel, and a Plaid staff with food.)

So - if you're working with a brand that could benefit from an audience of over 250,000 blog readers, would love the social media coverage on our blogs, our dashboards, our videos, Twitters and more - let us know. You're welcome to reach out to me directly at darryl AT thinkplaid DOT com, for more details.

Just four months to go!

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 4:50 PM 0 Comments

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The last day of the tour didn’t involve clients but damn was it ever memorable. Planned as an agency-slash-“let’s meet bloggers we know” thing, Dallas was hands downs our coolest stop. First, we hit Dieste Harmel for a quick look, thanks to friend of the show Mack Simpson. Taco cart wondering their halls at 11:00 am, most impressive.

Then it was onward to yep, the best burger in Dallas at the Angry Dog. (This being the second of two great recommends from Mack, the first the night before at Chuys.) After a failed attempt to find the local 7-11 Kwik-E-Mart, we headed over to blogfest 2007 at Bar of Soap.

Words fail, but for sure, this is a real bar with real people and one of the most kickass places we’ve encountered along the way. They’re more than enough individual stories from there that we’ll be posting more on for sure. Check out the pics here. Thanks to an invite from Tanna pictured here, we hooked up with James from Yonder Ponder as well as Scott Baradell from Spin Thicket and Idea Grove fame. We missed Irene and Paul but that’s ok, (they owe us a beer now).

The end of the day saw us peeling the skin off the Plaidmobile, revealing an ordinary Ford. You can check out the sequence of that fun shortly.

Labels: Day 19, tour route

posted by mtlb at 1:36 PM 0 Comments

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Figuratively. After Waffle House waitress, we had out first stop of the day at Wave Riding Vehicles and met up with General Manager David Lewis. They have a very funky space which we all dug. Chatted with David, and snapped some pics with the van. He’s put in a request for a satellite feed, which we’re considering for next time.

Between WRV and our second stop, the 17th Street Surf Shop headquarters, Ryan was in heaven. Loads of sweet gear and apparel. Us, not so much as we missed the marketing person at 17th Street Surf. (Left a nice care package.) Coolest part of that stop were the F-18s overhead.

What to do next? No problem. Just hang down by the beach and people watch while we hunt for free wireless places to work. Or any wireless.

Next stop, North Carolina tonight as we use the long drive to catch up on stuff. Check out the rest of today’s pics here.

Labels: Day 10, lifeontheroad, tour route

posted by mtlb at 12:22 AM 0 Comments

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The tour has a name, so we figured the van needed one too. We could keep calling it ‘the Plaid van,’ but that’s getting old. We need something spiffy. Like the Mystery Machine (but that's taken.)

You can even use adjectives too! Be creative and send in your suggestions via IM: plaidnation or email: darryl AT thinkplaid DOT com. You may just recieve a shirt, a Twinkie, or both. We might even autograph the Twinkie.

Labels: lifeontheroad, tour route

posted by mtlb at 9:18 AM 2 Comments

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While in Boston, we stopped by Etonic to talk shoes.

We actually missed meeting Mike, the marketing dude. First screw up of the Plaid tour so far. (I promise many more.) We left him a sweet tour goodies schwag package, and will catch up down the road.

We nearly got a meeting with the CEO, but I think he noticed that I was wearing Pumas.

Once again, a brand didn't see tour t-shirts as an even trade for product. So we left not in Etonics, but in the Pumas we showed up in. (Except Giuli. I think she wore flip flops.)

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 12:30 AM 1 Comments

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How do you top a visit to Segway, when in New Hampshire?

We decided to find robots. And we did. The Plaid van rolled into Mobile Robots later in the day, and we met Chief Technical Officer Bill Kennedy. We also got to see some awesome bots.

We tried to convince them that it would be a cool thing to have the robots battle the Plaid van, but they weren't having it. We did witness a really impressive demonstration with a couple of their newer products. Coupled with their proprietary software applications, they can produce bots that do just about anything.

Like Segway, the people at Mobile Robots don't consider Plaid tour t-shirts an even trade for robots. I see a trend.

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 12:13 AM 1 Comments

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Geeks rocked today. This morning, we pulled the Plaid van into Segway's world headquarters. I was in heaven.

Segways buzzed around the van and parking lot. And in their offices. Eric, from the Segway marketing department, insists that the Segway employees were working. To us, it just looked like a lot of fun. (Now I guess I know how corporate clients feel when they come to visit our space.)

We loaded Eric up with Plaid goodies, but he didn't see the Plaid tour t-shirt as an even trade for a Segway. Maybe next time.

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 12:00 AM 0 Comments

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What people do in their motel rooms while on tour has been the subject of news, blog posts and books. Some people destroy motel rooms. Some people jump on the beds. And there are other things.

Giuli decided to use her room as a place to dye her hair red. Probably because splashing red stuff all over your bathroom at home would be a mess.

I'm trying to picture the cleaning lady who entered Giuli's room after checkout, and sees red stuff everywhere. Good thing we left New Hampshire.

Labels: giuli, super 8, tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 11:26 PM 1 Comments

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After getting some tech issues fixed, we kicked off the tour today. It was what we expected, and at the same time, not what we expected at all. Part fear, part, wtf are we doing? Tonight though, we sit here in the lobby of a Rhode Island Super 8 digitizing video, blogging and reviewing the schedule for tomorrow’s fun. Even after a CT > Manhattan > Long Island > CT via Long Island Sound > RI, things went well where it counted: the brands we visited.

For now, let’s just say that they were into it in a big way. At some point, we’ll share the whole ROI case study of this trip, but as of right now, we’re feeling really good that this can work.

More non-blog stuff will be added like video clips and Flickr pics, but for now, here’s a recap of the day, followed by any post(s) that cover general things and issues that play out:

Morning: Got into Sony, hooked up with our contact in the interactive space, who then turned us on to some new bands (and free CDs of course.) Since there’s a whole lotta musical taste in the van, we listened to a lot of it and dug most of the stuff. We also got someone to give us the finger in NY. Not hard to do really. Seems like it’s too easy for some New Yorkers actually.

Afternoon - Took us to Long Island and Iron Horse bikes. Up and coming national bike brand. Readers of the our blogs as well. If ever the phrase “It’s a small world” fit, this proves the point. Someone you didn’t know showing the love for what you blog about. VERY NICE! We’re also receiving positive feedback from readers and well-wishers.

Word comes down that the dashboard cam antics may be making a few people queazy. We don’t seem to care. We keep it up. We will continue to keep it up. Why? Queasy is our middle name.

Evening - Across Long Island sound to CT and then on up into Rhode Island. (Man, I miss living near the water.) It was a good chance to review and take ideas discussed earlier one step further. It becomes a very long first day, but the postive energy from it also keeps you going.

Labels: Day 1, tour route, van

posted by mtlb at 3:22 AM 0 Comments

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We've targeted a handful of companies that we'd really like to stop and say hi to, along the tour route. We've mailed them the first of several announcement postcards about the tour.

If you're not on the list, and we're passing through your state, let us know! We'd love to stop by and spread some Plaid love. We'll likely only have time to make 2 - 4 stops per day, so if you are DEFINITELY needing Plaid action, contact us immediately. (There's only so much brand love to be spread around.)

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 4:33 PM 0 Comments

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We've settled on a tour route. Looks like we're covering a good part of the country, from Maine to Texas. And quite a few stops in between. Somehow, we ended up with three stops in Tennessee. That's one long-ass state.

We're still working out the exact order of states to visit in the northeast, but the rest looks pretty final:

July 16 New York
July 17 Rhode Island
July 18 NH or Maine
July 19 Massachusetts
July 20 Connecticut

July 23 NJ
July 24 DC area
July 25 Norfolk/VA Beach
July 26 Raleigh, NC
July 27 Winston-Salem, NC

July 30 Knoxville, TN
July 31 Nashville, TN
August 1 Memphis, TN
August 2 Little Rock, AR
August 3 Dallas

If you're located anywhere along this route, and would like us to stop by, please give us a shout. We'd love to get a photo with you, show you the van and maybe even put you in one of the videos documenting the whole escapade. There will likely be some sweet Plaid goodies, too.

Labels: tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 11:22 PM 2 Comments

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Brian's setup the GPS tracking, so that you can follow the Plaid van on tour. Every step of the way. Keep an eye on us, to make sure we stay on track, stay on schedule, and stay away from casinos.

We'll be incorporating the GPS feed into a Google maps mashup, and it will track the van in real time. Since it's still four weeks until the tour kicks off, Brian's been testing the system on Plaid employee cars. We think he caught someone going to a strip club at lunch the other day.

Can't wait to see this live.

Labels: gps, tour route

posted by darryl ohrt at 11:28 PM 1 Comments