Press release Foursquare Adventure

Press Release

A Taxi Driver from Oviedo Will Promote Asturias and Spain in USA and Canada through the Social Network Foursquare

› Rixar García was the first Foursquare ambassador in Spain. This social network is based on geolocation. Next August, Rixar will begin his Foursquare Adventure (#Aventura4SQ on Twitter). García will travel in the course of two months. He will cover 14,000 kilometres and he will visit 18 of the most important cities in USA and Canada.

› He will try to organise several “meetups” in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas. In these meetings, a promoting video will be shown: “Asturias, everyone says so” (Asturias, lo dice todo el mundo). Furthermore, Rixar will talk about Spain and will give coffee and Spanish omelette to the attendants. These meetings can be followed on Twitter through the topic or hashtag #tortillaytweets.

› Rixar García will write about his #Aventura4SQ in Foursquare, Twitter, Skype, his personal blog .....

www.taxioviedo.org Those who are even more interested will have the chance to follow his trip live via streaming.

› Rixar García, from Oviedo, has been named as VHP (Very Happy Person) by the Delivery Happiness Movement

Rixar aims to be “the happiest taxi driver in the world”.

› In 2010, he created the advertising campaign called Foursquare-Taxi. Foursquare leaders noticed this idea and the campaign made a splash reaching 1,500,000 impacts on Twitter all over the world. Since 2010, Rixar García has given several conferences around Spain where he explains his everyday life in the 2.0. scenario.

OVIEDO – Rixar García, a taxi driver from Oviedo, will promote Asturias and Spain in USA and Canada through the most important social networks. Rixar García will cover 14,000 kilometres and he will visit 18 of the most important cities in USA and Canada. He will hold special meetings in New York, San Francisco and Las Vegas

Rixar García has managed to obtain sponsors in order to do this trip known as #Aventura4SQ (Foursquare Adventure). His aim, apart from meeting people and promoting Asturias, is to obtain as many Foursquare medals (“badges”) as possible. Foursquare is location-based HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking" \o "Social networking" social networking website in which members sign on different venues obtaining points as if it were a game. Users check in so as they can give their opinion about places, establishments, administrations or industries. Therefore, other Foursquare members can take advantage of the suggestion of other users.

In September 2010, Rixar García delivered an important advertising campaign through Foursquare and Twitter (connected within each other through check-in and tweets). Rixar spent 24 euros and received 1.5 million impacts in timelines of twitter users (like facebook wall)

Rixar states that “Foursquare medals have an important acknowledgement among the members of the social network. In addition, members can take advantage of raffles and biddings shared by different companies. Foursquare can be used as a way of promotion featuring high results of performance”.

“Foursquare has evolved from a tool in which members could find their friends into a search engine made up with suggestions about the buildings visited by the users” explained Rixar. It is rumoured that Groupon Inc. (an online seller of discount coupons) will associate to Foursquare soon.

The North American Route

Rixar García intends to begin this trip in August during two months and covering a distance of 14,000 kilometres. Rixar will travel by car (from place to place) and by bicycle (inside the city). those who whish to follow this adventure and get to know USA have the chance to do so through Rixar’s iPhone. This experience can also be followed through Rixar’s blog www.taxioviedo.org and the social networks Foursquare, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Skype, Youtube… Follow him through mobile phone applications for Android and iPhone:TAXIOVIEDO. Type “taxioviedo” in every place we have just mentioned and follow him. The direct link to Rixar’s blog is TAXIOVIEDO.BLOGSPOT Rixar has a landing page in which all the social networks are included.

The list of places and cities that are taking part in this trip are:

(Flying from Madrid) Miami, New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Texas and New Orleans.

Who Is Taxioviedo?

Name: Rixar García

Date of Birth: 1973 Place of Birth: Basel (Switzerland)

He has lived in: Basel (1973-1976); Oviedo (1973-1993); London (1993); Oviedo (1993-1997); Tenerife (1997-2000); Oviedo (since 2000).

Languages: English (intermediate) and Spanish.

Professional Experience:

-Private Security

-Taxi driver since 2002. Specially dedicated to the journey from the Asturias airport.

Experience on Internet and Social Networking:

-In 2003, he created one of the first websites in which users can order a taxi service ( HYPERLINK "http://www.taxioviedo.com" www.taxioviedo.com).

-In 2009, he became the first taxi driver to offer his service through a direct message (DM) service on Twitter.

Conferences and Speeches

-Appearance on mass media: press, radio and television.

-August 2010. First speech in Gijón at the Congress of the Centre for Information Technology in Asturias.

-September 2010. Foursquare-Taxi action (find more information here ( HYPERLINK "http://taxioviedo.blogspot.com/2010/09/como-lograr-en-72-horas-que-medio.html" http://taxioviedo.blogspot.com/2010/09/como-lograr-en-72-horas-que-medio.html).

-January 2011. Speech #heroesSM at Círculo de Bellas Artes along with AERCO and Fundación Telefónica.

-February 2011. Speech in León 2.0

-February 2011. Rixar is named Foursquare ambassador (first person in Spain).

-April 2011. #Aventura4SQ presentation in Injoinet (platform related to collective financing project).

-May 2011. Rixar is named VHP (“Very Happy Person”) by the Delivery Happiness Movement (sponsored by Zappos).

-May 2011. He is awarded by Cibervoluntarios.org with the prize Cibermax in the environmental section (other companies awarded were Fundación Telefónica, Fundación Orange, Indra-Adecco, Ing Direct, Antena 3).

-June 2011. Speech in Tucamon (Caja del Mediterráneo).

-June 2011. He created a landing page in order to promote his Foursquare Adventure; he created a Market Android application,

and iphone: taxioviedo

Hobbies:

-Rixar likes reading. He is especially interested in philosophy. He did the access course of History of Philosophy in 2005 at Universidad de Oviedo.

-He loves jogging. He practices 4 or 5 days a week. He runs 14 kilometres each time featuring a very nice average (5 minutes and 20 seconds per kilometre). He would like to prepare a half marathon race (21,095 kilometres).

-He has been practising yoga for two and a half years.

-In summer he does mountain biking.

-He also enjoys hiking (he takes advantage of the possibilities in Asturias and the mountain range of Cordillera Cantábrica).

-He loves gastronomy and travelling (did you ever notice?).