Swapsity brought barter to the
Green Living Show with phenomenal results, showing
Torontonians
there truly is a green way to shop.
We’re getting to be pros at organizing
large-scale swap meets and with
each event
we strive to do things bigger, better and bolder. On
the weekend of
April 13-15, we hosted a three-day Movie Music Eco-Swap
marathon at
the Green Living Show, Canada’s largest green
consumer show.
To our delight, we saw thousands of swap successes
happen right
before our eyes. The Swap Zone was booming with
positive energy, a
great vibe and so many excited swappers. It was a
pleasure seeing
the happy expressions and hearing the excited chatter
when swappers
started growing their media libraries through barter.
We loved
every minute of it!
The much-loved event was kicked off with over 200
swappable
items leftover from past events, which meant that
swappers could
get started right away. Over the course of the swap the
tables were
brimming with various CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and vinyl
records as far
as the eye could see. By the end of the three days
2,800 were
swapped and a total of 3,437 media
were
recycled and
diverted from landfills. That’s over $21,000 that
Torontonians
were able to save by swapping instead of shopping! The
remaining
850 items are going to start off the next swap meet,
happening
July 21st.
We also
polled swappers as they left the Swap Zone and 90% of
surveyed
swappers indicated they left very happy.
Here are some of our favourite memories and moments
from the Movie
Music Eco-Swap:
“Such a fantastic
idea! More!
More of these!”
“You’re awesome.”
“Scored some great records! Better selection than
DVDs I
bought.”
“Fantabulous!! Will be swapping a lot
more.”
“Best thing ever”
“What a great way to trade!”
It’s in these moments from the Swap Zone that we see the humanity behind barter transactions when cash and credit are taken out of the equation. Some swappers found a piece of nostalgia among the movies and music that captured their youth in a way that nothing else could. For instance, Erella, found her favourite Miles Davis album, while another swapper was reunited with a relative at our swap. Watch this this video to hear his uncanny story!
One man's trash is indeed another's treasure. We witnessed an example of this when a swapper who dropped off District 9 on DVD and told us just how much she disliked the film. Minutes later another swapper swooped in on the DVD and couldn’t contain his excitement. He loved the movie! We found some swappers were not into the 70s and 80s music, while others loved it and were enthused to pick up some cool vintage stuff. The lesson? Everyone has a different and changing tastes and that’s why it makes sense to swap stuff!
We even had a section dedicated to family-friendly
media items.
Speaking of things that kids love, did you see our
sweet and swap
savvy mascot, Swaptopus?
She was hanging about the booth giving hugs and posing for photos. Friday saw a lot of school age kids on field trips come through and Swaptopus, always a hit with the kids, was practically the star of the show!
We have so many people to thank for making this event possible and it starts with the fabulous and dedicated volunteers without whom we could not have delivered such a successful event. From planning to execution, the swap was run 100% on volunteer power and because of them the energy was always high, the smiles were always beaming and the swaps never stopped.
A very big thank you as well to the swappers who came
out and see
us! You’re the reason we do this and none of this
would be
possible without you. We also want to thank the
wonderful Green
Living Show organizers who did a phenomenal job putting
the whole
show together and running everything smoothly.
Last but certainly not least, thank you to our
friends at
Brook's Delectable Chocolates, Cg6 and TKMT who
generously lent us
some supplies for the swap, allowing us to keep things
more green.
You rock!
To date, the Movie Music Eco-Swaps in 2011 and 2012
have resulted
in more than 8,000 media items being recycled, 6,000
swapped and
over $45,000 in savings.
If you couldn’t make it to the show, don’t
sweat it.
There’s another chance to get your swap on at the
Live Green
Toronto Festival, happening July
21st at
Yonge and Dundas Square.
Last year, we swept
Toronto off it's feet with a massive and super
popular swap
right in the heart of the city. Coming off of the Green
Living Show
success, we’re really pumped to get started on
the Live Green
Toronto Festival swap!
Help us spread the word on Twitter using the hashtag #SwapZoneTO and
invite your
F
acebook
friends.
See you on July
21st!
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