I’m off to Mission Iceland: 19 – 22 October 2009
Written by Karen BryanI’m off to Iceland 19 – 22 October on a press trip to report on the Canary Island initiative, “We Share Our Fortune, Operation No Winter Blues”.
Iceland by helgabj
One hundred Canary Island residents, aged 18 – 35 years, have been selected as Ambassadors to spread the message “Say no to Winter” to northern Europeans. There were 2000 applicants on the Comparte tu Fortuna site for the role of Canarian Ambassador. Applicants were put through their paces as they were tested for fluency in English, their local knowledge and possession of an outgoing, friendly personality.
Papagayo beach, Lanzarote, Canary Islands by Teosaurio
In the “Mission Iceland” phase of their ambassadorial role, these 100 young Canarians are travelling to Iceland to recruit Icelanders for a casting session to decide on the 100 who’ll be chosen to visit the Canary Islands. Theses lucky 100 Icelanders will be able to sample almost guaranteed sunshine, banishing their Winter Blues.
I’ll be there to reporting on the progress of “Mission Iceland” aka know as @projectICELAND on Twitter.
Update 20 October 2009: Mission Iceland kicks off as the 100 Canarian ambassadors hit the street in Reykjavik to share their fortune.
Update 21 October 2009: The party launching the start of the castings process to select the 100 Icelanders who’ll enjoy an expenses paid trip to soak up some Winter sun in the Canaries.
Congrats! What a “cool” opportunity! :)
Angela – Iceland is a place I’ve wanted to visit for some time. It all happened so fast, an invitation on Twitter On Thursday and I’m here 4 days later. Yes it is cool here, the pilot said good weather in Reykjavik ” 4 degress celsius and showers”. I had a walk down to the waterfront, the views were wonderful but I scurried back to the warmth of the hotel.
You should know that you can knock on the presidents door and if he´s home he is likely to let you in for a coffie. There are no guards at is home, only secretery, a personal driver and his wife.
Welcome to Iceland
Aron – thanks for your welcome to Iceland. I have been very fortunate today with the weather, it’s been so sunny. All the ICelanders I’ve spoken to are very friendly, Reykavik has a very laid back atmosphere and I really enjoyed walking around the city today. I don’t think I’ll have time to call on your president, alhtough it would be something different to have an interview with a president on the blog.
[...] to Iceland to report on the Canary Islands “No Winter Blues” campaign kicking off with Mission Iceland. Now here I was less than one week later standing on a Icelandic [...]
My name´s Nuria Gutiérrez and I had the great opportunity to live the experience of becoming an Ambassador and promote the islands. Here I leave a note so that you all can take a look and get to know more deatiled what we really did in Iceland. Hope you enjoy:
Mission: No Winter Blues.
There are many who criticize what we have done in Iceland. I just want to explain what the mission is about and how was the experience of becoming one of the 100 Ambassadors of the Canary Islands. We were chosen from a group of 2000 people who wanted to be a part of the mission. It was quite easy. You only had to register in this site: http://www.compartetufortuna.com and write some recommendations about some interesting places in the Canary Islands which could not be found in a simple tourist´s guide.
All this initiative was made by the Government of the Canaries. It is a new marketing strategy known as “person-to-person”. It is a way of promotion that was never made before. In Iceland we had to look for people, and make castings for those who wanted to come to the Canaries for a week. That is, we had to choose a hundred of Icelanders who could then inform other people about the things that the Canaries have to offer.
At first, they could not believe it. But we did a great job to show that it was true and that we were working hard to make this happen. The mission was better as expected. I am just very proud of it.
By the way, in a week it is going to be celebrated a huge meeting for the Ambassadors and those who also wanted to participate and made the castings. Hope to see you all there.
[...] Thanks for visiting!There’s been quite a controversy raging in the Canary Islands about the Mission Iceland launch of the No Winter Blues marketing campaign which took place in Reykjavik between 19 – [...]