#couchcrash

“The story begins in 2012...

My then-girlfriend (now wife and soon to be mother of our child) Candy, and I were plotting our 2012 two-week vacation and considering Arches National Park and the surrounding area. Through great fortune, a close college friend of mine, who had been living in Boulder, CO, for some time, reached out to me to share that he was part of something called the Boulder Couch Crash. He explained that he was part of a small team of people set on inviting the world of Couchsurfing to Boulder for a weekend. The team, along with a group of volunteering local Couchsurfers (CSers) would provide a structured schedule of events to allow CSers to explore what makes Boulder a wonderful place to visit and live. 

Candy and I were set. We made our venture to Boulder a road trip through several national parks and arrived to enjoy several days entirely dedicated to the Couchsurfing community. We toured the Celestial Seasonings tea factory and lounged a lazy summer afternoon at the park floating Boulder Creek. We enjoyed, in a matter of few days, as many of the activities as we could that Boulder CSers love about their home, with our local CSers available as guides the whole time. When we returned home to Bend, we asked ourselves, "why not do that in Bend?"

A year earlier, in June of 2011, Candy and I spearheaded the first regular monthly CS Bend meetup. We put the word out and had fairly good return. Our CS community was a good one, full of strong contributors to the community as a whole. Yet, we didn't have a group to consistently pull us together or at least be available as a community of locals and for locals. The regular monthly meetings were an effort to do just that. We saw an opportunity to build bonds between local CSers, create a network where we could refer travelers to our personally vouched friends when we couldn't host, and just have a sounding board for travel and life stories over beers. Upon return from Boulder's First-Ever Boulder Couch Crash, Candy and I knew the Bend CS community couldn't just jump into hosting something like that. The Boulder Couch Crash team of 6 had known each other for quite a while and had put a great deal of effort into the event. Before we left, I asked them if they would help if I ever wanted to do something like the Boulder Couch Crash in Bend. There was no hesitation. They told me they'd learned a great deal during their planning and holding of that event. Right away they said they could share their tips on schedule organization, messaging tips to spread the word, and how to reach out to businesses for support. 

Candy and I described the Boulder Couch Crash to a few of the regular attendees of the monthly meetups. Throughout the year, we gained the confidence that our core group and the CS community in Bend would be supportive of hosting a Couch Crash. We described it briefly as a weekend in which the global Couchsurfing community is invited to enjoy what we love about Bend, with us as their guides. We hatched a plan to formally announce the First Ever Bend Couch Crash one year before actually holding the event. So, in the spring of 2013, we held a potluck party and officially kicked off the planning for the 2014 Bend Couch Crash. We delegated the invitation processes to dedicated volunteers, each taking on a continent or group of countries to invite with a year's advance notice, we'd ping them again with six month's notice.

The Crash gave our group a direction, a tangible goal: invite the CS world to Bend for a weekend and show them a great time. Our meetings were a mix of sharing stories, planning travels, and tracking our progress toward the goal of hosting the Crash. Our core group took the lead on their respective tasks. As the invitation circle drew closer to the west coast, we intensified the invitation process, trying to reach every single small community we could find that might make the trip to Central Oregon. A few months from the August event, we had a formal schedule (the format borrowed directly from Boulder), our website was up and running (thanks to local CSer Jen, we had an informational hotline set up (inspired by Boulder) and we had discounts set up at businesses around town for attendees who wore the orange Couchsurfing wristband (provided by CS HQ and picked up and mailed by a Couchsurfing powerhouse friend of mine living in San Francisco at the time).

Adding to the excitement was the attendance by an incredible couple from Connecticut. Jason and Lee had received the Bend group's invitation at a time when they were just discussing the possibility of a Pacific Northwest vacation. Just as Candy and I had been inspired for our roadtrip by the Boulder Couch Crash invite, our invitation finalized Jason and Lee's plans to travel all the way across the continent. On top of this, Joel Gorder and Nicki Seminara decided to join us for the Bend Couch Crash as well.

The weekend was a blur. I had ambitiously aimed to see 100 or more people attend, including locals we didn't see often. We saw on the first day we had about 40 to 60, and through the end of the weekend we could count around 80 people who participated. Our scheduled events ran as smoothly as we could have hoped. As we'd learned in Boulder, we depended heavily on the resourcefulness of Couchsurfers. We told attendees that the information they needed was available on the website or by calling the hotline, or by reading the printed schedule we'd provided at the kickoff event. The guests knew to get themselves around town and could look to their local hosts for help when needed. It was a thrill to see all of our local volunteers taking groups of people from near and far to enjoy what makes Bend great to each of us.

I won't go into the details of the weekend's events here, but I will highlight the $5 Mimosa and Pancake Brunch at Liana and Peter's house (the event, of course, was inspired by Boulder's event of the same theme hosted at Nicki's house in 2012). The powerhouse Bend CS couple opened up their home to the entire Bend Couch Crash for a big Sunday morning event. They whipped up a continuous supply of fresh pancakes and mimosas for around 40 guests. The group lingered for a great lazy Sunday morning into the afternoon, most of the group calling that their final event of the Bend Couch Crash before heading home. It was there, gathered around tables with plates piled high with pancakes and mimosas aplenty, that I realized we'd pulled it off. Our attendees, including Jason and Lee from Connecticut, Vagabloggers Josh and Meisha, freshly-arrived Bendite Ben, our inspiration Joel and Nicki from Boulder, and so many others, were all happy to be together as a community. The group was connected, brought together by the idea of a Couch Crash. The idea that we, as a Couchsurfing community, could open up our homes and our city for something bigger than the hosting we enjoy so much on a regular basis. This was our weekend to share Bend. This was the Bend Couch Crash.“

This Labor Day Weekend, Chicago is hosting its 4th Annual CouchCrash!

From August 29 - September 2 there will pub crawls, picnics, music, dancing, food, beach parties, storytelling, scavenger hunts, board games, karaoke, free hugs and BBQs happening all over the city.

To find out more, check out the event page.