The fastest setup we’ve ever seen
had a salsa beat behind it
The five-hour countdown
Striktly runs a Salsa night every Tuesday. Dancers of every skill level show up to do the thing they love, with others who love it too. It’s a real community.
On a Tuesday afternoon, plans changed. By 3pm, Cammy and the team had decided they wanted to use GatherUs that night. Doors at 8pm.
You know how it is in events. Things shift, and you’ve got the time you’ve got. Here’s what had to happen between 3 and 8:
- Set up the event in GatherUs
- Drive to the store and buy two label printers
- Decide which questions to ask the community
- Tell the community the check-in was changing
- Print QR codes for the entrance
- Run a rehearsal at the office
- Pack up, get to the venue, and open the doors
They did all of it. At 8pm sharp, the checkin stations were live. Over the course of the night, more than 250 dancers checked themselves in. There was never a real queue. People scanned, grabbed their badge, and went to dance.
“
We started with GatherUs in five hours on a Tuesday afternoon, and it’s been part of how we run our nights ever since. The check-in is faster, we actually know who’s coming back, and we can do little things like celebrate birthdays because we have the info to do it. It went from ‘let’s try this’ to ‘we’re not running an event without it’ pretty quickly.
Cammy Breeveld
Director, Striktly
The questions they asked (and why this part is fun)
One of the things we love about GatherUs is that you can ask whatever you want at registration. Striktly didn’t ask for company name or job title, because nobody at a Salsa night cares. They asked:
- Favorite Salsa style (Cuban? LA? Cali? On2? Pick your fighter.)
- Your level (so people can find dance partners who match)
- Lead or follow (the only org chart that matters on the dance floor)
- Birth date — not for marketing, but so the community can celebrate birthdays together
Same platform Venture Café uses to ask startups about their funding stage. Different community, different questions, same five-minute setup.