Social Media
The #hewebar Red Stapler Caper
How the purloined Swingline office product lost its way during the HighEdWeb Arkansas 2012 conference.
- It's become a tradition for HighEdWeb conferences, national and regional, to award a red stapler to a speaker whose presentation receives the most favorable evaluations from conference-goers. The coveted Red Stapler Award consists of no ordinary stapler. No, it's always a Swingline Red Stapler, the very brand Milton Waddams used in the movie Office Space.
VirtualStapler.com : Staplers in Film : Office SpaceOffice Space Stapler Scene 2: The Red Stapler Milton sure doesn't like where this is going... Lumberg's looking a little too closely at t...- In 2011, I presented for the first time at HighEdWeb Arkansas, and was pleasantly surprised to find out, months later, that I won the Red Stapler Award for my presentation, Blogging for a Change. I was excited to return for this year's conference to claim my prize.
- Imagine my dismay, then, when I learned that the Red Stapler had been kidnapped. Fortunately, this amazing office product had its own Twitter account:
Red Stapler (Stolenstapler) on Twitter
Instantly connect to what's most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.- So I and others at the conference could keep tabs on its activities to some extent. It was even courteous enough to use the #hewebar hashtag on its tweets. Still, like Samuel Gerard trying to track down Dr. Richard Kimble in The Fugitive, I was always several steps behind the wily stapler.
- The clues as to the purloined stapler's whereabouts started falling into place. It was at one of the conference hotels -- but which one?
Getting checked in and then heading out on the town. #hewebar http://pic.twitter.com/Fyg3Xg4j- The stapler's shenanigans troubled the conference organizers.
Red stapler kidnapped! RT @Stolenstapler Ready for my close up. #hewebar p.twimg.com/Ayw0UWUCEAAp2w…- I tried to plead for the stapler's release...
- Please don't take my red stapler! RT @hewebar: Red stapler kidnapped! RT @Stolenstapler Ready for my close up. #hewebar p.twimg.com/Ayw0UWUCEAAp2w…
- But found there is no reasoning with hostage-takers.
- Then -- another clue. A menacing note written on hotel stationery. But maybe the hostage-takers just wanted us to think they were staying at the Marriott, to throw us off their trail.
- The stapler quickly developed a case of Stockholm Syndrome and grew close to its captors. A little too close, if you ask me.
- Fortunately, after a long night of debauchery, the stapler came to its senses and somehow found its way to the conference, where it posted tweet after tweet thanking the conference sponsors.
