Postcrossing Blog

About a month ago, a group of students in Kampar, Malaysia hosted a really nice event in their university, to spread the word about Postcrossing. It was quite successful, and everyone had a great time – so we wanted to share their story, in order to inspire you! :) Here they are:

If you are a postcrosser, you can probably relate to that indescribable feeling in finding a happy postcard sitting in your mailbox to welcome you home after a long, tiring day. A postcard is simply magical; each can only contain so few words yet enough to give you a glimpse of the life of someone living across the globe. To receive postcards personalized for you, knowing that each was handwritten by a thoughtful heart, it reminds us that the world is a hopeful and wonderful place.

Wanting to share what makes us so blissfully happy, we decided to start small in our university. One booth, 18 hours, 37 new members (not including those who preferred to register in the comfort of their own home) pretty much summed up our whole campaign. The idea of Postcrossing was very well received; many are excited and eager to restore the once forgotten postcards tradition together. To follow up, we created a small Facebook community, which is still growing each day. Hopefully if we can inspire every postcrosser to reach out and do something small, together we can achieve more.

Well, since a picture is worth a thousand words, here they come…

Our twin #1, Catherine (on the left) sharing her Postcrossing experience with enthusiasm.

Our twin #2, Angela (on the right) is equally passionate when it comes to Postcrossing.

Meng An (on the right) with potential new members. She also contributed to most of our eye-catching and colourful decorations!

Ming Zhe (on the right) – our photographer #1 and the reason why we are now obsessed with postcards. He introduced Postcrossing to the rest of us!

Yee Hong (on the left) attracting a potential member with her postcards collection.

Stewart in action! He is also the man in charge of producing our flyers and photographer #2.

Sandrene posting the first batch of postcards written by our new members.

Fantastic work! Please give a big round of applause for the enthusiastic members who organized this event:

From left to right: Angela (aka Hebe92), Stewart (aka stewartooi), Yee Hong (aka yeehongsia), Sandrene (aka sandrene), Meng An (aka mengan0716), Catherine (aka catgoh92) and Ming Zhe (aka ming_zhe0423).

What about YOU? Got any plans to spread the word about the project in your local school or university? :) Let us know how it goes!

So, you might remember that last week I asked for your help with some postcards for a conference… and boy, did you ever deliver! :D

Here’s my brother opening the PO box about a week after the initial call:

I’m still speechless at the amount of postcards that tumbled out of that mailbox… it’s like it never ends! Can you believe there were over 600 postcards in there?!

So, I owe you… a lot. Thank you so, so much for your generosity and support. Seriously, postcrossers are THE best! :)

I expect that quite a few cards are still on their way and will arrive in the coming weeks, so I’ve already taken the address down. The audience should be less than 1000 people, so any extra cards will be safely kept for a next event of the sort.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a presentation to work on! The event will likely be recorded on video, so I’ll try to show you how it went in a few weeks. Fingers crossed! :)

Dear postcrossers,

This is Ana, your community manager speaking. I’m usually the writer behind the posts that you read on this blog… but today I’m writing this one as myself, to personally ask for your assistance.

You see, in about a month, I will be in Portugal, standing in front of an audience of several hundred people from various backgrounds, to tell them about Postcrossing and the simple pleasures of receiving mail. The problem is… I’m willing to bet that 99% of them have probably never received a postcard, or don’t remember the last time that they did. How can you empathize with something you’ve never experienced? While brainstorming a plan for making this work, I reached the inevitable conclusion: I have to show them!

So, inspired by Oprah, my idea is to surprise many of the conference attendees with an unexpected postcard written just for them, which they would receive during the talk!

I could write all the postcards myself… but I think it would be much more interesting if the postcards came from different people all around the world, with their own stories and details.
So I wanted to ask… would you mind writing a postcard, and giving me a hand? I would be really grateful, and you’d be helping all these people re-discover the magic of postcards! :)

Interested? Got a neat card that you don’t mind sharing? Then mail it to:

We’ve received sooooo many cards in just a week, that I’ve decided to remove the address, as I think they’ll be more than enough. Thank you so much! :)

What should you write on it? Whatever you like, really, but here are some ideas to get you started:

• How do you feel when you find a postcard on your mailbox at the end of the day?
• What does Postcrossing mean to you?
• What have you learnt or discovered through postcards? What would you teach this person?
• What was the most inspirational talk you’ve ever attended or listened to?
• What is special about your city or country?

Or you could just describe what you did today and what the weather is like where you are… anything goes, really! :)

That’s it! Those who know me, know that I’m a bit shy and not particularly comfortable with the spotlight… I’d like to think that, by carrying your postcards with me, I’ll have a little bit of your support on that stage.

Thank you so much in advance! :)

PS:

I thought I’d add a couple notes to clear up some of the questions that have come up in the comments:
- Please don’t put my name on the postcard – the cards are not for me, they’ll all be delivered to the attendees. The address is a PO box, it works fine without a name.
- If you want to write a salutation on the message, keep it simple and flexible with an “Hello” or “Dear attendee”
- The event takes place on March 8th… so please send your cards soon! :)