100 Things to do before you die

Dave Freeman, the author of "100 things to do before you die", died this week at the young age of 47. He didn't get through all of his own list - but at least he tried! He wrote the now famous book in 1999 (and hundreds more like it have followed since).

According to the the Mail Online article, Dave liked to set off on his travels alone, so he could meet more interesting people along the way. Whether you go with your own friends or not, some of the things on the list sound amazing.

One of his person favourites was Las Fallas in Spain (in Valencia). Papier-mache statues of politicians and celebrities (filled with fireworks) are exploded at the stroke of midnight! Mix in great food and wine and you have a perfect escape with friends! It's not until March, so you'll have to wait (but don't wait too long).

Thanks to the guys at Huddle

The guys at Huddle (www.huddle.com) have been great. Their DrinkTank event not only provides very welcome refreshments, but their advice (as a fellow Digital Riversider) has been very useful. They're also very nice people, so if you get the chance to use their product (or to have a drink with them) we can't recommend it highly enough!

What is Huddle? In their own words: "Huddle gives you simple, secure online workspaces containing powerful, office, project and collaboration tools that can be used for a variety of purposes. Huddle is hosted, there’s no software to download and it’s free to get started."

Karaoke with a touch of class

Karaoke is a bit like Marmite. You either love it or your hate it. But if you're in the camp that loves it and you're in North London then this week brings some good news. Lucky Voice are opening up a brand new karaoke bar in Islington this Thursday. (See map)

Lucky Voice isn't about watching a bunch of strangers singing badly, its about getting together with your friends in your own private booth and having a good old sing song. It's karaoke with a touch of class. And it's a great way to get a bunch of friends together to have a good time.


If you want to get a group to go to Lucky Voice, why not use Wigadoo to see who's up for it. Use this link to suggest it to friends in seconds.

Get your golf mates together

We came across a great golf community site this week. If you are in to your golf and like nothing better than hitting a round of 18 holes (and even occasionally escaping the country to do so), this could be just for you.






Golfshake has loads of great functionality. It lets you track scores and handicaps as a group and even helps you organise events. In addition it has a great directory of courses and an activity community site for any tips or advice you might want on where to play ... or, more importantly, how to beat your mates!

Enter our Time Out Competition for a chance to win £500

We have partnered with Time Out to offer you a chance to win a £500 cash prize to pay for your next group activity with your friends. No strings attached - you can do whatever you want with it as long as you promise to take your freinds along! Fancy hring a box at the theatre , hiring a castle for the weekend, trip to the races, hiring a boat or a go kart track? Let your imagination run wild!

Enter the Wigadoo Time Out Competition - it takes less than 30 secs!

Great Idea for Adventure Race Fans

This sounds like great fun for those fans of adventure racing amongst you. For the Rat Race Adventure you first need to get together in teams of 3. They are run in lots of cities around the UK and will get you running, climbing cycling, kayaking and abseiling around your chosen city. The course details will be a surprise until a few hours before the race begins. Sound cool? Well you are not too late to get your team together to enter the Newcastle (30th Aug) Galway (6th Sept) or London (27th /28th Sept) events. Why not get your team and money together using Wigadoo and then book your place with them online. Do let us know how you get on!

August Bank Holiday

Monday 27th August is the date for August Bank Holiday in 2008.

So what are you going to do?

As it is one of the best times of the year to get together with your friends and go on a trip somewhere, it is the perfect opportunity to plan group travel with Wigadoo.

Here's how Wigadoo can help you:

The Wigadoo Vote

The Wigadoo vote means you can put some ideas of things to do this Bank Holiday to your friends which they can vote on. This way you can easily find out what everyone would like to do.

A vote is a webpage that you can quickly set up containing the question you would like to put to your friends, once you have emailed the link to your vote page to them, they can vote on it and leave a comment if they wish.

Set up a vote

Create an Invite

Once you know what everyone would prefer to do, or if you already know and have skipped the vote, you can create an invitation.

An invitation gives you the ability to fully describe what you would like to do with your group. Details include dates, location where you can include a map and full details including a photo and a website link.

As part of organising your group, for August Bank Holiday, you are also able to specify your budget and how much it will cost per person to do your plan.

Wigadoo then gives you a link to the online invitation that you have created, and you send it to your friends who click on the invite to indicate if they would like to attend or not, and are willing to pledge the money necessary to do your plan.

Create your online invitation

August Bank Holiday

So now you know how to use Wigadoo, here are some ideas for thing to do with your friends this Bank Holiday.

- Go camping in the Brecon Beacons
- Rent a holiday cottage in Cornwall
- Visit London for the Notting Hill Carnival
- Go to the Beachdown festival in Brighton
- Head to Bournemouth for the beach
- Ride the rollercoasters at Alton Towers

Win a Luxury 2 Night Spa Break for 2 People with Wigadoo

In association with Champneys we have a luxury 2 night spa break for 2 people with unlimited use of the facilities to give away.

Full prize details

Win a two night mid week break for two people at Champneys Henlow, Champneys Forest Mere or Champneys Springs to include all meals, unlimited use of the facilities (swimming pool with whirlpool, sauna/steam, gymnasium and complete programme of exercise and relaxation classes) together with a Champneys body massage and a relaxing facial per person.

The prize will be offered in the form of a gift voucher which will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue. It is non refundable and not valid at Champneys Tring or on Saturday nights.

How to Win

At Wigadoo we realise that when arranging things to do, such as a spa break with friends, one of the biggest headaches is agreeing a date that everyone can make. That is why we created the Wigadoo Vote.

So to win this great prize all you have to do is:

Enter Competition

Click here to set up your vote and enter the competition.



Setting up a vote is quick and easy and you or your friends do not have to register with Wigadoo.

Competition terms and conditions.

This competition is kindly supported by The Prize Finder

Wigadoo is looking for technical and design talent!

Know a designer?

Do you know any great web designers who might be yearning to work with one of London's most exciting startups? If you do, send them our way: we're looking for freelancers with decent part-time availability who know how to balance understated good looks with user-friendly functionality. Commercial experience is less important than proof of talent designing for the modern web so if you're a student looking for work experience (and money) or a junior with plenty of spare time this could be for you.

Know a developer?

We're also looking for a full-time web developer with a well-rounded set of skills and some commercial experience working with asp.net (c#), javascript, (x)html/css, ajax, sql, xml/xslt. Any exposure to other languages/frameworks (php/RoR/Django) would be a bonus, as would an understanding of MVC architecture (although that's by no means essential). If you love the current generation of web applications as much as we do and want to make a big difference in an exciting startup please get in touch.

Please send CVs and URLs or samples to wigadoo.operations@wigadoo.com. No agents please (we have a sole agency policy).

Champneys for your next girls trip

Today we visited Henlow Grange one of the Champneys Spa resorts and it reminded me of what a fabulous place they are to visit with the girls. As we drove down the driveway through the picturesque countryside at sat looking out the beautiful gardens I couldn't quite believe that only an hour before I was butting heads with commuters at King's Cross Station in the morning rush hour. The last time I went to a Champneys resort was with my mum and 2 of my cousins for a birthday treat and it made me realise that it was about time I organised another trip maybe to another one of their resorts this time. They have loads of different types of packages depending on what you are in the mood for , with and without accomodation. It's also worth keeping an eye out for any group discounts. Looking at all the people chilling out in their fluffy white bathrobes made me feel desperately jealous! Going to have to Wigadoo a trip soon!

How to organise a stag or hen party.

To the bride or groom it is the last night of freedom, to the best man or head bridesmaid it can be an organisational nightmare.

Fortunately for all of you unlucky enough to be handed the honour of arranging a night out with a group of people some of who you will never have met before, get them to agree on a date, ensure they can travel to and from the destination, get them to arrive on time, pay their share so you don't have to cover their costs, and make sure they are all having fun, all on behalf of your best friend, there is a solution: Wigadoo.com.

And on Wigadoo Stag and Hen Nights are proving to be rather popular. Here's why:

* The organiser can fix a date with all of the group using the vote tool.
* Everyone confirms their attendance and pays their share up front

It is as simple as that. No more hassle co-ordinating the dates and getting people to decide on activities via tons of emails or phone calls. No more having to pay for 10 people and then hope that they pay you back afterwards.

So whether you are after a quick stag or hen do in Blackpool or a long weekend in Barcelona, you only need to worry about organising the drinking games.

To illustrate just how easy it is to organise a stag or hen party, we have put together some handy guides. Follow the links to Stag Party or Hen Night, for helpful tips and advice.

Silicon Valley vs. The Digital Riverside

You may have heard of a small dip between two hills on the West Coast, known to some as Silicon Valley. You may also have heard of an area of New York that has come to be known as Silicon Alley. Well all of these are about to be blown out of the water by London's new internet start-up hub.

Oh, yes, at last internet start-ups in London are finding a home ... and we at Wigadoo are right in the heart of it. The area, formerly known as SE1, will forever more be referred to as The Digital Riverside. It's on the south-side of the river covering Vauxhall to Tower Bridge adnd is becoming the place to be for internet entrepreneurs. The guys at Huddle realised this and started mapping the start-ups around us. Looks like we're in good company.

See here for a map of start-ups in the Digital Riverside. And if you're from another start-up, come and join us!

Staying in touch with friends when you're out and about

We met Jeremy Krantz and Nigel Shardlow, founders of Zygo last week. Zygo is another great London based start-up focussing on helping groups of friends.







The guys at Zygo have come up with a very simple but effective group text messaging service. It lets you set up a number for your group and when you text that number, the message goes to all of your friends. When they text back to that number, again it goes to everyone. It effectively lets you instant message a whole group of friends via your phone. Great for banter or sorting out the last minute logistics of a trip or just keeping track of everyone whilst you're away.

We can see it being brilliant for anything from stag or hen parties to ski trips to festivals. When you're sorting out your Wigadoo event, it's definitely worth trying Zygo at the same time!

The Wigadoo Facebook Page

Facebook is this amazing new social utility that allows you to connect with your friends online. And you all know that Wigadoo is an amazing social utility that allows you to do more stuff with your friends offline.

Well, Facebook have been kind enough to give Wigadoo it's own page. We're really happy to be helping them out, I have a feeling one day this Facebook thing might really take off.

So get over to facebook now and become a fan of the Wigadoo Facebook page.

Wigadoo your next group ski holiday!

As we enter August, and the hot English Summer rolls on, it is time to turn one's attention to skiing! Actually this is not as crazy as it sounds because if you book now you can get some surprisingly good deals.

Take for instance Neilson Active Holidays, they are offering up to 25% discount for groups who book their Winter 2008/09 ski holidays now. A group is classified as being over 7 people and they have deals that are available for up to 30 people and more, so they can handle small and large groups.

Normal group discount is 5%, the current offer includes 5% off the ski pack, which contains lift passes, if booked by 30th September. Another offer of 25% off ski chalet hire for groups is available if you can fill the chalet.

Whilst Wigadoo is here to make organising your ski group easier, Neilson allow groups certain helpful options such as free pre-booked seats together, free name changes, and flexible departure airports.

So now we have given you the info, where are you going to go?

Alp D'Huez France
"A high altitude, fun and friendly resort, the ultimate example of a ‘great-all-rounder’."

Banff Canada
"Banff is a winter wonderland with wildlife & is a fabulous place to explore"

Kitzbuhel Austria
"In the heart of one of the largest linked ski areas in Austria…for mixed ability groups, they are the perfect destination"

Sauze d'Oulx Italy
" ...at the north end of the ski area some 400km of piste await"

Other resorts include, Whistler, Soll, Tignes, Breckenridge and many more. Click here for more info on Neilson Ski

So get in early and book your group ski holiday now to make the most of this offer. Remember that Wigadoo can help you to organise dates and places to go using the vote tool, and when you are ready to get your group to confirm, create an invite and collect all the money so you can book without the risk of having to fork out for the others yourself. It couldn't be easier!

Now all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the Summer and wait for those fun filled days on the slopes.