A couple weekends ago, hot on the heels of its Gidsy launch, our CEO Edial along with Frieda and Katie from the Gidsy Community team took a little trip to Istanbul. As the first city to launch on Gidsy through “Unlock your City!”, we just had to see it for ourselves. 

The city is great, the food is delicious (hello, baklava & kumpir!), and the people are so awesome - especially the wonderful Gidsy Community! The sights, smells and sounds (music, everywhere) definitely kept us energized and very entertained. We especially enjoyed our meetup-turned-epic night out, and went on some really fun (highly recommended) tours with Gidsy organizers Birgit and Dennis. There are some really fantastic activities happening in Istanbul, for tourists and locals alike, and we had a lot of fun trying a few out for ourselves.

So, a big thank you goes out to the people of Istanbul, especially those who took the time to meet with us and show us around your beautiful city. We’ll definitely be back, and we’re so excited to be working with you!

Here’s an audio re-cap of our trip, featuring interviews, a foodcast and a call to prayer:

Keep reading for a few photographic highlights from our adventures.

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The time has finally come, tomorrow is Food Revolution Day! All around this beautiful globe, people will be getting together to celebrate, share knowledge, cook, eat and stand up for real food to support Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Almost 1000 activities will be happening, in 592 cities across 58 different countries! 

Since launch day on April 7th we’ve come a long way, having more and more people organizing local foodie events. We’re so proud to be a part of this great initiative.

Here’s just a small selection of local food events you can join all over the world:

• In Noszvaj, Hungary, get an ‘Introduction to edible gardens’. Learn everything about wild edibles and how to prepare raw meals.
• In Berlin, Germany, join the Gidsy team for our ‘Seed Funding’ event. We’ll provide different seeds, pots, good dirt and labels for your plants. 
• In Gurgaon, India, get a crash courses on how to grow herbs and veggies in your own apartment at ‘Organically India’.
• In Githurai, Kenya, share your knowledge about healthy food and learn more about it from nutrition experts at the ‘Traditional / Healthy Food Display’.
• In Honolulu, Hawaii, watch a live Mozzarella making demo and learn how to make chocolate at the ‘Mozzarella & Chocolate Making Demos’.
• In Toronto, Canada, sample an amuse-bouche created from locally sourced ingredients at the ‘Chef’s Table @ The Stop’s Farmers Market’.
• In New York, USA, learn how to ‘Build a Farmers Market Feast’ from scratch, including the shopping and preparation.

So what are you waiting for? Take part, and join the Food Revolution!

Find a local food event 

Don’t forget, all net funds will go towards food education through Jamie Oliver’s foundation projects in the US, UK and Australia. The money will be used to educate, empower and inspire people of all ages to make better and more-informed food choices. 

The time has come, Belgian friends! It’s official - as of today, anyone in Hasselt & Ghent can organize and book things to do on Gidsy. 

After a neck-and-neck race to the finish, the people of Hasselt & Ghent both showed that their cities had the chutzpah to be named Gidsy’s next unlocked cities, and we were happy to oblige! 

Ghent impressed us with a great call-to-action blog post, but Hasselt really took things above and beyond. From Facebook groups and meetups to local media and radio coverage, Hasselt’s community-driven quest to put their city on the Gidsy map was quite spectacular. We’re totally humbled here at Gidsy HQ, that both of these great cities rallied together and have gotten involved! Big thanks to everyone in Hasselt & Ghent. 

Here’s a sampling of the fine activities happening soon in Hasselt & Ghent:

Hasselt

• Join the initiator of Gidsy Hasselt, Nick, on a “Creativity Hotspot Tour” of the city, get to know the growing start-up scene, and meet some creative entrepreneurs.
• Explore the sweet side of the ‘City of Taste’ with Greet, at the “Chocolate & Grappa tasting workshop”. 
• For the teens, play DJ for a day and learn how to program your own radio show at MaxHa! with Annelies. 

Ghent

• Join Tom on his 3-hour workshop about the ins and outs of Trend Forecasting and Coolhunting.
• Get a head-start on the rest of the world with Polle at the “Early Shift Experience”.
• Enjoy a day of biking around Ghent with Kristof, with pit-stops at some of the most creative and inspiring studios on the “Creatives in Gent bike tour”

And there you have it! If you’ve got a cool activity you want to offer in Hasselt or Ghent, be sure to create your listing today. We’d love to hear from you!

Organize an activity 

We’re super exited to announce our new team blog: The Laboratory. Be sure to follow us there if you want to see us nerd out about everything behind the scenes of Gidsy!

gidsylaboratory:

Today, we proudly announce the launch of our new blog, the Gidsy Laboratory!

The Laboratory is our place where we will share the knowledge from our team and the experiences we gain along the way building Gidsy.com.

Besides this blog, we will keep posting regularly on the Logbook, where you can find a hand-picked selection of things to do, seasoned with ideas, stories and people of interest.

A classic tale of two Belgian cities, both alike in dignity, passion and probably waffles. Gent and Hasselt dueled it out to see who would prevail as the next Gidsy city to launch.

We have been amazed and very impressed by their community efforts - from blog posts and Tweets to Facebook groups and even newspaper articles!  This has made us so happy that we have decided to launch in both cities next week - Wednesday, May 16th. 

Congratulations, people of Hasselt & Gent! You have successfully unlocked your cities on Gidsy, and we’re really excited to work with you!

If you’re living in Hasselt or Gent and want to get involved, you can start creating your listings now so we can feature them on launch day! 

Organize an activity 

Want to unlock your city?
If you think your city has what it takes but is just missing a Gidsy, follow the lead of Hasselt & Gent, and get your community involved! Once there are enough listings in your city, we’ll launch there. Easy as that! Click here to learn more about unlocking your city on Gidsy.

We’re in the middle of growing season, so it’s time to start planting your vegetables and flowers. To give you a head start and to celebrate Food Revolution Day, we’re organizing a Seed Funding. Join us on May 19th at The Makers Loft. All proceeds of the event will go to the Jamie Oliver Foundation. Hope to see you there!