Country of Residence
United States
Age
16
Project title
Mark Your Calendar: Event Boards
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
I would introduce boards around parks where people could hang fliers of upcoming events and projects.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
My parents have brought me to many events before in the past, but I never knew how they found out about these events. Recently, I discovered the only accessible way was through online sources. That led to me considering alternatives to such a problem. Then I thought of my experiences and things I have seen in my day to day life. I then remembered seeing the maps on the bike path. These are boards that hold important info that are relevant to the locations they are at, so I thought of how this could be applicable in other locations or ways. Finally, leading me to considering combining the two ideas and thinking about creating event boards to put into parks that kids and parents could be interested in going to.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
The problem I am trying to solve is that there are very few ways to figure out about events if you do not check websites that post the events. With parents that go to many events, I have been exposed to this problem, as they are very commonly finding out about these events online. With them mostly being online, I wanted to create new ways for them to be shared widespread in a more in-person way, and for those not on facebook or online. Previously, these are posted on newspapers, but in my city, the newspapers are only printed twice a week and very few people purchase the newspapers.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
I am solving this problem by providing a new and accessible way to learn about these events. My project would introduce boards where people can post fliers to introduce new events making them accessible to all. If many people learn about these boards, not only will there be many events that can be posted, but also many people going to these events. This creates a more unified community with events that are reaching out to all people. This large outreach can even be larger than online.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
I hope that my project will make events much more populous and widespread. I hope that it will increase the popularity of smaller events by over 100% and just make larger events even larger. I hope for this success because of how easy and simple it is to access. Parents of children going to parks can merely glance at the board and discover new events that could pique their interests, creating an influx in popularity for such an easy addition.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
My idea is innovative as it takes a new approach on the outreach of events. The current concept consists of posting online fliers and taping posters on telephone poles. My idea creates central locations where people frequently visit that would inform people in person, which would increase memorability. Additionally allowing people to grab fliers would let people to further spread the word in person. In this current digital age my idea offers real world interaction that is unprecedented in many other ideas.
How many people are on your team?
1
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Currently, there is no one other than me in the team, however; I am interested in getting someone to help create the boards, someone to help spread the word about the boards, and someone to help get the permits to be able to implement the boards. I can get my family, friends and church members involved.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over time I would seek to expand to more and more parks and facilities. I would like to implement them into other places, like hospitals, government offices and shopping malls. I would also like to ensure that more events actually get put on the boards. I would do this by personally inviting others to put fliers up for any events that they participate in. This invitation would increase the amount of people who are using the events creating an increase in the variety of these events. Lastly, I would expand boards if necessary to ensure all events can fit on the boards.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
I would do research on common events and reach out to any host of many events. I would reach out to them to request for them to hang fliers of their events on my boards this would increase engagement of others and add new events. Following this, I would ask them for any other hosts of events to reach out to. Hopefully, this would let me have a greater expanse of the community that would engage in my innovation.
