AlligatorZone had, what we have come to realize, a very successful session in Sunnyvale Public Library on Saturday, August 23rd, 2014.  One of our volunteers flew over from Tampa Bay specially for the pilot session.  With three successful AlligatorZone sessions under its belt, the program has already made several adjustments to make it more valuable, both to the kids and to the startups.  The Sunnyvale session was yet another learning experience, because it had a larger number of seats reserved, it was at 3 p.m. on a Saturday, and because Sunnyvale is in the heart of Silicon Valley, “ground-zero of startup activity” — as Sean Murphy of Bootstrappers Breakfast put it.  Some of the lessons learned from AlligatorZone in Sunnyvale Public Library are being shared towards the end of this report.

With over a hundred sign-ups for seat-reservations, we did away with the wait-listing setup in eventbrite and opened up blocks of seats, because the library advised us to expect a large percentage of no-shows.

The large number of sign-ups before any publicity efforts, coupled with  outstanding support received from the Sunnyvale Public Library made for a trip that started from Tampa Bay in anticipation of an exciting session.  However, there’s always uncertainty in the numbers that would actually show up, particularly when it’s a free event.

It was a beautiful weekend afternoon in Sunnyvale.  The library was very busy.  However, there was no way of telling how many people would show up in the meeting room for AlligatorZone.

Wendy in the Sunnyvale Public Library had created an eye-catching banner emphasizing the alligator on the Z that we designed.  We originally had a different tag line – more business like.  This new tag-line that we made: ‘where kids meet cool startups’, was less confusing and more direct.  Though seemingly trivial, it played a critical part in how the program was initially interpreted and announced.  It was announced in the general programs calendar, not in the Youth and Children’s program calendar.  More on that in a bit.

Liz Hickok, Supervising Librarian at Sunnyvale Public Library ‘got’ AlligatorZone the moment it was pitched to her in an unplanned meeting at the library a few months earlier.  A few phone conversations later, and after a few exchanges with the Hillsborough County Library leadership in the Tampa Bay Area, we had firmed up a date and time for the first session of AlligatorZone in Sunnyvale Library.  Later on in this report, you will see a video of Liz talking about how heart-warming it was to see the kids participate in AlligatorZone, contributing to the discussions with the various startup founders.

The Sunnyvale Library was prepared for a strong turnout as indicated by the number of sign-ups.

Liz Hickock, Supervising Librarian, Technical Services, Sunnyvale Public Library, who evangelized the AlligatorZone program at the library is seen here helping Bruce Kim, founder of startup ExtraMile with the audio system.

As presenter, Larry Davis, Cofounder and CTO of startup VisualStager was getting settled in, the first of several attendees walked in.

Seen here in the foreground are Larry Davis, CTO and co-founder of VisualStager, Jake Heller, founder of Casetext and, Bruce Kim, founder of ExtraMile.  Seeing only grown-ups in the audience at the start made me wonder if kids were going to show up.  As the program was being announced in the early weeks, it was initially placed in the adult services calendar, as I learned later.  As we got closer to the event date, and the tag line was changed, there were more targeted announcements to kids and parents.  Changing the tagline to “where kids meet cool startups” seems to have made all the difference.  A few words, but they mattered.  We learned an important lesson in communicating in a simple and elegant manner.

Liz Hickok of Sunnyvale Public Library welcomes everyone, highlights the cooperation and collaboration with Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative in bringing AlligatorZone, the program where kids meet cool startups, to Sunnyvale Public Library, and credits SiliconGlades for the creation and design of AlligatorZone, a program where kids meet cool startups.

The meeting room started filling up as Bruce Kim of ExtraMile (www.extramilehq.com) started talking about his startup.  We asked different kids from the audience to introduce each speaker, using a short introduction script that we had already crafted for each.

As Bruce started taking questions from the audience he got wonderful suggestions from kids, teens and moms and dads.

After the session, Bruce mentioned that he actually got a golden nugget from one of the kids in the audience.

A teenage member of the audience introduces the next presenter Larry Davis, cofounder & CTO of startup VisualStager, as Larry gets ready to demo his product.

Larry gets the crowd engaged with the product demo.

A parent offers a suggestion to Larry.  We had a hard time keeping up with requests for the microphone from members of the audience.

Jake Heller, founder of Casetext (www.casetext.com) waits as a teenage member of the audience completes her introduction of the final presenter of the day.

“How many goats are you allowed to own in the city of San Francisco?” asks Jake Heller.

Jake took several interesting questions.  Listening to a young child ask questions such as “Can you edit the site” made one realize that this audience of kids was tech-savvy.

As Sean Murphy, founder of SKMurphy, Inc. and Bootstrappers Breakfast, who graciously accepted our invitation to attend, later observed, “these kids are digital natives” and ought to be taken seriously.

As in every AlligatorZone session that we have done so far, the venue becomes a gathering place of like-minded individuals and families in the community.  Thank you @PamFR for the tweets!

The hour was over and Liz wrapped up the session thanking everyone for attending, and making a request to them to complete the library’s comment cards.  We couldn’t find comment cards for the kids programs so we used some of the Adult Services evaluation form.  AlligatorZone, is however, a program for kids and teens, and the family members accompanying those kids.

Here are some of the comments received, and our reaction to one of them, which had a hidden lesson for us.

This evaluation shows that we have still a long way to go before we communicate clearly what we want to accomplish with AlligatorZone.  The program has several benefits and nuances.  We hope to get the language right soon.  It also calls for a need to standardize the language being used to communicate the program to patrons across various libraries where AlligatorZone is extending its program.

After each AlligatorZone session (though we failed to do this in our very first one held in June in Valrico, Florida) we seek feedback from the startup founders who presented their companies to the kids and families.  This time we also decided to capture feedback on video from one of the parents, and with his permission his kids who seemed very engaged and impressed all the startup founders.

VisualStager cofounder and CTO Larry Davis talks about how he saw himself from his childhood days in the young members of the audience.

Here’s a video of Casetext founder Jake Heller on the value of interacting with kids at AlligatorZone!

Here’s a video of a parent and his kids at AlligatorZone on why they thought it was a very valuable program.

Let us now summarize the lessons learned from this session of AlligatorZone.

The learning continues.  AlligatorZone will however, take its time growing and perfecting it slowly for our audience of kids, teens and their parents.  When we learn to slow down to the pace of children, life becomes more beautiful.  We want to make AlligatorZone a beautiful experience.  We hope to grow AlligatorZone keeping the children’s needs in mind first.  We will be testing another new format in Miami-Dade county at the Pinecrest Library next month for a class of 4th and 5th graders on a field-trip to the library, so our learning will continue on many fronts.  We will do our best to share lessons learned.  Stay tuned.

Thanks are due to Liz Hickock, Christine Mendoza, Susan Kaplan, Patrick Sweeney and Wendy at Sunnyvale Public Library.  Thanks are also due to the participating startups, and to all members of the audience!  Thanks to the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative, The City of Sunnyvale, StartupDigest, Bootstrappers Breakfast, and our friends at CoderDojo Silicon Valley for helping promote AlligatorZone.

Thank you again for this opportunity to make a difference, one child at a time, one startup at a time, in your local community, even if just a small difference.

Follow AlligatorZone on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AlligatorZone.  Join us for the next session of AlligatorZone.  Reservations are to be made at AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com.  AlligatorZone is one of several impact programs being designed at SiliconGlades.  If you know of startups that would make for interesting presenters to an audience of kids, teens and families, please send your suggestion to events [at] siliconglades [dot] com.

This report was posted by a volunteer from SiliconGlades, an innovation firm that designs hyperlocal social impact programs such as AlligatorZone.  Don’t you love jargon?  Let’s rephrase that:  SiliconGlades designs programs that bring your community together for a common uplifting purpose, right in your neighborhood.

August 10, 2014

The second Saturday of a new month at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library meant yet another session of AlligatorZone.  For those interested in upcoming sessions at various locations, here’s the link: AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com.   A few new things were attempted during this session, with mixed results.  Here are some of the early impressions as captured by volunteers moderating the session.

Is three a crowd, or is it company?

Based on feedback from kids and parents in the audience at previous sessions, the organizers limited it to showcasing just 2 entrepreneurs instead of 3.  This made the session a little more relaxed in its pace.  We wonder if it also made it a little less exciting.  Was it like watching golf versus watching football?  Did an extended life fail to leave the audience pining for more?  Audience members still lingered after the session to chat with the one entrepreneur who was able to stay back to finish all conversations.  In Silicon Valley, there’s going to be a pilot of AlligatorZone in 2 weeks (August 23rd) at the Sunnyvale Public Library, when we expect to have 3 entrepreneurs presenting to a bigger audience of families and kids and teenagers.  We’ll keep an eye on the outcomes and then make adjustments.  We have to strike a balance between the slow pace that gives enough time for an audience to absorb and understand new startups being presented, the sense of urgency with shorter presentations by more entrepreneurs, and the increased noise levels of a larger crowd which undeniably brings a compelling sense of energy and joy.

The power of story-telling without a bright screen

For reasons of poor coordination on our part, we did not even have the presenters’ company name, and logo on display on the flat screen in the backdrop.

Matt Rutkivitz, founder of OuterAction talks to kids and families at AlligatorZone on August 9, 2014.

The presenters showed up as story-tellers without props to help their effort.  As you will see in the video below, Matt Branton, Founder of SenderDefender later said it would have taken just 3 minutes to show his highly technical product, and that would have made it easier.  Come to think of it, one of those computers in the library lined up behind the audience could have been used to get on the Internet.  No one thought of it.  We were all focused on the entrepreneur’s story telling.  We may stick with that format.

Matt Branton, founder of SenderDefender speaks on camera after the session of AlligatorZone on August 9, 2014.

What happens when the camera is turned off

For this session of AlligatorZone, we decided not to record a video.  We found the presenters to be much more relaxed.  They could be themselves.  The conversations seemed more authentic.  Just like at a backyard barbecue in your neighborhood.  The audience was also focused on listening to the startup founders and not distracted with the urge to tweet or post anything on social media.  We are still unsure whether live-tweeting is a good thing or not for hyperlocal events such as AlligatorZone.  The young participant who hand-wrote her feedback, has recommended greater use of social media.  We however noticed more people showing up after reading about AlligatorZone in the local newspaper than through email campaigns via constant contact and twitter campaigns.  Twitter has accomplished more wide-spread awareness for AlligatorZone in places as far away Australia and the U.K.  However, at the hyperlocal level, the jury is still out on whether social media is effective in making parents want to bring their kids to the library to listen to startup entrepreneurs.

Kayla Hayes wrote this excellent story for the Bloomingdale Gazette, which was mentioned by one of the families who attended AlligatorZone.

Learning to be remembered, but not as an annoyance

The size of the audience was very small compared to over 50 people being present in the previous session.  We tried a few different things this time.  We sent one less email reminder to our existing mailing list of various program subscribers.  Parents who signed up did not show up, possibly because they decided to go shopping for school supplies.  Once inside the library, one parent was not able to find our session easily because there were no directional signs.  No giant poster.  Announcements were made on the library’s p.a. system, but we need to develop a script that the venue can use for these announcements.

Feedback on the back of a flyer from one of the teenage members of the audience.

Training our sights on something more enduring for the kids, with mentoring

As we start building a community of entrepreneurs who are willing to talk to kids and families who are willing to invest time and effort in bringing their kids to an AlligatorZone, it opens up a new teaching opportunity that we will explore — one where the entrepreneurs can serve as mentors to kids in the audience.  Before we get to that point, we are developing simple systems that any organization wishing to have an AlligatorZone in its community can simply plug in and play.  The mere thought of this educational potential of AlligatorZone is exciting and heart-warming indeed.

Matt Branton, founder of SenderDefender explains his highly technical ‘large-file encryption in email-attachments’ product to an audience of teens, kids and families, at AlligatorZone.

Dipping our toes in the waters of enriched educational programs

Next month, we are testing out a pilot at the Pinecrest Library of the Miami-Dade Public Library System where entrepreneurs will speak to children visiting the library for a field trip.  Creating self-sustaining learning opportunities in neighborhood libraries, for local schools, would be a worthwhile goal to pursue.

In his feedback video above, presenter Matt Rutkovitz, founder of OuterAction talks about how AlligatorZone is a two-way learning channel.

How can we make AlligatorZone’s message heard?  What if Alligators could roar?

Having completed the first three AlligatorZone sessions successfully, we have identified some of the areas we need to focus on.  Getting the local community to become aware that really busy entrepreneurs and startup founders (running a startup is a 24-hour non-stop endeavor) are taking the time to come and talk to their children is going to be our primary focus.  Our short-term goal is to find a way for the Alligator to roar so that parents and families hear about the AlligatorZone.

For your convenience, here are links to previous articles about AlligatorZone

Follow AlligatorZone on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AlligatorZone.  Join us for the next session of AlligatorZone.  Reservations are to be made at AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com.  AlligatorZone is one of several impact programs being designed at SiliconGlades.  If you know of startups that would make for interesting presenters to an audience of kids, teens and families, please send your suggestion to events [at] siliconglades [dot] com.

This guest post has been put together by contributing volunteers at SiliconGlades, the innovation and design firm that creates programs such as AlligatorZone for a community.