Month: March 2015

On Monday, March 16, 2015, we held the 18th session of AlligatorZone, and the 10th session in Tampa Bay Area.  As we are getting closer to completion of one year of AlligatorZone, we took stock of the different startups that have been featured in various locations.  It was exciting enough to be tweeted from the rooftops.

Since Tampa Bay is quite spread-out geographically we have been experimenting with different times and locations to find the sweet spot when more parents can bring their kids to AlligatorZone and stay with them throughout the session.  Judging by the attendance at the latest AlligatorZone, the evening time of the 2nd Monday of a month might be a good time to schedule AlligatorZone at Jan Kaminis Platt.

This time we had two startups from the area, both of which had kinesthetic appeal to their offerings.  Dr. Luther Palmer, founder of LuBotics showed a working model of what will become a life-saving robot for use by first-responders in emergency situations.

The second startup was a serial entrepreneur, Milind Bhavrikar, founder and CEO of Priatek, the company which has created Ugot2Play, a gamified method of engaging retail shoppers with winnings in the form of discounted coupons, soon to be found in malls as well as on your mobile devices.

Please continue viewing this page for a tour of the session through the pictures and commentary below.

Dr. Palmer arrived early to get his life-saving robots set up, and have one of them clothed.  As the parents and kids started trickling in, we realized that this would be a very fascinating session of AlligatorZone.  The more the kids and teens in the audience, the greater the energy in the room.

You know that a startup in the middle of an imminent commercial launch is taking the audience of kids and their families seriously when they haul all the parts of an 8-foot high kiosk into the public library and get it all set up well before show-time.  Seen here in the picture above are Jay and Walter from Priatek’s team.  They turned off the device so that it will not be a distraction for the kids as the first startup LuBotics was being presented.  As mentioned by a founder who presented at AlligatorZone in Palo Alto last month, this young audience is one that has tremendous influence on the adult population.

The manager of the library Melissa Falvey welcomed everyone.

We then asked a young member of the audience to introduce Dr. Palmer.

We hope to get teen volunteers involved in AlligatorZone in a formal way to moderate AlligatorZone sessions in various locations as the program expands.

Take a look at some of the pictures of kids and LuBotics.

Dr. Palmer pauses to take questions from the kids before setting down the legged robot to show how it takes baby steps.

The robot continues to function even as Dr. Palmer walks away.

Clambering over a laptop bag to show its ability to climb on structures taller than itself.

Questions ensue.

More hands go up with more questions and more suggestions.  “What if the robot accidentally falls on its back.” asked a grown-up.  “Make the legs flip backwards” suggested a kid.  What if a leg breaks?  Dr. Palmer said it will learn to limp just as other legged animals do.

Even the parents have questions.  Dr. Palmer patiently answers everyone, and promises to stay back till the end of the session to answer more questions.

AlligatorZone is one startup event where kids can bring grown-ups along.  It is very common to see younger kids running around in excitement, especially if the parent is one of the presenting founders.

There’s time for one last question from a young member of the audience who said he was a programmer.

You’ll see later some of the kids taking the opportunity to go closer to the robot towards the end of the session when Dr. Palmer hung out with the families.

It was time to switch on the UGot2Play kiosk and Milind Bhavrikar, CEO and Founder of the company that makes UGot2Play was there to show his product to the kids and the families.

He was introduced to the crowd by a young member of the audience.

Milind explained his history in the arcade games industry.

From there he led them to the idea of gaming for coupons at retail establishments.

“How do you make money?”, he was asked.  He explained the concept of pay-per-click.

Nothing works better to engage kids than showing a product in action.  If it’s a mere app, show the interfaces.  Kids understand dashboards.  Even for industrial applications.

Therefore, a shopping related kiosk was easy to grasp for them.  There were many questions and suggestions, that brought a smile to Milind’s face as he asked his team members to make a note of them.

It was time to wrap the session.  The hour had flown by.

As is typical with every AlligatorZone, the socailizing begins after the show and tell.

Another exciting session of AlligatorZone came to a conclusion.  No one was in a rush to leave even though it was a Monday evening.

Here are video clips from this session of AlligatorZone:

Content for a dedicated website is being prepared while some of it is being updated as place-holders at AlligatorZone.org, so that visitors who are keen on learning how to participate can have all the information in one place.

Hope to see you soon at another session of AlligatorZone.  Check out the running calendar at http://AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com.

Follow AlligatorZone on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AlligatorZone.

AlligatorZone is also on facebook now: http://www.facebook.com/AlligatorZone.org

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, or direct-message at @siliconglades

This report was posted by a volunteer from SiliconGlades, an innovation firm that designs, among other things, hyperlocal social impact programs such as AlligatorZone.  In other words, SiliconGlades designs programs that bring communities together for a common uplifting purpose, right in your neighborhood.