November 3, 2015
A time-crunch serves as the catalyst for a new fascinating direction for AlligatorZone, the social-impact program where kids meet cool startups, adding the AlligatorZone Ambassador initiative, wherein kids and youth get coached to run AlligatorZone’s startup show-and-tell events. In this special post by the designer and founder of the program, you will read how AlligatorZone turned out when the AlligatorZone Ambassador initiative was added, and read about some of the lessons learned along the way.
I have conducted training programs for corporate users of enterprise software in person. I have conducted training programs for procurement professionals on business matchmaking software-as-a-service, both in person, and in virtual conferences. I have organized entire online events with keynote speakers showing up on webinars. I have run training programs for remote teams of end-users of my company’s software. I have run several webinar-only events for brand-building and lead-generation. Never could I have imagined that I would someday be coaching kids and youth remotely on a webinar. Not only did I get to train kids on a web-conference, but I also literally handed over the running of, what has been one my favorite social-impact events, to 9-year-olds and 16-year-olds on another coast. I had been toying with this idea for a while because I needed a way to take AlligatorZone to more communities. There are also several under-served communities where the program could be taken for great social-impact, but I had to figure out a way to do it without significant funding. A scheduling conflict turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
There was this looming time-crunch for the fall 2015 sessions of AlligatorZone due to a major entrepreneurship conference where I was volunteering as the program chair. The pressure of that extreme time-crunch became the catalyst for the forming of a precious pearl. It’s a precious addition to AlligatorZone that I believe will make a world of difference to the world. I wanted an alliterative name for this initiative. Thus arrived ‘AlligatorZone Ambassador‘ as this incredibly empowering and uplifting new addition to the ‘AlligatorZone’ family of programs. Yes indeed, I refer to it as the AlligatorZone family of programs because there’s more to come.
One of the startup founders at one such session run by the AlligatorZone Ambassadors simply couldn’t wait to get home to write the following (redacted to protect the founder’s identity): “I am so grateful and appreciative of this opportunity – to let us come speak to families all over the Bay Area. I had such an unexpectedly wonderful time at AlligatorZone just now at the library. I have never met a warmer, more open-minded, entrepreneurial-spirited, gracious, and supportive crowd. Even the librarians were excited by our talk. I attribute that as a testament to your ability and hard work and as a founder myself, I know it probably was not easy. As I told my parents, it is days and events like this that make my startup worth it. It is the chance to connect with so many people of all different backgrounds and listen to what they think. I love how the focus is not on a dull speech, but an active dialogue and conversation with the audience. I love how brave the young ambassadors were and most importantly, I am in admiration and full appreciation (from my heart) how you are able to coordinate such an event remotely. Your passion, shines through in how well this event was organized. … It is incredibly rare to be able to talk about your startup (essentially, your passion and investment and vision) in front of people that aren’t skeptical. And AlligatorZone was a reminder for me on why I set out on this path in the first time. Because sometimes, it can get really tough.” Messages with raw-emotions like this are a reminder for me about why I stay on this path with AlligatorZone.
Take a look at some of the pictures from various libraries, where AlligatorZone Ambassadors ran the show, starting with Sunnyvale Public Library, in Sunnyvale, California.
A parent offered to help out with event logistics because that role had not takers. Startup founders from DogTV and Mise were greeted by the AlligatorZone Ambassadors. They knew exactly what to expect even before they went to the venue.
Samples being set up for display by Mise.
Families starting to gather closer to the event start…
This seems to be a popular corner…
Missed the signage, so Pam, a parent of an AlligatorZone Ambassador rushed to our rescue! The community took charge of AlligatorZone. Now a village was raising this baby!
The librarian shows the Ambassadors and their parents the Audio-Visual equipment closet.
The community has gathered in an uplifting environment.
Usually we have the event kick-off by the librarian but I may be missing a picture or two. A parent who stepped in to help with logistics is announcing the house-keeping items.
The moderator leaves after opening the session.
The host introduces the first startup and its founders.
125 people had signed up while about 50 eventually showed up. Hard to explain why that happens but it varies from one locality to another.
Questions and suggestions keep startup founders on their toes.
It’s time to wrap up and invite the next startup founder.
DOGTV is up next.
More questions…
Sampling Mise’s offerings …
Some of the Ambassadors!
In case you were wondering, the event was blogged about by high-schooler Arif, in this guest blog post titled ‘At AlligatorZone, kids show startups how it’s done’. The photography was done by 13 year old Josh, video-interviews by 10 year old Anisha, and moderator was 9 year old Isabella.
Post-session video interview of DogTV founder in progress.
And then there’s the inevitable upbeat community gathering after the end of the AlligatorZone session. This time there was chocolate mousse brought in by Mise.
There’s always time for a selfie with the startup founder.
If you haven’t noticed, startup founders enjoy a taste of hero-worship by the community at each AlligatorZone.
Later on, Ron Levi of DOGTV blogged about his experience at http://blog.dogtv.com/?p=1860
Let’s take a look at the AlligatorZone Ambassadors’ work in other cities.
Palo Alto’s Rinconada Library on September 25, 2015:
Since Sunnyvale worked out really well, and because of my scheduling conflict, we decided to reach back out to the parent community and attempt another test-drive of the AlligatorZone Ambassador. This time we had 12-year-old Malini as Program Host, 10-year-old Anisha as Blogger, 8-year-old Dhrithi as Photo-Journalist, Karan’s parent helped out as the Logistician, 9-year-old Sanya was the Moderator, 13-year-old Josh helped out this time as the Publicist, 16-year-old Arif the Scribe, and 12-year-old Adil as the Video-Journalist.
Check out some of the pictures taken at this session of AlligatorZone. Notice the very official-looking Ambassadors delivering so professionally at show-time!
The startup founders start arriving a little early to get set up and test the audio-visual arrangements. The library is always generous with food for the attendees.
It’s time to start the show. The kids and youth take over.
The moderator welcomes everyone.
The host introduces the first presenter, Dr. Gazi of Zizmos.
Questions and conversations follow.
It’s time for the next startup Corinth Classroom.
Conversations follow…
Even the parents are encouraged to participate during AlligatorZone.
It’s time to wrap up another session of AlligatorZone. The event had about 55 people in attendance.
The community gathers around the startup founders, while the founders wait to be interviewed by another ambassador Adil who has taken on the role of video-journalist.
This is a common sight after an AlligatorZone. No one is in a rush to leave.
Do spare a few minutes to read the guest blog post titled ‘Shake Shake Shake aahhhhhhh Earthquake!!!’ by Anisha who helped out as an AlligatorZone Ambassador.
Next, let’s look at Mountain View Public Library, Mountain View, California just a few days later on October 17, 2015 and see how the AlligatorZone Ambassador initiative turned out.
First, some very kind words as a testimonial from Karin Bricker, the Library Manager for Outreach and Youth Services: “I want to thank you (AlligatorZone) for doing a wonderful job of putting this together remotely and our presenters Anush with Juan and Nick for the best duo of presenters ever. It made a big difference to have the ambassadors involved. It was an educational experience for everyone.The audience was enraptured by your products and presentations. We received 17 evaluations from the 60 people in attendance and everyone said they want more! Thanks to all of you for inspiring our community.”
The official pictures from the AlligatorZone Ambassador who was the photo-journalist is still making its way to us — a process we are trying to improve. Meanwhile, here is a collection gathered from the Librarian, the startups and some from Maryana, the Ambassador who sent us some early pictures.
Nick Kohut of Dash Robotics opens the session with his product show-and-tell.
And then it was the turn of Titanium Falcon.
They posted some cool pictures on their twitter feed, so here they are.
The session ended with more photo ops and audience members being able to play with the products they just watched the founders showing.
Some of the AlligatorZone Ambassadors are in the front as they are being recognized by the moderator.
10 year-old Keshav was the guest blogger for this session. Read his blog posts titled ‘Age of the Falcon – Kid Blogger reports on AlligatorZone held in Mountain View’ and ‘Invasion of the Kamigami™ – Kid Blogger reports from Mountain View on AlligatorZone’.
Radnor Memorial Library in Wayne, Pennsylvania … We have pictures of the founders of echoMESH and LashBee presenting to an audience of kids, youth and their families. It was a scramble as we were able to find only one audience member who stepped forward to be an AlligatorZone Ambassador. Emilija, who is a teen volunteer at the library, “did a fantastic job helping to set up the room, greeting the presenters, and introducing the presenters. She seemed to appreciate the opportunity to help out and show some leadership”, according to the Children’s and Youth Librarian Carrie Sturgill at the Library.
That’s Amrish, CEO of echoMESH
That is Anjali Bhatia, CEO and Founder of LashBee
The one thing we have noticed at any AlligatorZone session is that big or small, the audience is always upbeat and the event really uplifting.
And finally, here are some pictures from the AlligatorZone session at the Pinecrest Branch Library in Miami-Dade County. Again, we had only one student step up as an AlligatorZone and he was coached over a brief phone call in his mother’s presence. It helped that Nathan had attended previous sessions of AlligatorZone and knew the drill. Dawn Dickson, CEO and founder of FlatOutOfHeels was the presenter.
A mother in the audience was gracious in taking the time to record a post-AlligatorZone interview.
Here are the lessons we learned from the 5 pilots of the AlligatorZone Ambassador initiative.
- It works only when the (parent) community embraces the Ambassador initiative, but even if there’s only one Ambassador it really empowers kids and the youth (see http://www.alligatorzone.org/parents/ambassador/ for a list of benefits we have observed).
- Parents love it because by assuming various roles, the kids start stepping out of their comfort zones and bring out the leaders within.
- Because AlligatorZone is being designed as it is being delivered, even librarians need regular coaching as our understanding of the dynamics increases incrementally with each session held in a different city. Just like in CoderDojo inspired by Sugata Mitra’s experiment in ‘Minimally Invasive Education’ (or as I prefer to call it ‘Minimally Intrusive Education) where the philosophy is to get out of the way of children to let them learn by making mistakes, I realized that emphasizing a forgiving environment is important for the success of AlligatorZone, especially when it is run by the AlligatorZone Ambassadors. That approach takes some coaching of the grown-ups in the room at any AlligatorZone.
- AlligatorZone has been hard to define for everyone involved. I say it is akin to describing the taste of Coca Cola. Adding the AlligatorZone Ambassador to the mix only makes it harder to fully understand the social impact.
- AlligatorZone, with the ambassador initiative supporting it, now allows us to dream of taking it to any community anywhere that is willing to embrace the program, without having to wait for it to be amply funded.
At AlligatorZone, one never knows what’s round the corner. Stay tuned for some exciting additions being designed, even as the ambassador initiative is being refined and AlligatorZone being taken to new communities.
Hope to see you soon at another session of AlligatorZone. Bookmark www.AlligatorZone.org to attend a session. Follow updates at http://www.twitter.com/alligatorzone and like us on www.facebook.com/AlligatorZone.org.
AlligatorZone is one of several impact-programs being designed at 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. This was a special post by Ramesh, the designer and founder of AlligatorZone.
