October 25, 2014
Here’s the room where AlligatorZone will hold its first session in the City of Mountain View, California.
It is a meeting room at the Mountain View Public Library.
I had a chance to visit the library recently. As with every AlligatorZone program in a library, there’s always someone who decides to take a chance on us and allows us to bring the program. It is getting easier though, with each passing month because we are building a track-record of having not only brought startup founders to an audience of kids and teens, but also learning how to keep our audience of digital natives engaged and interested in learning from those who are in the middle of the creative process that any startup entails.
Meet Karin Bricker, Library Manager, Youth and Outreach Services, City of Mountain View Public Library. Karin was extremely gracious in taking the time to meet with me early morning on a Saturday to accommodate my compressed travel schedule.
With Karin Bricker’s recommendations as to the timings and promotional methods, we tentatively decided on exploring a launch in November.
At my request, Karin also graciously provided me with a tour of the library, which helped us understand the strong community ties that the library has nurtured with the parents and children.
The paper-clip bunting covers the ceiling of the library’s children’s section, each clip representing a book read during the summer by kids in the community.
The one thing that we have learned doing several of these AlligatorZone sessions featuring startup founders in front of kids, is that there no way to know what to expect. Startup founders have been asking me for video samples, so we recently recorded one session in South Tampa, however all that it really shows is that entrepreneurs do well when they allow the kids in the audience to download and use an app instantly, or when the product being displayed offers a tactile experience.
Take for example, the demo product shown by LumaStream, where the kids could manipulate the lighting system from an iPad that the founder Eric Higgs had brought along.
Take a look at how engaged the kids are with the BriefSkate displayed by inventor and Looshes Lab founder Alexei Novitzky.
Even Brian DiVito of WazInIt had the audience completely engaged because he told a personal story behind his startup.
One can’t help but notice that even the parents who are present really get excited meeting the entrepreneurs, probably because entrepreneurs usually exude optimism and faith in their company becoming successful.
Let’s do a quick recap. Entrepreneurs have infectious energy. Children and teens have infectious energy. I suspect, in some ways, entrepreneurs are like children – they work with hope, optimism, they embrace vulnerability, and are willing to dust themselves off and get back in the game, should they stumble and get bruised.
No wonder, people tend to leave an AlligatorZone session with a spring in their step — especially if it ends with an entrepreneur reciting a poem he wrote and then leads the kids to his ride which he customized as a marketing banner for his product, and even lets them scrawl their names on it.
We are indeed excited about our launch at Mountain View Public Library, in Mountain View, California with one of the presenting startup founders being someone who was personally involved in coding Ratatouille, the Pixar movie. See you in Mountain View, California on November 19th! Who says Alligators and Mountains do not mix.
Follow AlligatorZone on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AlligatorZone. Join us for the next session of AlligatorZone. A running schedule and reservations are at AlligatorZone.eventbrite.com. Mountain View Public Library will open their own registrations 2 weeks prior to the event. 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. In other words, SiliconGlades designs programs that bring communities together for a common uplifting purpose, right in your neighborhood.
