December 11, 2014.
AlligatorZone is where kids meet cool startups. So far it has been held in library locations in cities such as Tampa Bay FL, Pinecrest (a suburb of Miami, FL), Sunnyvale CA, and Mountain View CA. That’s where children are most comfortable, and a place that is associated with joyful learning. This week on December 8, 2014, we tested out a new library location for AlligatorZone in Tampa Bay Area. The Seminole Heights Branch Library reopened not too long ago after a $3.9 million renovation. AlligatorZone was held in one of its glass walled meeting rooms.
Here’s another audio-visual report on the AlligatorZone session where startups Lilypad and Shootrac presented to a gathering of kids, teens and parents. These reports tend to take an introspective approach as this AlligatorZone is a unique and new program with no script. The kids define AlligatorZone’s evolution. That’s how we like it.
A teenage member of the audience introduces the first presenter of the evening, Eric Rabinovitz, founder & CEO of Lilypad (http://www.lilypad.co), which is a software for spread-out teams that are far away and out in the field to come together in a fun environment online – or in business-speak, a gamified collaborative work-space for distributed and field workforce.
More kids joined the audience a little later, but Eric was kind enough to start over so that they knew what he was talking about.
Kids and teens in the audience were able to relate to it using metaphors of school teams and school project work, and seemed to really enjoy knowing about the use of such tools by grown-ups in a business environment.
More questions and suggestions poured in once the kids were able to understand that this was a tool to get some healthy competition going between teams and team-members in a business, to improve the overall productivity of the organization.
Eric paid attention to all the questions and suggestions from the kids, and also made himself available for later by staying back for the rest of the evening.
It was time for the next presenter. Omar Garcia, founder and CEO of Shootrac, a software for businesses to keep track of their assets
One of the younger members of the audience introduces Omar Garcia to everyone, and his presentation begins.
AlligatorZone sessions are highly interactive, and the kids’ opinions are valued. The sessions also turn out to be a time for parents to interact with their kids as well as with the startup founders.
Omar invites the youth in the audience to test-drive the Shootrac product with their iphones.
AlligatorZone, is an inspiring and uplifting family-event, and the vibe is unlike any other startup-related event. All the while, the entrepreneurs learn a lot from these digital natives. Startup founders often bring their own families along to sit in, and interact with the other members of the audience.
All the rules that apply to story-time in a library typically apply to AlligatorZone. After all, the startup founders are also story-tellers.
After every session of AlligatorZone we notice the people like to hang out and talk to the entrepreneurs. Lilypad’s Eric Rabinovitz is seen above enjoying a conversation with a youth from the audience.
Other families gather around Shootrac’s Omar Garcia.
AlligatorZone sessions allow a community to celebrate local entrepreneurs.
We got great feedback from a dad (http://youtu.be/V1XJYP9t1DI) and a mom in the audience (http://youtu.be/TspLewFYg6Q).
The takeaway from this session of AlligatorZone was that it simply can’t be scripted, so there’s no way to ‘coach’ a presenter to talk about a startup to children and teens.
Here’s a video of feedback from the presenters, Eric Rabinovitz of Lilypad (see http://youtu.be/GQrgYEhY274) and Omar Garcia of Shootrac (see http://youtu.be/jih523Y–ts)
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. Join us for the next session of AlligatorZone. A running schedule and reservations are 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, 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.
