How to Present an Idea

We presented our idea to the Calgary Awesome Foundation board of trustees and an audience at the Drop-In Centre.  We split up the 90 seconds between the two of us, and Vlad generated some great renderings.  Check it out!

I’m Claudia, and this is Vlad and we’ve noticed that a lot of great day-time city spaces are overlooked when darkness hits.   We want to invite the people of Calgary to light these spaces in welcoming but unexpected ways.  

For our first installation, we plan to illuminate an urban park by mimicking the presence of fireflies using LED lights. 

Our plan is to ask passers-by to install these simple LED fireflies so that anyone can take ownership in the making of this unforgettable magical space.

The first installation will take place in two weeks as part of the Choose Yer Own Festival, which is a four day festival of rad messes and the unexpected.  The second phase of light installations will occur throughout August in a variety of urban spaces.  Each individual installation will draw inspiration directly from its own site. 

This pie chart breaks down our material cost.  We will spend about $500 on several hundred blinking and non-blinking LED lights, which we will reuse.  $400 will be spent on button cell batteries and the final $100 will go to smaller purchases like floral wire, string, and electrical tape. 

Our project is simple in its execution - a battery and a light bulb.

 Because of this, it will benefit anyone who's ever wanted to stumble upon an adventure, regardless of age or technical ability. It is meant for both those who come with the intention of participating, as well as for those who just happen to stumble upon these illuminated public spaces.

Thank-you.

In the end our pitch was successful!  We've ordered and sourced a large part of our materials.  At our pitch night, we met one of the director's of Protospace, Calgary's hackerspace, Benjamin Reed.  He's connecting us with the folks over at Solarbotics today to see what other cool electronic parts we can source.  We're excited to collaborate with these folks for our August 12 LED blitz!  More finalized details in our next post.  Thanks for everyone's help thus far!