Welcome New Participants! (Start here)
Updated: May 3, 2021
Greetings Teams, Panelists, Judges, Mentors, Partners & Friends:
Thank you for joining us on the Covid Challenge! We’re so excited to see you at our Thursday evening kickoff (April 15 - 6pm PT), Friday build (April 16), and Saturday pitch celebration (April 17 - 11am PT) that we’re probably going to send you a couple of emails this week that are TLDR, but we promise to include headings so you can skim to the most interesting parts.
WHY NOW?
On April 15th, when we kick off the Covid Challenge, it will mark an important moment in the fight against covid. For the first time vaccines will be available to all adults, and supply will exceed demand in many of the U.S. states. But we’re a long way from herd immunity (which some say needs to be as high as a 90% vaccinated population), and the challenges we are going to face go way beyond development and distribution. Jumping these hurdles will involve improving education, combating misinformation, increasing access, and reaching underserved populations. That’s where you come in.
WHO ELSE IS INVOLVED?
We’re convening a handful of teams from around the globe to spend one full day prototyping solutions to solve the puzzle of how to get vaccine shots into arms. Under the guidance of covid policy experts like StopTheSpread, some teams will come with their own ideas and others will turn to our pitch board for inspiration. Each team is made up of engineers, designers, project managers, and growth marketers from a single company, but we do have a communal Slack channel and we hope that you will all share your excitement and resources outside of your silos. If you are registered for the event, you will get an invite to join the Covid Challenge 2021 Slack Workspace later today.
HOW DO I LOG ON THURSDAY EVENING?
If your team hasn’t already signed up, please have each member fill out our web application so we can keep them up to date with the latest info. We will be using Butter for the group conversations, Slack to get excited and keep up with each other throughout the event, Miro if you feel you need a template to help you attack your challenge, and our design partner, 99Designs to help with logos for your products. If you’re new to any of these apps, don’t worry...they are all very intuitive and we will have people (me) around to help answer any of your questions. If you have questions before we get started, just reply to this email.
If you want to learn more about any of the apps, these links can help…
BUTTER - like Zoom, but better integrations and more fun.
SLACK - a simple messaging platform.
MIRO - this page is very dense, but you can skip to the videos which are a pretty good starter.
99DESIGNS - we will run 24-hour contests to build you logos, so any designers on your team can stay focused on designing the product.
WHAT’S THE GOAL?
As each new civic challenge explodes into our daily lives, thousands of well-intentioned companies and hundreds of thousands of skilled individuals hover on the brink of action with no idea how they can be of help. Do you write a check? Do you give time? Can you really make a difference?
We’re hoping that our event framework can be a catalyst for broader action. We aspire to break silos and encourage more substantial collaboration between individuals and organizations with a common cause. Our event will be a success if even one of you takes your idea and builds a prototype that makes a difference...but we hope we can support a number of the teams in their efforts to move the needle on vaccine adoption.
And, just like the prototypes you are building, this event is our prototype. We’re starting small and you are our MVPs. Eventually we plan to scale to include more teams, but, before we expand, we want you to know that we are grateful for your trust in us and looking forward to your candid feedback on what you enjoy and what we could do better next time.
ARE YOU STILL READING?
We know that nobody solved the world’s problems by reading emails, and we promise that most of ours won’t be this long.
If you haven’t already signed up (or if there are people on your team who still need to sign up) please remember to go to/send them to our website application. If you aren’t registered, this is the last email you will receive about the Thursday, April 15, 2021 challenge (starting at 6pm PT).
If you are already signed up, you will receive an invitation to our Slack workspace later today. Please join us there to start pitching ideas and get excited. On Tuesday, you will also receive meeting invitations to our kick-off on Thursday night, a team check in on Friday, and our judge’s celebration on Saturday morning. Finally, on Wednesday you will be invited to our Miro board for the event and asked to claim your seat at the table.
Are you ready to pull up a chair and design a way to get more people vaccinated? We’re ready to help you try. We look forward to seeing you later this week and, in the meantime, reach out by replying here or on Slack with any questions.
Alexa
Alexa Fitzpatrick
Virtual Event Producer
The Next Big Challenge