Vanderburgh County - Innovation Pointe and Turoni's

The 2014 Connect with Southern Indiana final session was held June 6, 2014 in Vanderburgh County. Evansville, which is one of the largest cities in Indiana, is located in Vanderburgh County. Evansville has always reminded me of a smaller St. Louis. The final session was held at Innovation Pointe located in downtown Evansville. 

 The purpose of the final session is for each group to do their final project pitch presentations. There are six different projects that came out of the 2014 Connect with Southern Indiana program. I will be posting a separate blog entry for each of the projects (hopefully in the next couple weeks), but for now I will just say what each project is generally about. 

The first project was Operation Blossom. Operation Blossom aims to help solve the problem of homeless families in the area. In the past couple years the individual homeless population has decreased, but the population of homeless families has increased. There currently is and a place for program where families can go to receive not only shelter, but also food, supportive services, and other assistance on a permanent basis.

The second pitch was for the Volunteer Olympics. The Volunteer Olympics is an interesting idea that makes giving and volunteering a competitive, fun integration into the workplace. The concept is that businesses would represent the countries in the regular Olympics. The events would be based off the needs for different nonprofits and charities in the area. So for example, you might have a food drive for a whole week to benefit a local food pantry and the business that had the most canned goods donated would win that event. The Volunteer Olympics would span eight weeks and would continually be covered in the media to update the public on the point then positions of the different business participants.

The third pitch was my group’s project, which we called B.E.A.R. (Boosting Environmental Assets Regionally). The premise for our project was that there is a declining environmental health problem in the area, as well as, a lack of outdoor activities and events for people to engage in. There are some groups that have things going on, such as Wesselman Woods, but there is little collaboration between existing initiatives. B.E.A.R. would create a website and an app so that people could easily find the events and programs going on in their area. This could include farmers markets, outdoor concerts, hiking or marathon events, educational opportunities, etc. B.E.A.R. would also sponsor its own original events, which could be a community facelift initiative (painting, landscaping, etc.), community gardens planting parties, or Litterathons. 

 The fourth pitch was for FindANeighbor.com. This website would allow people to connect with the needs and their community to either post a problem, offer advice for existing problems, donate to a project or cause, or sign up to volunteer their time to a posted problem. The whole foundation for this project is that “if we can find each other, we can help each other.” People simply lack an easy way to get connected to volunteer opportunities, donate to a cause, or recruit volunteers for their own initiative.

The fifth project pitch was for the Traveling Arts show. Traveling Arts would aim to connect the young professionals in the different communities so that they can organize and host an art event. A neat component of this project is that it would encourage each art event to commission a new piece of public art to leave behind in that community.

The final project pitch was for Southern Indiana Career Camps. This group emphasized that there is a problem between children and young adults being expected to obtain a bachelor's degree but the lack of jobs that someone can get with those degrees. Southern Indiana Career Camps would educate children from a young age about the middle skill jobs and opportunities that are available in the area. This would allow kids in middle school and high school to work toward a viable career path that doesn't require a bachelors or higher degree. 

After the final project pitches, Leslie Townsend presented each participant with their certificate of completion. 

Then we headed to Turoni’s Pizzery & Brewery for a final lunch and social hour. Turoni's is an Evansville institution with 3 locations. More information about Turoni's can be found at http://www.turonis.com/.

I must say that now the program is over it's going to be really weird not seeing the other participants. Since the first session back in January, we have all become friends and I'm going to miss seeing these people fairly regularly. I think we had a really great group this year. We got along, helped each other, and challenged each other to do our best.

 Leslie did reference something they're calling ReConnect, which may be an opportunity for all past Connect participants to get together....stay tuned!

Dubois County - Old Town Hall and League Stadium

The Connect with Southern Indiana session on May 16, 2014 was held in Dubois County. The day began at the Old Town Hall in Huntingburg with breakfast catered by Cool Beans Java Café. 

The teams then started to do their project pitches, which now included everything from last time and the financial figures. Here are the financials for my group's project B.E.A.R. 

Instead of waiting for feedback from the Coaches in video form, each group received feedback immediately after their pitch from the Coaches and the rest of the Connect participants. This feedback was really helpful from the other groups because this was now the third time they had heard our pitches and probably had been wanting to say certain things since the first one.

Lunch was catered by Fat N Sassy restaurant. After lunch we had a presentation by Jamie Levy 

about what it takes to be on a Board and the difficulties faced being nonprofit and public administration. Jamie Levy is a well-known speaker and has published several important works. More information can be found about Jamie and his company at http://jdlevyassociates.com/.

We then traveled to League Stadium, a baseball stadium located in Huntingburg, Indiana. Home of the Dubois County Bombers, but better known for being the set for the 1991 filming of A League of Their Own. It was also used as the set for the movie Soul of the Game which is an HBO original movie. The tour of the stadium was very informative and gave some really cool insights about how the the 1991 filming changed things for Huntingburg. 

The day in Dubois County concluded with a presentation by Jessica Lindauer and Arnold Tempel about the Heartland Historic Baseball Trail. The Heartland Historic Baseball Trail was a project idea that they had when going through the Connect program in 2012.

League Stadium is part of the Trail and more infomation about this Connect project that came to fruition can be found at http://sluggermuseum.com/heartland_historic_baseball_trail/ and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heartland-Historic-Baseball-Trail/113256565526532

Pike County - FBC Family Life Center and Azalea Path

The April 25, 2014 Connect with Southern Indiana session was held in Pike County and began at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center. I debated putting that in the title of this post, because it's not really a destination location. However, there is not a whole lot in Pike County for us to have met elsewhere.

We began the content portion of the day with each group's 2nd presentation on their project. Our presentation went much better than last time, because we kept the opening simple. I came up with a visualization for our business model and it seemed to work well (I'll post more about that later). The other projects are also coming along well, and some of them I'm really excited about! My favorite idea, outside my own, is probably the Volunteer Olympics (will post more on each project later). Then we learned about the financials of an organization from Coach B, which was not the most interesting topic but necessary. ;)

After learning about the financial parts of an organization, we departed for Azalea Path. Azalea Path is a beautiful botanical garden located in Pike County. More information can be found at http://azaleapatharboretum.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Path-Botanical-Garden-and-Arboretum. They are currently building a new facility that will be a great location for weddings and events. Keep your eye out for that!

A storm downed some of the trees, and instead of just having stumps they had them carved into statues!

 We also got to hear from someone from a previous Connect class that worked to create an Azalea Trail. The group was able to obtain a grant and use the money to start a trail of azaleas across several counties in S.W. Indiana. Not all projects that come out of Connect come to fruition, but there are some that after years of working are able to produce something that wouldn't have been possible without Connect with Southern Indiana!

 

Perry County - Tell City Depot and Shubael Little Pioneer Village

The Connect with Southern Indiana session on April 11, 2014 was held in Perry County. The day started at the Tell City Depot, which was revitalized and now houses the Perry County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Tell City Farmers' Market, a gift story with hand-crafted artisan works, and an event room. (for more information about Perry County: http://perrycountyindiana.org/)

There is also a really big rocking chair for taking souvenir pictures!

Each group was then asked to pitch their idea and a feasibility analysis for their idea. Our group decided to pursue and idea called BEAR (Boosting Environmental Assets Regionally). 

The problems that we discovered through the ideation process was that 

1. There is little collaboration in the Tri-state region for people interested in environmental events or services
2. The region is known to have pollution problems that take the focus away from environmental gems
3. Young adults are moving out of the region
4. Kids are not taught at a young age the issues and solutions to keeping the environment healthy. 

We want to create a website and app that will bring these resources together for people to find in a single location (Parks, events, farmers' markets, hiking, recycling, bike paths, etc.). Along with the website/app, we also want to host original events like community facelifts, litterathons, and festivals. 

After the project pitches, the coaches introduced us to the Business Model Canvas (see image below taken from fivewhys.files.wordpress.com) and explained how the parts of the canvas tie together to create a well thought out plan. After all, investors are more likely to fund a plan than an idea. 

Our task for the next session is to present a good visual of our business model canvas along with the information that we presented today. Following lunch, we then departed for the Shubael Little Pioneer Village.

Shubael Pioneer Village was founded in 2000 with the dedication of the Hinton Cabin. Three additional cabins have been added - James Fall Cabin, Adam Shoemaker Cabin, and Homer Hull Carter Cabin. In addition, the outdoor Lambert Rogier "Behive" oven and the Edgar Carter Blacksmith Shop and Forge were rebuilt to working order. A carpenter shop, sheep pen and the Troy Stone Jail have also been located on site. The Millstone One Room School has been moved and a Mercantile is presently being built. There are more cabins to be rebuilt and the Oriole Methodist Church is waiting to be relocated.

-taken from http://www.shubaellittlepioneervillage.com/ 

The village was very cool and the founder is passionate and full of information about how early settlers, like the Lincolns, lived. It was interesting to see how pioneers lived. 

We concluded the day with going to the Blue Heron Vineyard and sampling some wine. The view from the vineyard is beautiful overlooking the river. More information about Blue Heron Vineyard at http://www.blueheronvines.com/

Knox County - Vincennes University and the Red Skelton Museum

So the Connect with Southern Indiana session on March 21, 2014 was held in Knox County. We started the day in the Indiana Center for Applied Technology auditorium on the Vincennes University campus.

The content portion of the day started with challenging each group to connect points accross the different ideas that had been developed through the ideation process thus far. The ideation process caused an explosion of thoughts and now the task is to bring them back down to combine and condense into feasible ideas. 

Our group had three main concepts, but many of the ideas were able to be tied to the other concepts in some way. By the end of the day we had 3 giant post-it's, narrowed down from 9. Many of the groups had a lot more than 9 to try and combine. 





We next presented one of the ideas that our group had to the entire Connect class. Already it became apparent that ideas were starting to take off in each group that would later become the foundation for something bigger. 

Coach K and Coach B then went over the elements of a Feasibility Analysis, which each group would be presenting next session. The task now was to pick two ideas to do a feasibility analysis for and then pick one to present to everyone next session. 

Our group split in two. 2 people liked one idea and the other 2 liked another idea. This worked well, because each pair then did a feasibility analysis. We then met the following week and combined both ideas into a compromise between the two. 



After lunch at the Knox Connect session, we went to tour the Red Skelton Museum. 

"The Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy honors the legacy of a man who touched numerous lives through his comedic talent, great works, compassion and commitment to public service. As museums reflect history, ideas, innovation, discovery, diversity, creative expression and the ideals of democracy, so too will the Skelton Museum present these ideals to the visiting public in celebration of the exceptional man whose greatest ambition was to bring laughter to countless audiences."

from http://www.redskeltonmuseum.org/.

After leaving the Red Skelton Museaum, some people went to the Windy Knoll Winery for wine tasting and relaxing on one of the first beautiful days of the year! More information about Windy Knoll at  http://windyknollwinery.com/.