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The Challenge
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How might we restore vibrancy in cities and regions facing economic decline?
Concept
Local Lore Treasure Hunt
While a city’s visual landscape may indicate economic decline, vibrancy and life can be found in the stories beneath the surface. My concept is to dig out these stories and share them with locals and visitors alike in a monthly Treasure Hunt.
The "Local Lore Treasure Hunt" would seek to highlight the unique individuals, schools, businesses, non-profits, and locations of a given city or community, and to rediscover the energy and value held in their stories.
How it works:
For each monthly Treasure Hunt, Local Lore will accept
nominations for local “treasures.” These
treasures can be individuals, schools, businesses, non-profits, locations, or otherwise
unique environments. Local Lore
organizers will select a new combination of treasures each month that highlight
the city’s vibrancy and unique character.
Participants in the Treasure Hunt will arrive at a Local Lore kiosk on the day of the event. There they will receive a kit full of clues, maps, pictures, and coupons. This kit will guide them through the hunt, as they go from site to site collecting stories, tasting treats, experiencing adventures, and meeting unique individuals. Local Lore helpers will be stationed at key spots throughout the area to provide additional assistance. At each site, the participant will receive a small “memento”. The first participants to make it back to the kiosk with all mementos will have the honor of helping to select the next month’s treasures.
Participants will be given the opportunity to provide feedback and
comments through a comments page on the website, as well as at the event
kiosk. These comments will be reviewed and considered in crafting
future hunts. Additionally, Local Lore will place a "Reflections" book
at each treasure site so participants can share insights throughout a given hunt.
The Local Lore Treasure Hunt could exist in several ways. It could be restricted to a specific neighborhood, to encourage a pedestrian-friendly hunt. Or it could be a city-wide event, encouraging a more complex journey through the landscape. Either way, the hunt would introduce both locals and visitors to special aspects of the community, encouraging commerce, pride, and a greater sense of collectivity.
In addition to the general monthly events, Local Lore could run specialty hunts, as well as a long-term, super difficult hunt for die-hard fans. For this extended (year-long) hunt, new clues would be released online throughout the year. An annual Local Lore party would commemorate the winners, host games and trivia, and hand out prizes for things like "best photo," "biggest detour," "tastiest treat," etc.
Mementos and Documenting the Hunt:
Participants will be given a Local Lore "passport" that they can get stamped at each location. Prior to a hunt, treasures will be given unique rubber stamps with a design or emblem that represents them. Participants will be encouraged to collect as many stamps as possible as fun mementos and proof of their sleuthing abilities (verification that they found all the treasures). Prizes will be awarded based on a review of passports.
Lo-Tech & Hi-Tech:
Technological tools:
- GPS devices
- Local Lore via a mobile application
- A Local Lore website that showcased past treasures and multimedia narratives
Sample treasures for the hunt:
- Individuals who wish to curate something unique and special to them
- Mr. Rozovsky and his baseball paraphernalia collection
- Mrs. Dodson and her spectacular tree house
- Local jump-roping champion
- The fire station
- A family-run cabinet shop
- Old movie theater playing the first film it ever screened
- A progressive health clinic
- A steel mill
- Visit a former Olympian
- Elementary school spelling bee champion
- Non-profit committed to veterans rights
- Community ice skating rink
- Best waffle joint
- Art gallery
- Local grocery store
- Local Lore on Wheels: Calling all cyclists, skateboarders, roller skaters, and other wheel-loving friends!
- Looking for Love: Local Lore for Singles
- More than Bones: Digging for Treasure (a pet-friendly event)
- Hi-Tech Local Lore: This event would utilize the QR code technology described below (see Johan's great description in the comments section) and could also be incorporated with a geo-caching event. Participants would visit local treasures in the tech space.
- Local Lore for Investors: Visit local companies or entrepreneurs looking for funding
- Local Lore for Real Estate Developers: Tour development sites in a creative way
- Local Lore for Kids: Kid-specific treasures
- Job Hunting: A unique take on the old-fashioned career fair. Participants follow clues to visit employers looking to hire.
- Local Lore Road Race: For all the runners out there
- Crowdsourced Local Lore: Participants can design their own hunts and post online, or make recommendations to event organizers.
- Micro-Hunt: Explore a confined space (a museum or state park) that's jam-packed with treasures
- Local Lore Pub Crawl
- Decades: This kind of specialty hunt would be organized around momentous sites and people from a particular decade. Decades could inspire past residents of a particular city (such as people who grew up in Detroit in the 1970's) to return for a kind of reunion event. Decades could also be run as a tourism/PR event for the city.
Present and Past Local Legends: "LL Heroes"
LL Heroes would seek to celebrate the stories, lives, and accomplishments of local "heroes," including artists, musicians, athletes, activists, and leaders. For example, LL could follow the life of a former civil rights activist, including treasures such as her childhood home, her place of work, and the sites of important marches or other momentous events. In order to connect this with the present, LL could also feature a few treasures that demonstrate the legacy of this individual (such as treasures that highlight new activists inspired by the work of the "hero").
These events could either honor groups of heroes (such as a group of influential artists who all worked in the same region) or unique individuals. Participants could visit the schools, workplaces, homes, and favorite coffee shops of these individuals, and even meet the relatives or descendants of past legends.
PR:
- T-shirts! Designed by local artists, sold to participants, and given away as prizes.
- Online coupons and deals (a la Groupon) for local businesses could be featured on Local Lore's website. This would help drive traffic to the site as well as encourage local economic development.
- Local media engagement: Local Lore can encourage coverage of the events through radio, television, and online channels. Interviews with winning participants and treasures can be re-posted on LL's website.
- See "Specialty Hunts: Decades."
- Create a Local Lore mascot. This could be designed by a local artist and could help encourage awareness around the event. The mascot could also be incorporated into hunts as a clue giver or passport stamper. Additionally, LL could sell t-shirts, mugs, toys, and other mascot-branded products that could serve as a source of funding/revenue for the organization.
What resources (money, time, people, technology, etc) will your concept need to be successful?
Labor:
• Volunteers (or employees) to collect treasure submissions; review and select monthly treasures; put together clue kits; serve as helpers during the event; update the website; etc.
Money:
•Funding for clue kits, mementos, and to pay any necessary employees.
Local Lore could explore funding opportunities with corporate sponsors. In particular, LL could seek sponsorship with small, locally-owned businesses. While this may not garner LL the big bucks, it could be one avenue of several funding channels that would simultaneously support local entrepreneurship. This could be done in a way that did not jeopardize the integrity of the "treasures" selection process.
Time:
•Meetings to select treasures, plan routes and clues
•Monthly time slot for Treasure Hunts
Technology:
•Website maintenance (posting of stories, event information, maps, etc.)
•Mobile app development
Participants:
•Treasure hunters
•Treasures (be individuals, schools, businesses, non-profits, locations, or otherwise unique environments)
How can your idea be scaled so that it's implemented in cities around the world?
My Virtual Team
Dave Foster
Meghan Weir
Sarah Fathallah
Daniela Papi
Ana Correia de Barros
Gabriela Flores
AnaMaría PardoPachón
36 Evaluations so far
Login to evaluate this concept and to see the results.
How well does this concept restore vibrancy to cities and regions facing economic decline?
| This concept will definitely restore vibrancy to struggling cities | |
| This concept has potential to restore vibrancy to struggling cities | |
| This concept will not restore vibrancy to struggling cities |
How scalable is this concept across struggling cities and regions worldwide?
| This concept could be scaled for impact across multiple locations | |
| This concept will take a fair bit of work to build and scale | |
| This concept is not particularly scalable |
Does this concept require a lot of resources (time, money, people, etc) to achieve impact?
| Not really – few resources would be needed to get results | |
| Somewhat – significant resources would be needed to get results | |
| Yes – considerable resources would be needed to get results |
How easy would it be for our community to design an early prototype of this concept?
| Easy – we could start prototyping this today | |
| A bit tricky – but we could figure it out | |
| Not at all easy – we'd need help from outside experts on this |
Overall, how do you feel about this concept?
| It rocked my world | |
| I liked it but preferred others | |
| It didn't get me overly excited |
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