Workbar at Staples Grand Opening UX + Design Hackathon

Help Us Update the Traditional Grand Opening UX and Design, Please

TLDR: Come to a Design Hackathon in the Workbar at Staples Brighton on September 15th at 5:30pm to tell us how to make our grand opening celebrations more exciting, and very entertaining.

The Problem: Grand Openings have become very predictable and somewhat boring. Some people make speeches, reporters try to find an angle, a ribbon gets cut, and everyone eats sheet cake. #meh

The Solution: Lets break up into teams and find ways to design a better grand opening and improve the experience. All ideas will be considered, including interactive apps instead of speeches, telepresence robots bringing far-flung VIPs, VR coverage, local food, champagne sabrage, reporter embeds, Pokemon GO-like virtual scavenger hunts during the Grand Opening Ceremony, or your much better idea.

Workbar will implement the three winning designs at the opening celebrations for Workbar at Staples Norwood, Brighton and Danvers that are being held in October, e.g. one of the top three winning ideas will be incorporated into the grand opening event for Brighton, a different idea for Norwood, and another for Danvers (or maybe all three if they're great!).

5:30pm - 6:15pm: Arrive and Mingle
6:15pm - 6:25pm: Rules Recap and Groups Form
8:00pm - 8:45pm: Present Ideas
8:45pm - 9:00pm: Deliberation and Winners Announced!

The Details: People will arrive, get something to eat & drink (beer and wine if over 21) before splitting up into teams. The teams will have an hour and a half to come up with an idea for improving some part of the grand opening celebration. Ideas must be plausible and cost less than $2,000 to implement. Submissions should include a description, links to any vendors necessary and contact info for the group (so we can contact you to implement your idea correctly & invite you to the opening).

The Judges: Bill Jacobson, CEO and Co-Founder of Workbar; Mitch Sinclair, Design Director at IDEO; Brian Coupland, VP of Business Development at Staples; and Scott Kirsner, Editor, Innovation Leader and Columnist, The Boston Globe!

The Prizes: Execution of the winning idea, 1 month free Workbar at Staples membership for each winning team member, Grand Opening Swag gift bag, and formal recognition at the grand opening celebration.