Proposed Solution:
The solution is BingoRAFS. Bingo is an ice-breaking activity. While RAFS is an acronym for Recreational Activities For Students. When Bingo is prefixed with RAFS, it reflects that BingoRAFS is an initiative to arrange recreational activities for students starting with a Bingo icebreaker.
Market Competitiveness:
Recreational activities are arranged by some renowned institutions in the country on a regular basis e.g., Beaconhouse, LGS, Aitchison College, The Crescent School, PGC etc. As for international efforts, almost all institutions arrange some functions, tours, events, and competitions for students. Our uniqueness is that we have started this in a country where institutions lack such inclination. Moreover, we target such institutions (mostly academies and small schools) where the officials are unable to arrange such activities on their own. Besides, the institutions that bother such events do so on annually and on a very large scale, so every student is not able to participate. We take a very small registration price so that each and every student can easily afford and participate.
Implementation of the solution:
- Research and Market Survey:
● Research Conducted:
We found out the root cause of the problem. The main people being directly affected by the problem and how it spreads its vicinity to a larger scale. Also, identified how the problem can we nip the evil in the bud (how the problem can be solved at initial level).
● Research Methods:
- First things first, we took a look in our own pasts and compared it with the present situation. The way we are today is on a whole other league as compared to how we were back in our school/college times. The confidence, communication skills, sense of participation/competition, and teamwork we’ve got after participating in different activities, sessions, and events made us realize the importance of these activities.
- A direct communication with the students also helped us realize the significance of such activities.
- Online survey form also helped us know the interest in such activities.
- The excitement of students showed us the willingness of students to take a break from their daily study routine was a tool too.
● Key Take aways from the research:
A number of conclusions can be drawn from all the research work. Such as:
- Recreational/fun activities are important.
- Students learn fast through them.
- The skills developed through these activities are not taught by the institutions.
- The lack of such activities give rise to many other problems too as mentioned previously.
2. Code of Conduct:
We implemented the following to bring our solution into action:
- We went go to schools/colleges/academies using our references and made them realize the importance of these activities for the academic and mental grooming of their students.
- We pitched the students directly and announced the tentative dates along with the whole way of conduct of the event in such a way that majority of them got agree.
- Then we took a small registration fee from the students and bought some necessary goods, refreshments, and prizes for the conduction of the event in a way that some profit was generated from it.
- We prepared competition quizzes and other activities related to the area of interest we found best for our target audience and conducted those in the classes.
- We publicized those events on our socials as well and asked the participants to give their feedbacks in the comments.
Initial Response:
We got a very positive and encouraging response from our target audience. They willingly participated in the event and enjoyed a lot. The officials (principal and teachers) also got very happy and appreciated our efforts. We conducted two events and in both of them, all students of the institution participated.
Measurement of Project’s Impact:
Impact is being quantified by the participation shown and feedback given by our target audience. As per this criterion, we have a participation rate of 95% and a satisfaction customer rate of 98%.
Since it is an entrepreneurial idea, so its progress is measured by the revenue generated by the events we conducted, and this criterion shows us a successful profit rate of 50%.
Design Process:
- Group Meetings: Hours long group meetings have been done to first know the history of our own selves in order to check if we faced the same situation during our school/college life.
- Interviews: We conducted short interviews of students around us. Those include our own siblings and cousins.
- Online Survey Form: We collected the data via Google Forms too. The answers given by the fillers were clearly pointing towards our stance.
- Focus Groups: On a lighter note, we did our research through some small focus groups too which included the students of matriculation and intermediate in an academy.
Launching the solution:
We started to contact the institutions where we had some reference. Our first contact happened to be at Old Shalimar Academy. We convinced the principal to allow to conduct a recreational event for their students. After getting their approval, we gave our pitch to the students and collected a minimum registration fee from them. We made all the necessary arrangements and invited the participants to UET Lahore. It went very well and all of the students as well as principal of the academy were fully satisfied.
After the successful conduct of our 1st session, we got a reference in The Leads Academy and repeated the whole above-mentioned process in here as well with the amendment that we conducted our session in the premises of the very academy. We got an overwhelming response from those students and got a 100% participation and customer satisfaction rates.
Narrative built for the targeted audience and why to choose BingoRAFS:
We built our pitch on a basis that stats show that recreational activities are very important for the mental grooming of students. Such activities help boost confidence, improve team coordination, and promote creativity. All these traits are very much important in the university and professional life.
Engagement of target audience with the solution:
Since it is an initiative for students and it revolves completely around the participation and happiness of them, our target audience is totally engaged with the proposed solution. Their participation and satisfaction rates as mentioned previously show their engagement.
Project Sustainability:
It is a project that targets students. It is never going to happen that students will start to replenish or something. Their percentage is ever increasing and the number of institutions opening daily is also increasing. Moreover, we have seen that we get our professional network expanded and get more references from one institution. Our first session was due to our own reference, but the second session took place because of a reference we got from our first session.
Steps Forward:
- We plan to deliver our pitch to more and more institutions with the help of videos and feedbacks we have got from our previous sessions.
- Publicizing our events on our social media accounts so that we may get some recognition online as well.
- After getting enough followers, we plan to go to companies like Bisconi and CandyLand or sponsorship.
- We intend to buy necessary equipment like mikes, speakers, and projector for our company.
- We wish to earn enough money from this initiative so that we may buy a platform for our company where we can invite students for more events.
BingoRAFS in the next 6–8 months:
In the tenure of further 6–8 months, we wish to achieve first three steps as mentioned in the previous topic.
Strategies to promote the idea:
We have used social media platforms like Instagram and FaceBook to promote our idea. We have been able to get 100+ followers on Instagram and 300+ accounts have reached out page.
Challenges Faced:
During the implementation of our idea, we faced the following challenges:
- Security Concerns: We faced the problem that institutions’ officials (especially in government schools) were concerned about the security matters and their high-ups. We handled this by issuing a association letter from Amal Academy.
- Space: We don’t have any proper spacious platform to conduct our events. We face the issue that academies don’t have that much space and some of our activities require proper space to be conducted. We are saving money so that we may rent a place for our events. In the meanwhile, we devise such activities that can be arranged in the given space.
- Lack of Equipment: We don’t have proper equipment like mike, speaker, and projector. We are also saving money to buy these things for the smooth and professional conduct of our events. In the meanwhile, we try to practise such that we can speak loud enough to be audible to everyone and use whiteboards to make the participants visualize what we are saying.
