Event 5 – Road-mapping?

“I consider a goal as a journey rather than a destination. And each year I set a new goal.”
–Curtis Carlson, Businessman and technologist

So here we are: Chapter 5. Perhaps things need to go up a notch.

At the time I’m writing this post, Chapter 4’s day at the London Zoo is a week old. Since that day I’ve reflected a lot on where we’ve come from in the past two months and four chapters since this site launched, and of course where we might go next, and potentially with whom.

Part of that reflection involved two dear friends that have been there since day one: The AreYouMyPartner scrapbook, and my camera full of photos. They offered a history in snapshots and people’s handwritten feedback and desires of the journey so far. And so far I’m humbled.

Firstly, given the fact that I haven’t yet advertised or tried to draw any major attention to this site, I’m amazed and inspired by the people that have come out to support AreYouMyPartner to date. And not just the first participants; people who have gotten in touch with ideas and criticism; or Suzie who donated her music; or director Samuel George who helped create the Flashback series; the list goes on.

Obviously we need to build on this but perhaps AreYouMyPartner’s future needs to be mapped out or visualised a bit more clearly. In my recent Chapter 4 post I highlighted the more business type questions that could benefit from a bit more clarity (i.e. target audience, strategy, expansion plans, etc.), especially at this stage now that a few events are under our belt.

As I mentioned in that post, at this point in time things are still very “beta”. There are a number of good reasons why, chief of which is that I believe it is wiser to take our time to measure and evaluate the honest reactions of people who have participated so far so that we might make some informed decisions about next steps.

Just on a personal note: what drives me and what I’m passionate about is that I believe that I can make a difference and have a positive impact in the way people use technology to date and find relationships. I have the experience to back that up, and I’ve acted on my instinct through this blog with a vision to scale up naturally and organically.

But obviously I can’t achieve this big dream on my own, so we will also have to explore how to attract more like minded people on a bigger scale, and the next step in this story needs to involve more people and creativity and creating a roadmap.

So that is where Chapter 5 is heading next. Need to line a few things up in the coming weeks.

This post is part of Event 5. To see all Event 5 posts, click here.

Tags: Event 5, reflection, roadmap