A group of girls from Gorey Community School have made it to the Irish Regional Pitch Event of the global Technovation competition. Gianny Sangiovanni, Gabriella Smith and Tara Redmond created an app and a business plan as part of an after school project with Teen-Turn and then submitted it to enter the Regional Pitch Event in AMD Dublin on May 4th.
Their app called InMap provided a way for businesses to help people navigate around their buildings. The team pitched the app they developed as well as their business plan to a panel of judges in an effort to go further in the global competition for girls. When asked to describe the app, the girls gave the following description – ‘Our project, Inmaps, offers a unique internal mapping solution designed for enterprises in both private and public sectors, as well as institutions such as schools and shopping centres. While the public can freely access mapping services for public structures or areas, accessing private maps requires a small fee payment or the use of a unique code for authentication.’
We asked the girls how they came up with the idea for the project and they responded
‘We came up with the idea for this project as we found a gap in the market for a service which provides indoor maps. We came across this gap as one of our team members only moved here from Spain this year and struggled navigating around the school. And thanks to our surveys we also found that many people have this problem in places like shopping centres, airports & hospitals.’
The girls worked with Teen-Turn, their teacher Shauna Keogh and online mentors throughout the 12 week afterschool programme to build their app and business plan. A key element of the programme is the support provided to the girls taking part as it gives them the confidence to learn new skills and code mobile apps. They said ‘”We received support from mentors who offered expertise in technology and entrepreneurship. Additionally, access to resources and workshops helped us refine our project and pitch.’ We asked the team if they enjoyed participating in weekly technovation sessions supported by Teen-Turn. They replied with this answer:’ Yes participating in the weekly technovation sessions supported by teen turn was a rewarding experience. it provided valuable guidance and mentorship that significantly contributed to the development of our project.’
Despite this being the first time the school has taken part in Technovation, it wasn’t the first time for everybody on the team. ‘One of our members had previously participated in the regional pitch event in Madrid and while there were nerves initially, the preparation and support from mentors helped alleviate some of the anxiety.’ The team indicated a strong sense of pride in all their achievements saying ‘We are most proud of our dedication for this because every line of code, every comma, every design choice, every late night brainstorming session, that has lead us to this creation. its a reflection of our creativity, skills and perseverance.’
The participation in this competition has proved to have had long lasting effects on the team members. ‘The sessions exposed me to the exciting possibilities in the technology field and inspired me to consider a career path in this dynamic industry.’ The team are already talking about taking part in Technovation again next year.
