[Music]
growing up my favorite brand was adidas
to me it stood for all day I dream about
sports which I did do you remember how
easy it was to be active as a kid he
could go outside find pickup games
there’s literally endless things to do
but recess has kids life was pretty good
as innocent kids we didn’t care we
played with the gender the ethnicity the
age as long as we had fun it was a great
time and then something happens we get
older sometimes we move away friends
change we have busy lives with work and
families and even though we know plays
an important part of being alive as
somehow moves down the list of
priorities on top of all that social
media and smartphones have consumed us
we’re now more connected than we’ve ever
been but more socially isolated than
ever before maybe that’s why we’re so
weird as adults a couple years ago I
sold my I sold my shares of a firm that
I owned and I went to Nepal to visit a
friend that had a non-profit now to put
it in context he was helping villagers
make sense of sanitation so when he
asked me to get my hands dirty literally
that’s actually what he meant I went
down there and these remote villages had
no Wi-Fi no internet connection I could
feel my anxiety building instantly I had
to be present it had to be the moment
there’s no escape but what I found was
though even though I didn’t connect with
these people through language because we
didn’t speak the same language be
connected through sport and that was an
intense feeling at the same time had
just become journaling and I started to
ask myself what I wanted to be
remembered for what next project I want
to work on that actually could have
impact in the world I didn’t know it
then
but this trip will change the course of
my life forever coming back to Calgary I
moved back downtown and with golf out of
the budget I decided to pick up tennis
now I have a pretty active network in
the city so I was blown away how hard it
was for me to actually find coop to play
with maybe they don’t want to play with
me but most of the time they were just
either super busy or just didn’t want to
play the game I was starting to look on
meetups use Facebook even try kijiji and
that was not ideal weird yeah if and
when I’d find someone the skill level
was completely off the courts for in my
courts and the time didn’t really work
so kind of felt like a waste of time for
all of us I knew with my background in
tech my love of sports and this
opportunity to build something bigger
than myself there had to be a better way
to connect people around the same time
dating apps we’re doing a really good
job bringing people together based on
preferences and location this is when I
had my aha moment I knew what I want to
do next when you’re starting any new
project you want to validate that the
problem that you have is actually worth
solving so I started to ask as many
people as I could and what they told me
above having a limited network was a two
main issues that they were having when
trying to find people were a lack of
people that were in the same skill level
and people that actually fit their
schedule this is why we created play
Cydia they could play city as tinder
meets TripAdvisor but for physical
activity buddies I know what you’re
thinking not that type of physical
activity but I don’t judge just don’t be
homewrecker
how it works is quite simple log in
through Facebook so we know you’re a
real person choose your preferences and
start browsing simple as that
if someone accepts your invite go play
as we evolved we started to learn more
about our users and found out that many
of them weren’t actually from the city
or written to you through a neighborhood
so they didn’t even know where to go
play think of us now as a localized
community marketplace in which we
connect stakeholders in a very targeted
ecosystem we have the opportunity to not
only connect individuals but to the
community at large meet doc doc and I
met on play city last summer now I was
pumped cuz I had someone to play with at
two o’clock in the afternoon little did
I know to him it meant so much more as
we started chatting when we were playing
he told me about his experience in
Calgary and how he just moved here and
how sad he was that he actually couldn’t
find people to connect with or even play
with until he found play city now he
started telling me both his dad
encouraging him to keep on swiping he
was gonna find someone and he did he’d
found many people now I couldn’t hold it
in any longer so I told him I was a
founder and he and we made it for people
like him and he looked at me and I’ll
never forget the way he said thank you
that that testimonial coming from him
right from him like crystallized what we
were doing and made it even more clear
the mission that we had and what’s
really cool about meeting people having
fun is that it’s actually really good
for you we all know the merit of sports
for kids but only one in five Canadians
gets to recommended physical activity
mounds stress related issues stemming
from social isolation and chronic
diseases are skyrocketing this means in
Canada that it’s a 6.8 billion dollar
cost much of which could be mitigated
through very simple lifestyle changes
what I’m most proud of is the community
that we built sports brings together
people from all walks of life and our
community is a living testament of that
we’ve created thousands of connections
and as a social enterprise our goal is
to connect people through a shared
interest to create dialogue which we
believe the world needs more of our
mission is to make the world a better
place to play if we can learn and
appreciate other appreciate each other
and understand that our differences is
what makes us unique we believe the
world could be such a better place and
the world that is way too online not
active enough and constantly constantly
being divided through all the noise out
there let’s go back to being human
beings I challenge you to meet somebody
new get out there life is short
go play thank you
[Applause]
growing up my favorite brand was adidas
to me it stood for all day I dream about
sports which I did do you remember how
easy it was to be active as a kid he
could go outside find pickup games
there’s literally endless things to do
but recess has kids life was pretty good
as innocent kids we didn’t care we
played with the gender the ethnicity the
age as long as we had fun it was a great
time and then something happens we get
older sometimes we move away friends
change we have busy lives with work and
families and even though we know plays
an important part of being alive as
somehow moves down the list of
priorities on top of all that social
media and smartphones have consumed us
we’re now more connected than we’ve ever
been but more socially isolated than
ever before maybe that’s why we’re so
weird as adults a couple years ago I
sold my I sold my shares of a firm that
I owned and I went to Nepal to visit a
friend that had a non-profit now to put
it in context he was helping villagers
make sense of sanitation so when he
asked me to get my hands dirty literally
that’s actually what he meant I went
down there and these remote villages had
no Wi-Fi no internet connection I could
feel my anxiety building instantly I had
to be present it had to be the moment
there’s no escape but what I found was
though even though I didn’t connect with
these people through language because we
didn’t speak the same language be
connected through sport and that was an
intense feeling at the same time had
just become journaling and I started to
ask myself what I wanted to be
remembered for what next project I want
to work on that actually could have
impact in the world I didn’t know it
then
but this trip will change the course of
my life forever coming back to Calgary I
moved back downtown and with golf out of
the budget I decided to pick up tennis
now I have a pretty active network in
the city so I was blown away how hard it
was for me to actually find coop to play
with maybe they don’t want to play with
me but most of the time they were just
either super busy or just didn’t want to
play the game I was starting to look on
meetups use Facebook even try kijiji and
that was not ideal weird yeah if and
when I’d find someone the skill level
was completely off the courts for in my
courts and the time didn’t really work
so kind of felt like a waste of time for
all of us I knew with my background in
tech my love of sports and this
opportunity to build something bigger
than myself there had to be a better way
to connect people around the same time
dating apps we’re doing a really good
job bringing people together based on
preferences and location this is when I
had my aha moment I knew what I want to
do next when you’re starting any new
project you want to validate that the
problem that you have is actually worth
solving so I started to ask as many
people as I could and what they told me
above having a limited network was a two
main issues that they were having when
trying to find people were a lack of
people that were in the same skill level
and people that actually fit their
schedule this is why we created play
Cydia they could play city as tinder
meets TripAdvisor but for physical
activity buddies I know what you’re
thinking not that type of physical
activity but I don’t judge just don’t be
homewrecker
how it works is quite simple log in
through Facebook so we know you’re a
real person choose your preferences and
start browsing simple as that
if someone accepts your invite go play
as we evolved we started to learn more
about our users and found out that many
of them weren’t actually from the city
or written to you through a neighborhood
so they didn’t even know where to go
play think of us now as a localized
community marketplace in which we
connect stakeholders in a very targeted
ecosystem we have the opportunity to not
only connect individuals but to the
community at large meet doc doc and I
met on play city last summer now I was
pumped cuz I had someone to play with at
two o’clock in the afternoon little did
I know to him it meant so much more as
we started chatting when we were playing
he told me about his experience in
Calgary and how he just moved here and
how sad he was that he actually couldn’t
find people to connect with or even play
with until he found play city now he
started telling me both his dad
encouraging him to keep on swiping he
was gonna find someone and he did he’d
found many people now I couldn’t hold it
in any longer so I told him I was a
founder and he and we made it for people
like him and he looked at me and I’ll
never forget the way he said thank you
that that testimonial coming from him
right from him like crystallized what we
were doing and made it even more clear
the mission that we had and what’s
really cool about meeting people having
fun is that it’s actually really good
for you we all know the merit of sports
for kids but only one in five Canadians
gets to recommended physical activity
mounds stress related issues stemming
from social isolation and chronic
diseases are skyrocketing this means in
Canada that it’s a 6.8 billion dollar
cost much of which could be mitigated
through very simple lifestyle changes
what I’m most proud of is the community
that we built sports brings together
people from all walks of life and our
community is a living testament of that
we’ve created thousands of connections
and as a social enterprise our goal is
to connect people through a shared
interest to create dialogue which we
believe the world needs more of our
mission is to make the world a better
place to play if we can learn and
appreciate other appreciate each other
and understand that our differences is
what makes us unique we believe the
world could be such a better place and
the world that is way too online not
active enough and constantly constantly
being divided through all the noise out
there let’s go back to being human
beings I challenge you to meet somebody
new get out there life is short
go play thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: