Reaction to Ideas Forum
Many innovative ideas were thrown around today at the UBC Ideas Forum for transportation solutions to UBC. Some of them were out there… incredibly innovative, but not financially feasable, and some of them were just not solutions that solved anything.
My presentation focused on what I thought the Transportation Consultation was really about: solution for a more permanent bus loop in addition to simplifying transportation to and around campus. I propose to develop a departure and unloading bus loop located at the centre heart of campus between Wesbrook Mall and East Mall on University Boulevard, then have a second bus departure bay and layover space at what is now “Lot B” behind Thunderbird Parkade.
The problem is, at least two other presenters had the same, or similar idea. I then shifted my presentation to the features that should be found at the bus loop, like way finding, real time information displays, etc., and then quickly moved to bike sharing. Instead of centralizing and capitalizing on one big idea, I decided to cover a lot of grounds and didn’t take into consideration of just focusing on one big concept and providing technical details about it. When planning the bus loop proposal, I took into account all the technical details like layover space and bus turning radius, but I didn’t say anything, as if I was assuming that people would just understand the idea. I think that’s a big problem and something I learned out of this.
So what’s the lesson of the day? When doing projects like this, it’s important that you provide one innovative idea and include supporting details that back up your proposal. Covering a lot of ground makes your presentation less memorable for the audience. This sounds obvious I know, but it’s not so easy when you implement it.
Aside from all the disappointment of my own presentation, especially knowing that I could have done a lot better, I’m glad I went to this as I learned a lot of new techniques and ideas that I would have never thought of.
A big shout out to Karen who let me know about the transportation ideas forum. Also, I’d like to acknowledge Jon-Scott and Alisha for their awesome presentations and will use their presentation styles as a template for my projects.
