The Imaginarium, a Denver Public Schools Innovation Lab, announced last week their plans to give away up to $20,000 to four ideas that work to solve a problem in the education system through technology.

This DPS Innovation Lab is where “ideas take flight” and all kinds of people work to “stimulate and support innovation across Denver to transform learning an education platforms” according to the press release for the event.

The Design for Equity Challenge will be doing just that. Beginning June 10th at 6:30pm the fun and entertaining night will begin as the idea-makers (literally anyone with an idea) pitch their solutions. People will be connecting and progress will be made—but it’s not all business. There’s going to be food, music, and, of course, games.

Who else better to be in charge of gaming than our friend Brian Corrigan? Not only has Corrigan been helping to spread the world about the event, but OhHeckYeah is going to be making an appearance at the Design for Equity Challenge as well.

We recently had a chat with Corrigan about the excitement for the event, the future of OhHeckYeah, and more:

Innovators Peak: Tell me about the Design for Equity Challenge and this whole event.  What’s it all about and what’ going on?

Brian Corrigan: Essentially what they’re doing is opening up this Design Challenge so you can go ahead and define four of the best ideas that integrate technology into helping fix a problem that’s in the public school system here in Denver.  So they’re giving up to $20,000 away to the four finalists for this particular contest.  With the $20,000 the idea actually gets implemented and integrated into DPS.

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IP: So how are these ideas presented? Is it kind of like a pitch session format?

BC: Yeah, exactly. So what’s going to happen: Anyone can come and pitch an idea—they’ll get up on stage and they have one minute to go ahead and make their pitch. Through the first initial round, the crowd will vote on their favorite ideas. They’ll narrow that down to six ideas. The next day, the people who are in those groups of six ideas then get a consultation with a tech expert to think about things like the feasibility of what they’re trying to do. Once all of that happens, they’ll re-present it to the panel, who will pick four ideas.

IP: Can you tell us a little bit about what they’re looking for in ideas?

BC: It’s pretty broad. The whole thing is based off of equity and just thinking about how do we build this next generation of education. So maybe it could be something like “How you can get kids to school in a better/faster/safer way” to “How do you start to redesign what happens in the classroom.” All of that kind of stuff.  

IP: And obviously they’re looking for innovative types of ideas—so why do you think it’s so important to apply innovation to education?

BC: The education of the youth really affects us all in the city. For me—I think that’s the most important piece of this. It really takes a community to really think about how we are giving the next generation the best tools. So when they’re in the sea, they really just have the best opportunities. I think that’s the cool thing about this particular program. They’re opening up to anyone in the community to be a part of making sure that we educate the next generation of people to be the best that they can be.

IP: What is your role at the event?

BC: Right now I’m helping with outreach. At the event—OhHeckYeah will actually be there as one of the ancillary fun things that you can do during the design pitch night.  

IP: More specifically—what will OhHeckYeah be doing at the event?

BC: We’re going to be projecting one of our games onto a wall. We want to be thinking about the role of play in making people more creative and more curious. When people get there, they can start playing, brainstorming, and thinking about how that “fun” piece really starts to loosen up people so they can come up with good ideas.

IP: I’ve go to ask—are there any future plans or hopes for OhHeckYeah after this?

BC: We want to expand to more cities. We were just in Boston about three weeks ago. We worked with Northeastern University and ran OhHeckYeah on their campus. The students helped make the game that we put out onto the campus. That’s what we really want to continue to do—think about how we can fill out those partnerships and figure out how we can be in more cities and allow for that connection to happen on the streets on a wider scale.

The pitch night for the event takes place at High Tech Elementary School on June 10th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.  Finalists will be brought back the 11th for consultation between 8:00am to 2pm, make their final presentations between 2:00pm and 4:00pm, and winner will be chosen at 5:00pm.

Come out, spread your innovative ideas, and join the fun!

The event is free, but you must register an RSVP HERE by end of day June 9th to attend.

By Joseph Afton