MyADVENTury: giving a different kind of present with Dropbox Paper
The Christmas period fills us with a sense of joy and goodwill. It encourages us to think deeply about our loved ones, inspiring us to do something personal, meaningful and creative. It gives us an opportunity to put our creative energies to work and do something truly positive. That is exactly what MyADVENTury has done for this holiday season with its new app.
Eva Pleger was pondering what to get her friends and family for Christmas on the 30th November, 2016. “I was sitting at my computer and thinking about what I would like to give them,” says Eva. “And then I had a brainwave: what about something different? What about something that would inspire them for a long-time? What about a digital Advent Calendar? 24 doors packed with positivity, motivation, ideas and new perspectives to enjoy throughout the holiday season and beyond.”
This eureka moment was the catalyst for a frantic search on the web. Eva found nothing that matched her criteria. “There was nothing available to buy that provided words of wisdom. There were just noisy, advert-full calendars. I realised that there was an opportunity, but I didn’t possess all the necessary skills myself to take advantage of it, so I picked up the phone and called my friend Kilian.”
Kilian Haack has been an app developer for the past six years, helping people turn their ideas into working productions is what he does best. After receiving the call from Eva, he conducted his own research and again found nothing like it. “Once we realised we were creating something new, we needed to understand what it would look like and what to give to people,” says Kilian. “That was when we both suggested bringing in an inspirational figure and we thought immediately of Ilja Grzeskowitz.”
Ilja is a published author, motivational keynote speaker and also boasts a successful career as a Managing Director. “I was excited to join the project. I viewed it as a chance to reach a large audience with positive messages that could help people with their personal, professional or even private lives,” says Ilja. “Once I understood the scale of this opportunity I couldn’t wait to get started.”
With the idea now becoming a concept, the team were faced with another challenge: how best to coordinate and collaborate on the project. “We all work full-time, and from different locations so we needed a tool that made it super easy to work together. So, we started using Dropbox Paper,” says Eva. “We were able to really focus our creative energies and work together in a much more meaningful way.”
The team were able to brainstorm ideas, coordinate schedules, compile themes, exchange audio files, video and graphics all on a single platform. Dropbox Paper offered everything they needed to collaborate freely and manage the launch of the project.
“The tool made everything possible. We were all able to contribute from anywhere, even from our mobile phones. Everything was in one place which made it so simple to keep track of who had contributed what. It was so easy to work together, the teamwork really flowed. I remember one day when I was at the hairdressers and I was collaborating in real-time with Kilian and Ilja,” says Eva. “We had the application deadline for the App Store approaching so we worked through our checklist in Dropbox Paper together with no restrictions. Now that’s teamwork!”
The team finished and launched their app, MyADVENTury by October 2017. An impressive achievement for a team of three. “We would never have been up and running without the brilliant work of Kilian, Ilje and the coordination of such a great tool,” concluded Eva.
To download the app for yourself, head to the listing on the App Store and give your loved ones something different this holiday season.
