In 2013, meeting & event venue Vooruit in Ghent (Belgium) celebrated its 100th birthday. This meant 100 years of events and social gatherings that happened in that very same building. Which translates into 100 years of memories and stories. To celebrate that birthday, I decided to create an online and offline place where people could leave their stories and share them with others and with their loved ones.

Online website to submit and send stories

Through an online platform, people could leave their story. Submitting the story meant it would notify people that participated in the story via e-mail. Those receivers got an email explaining someone left them a message in Vooruit. The email contained a dedicated code to pick-up the message in Vooruit. Only by stopping by the venue, they could read and print the memory someone else left them.

Showcasing stories offline

In the smallest room of Vooruit, the event venue, we created a cosy space where visitors could submit their stories, print them and either take them home or hang the story on for others to enjoy.

The room get a very cozy and retro feel reflecting the throw-back vibe. We even recycled an old ticket printer so people would be able to print their stories on old event tickets.

Responsibilities & involvement:

• Concept: I came up with the concept and pitched it to internal stakeholders to get budget and a physical space
• Project management of the offline space and online platform
• Overseeing the online platform to gather stories and collaboration with our external partner
• Overseeing the technical implementation

Result:

• We collected +250 qualitative stories/memories of visitors ranging from wedding memories to epic party nights