5x5 Night's New Format

After going on break for ArtPrize, Pomegranate Studios launched back into another round of 5x5 Night. This time, there were some changes. Instead of submitting an idea that was put in something of a vault, never to be seen by anyone outside of the organization unless you were one of the five selected applicants, the ideas were put right out in the open. The five applicants would be selected by the public, who could peruse and vote on proposals via 5x5's website.

This week's edition of 5x5 Night saw yet another round of unique ideas. The $5000 prize was ultimately split between two ideas: Molly Clauhs' Skill Share, described by Clauhs as “a year-long program of cooking classes, artisan skill workshops, seminars and trips featuring local teachers and experts," and Jerrad Matthew's Rag Trade GR, "a virtual fashion magazine" targeted at local designers, retailers and consumers.

Of the five ideas with the most views on the website, only two of those had enough votes to make it to the presentation round.

Pomegranate's Paul Moore chalks it up to people being a bit more discerning in their votes. "They're not just going and mindlessly voting," Moore says. "There was definitely some thought being put into what people were voting for, which was very nice to see."

The number of page views (50,000) far outnumbered the votes, meaning that many ideas were viewed, but voters were being choosy. 1300 votes were ultimately cast. It stands to reason there are more people engaging 5x5 Night than could fit in their venue, the GRAM.

Giving the decision of who presents over to the public, from a marketing standpoint, seems to be working. People who weren't sure what 5x5 Night was a few months ago were talking about their friend who was sharing his idea and asking for votes on Facebook. And those people who signed up to vote stayed to look around at other ideas.

"The most golden case scenario would be that somebody puts up their idea and shares it with as many people as possible, and those people share with others and out of that, they find people to move their idea forward," Moore says. "And they never even got up on stage at 5x5 Night."

5x5 Night has proven that idea sharing and networking are oftentimes more powerful than the money itself, as in the case of both Nicole Infante and Fred Quillin, whose ideas for, respectively, The Grandwich and Grand Rapids Shirt Company were both successfully launched with support, not money, garnered at 5x5.

33 ideas were submitted for this November's 5x5 Night. It's a less than normal number, but the public scrutiny seemed to produce high-quality ideas and well-researched proposals. "In the black box days, when no one could see [the ideas], we were seeing a lot of half-thought out, stream of consciousness [proposals]," Moore says. "It seemed like what went up on the website this time, even though it was a smaller number, was more articulate."

5x5 Night was launched as an experiment. We at Rapid Growth have been enjoying the process of watching this experiment evolve.

J. Bennett Rylah is the Managing Editor of Rapid Growth Media.