Whistler entrepreneurs Andrew Long and Gina Mollicone-Long have revamped their business in order to promote gratitude.
The pair run Connectify, an online "team-based, problem-solving challenge" designed to engage, support and connect employees working from home but recently pivoted to making the program accessible free of charge to the general public, all the while providing encouragement to hard-working healthcare staff.
"We wanted to use what we had as a way to give back and connect people who are all at home right now," Long said. "The Joy Project is basically a general-public version of what we've been offering to corporate groups."
To participate, a team captain can head to https://connectify.net/joy and register a group of at least two members. The next session is scheduled for Saturday, April 18 at 2 p.m., and teams must be registered at least an hour in advance.
When the game starts, teams log in to a web conference such as Skype, Zoom, FaceTime or Hangout, and receive instructions through the Connectify app.
"They have a number of different things that they have to do that are taking photos, taking videos and answering questions. They're fun, they're creative and some of them are just fun to do," he said.
Challenges will include finding ways to support essential workers, such as by making a hand-drawn sign of gratitude.
Participants can be from the same household or, in Mollicone-Long's case, she can bring in her parents and her Seattle-based brother and his family.
"It's basically like a virtual party," Mollicone-Long said. "It doesn't matter where you are, or where your friends are."
Teams will earn points for completing as many of the challenges as possible in the allotted 22 minutes.
"The tasks are designed to bring people's awareness to thanking people, making a difference, bringing gratitude, being joyful, having fun," Mollicone-Long said. "Even though this game has a points total and there's a winner, the real point of the game is everybody collaborating to creatively extend joy and gratitude."
For more on this story, pick up an upcoming edition of Pique.
