Last weekend saw 13 teams gather at our Cardiff GeoVation Camp to pitch their ideas for our GeoVation Challenge ‘How can we connect communities and visitors along the Wales Coast Path?’

The GeoVators were working on our formula, Innovation = Problem x Solution x Execution and at the end of the weekend the judging panel selected 8 finalists to go forward to the GeoVation Showcase on 18 July.

We’re pleased to announce our finalists are:

• Growing Routes An idea posted by Richard, the web-based app is designed to engineer business opportunities along the 870-mile-long route. It will seek to encourage businesses to expand, bringing jobs and opportunities to local residents.
• Perfect Visitor Companion This idea engages with visitors to the Wales Coast Path through a smartphone app. The platform will connect with visitors by creating new, exciting cultural and historical themed visitor experiences to enrich the local community and businesses.
• Living Paths  An idea in which communities create a Wikipedia page and post articles about their community which are geo-tagged. Local visitors and tourists will be able to access this information via smartphones providing them with a rich cultural and historical experience.
• Igam Ogam  GPS-based augmented reality oral history smartphone app. Welsh place names, rock formations or bays viewed through the camera of a smartphone will be translated automatically into English, with the correct Welsh pronunciation. Text will follow, explaining the origin of the name. The aim is to incorporate local voices into the recordings creating a culturally authentic feel.
• Experience Wales A web and smartphone based app to enhance backpackers experiences. Through social media and crowdsourcing, it will allow young people to build and custom-design their volunteering holiday route, helping local communities, and finding accommodation along the Wales Coast Path.
• Food Finder The idea to create a smartphone app and website to highlight delicious local food (and beer), farms, wild food hotspots, food activities and places to eat. It will provide details of seasonal wild food for the whole year.
• Near Field Comms (NFC) The idea is to attach colour coded tags to signposts at regular intervals along the path which would allow smartphone users to scan the tag to get  information about local accommodation and food along with a map with directions to local hotspots.
• The Walk Exchange – An idea to show 360-degree elevations of the Wales Coast Path which would showcase the path and help people plan walks  from a combined team formed from these these ideas  Online Path Viewer,  360 Virtual Tours , GPS Driven Local Infomation,  and Scrolling Elevation Map  

It was a great weekend, and all the ideas teams taking part received feedback from the judging panel.

The GeoVation Wales Coast Path Challenge partners are Technology Strategy Board’s SBRI programme, Visit Wales (Welsh Government), Ramblers Cymru and supported by the Inventorium programme.

The finalists are now invited to SWALEC stadium inCardiffon 18 July to take part in a ‘Dragons Den’ style GeoVation Showcase where they will pitch for a share of £125,000 to fund their idea! We’ll post further details of this event soon.