This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at McGill chapter.
In the past, students had to rely on word-of-mouth or obscure posters in lecture halls to navigate the world of campus clubs and societies. Thankfully, now there’s an app for that. Her Campus McGill chatted with Elias Fares, co-founder of the hottest new app for campus clubs, Campusgrids. This free social platform connects students with campus clubs and organizations. Not only does it match students with groups based on their interests, it features detailed infromation about each club and keeps students updated on all the events around campus. By connecting students with shared interests, it allows them to find the right organization and meet new people. One may say it’s Tinder done the right way.
Elias is pictured second from the right with co-founders (from lef to right) Tedy Tadi, Ryan Elias, and Robbie Elias.
Katrina Kairys for Her Campus McGill (HC McGill): How did the idea of Campusgrids come about? Was it all at once or a slowly-develeping process?
Elias Fares (EF): The idea of Campusgrids was a slowly-developing process. The idea initially came from me when I was an engineering student at Carleton University. It started as a website and had very basic functionalities like a shared calendar, message-sending and picture uploading. It was nothing too fancy. It was later on when I asked my childhood friends to hop on board and eventually become co-founders. Now we are a team of four founders and two employees. We took down the website and developed a free mobile application version of Campusgrids.
HC McGill: Many clubs, such as dance troops and acapella groups, compete for members. How can these clubs take advantage of Campusgrids to promote themselves?
EF: Campusgrids was basically designed for this reason exactly; to help campus groups gain more members. Clubs such as dance troops and acapella groups can easily create a group on Campusgrids and it will automatically be shown to all the students at McGill University. It’s as simple as that. By having a group on Campusgrids, the app can then showcase your group to students. Furthermore, when groups post their events on Campusgrids, their events will be suggested to students. Campusgrids also helps students see which clubs and events their friends go to, which would increase the likelihood of them joining along as well.
HC McGill: Can clubs feature their executive or team members on Campusgrids?
EF: On Campusgrids, group owners can add administrators within the group, giving them access to edit the group’s information and add group events. At this time, specific executive titles are not shown within the group page, but that is something we can certainly incorporate in future updates.
HC McGill: Does Campusgrids allow clubs to connect with specific local businesses and non-profits?
EF: Connecting with specific local business and non-profits is something we are working on getting done in the near future. Since Campusgrids is still a very new application, we are going to see how students and campus groups use it the most and go from there.
HC McGill: How can clubs from one university connect with those from another?
EF: Students are able to see groups within their school as well as groups in other schools too. Since campus groups are run by students, on Campusgrids these students will be able to connect and engage with groups from another school.
Image Obtained From: