Tech, in all its glory, is very much a part of our lives. But it can also fuel loneliness and isolation. However, one app is seeking to reverse that trend.
Former marketing leader Justin Gray has devised Potluck.us, a subscription-based platform enabling shared experiences and members to enjoy uplifting times.
The app is a few steps up from event planning equivalents as it was created to help a person manage their entire social calendar, not just a single party. Such shared experiences create a better sense of community over communication.
“Potluck’s overarching aim is to combat loneliness,” said Gray. “It is designed to be relevant in a person’s life for the long term. It focuses more on the social and less on the media part of social media.”
The software has been built to offer an interactive event page. A subscriber can create a list of what to bring and create and send out invitations. It also provides a private chat box and a special Moments Page to download magic moments from the event.
“Potluck retains the event history, such as your connections, so that we allow that data to organically build a social platform that we then give back to you,” said Gray. “Our focus of the Potluck social experience is not your connections; it’s the events you had, who was there, and how you are connected to those people.”
He added: “I’ve spent years researching and working in traditional social media and mobile technology. I believe strongly that mobile technology and social networks play a crucial role in why we have an epidemic of loneliness. That has guided our design principles and is positioned to prevent people from becoming lonely.”
Subscribers have quickly grasped the positives of the Potluck app as it has transcended beyond traditional birthdays and special family events. It can be handy for any event, such as a cookbook club and barbecues.
He added: “When people find Potluck, it becomes an incredibly empowering part of their lives and event planning. We’re aimed at very busy parents. For example, a mom of three in the Midwest needs to organize her children’s school year, her church functions, picnics in the park, and social calendar over the year.
“Potluck is the foundation for them while helping convert their friends at the party to understand how amazing the app is. They utilize the app to organize their own personal and family events. It has snowballed and is quickly gaining traction.”
The app’s origins can be linked back to Nashville, TN-based Gray’s shared experiences as the sixth generation family member, born and raised on a cattle farm in rural Mississippi. Childhood memories revolved around a close-knit rural community and food.
“When somebody was born, married or died, you took food. That’s just the way of life that I grew up with. From a personal perspective, I had an early fundamental understanding of what it means to come together as a community,” he reflected.
That experience stayed and was later nurtured when he relocated to New York, where he dipped into comedy and acting before taking a crack at entertainment marketing and business development. He met and fell in love with Sarah in 2009, and so began the seeds of what eventually transitioned into Potluck.
They bonded over a love of hosting and entertaining and created a cookbook club. “The concept was simple,” he reflected, “it’s like a potluck or a dinner club, except the gimmick is that everybody has to cook a recipe out of the same cookbook every month. So whoever’s hosting that month picks a cookbook. Then everybody figures out who’s doing what recipe. Then you have the party with you, trying 15 to 20 dishes from the same cookbook.”
From those experiences, the clubs got bigger, and the intricate elements of making it a great party came sharply into focus. With their relocation to Nashville, marriage and two children later, Potluck was created.
Gray said: “Potluck is a digital platform to help manage your offline social world. It is there to help nurture relationships, be part of people’s social lives and banish the loneliness.”
To discover more: https://www.potluck.us
