MyManchester: An iOS Application for Building Community in a Small Town

My hometown of Manchester-by-the-Sea is a small coastal town in Massachusetts with access to beaches from a train station in the center of town. Because of this, Manchester experiences a surge of tourists in the warmer months, boosting the local economy. However, local businesses often struggle during the winter months without this seasonal income, leading to high business turnover. Right now, there are five empty storefronts downtown, with two of them just closing down this past fall. Additionally, there is no centralized place to discover and view local events for residents of Manchester or visitors, which limits the draw to local businesses and events downtown. My system addresses this gap by creating a centralized event management platform that aggregates events from public calendars and allows businesses to submit their own events, which are subject to moderator approval. With this iOS app, I hope to expand the number of events happening in town and increase people's awareness of these events, so attendance increases thereby supporting local businesses and people become more social within their community. I decided to create an iOS app because it allows versatility and access from anywhere. It is also more informal than a website, attracting younger users to the app. The app displays events happening in town in a clear and intuitive layout. It encourages engagement by tracking attendance points that users can redeem for prizes, while also collecting statistics that allow users to see information like past events attended or their most frequented type of event. Businesses can see attendance statistics and create events for moderator approval. Events from the library, government, and school public calendars will integrate to appear in chronological order alongside approved business events. The backend storage (Firebase) will support this integration, manage authentication, and provide event data storage. The application also allows users to save events to their personal calendars and open directions through Google Maps.